Summoners by their theoretical rank order

This is a rank order purely by the abilities of the Summoners (also to a degree considering future cards), not (or very little) how they fair with the specific cards these Summoners have available.

I put this pic first so everyone can see it right in the thumbnail.

I granted Selenia an E for extra, because her ability is unique. Her main advantage is that you can choose out of a greater pool of cards to build a team with her. This will only get better for her when the number of cards and dragons increase.
Wouldn’t she have this ability or weren’t there the Dragons she would only rank 3 or 4 (out of 7) - for that see below at Malric.

Alric is first, because
Magic is the strongest ability: it always hits (no position necessary, not the miss chance of range and melee and flight and dodge don’t do anything against it), it directly targets life (armor plays no role as well as protect and shield against it) and already now you can usually build an all cards magic team.
It’s weaknesses are first and foremost (1) magic reflect (exists not at low levels) and (2) void.

Zintar is second, because
an ability which decreases the attack of the enemy seems to be a little bit stronger than additional attack. Also Melee is very often played (Alric magic deck may be the usual exception; others are possible but won’t be used too often).
Immediately evident is this when Zintar + a weaken card, e.g. Skeleton Assassin, decrease an enemy attack to zero (which can easily happen on level 1, higher levels rarely). Zero attack does nothing, so nothing more to say about that.
But it seems also more helpful than a plus in attack when you consider abilities like healing or armor. When you can survive one attack more, the enemy needs one card more who attacks. When you survive one round more were you yourself can attack, even better. This may be due to an armor who lasts one round longer for example, or a heal simply has a greater effect.

In fact I made some simulations/calculations - see at the end - (mostly lvl 1 decks but one lvl 10) and the advantage of depriving the enemy of 1 Melee instead of gaining 1 Melee (or 1 Range for that matter) was minuscule. (The biggest effect when enemies Melees dropped to zero).

Zintar would have the biggest disadvantage against teams who don’t have Melee of course, e.g. an Alric magic deck. BUT on level 10 Haunted Spirit has Magic Reflect and Void and this is enough to fuck the enemy up.
Malric in comparison has only one card on lvl 10 with void (Pit Ogre) and only one with Magic Reflect (Elemental Phoenix).

So second and third are really close.

Malric is third,
because Melee is often something you build in and especially with low Mana decks it is possible to build an all Melee team (meaning from all positions they attack right from the start - exception filler card like Cocatrice) as well. Malric has the slight disadvantage to the second place with focusing on Melee because Zintars -1 Melee is a direct counter.

Were Selenia a pure +Range Summoner, she would now here be at fourth, despite no direct counter. That is because you can never build a pure Range team were every position can attack (because Range cannot attack as tank); on low Mana you nearly never can play more than one Range card, so the advantage with +Range is tiny.

Tyrus is forth.
We have a change in the way the ability works and this is also the reason why he and Lyanna are behind the first three.
Whereas the bonus of the first three is additional for each round or each time they attack, the bonus of Tyrus of Lyanna is granted only one time. Albeit in every case to all cards that are in the team but that doesn’t outweigh it.

As there are many Tyrus cards who don’t have any armor, the +1 armor is generally strong because it eats up one attack - definitely something.
The effect seems technically to get weaker on the one hand with the higher levels, on the other hand it eats one attack regardless of the strength of the attack (1 or 6 or whatever).

Lyanna is fifth
and last of the Summoners with the special ability,
because for the reasons outlined at Tyrus.
She only grants +1 life to each card once,
whereas the additional effect of the first three Summoners may grant additional damage (0), 1, 2, 3, ... times for some specific cards (from one, up to all in the team).
One may ask if it wouldn’t be better if she leveled up as well, e.g. +2 health on level 5 and +3 health on level 9.

The whole rest of them is rank 6 because they do not have any abilities (and ability for only one mana is pretty strong) and in that they are all the same. Ranking here would only be possible if I consider the other cards but that was not what I wanted to do to begin with as outlined in the first sentence (and the next).

That was my theoretical ranking purely based on the Summoner abilities, little on the additional cards.
One could see that the steemmonsters team handled in a great way the balancing,
because intuitively Alrics magic would fuck up Zintar by the summoners logic
but as said, Zintar has Haunted Spirit so he actually fucks up Alric.

