The monster, the myth, the legend.

It’s the Sapphire Fiend!

This massive furry blue demon is out today, and he’s seriously something else. Since playtesting started he’s become a staple of my stable, and for good reason! So in preparation for release let’s see what makes him so great, shall we?

First of all: look at that card. I know I’ve gone on about the new cards this week, but this one is my favourite. The blue and yellow work so well. And that art? Rei has outdone herself on these RUMBLESLAM wrestlers!

The Stats

Ohhhh they’re good! It’s worth noting at the start though that Sapphire Fiend costs 375K in Dosh. That puts him equal to Trihorn for cost on your team. So yeah, that’s a lotta Dosh!

ATTACK and GRAPPLE are the 2 clear winners here. Less reliable than ol’ Trihorn maybe, but with a potential 11 on his attack roll and 8 on his Grapple, that’s a lot of Beatdowns!

Still though, the Fiend’s DEFENCE is pretty solid (if wildly unpredictable) and his DEXTERITY is also pretty good! There’s very little chance of taking this guy out without KOing him first, and that’s not an easy task with 12 Stamina.

Side note: we listened to all you Rumblefans when redesigning the cards, and all of the new cards now have the number of total Stamina printed on the card in case you keep track with counters!

So as a WEIGHT 3 Sapphire Fiend’s THROW of 3 isn’t actually all that great, but with 4AP and 4MP he’s faster and can do more actions than most other big monsters. This guy is serious.

The Skills

With a Grapple, Rope, and Turnbuckle, Sapphire Fiend has a full array of abilities to use. The real problem – and believe me when I say this is the biggest drawback (aside from 375K in the bank) – is the inability to choose what to do each round.

El Pulpo is a fantastic Grapple Ability. 2AP from you only does 1 DMG (although with 2 Gold you can hope for a Beatdown), but also does -2AP to your opponent. Against another WEIGHT 3 this can be devastating. So do you do it twice in a round? It’s not much damage output, but the crippling of your opponent’s team is nothing to be sniffed at.

What if you’re on the wrong side of the ring to the action? Boo! is Sapphire Fiend’s Rope Ability, and it comes with Jump and Rocket. That means he can go the full length of the ring and avoid anyone in the way. An absolutely excellent skill that – although it’s a whopping 3AP means not a single other wrestler is safe from a great attack and a very scary wrestler!

Finally Pounce is a solid Turnbuckle Ability. For only 2AP (cheap for a special Turnbuckle Ability) you get a Knockdown chance. The big thing here though is that it’s Range 5, so there’s a really good chance of no one being safe (a key theme here).

All those skills are great, but what about just good old punching and grabbing? His high stat line means those are perfectly valid, and if you use 3AP on Boo! then you can safely add an extra Brawl attack after too.

Luces, Camara, Accion

With all these positives, there’s got to be some kind of drawback? Well there is…. sort of.

First of all, Sapphire’s Fiend’s Crowd Pleaser can frighten the movement out of anyone! -2MP to all enemy wrestlers in base contact is crazy good.

The Luces, Camara, Accion Passive Ability is a bit of a mixed bag though. Sapphire Fiend can re-roll Crowd Pleasers, but ends his activation if it works! You’ll have to do some careful planning, making sure to do a Turnbuckle Attack or Pin an enemy at the end of his activation. Although if you do it early and don’t want to Crowd Please, you can always re-roll your Cheer results too.

All in all, Sapphire Fiend is the best. Seriously, he’s one of the best wrestlers in the game. And what do you expect? This azure menace is huge, scary, and super cool! The model look great, the rules reflect that, now who can free up 375K in their team to get this guy in there?

You don’t have long to wait, as all three of our new Superstars are going live later today! They’re all from Moote Carlo, so add them to your Lords of the Ring or cross-casino your team to take advantage of this big ol’ beast! You’ll lose a free Sponsorship, but don’t forget that in the new edition you can also buy an additional Sponsorship for only 50k!

We’ll be back later with our new Superstar releases, so check back then!