2x Sacred Shards & 10x Tin Woodman

Plarium has announced two Sacred Shard summoning events for Friday, August 21st, with the new Tin Woodman taking centre stage.

The timing creates an interesting decision for players. The events land alongside the Champion Chase Tournament for the ongoing Cowardly Lion Fusion.

Here is everything you need to know.

Two summoning boosts will run at the same time:

• x2 Sacred Shards: Double chance to summon Legendary Champions from Sacred Shards.
• x10 The Tin Woodman: Increased chance to summon The Tin Woodman after hitting a Legendary Champion.

The x10 event will finish one day earlier than the x2 Sacred Shard event.

For anyone already planning to pull Sacred Shards, getting a x2 Legendary chance alongside a targeted boost for The Tin Woodman makes this an attractive pairing.

There is one big problem with the timing.

Friday marks the start of the Champion Chase Tournament tied to the Cowardly Lion Fusion.

That makes the choice of Sacred Shards rather frustrating.

Sacred Shards are often poor value during Champion Chase compared with Ancient or Void Shards. Champion Chase awards points based on the Champions you obtain rather than the Shards you open.

A Sacred Shard guarantees an Epic or Legendary Champion, but its high individual value makes it a costly resource to burn purely for Champion Chase points.

A x2 Ancient Shard event would have lined up far better with Champion Chase. Ancient Shards provide far more individual summons for your resources. A Void x2 would have been another welcome option for players sitting on a stockpile.

Players chasing the fusion now face a choice between spending valuable Sacred Shards or finding their Champion Chase points elsewhere.

The Tin Woodman is one of five Champions arriving through the Echoes of Oz campaign event.

Based on previous campaign events, we expect some form of guaranteed acquisition event for him. A Deck of Fate or Hero's Path would fit previous releases. Plarium has not confirmed such an event at the time of writing.

His kit already looks incredibly powerful on paper.

Damage numbers remain the big unknown. We need testing before judging how hard his attacks actually hit. His mechanics still give him plenty of potential across both PvE and PvP.

Fell It Now! Brings a Full-Team Ally Attack

The Tin Woodman's A2, Fell It Now!, attacks one enemy before directing every other ally to attack the same target with their default skill.

That gives him access to a full-team Ally Attack on a four-turn cooldown once booked.

His own attack gains 10% more damage and 10% Ignore DEF for every buff on him.

The allies joining his attack gain 5% extra damage and 5% Ignore DEF per buff on The Tin Woodman. Dorothy Gale, The Scarecrow and The Cowardly Lion receive double those bonuses.

Killing the target resets the cooldown of his Lumber Machine A3.

This skill has huge PvE potential.

Fire Knight immediately stands out. Four Champions attacking together can tear through the boss's shield quickly. Ally Attack remains valuable against many other bosses too.

PvP brings another use.

Full-team attacks can rip through Total Guard stacks from Mercurial gear. That gives The Tin Woodman a direct answer to one of RAID's strongest current defensive mechanics.

Could 9-Piece Mercurial Be His Best Set?

Mercurial looks like a fascinating potential set for The Tin Woodman himself.

His A2 and A3 gain Ignore DEF from the number of buffs currently on him. Total Guard can contribute to that count and protect his other buffs at the same time.

A nine-piece Mercurial build could give him a huge collection of buffs before he attacks.

There is one interaction that needs testing. His passive redirects damage from allies onto himself. We need to see how that redirected damage interacts with his own Total Guard stacks.

If redirected damage strips those stacks quickly, Mercurial loses some of its appeal.

Lumber Machine Brings Shatter

His A3, Lumber Machine, attacks all enemies.

Before attacking, The Tin Woodman places a 30% Increase C.DMG buff and a 15% Shatter buff on all allies for two turns.

He then ignores 5% of each target's DEF for every buff on himself.

Increase C.DMG alone is not particularly exciting. Shatter changes the picture.

Shatter remains a rare and powerful buff. Pairing it with his built-in Ignore DEF scaling gives Lumber Machine serious nuking potential.

Killing an enemy with the attack places Revive on Death on The Tin Woodman for one turn.

True Heart Could Turn Him Into a Monster

His passive, True Heart, might become the defining part of his kit.

It reduces damage received by all allies by 15%. That reduction rises to 30% for Dorothy Gale, The Tin Woodman, The Scarecrow and The Cowardly Lion.

The Tin Woodman receives the redirected damage himself.

Every time he takes damage through this passive, his DEF increases by 10%. This effect stacks all the way to 100% additional DEF.

That is enormous for a Defense-based damage dealer.

Champions capable of scaling a primary damage stat by 100% have produced some exceptional boss performances. Ninja and Harima show how powerful long-fight stat scaling can become.

The risk comes from survivability.

The Tin Woodman actively takes damage for his teammates. He needs enough durability to survive that punishment long enough to reach his full DEF increase.

True Heart has another defensive trigger. Taking redirected damage worth more than 50% of his MAX HP places a two-turn Revive on Death buff on him.

The same threshold can trigger Hewing Ax against the enemy with the lowest HP.

What About Revive on Death?

Several parts of his kit interact with Revive on Death.

We remain cautious about its value.

Revive on Death has historically struggled compared with stronger defensive buffs. A revived Champion can simply die again before taking another turn.

It gives The Tin Woodman another layer of protection, but it is not the reason to chase him.

The Ally Attack, Shatter, Ignore DEF scaling and 100% DEF increase are far more exciting.