Extra

Simulations I run. M=Mana, T=Tempo.
Imagine we would play the same Zintar deck once with + Melee and once with enemy -1 Melee against a Malric deck.

16 Mana, lvl1:
Zintar:
5M Haunted Spirit, Melee, + heal, tank, 2T
3M Skeleton Assasin, Melee, sneak, 4T
3M Elven Cutthroat, Melee, sneak, 3T
2M Undead Priest, weaken, 1T

6M Raging Impaler, Melee, piercing, tank, 3T
3M Elven Cutthroat, Melee, sneak, 3T
2M Kobold miner, Melee, sneak, 2T
2M Cocatrice, Melee, flying, filler card which additionally protects from the end, 3T

Version one, Zintar +Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying
2)M.s Elven damages Undead with 1, Undead 2 Life
3)Raging damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 5 Life
4)Z.s Elven kills M.s Cocatrice
5)Haunted heals for one to 6 Life and damages Raging with 3 to 3 Life
6)Kobold Miner damages Undead with 1, Undead 1 Life

Round 2
1)Skeleton attacks Kobold, kills it
2)M.s Elven kills Undead, everyone of M. +1 Life +1 Melee damage
3)Raging damages Haunted with 3, Haunted 3 Life
4)Z.s Elven kills M.s Elven
5)Haunted heals for two to 5 Life and damages Raging with 3, Raging 1 Life

Round 3
1)Skeleton kills Raging

Zintar lost Undead and Haunted has 5 Life.

Version two, Zintar, enemy -1 Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying
2)Raging damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life
3)Z.s Elven attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying
4)Haunted heals for one to 7 Life and damages Raging with 2 to 4 Life

Round 2
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, kills it
2)Raging damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life
3)Z.s Elven attacks Kobold, kills it
4)Haunted heals for 1 to 7 Life and damages Raging with 2 to 2 Life

Round 3
1)Skeleton kills M.s Elven
2)Raging damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life
3)Z.s Elven damages Raging with 1, Raging 1 Life
4)Haunted heals for 1 to 7 Life and kills Raging

Zintar lost nothing and Haunted with 7 Life.

Same with level 10 instead of 1

16 Mana, lvl10:
Zintar:
5M Haunted Spirit, 4 Melee, + heal + magic reflect + void, tank, 3T, 10 Life
3M Skeleton Assasin, 3 Melee, +poison, sneak, 6T, 5 Life
3M Elven Cutthroat, 3 Melee, sneak, 6T, 5 Life
2M Undead Priest, 1 Magic, +slow, weaken, 2T, 6 Life

6M Raging Impaler, 4 Melee, +enrage + shield, piercing, tank, 3T, 9 Life
3M Elven Cutthroat, 3 Melee, sneak, 6T, 5 Life
2M Kobold miner, 3 Melee, sneak, 5T, 6 Life
2M Cocatrice, 2 Melee, +doge, flying, filler card which additionally protects from the end, 6T, 4 Life

Version one, Zintar +Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying/dodge
2)M.s Elven damages Undead with 3, Undead 3 Life
3)Z.s Elven attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying, dodge
4)Kobold Miner kills Undead, everyone of M. +1 Life, +1 Melee
5)Haunted damages Raging with 4, Raging 5 Life and enrage +2T +2 Melee
6)Raging damages Haunted with 7, Haunted 3 Life

Round 2
1)Skeleton kills Cocatrice
2)Z.s Elven damages Kobold miner with 4, Kobold 2 Life
3)M.s Elven damages Z.s Elven with 4, Z.s Elven 1 Life
4)Kobold kills Z.s Elven
5)Raging kills Haunted

Round 3
1)Z.s Elven kills Kobold
2)M.s Elven kills Z.s Elven
3)Skeleton damages Raging with 4, Raging 1 Life
4)Raging kills Skeleton

Raging 1 Life, M.s Elven 5 Life

Apart from the double evade/dodge of the Cocatrice I skewed this fight in favor of Zintar, who still lost with his +1 Melee (Haunted attacking as second in Round 1 and healing would have made no difference, 6 Life get killed by 7 attack as well)

Version two, Zintar, enemy -1 Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying/dodge
2)M.s Elven damages Undead with 2, Undead 4 Life
3)Z.s Elven attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying, dodge
4)Kobold Miner damages Undead with 2, Undead 2 Life
5)Haunted damages Raging with 4, Raging 4 Life and enrage +2T +2 Melee
6)Raging damages Haunted with 5, Haunted 5 Life

