Tank You Very Much - Using Legionnaire Alvar in Battle!

This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Legionnaire Alvar! I'm not sure if I remember a legendary card being the subject of the weekly challenge before, so it is a nice change of pace to get to showcase a premium monster. In fact, Legionnaire Alvar is premium enough that I don't own a copy of it in my collection. Luckily, it is one of the cards that I always rent a copy of and I am very familiar with his utility!

Legionnaire Alvar is a neutral melee monster, and is certainly not a lightweight - bringing him into battle will cost you a whooping 9 mana. Thankfully he has the stats to back up that cost, pairing a respectable 2 attack and 2 speed with an incredibly chonky 8 armor and 6 health. That ratio of armor to health would normally be a bit if a liability against magic attackers, but Legionnaire Alvar also comes with the very useful Void Armor ability. This means that our Legionnaire is able to stand up to both physical (melee or ranged) and magic attacks!

If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!

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First up: the ruleset. One of the first things I noticed about the ruleset was that it had a relatively high mana cap, and that none of the other rulesets were terribly impactful. The nice thing about Legionnaire Alvar is that as a neutral monster which is decently strong against all types of attacks, you can use it in a wide variety of scenarios - and this is one of them!

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It was a battle with plenty of mana to work with, so I choose Yodin as my summoner. A summoner that everyone loves to hate, and one that I will be happy to see leave Modern? Perhaps. But effective? Yes, without a doubt. Yodin's combination of ranged attack buffs and Blast are a particularly potent combination, and one that you should nearly always be happy to see on your side of the battlefield.

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I started my team with my tanks. Fire lineups (including Yodin) tend to have problems against magic attacking teams, and Legionnaire Alvar is a great anti-magic tank to try and address that weakness. Thanks to Void Armor, Legionnaire Alvar is just as tanky against magic as he is against melee and ranged damage. And with a combined 14 health (armor plus hp) to work with, he can soak up a lot of hits. Molten Ash Golem is another monster with plenty of bulk, and one which not only benefits from Yodin's ranged buff, but also can even still attack from the front position.

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Coming up next was some more ranged damage - Lava Launcher and Ash Mirage are both solid ranged attackers. Lava Launcher hits hard for 3 (4 with Yodin) damage per turn, and just like Molten Ash Golem can still attack from the front line. Ash Mirage doesn't have pack quite as much of a punch, but more than makes up for it with sky-high speed as well as Headwinds, which can come in handy if my opponent selects any ranged monsters.

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As this point I was mostly out of mana, so I finished off my team with Scavo Firebolt, a serviceable ranged hitter, and Scorch Fiend as a meat shield at the back.

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - my opponent has gone with a mixed damage team heavy on melee and magic damage. Legionnaire Alvar is well positioned to buy my ranged attackers some valuable time, though my opponent's Deeplurker could potentially be a source of complications.

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In the first round of battle not a whole lot happens - my Scorch Fiend goes down, and the frontline tanks on both sides take heavy damage. Things are looking faily good for my monsters though - my Legionnaire Alvar has done an excellent job protecting my weaker monsters, while Blast hits have already dealt a significant amount of damage to my opponent's Djinn Oshannus.

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One more round and the picture is becoming a little more clear - the opposing Diemonshark and Djinn Oshannus both get taken down, and the enemy Deeplurker doesn't look long for this world. My team has taken a few hits as well, but my secondary and tertiary tanks are still in the fight.

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By the start of round 4 the battle is just about over. One more hit on Nerissa Tridawn and all of my opponent's attackers will be out of the fight - either wiped off the field, or stuck in the first position unable to attack. Victory! And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

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My strategy for this battle worked out perfectly - my monsters were able to stand up to my opponent's attacks and bought enough time for my ranged attackers with Blast to take down the enemy team. Legionnaire Alvar did a solid job holding the front, playing a valuable role in the fight.

I am a fan of Legionnaire Alvar - he is a great monster to bring into battle when you aren't sure what to expect from your opponent, and as a neutral card he is available as an option in the vast majority of battles. I do have other cards higher on my priority list to purchase for my collection, but he will certainly continue to be one of the cards I rent out for use in battles moving forward!

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

• Splinterlands Economics: Diversification - An overview of the concept of diversification, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!

• Splinterlands Economics: Exchange Rates - An overview of the concept of exchange rates, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!

• A Quick Burn - Using Fire in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring the Fire splinter!

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Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!

All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.