CommentStreams:9f0a087d1399944bb880826ed6f1f082

I have come to categorize each artifact as an attack artifact or a defense artifact.

Attack artifacts of course increase the ability to attack the opponent, but most importantly a good attack artifact acts consistently (not as a percentage chance) and creates an opportunity for one or more cards to strike directly against the opposing player's hit points instead of against a card. Chain Lightning and Fireball are good examples of this, but Retribution is probably the best independent artifact available (that is, not tied to specific cards like Allied Strike) because even though the attack is smaller it happens every turn, maximizing chances of wiping out an opposing card that is low on hit points. For run of the mill duels Chain Lightning and Fireball are great as they depend on one's own card for calculating damage and can end a duel quickly, but when one is up against a very tough opponent Retribution is best because it uses the opponent's own strength against it, maximizing potential damage. Fear Blow is not great, but it can be a useful attack artifact for a weak card because it is consistent and at least allows a weak card a chance to destroy at least one opponent while being snuffed out itself. Likewise Backstab can be useful for an attack deck in that at least it weakens the opponent's defenses enough to give the other attack artifacts a better chance to work.

Artifacts like Rocket and AbyssalWrath are better than nothing, but cannot be relied on. Although Rocket acts every time whether its action is effective or not depends on where the card appears on the field. If the card appears on the far left of the field then it will always act, every turn - but if it is on the far right of the field it has a good chance of wasting its attack on an empty spot already cleared of an opponent, and whereas artifact attacks do not register against the opposing player's base hit points this doesn't do a bit of good.

So all in all, the only effective attack artifacts I have seen as independent artifacts are Chain Lightning, Fireball, Retribution, and Fear Blow. Among integrated artifacts, Allied Strike and Ignition are excellent, and I'd love to see Ignition available as an independent artifact. In the case of Ignition the percentage chance of additional damage on two following turns is a bonus and does not interfere with the reliability necessary for a good attack artifact, and it could be reworked as an Earthquake with aftershock effects for the Earth or Green cards, and as a Tsunami with flooding effects for the Water or Blue cards. (Although in many cases the second and third waves of a tsunami are more devastating than the first.)

Attack artifacts should be seen as useful for regular types of missions, whether with three cards or with seven. This includes the regular map, most missions on event maps, and in the dungeon levels. The point of an attack artifact is to focus on removing barriers to attacking the opponent's hit points directly and/or clearing away enemy cards even at the cost of one's own card.

Defense artifacts of course include artifacts that reduce hit point damage to one's own cards and so allow them to play longer, but because of the game mechanics I also include artifacts such as Vengeance Song and Rage that increase the damage done to the opponent's hit points in boss levels, such as in events or in Journey, or for getting artifacts themselves. Naturally defense artifacts include various kinds of shields (Aegis, Shield, Divine Shield, Ice Shield, and the new Stronghold available in this event), and also various ways of either increasing a card's own hit points (such as TitanArmor from the previous event) or avoiding damage entirely (as with Lucky Dodge, Olympic Shield, Fog of War, Stun Bomb, Freeze, Mass Freeze, Ice Shield again) or restoring hit points to one's own cards (Heal, Blessed Sun) or reducing the attack of an opponent's cards (Chilling Touch, Enchanting Song, Lover's Dream). Because a defense deck is to be used primarily in boss fights which frequently require multiple rounds to win, percentages balance out and are much more acceptable here than in an attack deck. Therefore all of these can be good defense artifacts.

Which brings me to this event's cards:

Stronghold: this is a great defense card. It acts much like Ice Shield (one of the best artifacts out there but only available with a single card at this time), with the addition of a chance of the shield lasting multiple rounds but the subtraction of the possibility of a freeze effect on opponent's cards. Definitely worth getting.

Chain of Justice: also a great defense card. I haven't tried it yet but it looks like it works life Fog of War or Stun Bomb or the variable Freeze effect of Ice Shield. Also worth getting.

Retribution Strike: appears to be like Lucky Strike, but applied to all of one's own cards instead of a single card. Looks to be nearly useless, as it is not in any sense a defense artifact and is a rather weak attack artifact because it will be useless if either one's own card OR the opponent's card is destroyed in the initial encounter. If one's own card is destroyed then there will be no card to make the second attack, and if the opponent's card is destroyed the second attack will not occur and will not affect the opposing player's base hit points - nor is it reliable, as even given those conditions there is only a percentage chance of it working. Only worth getting for those players who can easily get all three artifacts up to five stars - and then only for completeness, not for actual use.