Round 2
7)Skeleton kills Cocatrice
8)Z.s Elven damages Kobold with 3, Kobold 2 Life
9)M.s Elven kills Undead, everyone of M. +1 Life, +1 Melee
10)Kobold damages Z.s Elven with 3, 2 Life
11)Raging kills Haunted

Round 3
12)Cocatrice dies
13)Skeleton damages Raging with 3 + poison, Raging 2 Life
14)Z.s Elven kills Kobold
15)M.s Elven kills Z.s Elven
16)Raging kills Skeleton

Raging 2 Life, dies start next round (poison), Elven 5 Life

Alternate course for version two as formulated at the end of version 1:
Haunted attacking as second in Round 1 and healing

Round 1
1)Skeleton attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying/dodge
2)M.s Elven damages Undead with 2, Undead 4 Life
3)Z.s Elven attacks Cocatrice, evades with flying, dodge
4)Kobold Miner damages Undead with 2, Undead 2 Life
5)Raging damages Haunted with 5, Haunted 5 Life
6)Haunted heals for 3 to 8 Life and damages Raging with 4, Raging 4 Life and enrage +2T +2 Melee

Round 2
7)Skeleton kills Cocatrice
8)Z.s Elven damages Kobold with 3, Kobold 2 Life
9)M.s Elven kills Undead, everyone of M. +1 Life, +1 Melee
10)Kobold damages Z.s Elven with 3, 2 Life
11)Raging damages Haunted with 6, Haunted 2 Life
12)Haunted heals for 3 to 5 Life and damages Raging with 4, Raging 1 Life

Round 3
13)Cocatrice dies
14)Z.s Elven kills Kobold
15)M.s Elven kills Z.s Elven
16)Skeleton damages M.s Elven with 3 +poison, M.s Elven 2 Life
17)Raging kills Haunted

Round 4
18)M.s Elven dies from poison
19)Skeleton kills Raging

Because I let Z.s Elven attack here before the Skeleton, Z. won.

So, the advantage seems here very thin, almost non-existent (else when on lvl1 the opponents attack dropped to zero), so let’s see another one.

Let’s take 16 Mana
Lyanna with
8M Rexxie, 4 Melee, tank, 3T
2M Swamp Thing, weaken, 1T
3M Earth Elemental, 1 Range, 1T

vs. the already known
Zintar with
5M Haunted Spirit, 2 Melee, + heal, tank, 2T
3M Skeleton Assasin, 1 Melee, sneak, 4T
3M Elven Cutthroat, 1 Melee, sneak, 3T
2M Undead Priest, weaken, 1T

Version one, Zintar +Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton damages Earth Elemental with 1, Earth 5 Life
2)Elven damages Earth Elemental with 1, Earth 4 Life
3)Rexxie damages Haunted with 3 Melee, Haunted 3 Life
4)Haunted heals for 2 to 5 Life and damages Rexxie with 2, Rexxie 6 Life
5)Earth Elemental a) damages Haunted with 1 but we go with b) misses

Round 2
6)Skeleton damages Earth Elemental with 1, Earth 3 Life
7)Elven damages Earth Elemental with 1, Earth 2 Life
8)Rexxie damages Haunted with 3 Melee, Haunted 2 Life
9)Haunted heals for 1 to 3 Life and damages Rexxie with 2, Rexxie 4 Life
10)Earth Elemental damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 2 Life

Round 3
11)Skeleton misses Earth Elemental
12)Elven damages Earth Elemental with 1, Earth 1 Life
13)Rexxie kills Haunted
14)Earth Elemental a) kills Skeleton 1 but we go with b) misses

Round 4
15)Skeleton damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 3 Life
16)Elven kills Earth Elemental
17)Rexxie kills Skeleton

Round 5
18)Elven damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 2 Life
19)Rexxie kills Elven

Round 6
Rexxie kills Undead

Earth Elemental dead, Rexxie 3 Life

Version two, Zintar, enemy -1 Melee

Round 1
1)Rexxie damages Haunted with 2 Melee, Haunted 4 Life
2)Haunted heals for 2 to 6 Life and damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 7 Life
3)Earth Elemental damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 5 Life

Round 2
4)Rexxie damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 3 Life
5)Haunted heals for 2 to 5 Life and damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 6 Life
6)Earth Elemental damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 4 Life

Round 3
7)Rexxie damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 2 Life
8)Haunted heals for 1 to 3 Life and damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 5 Life
9)Earth Elemental misses

Round 4
10)Rexxie damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 1 Life
11)Haunted heals for 2 to 3 Life and damages Rexxie with 1, Rexxie 4 Life
12)Earth Elemental damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 2 Life

Round 5
13)Rexxie kills Haunted
14)Earth Elemental misses Skeleton

Round 6 and
Round 7 and/or 8 Elven as well as Undead get killed by Rexxie and Earth without taking any damage.

All survive, only Rexxie reduced to 5 Life.

Let’s see another one, now without any weaken on the enemy side and without any Melee dropping ever to zero!

Lyanna
6M Stonesplitter Orc, 3 Melee, retaliate, 3T
4M Centaur, 1 Range, Snipe, 3T
3M Earth Elemental 1 Range, 1T

vs. the already known
Zintar with
5M Haunted Spirit, 2 Melee, + heal, tank, 2T
3M Skeleton Assasin, 1 Melee, sneak, 4T
3M Elven Cutthroat, 1 Melee, sneak, 3T
2M Undead Priest, weaken, 1T

Version one, Zintar +Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton damages Earth with 2, Earth 4 Life
2)Elven damages Earth with 2, Earth 2 Life
3)Centaur damages Undead with 1, Undead 2 Life
4)Stonesplitter damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 5 Life
5)Haunted heals for 2, 7 Life and damages Stonesplitters Armor to zero
6)Earth damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life

Round 2
7)Skeleton misses Earth
8)Centaur damages Undead with 1, Undead 1 Life
9)Elven kills Earth
10)Stonesplitter damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 4 Life
11)Haunted heals for 1, 5 Life and damages Stonesplitters with 3, Stonesplitter 1 Life
12)Stonesplitter realiates for 2, Haunted 3 Life

Round 3
13)Skeleton damages Centaur with 2, Centaur 2 Life
14)Elven misses Centaur
15)Centaur kills Undead, all +1 Life and +1 Melee
16)Stonesplitter kills Haunted

Round 4
17)Skeleton kills Stonesplitter
18)Stonesplitter retaliates and kills Skeleton
19)Elven kills Centaur (now tank)

So only the Elven with 1 Life survives.

Version two, Zintar, enemy -1 Melee

Round 1
1)Skeleton damages Earth with 1, Earth 5 Life
2)Elven damages Earth with 1, Earth 4 Life
3)Centaur damages Undead with 1, Undead 2 Life
4)Stonesplitter damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life
5)Haunted heals for 1, 7 Life and damages Stonesplitters Armor to zero
6)Earth damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 6 Life

Round 2
7)Skeleton misses Earth
8)Centaur damages Undead with 1, Undead 1 Life
9)Elven damages Earth with 1, Earth 3 Life
10)Stonesplitter damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 5 Life
11)Haunted heals for 1, 6 Life and damages Stonesplitters with 2, Stonesplitter 2 Life
12)Stonesplitter realiates for 1, Haunted 5 Life
13)Earth damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 4 Life

Round 3
14)Skeleton damages Earth with 1, Earth 2 Life
15)Elven damages Earth with 1, Earth 1 Life
16)Centaur kills Undead, all +1 Life and +1 Melee
17)Stonesplitter damages Haunted with 2, Haunted 2 Life
18)Haunted heals for 2 to 4 Life and damages Stonesplitter with 2, Stonesplitter 1 Life
19)Stonesplitter retaliates for 2, Haunted 2 Life
20)Earth misses

Round 4
21)Skeleton damages Earth with 1, Earth 1 Life
22)Elven misses
23)Centaur damages Haunted with 1, Haunted 1 Life
24)Stonesplitter kills Haunted

Round 5
25)Skeleton kills Stonesplitter
26)Stonesplitter retaliates and kills Skeleton
27)Elven kills Centaur (now tank)

Only Elven survives with 1 Life.
In both fights it would have been possible that Centaur misses once and then Haunted kills Stonesplitter not Skeleton, thus also Skeleton survives.

So in this case no difference.