Weekly Battle Challenge - The Molten Ash Golem

With the Chaos Legion pack burn underway, it's only fitting that this week's challenge is a Fire monster - the towering Molten Ash Golem!

The Molten Ash Golem is a hefty and versatile ranged monster, though it is slow. Capable of dealing decent ranged damage, it can also attack up close from the first position due to its Close Range ability. I like to think that instead of using arrows/throwing stones, it's stomping on the enemy in the first position a la the Giant Golem Archers from Elden Ring:

The Battle

With this challenge aligning with the beginning of the season, I'm stuck in Wild Silver for a bit. While I could play in Gold Modern, I find it's better to leave it at the reset point for a bit to anchor myself to Gold Chests. Silver league is always a bit a bummer as abilities I've come to enjoy using don't exist on cards due to the level cap. On the upside, I can use Yodin Zaku fairly effectively. Explosions make everything more fun, right?

In this 99 Mana battle the active rule sets are Fog of War and Heavy Hitters. I can't effectively capitalize on the Heavy Hitter bonus here, so I focused on the Fog of War aspect. I've seen a lot of magic-heavy line ups in Fog of War - typically it's the type of monster that can start attacking from the back, and continue to attack when it gets into first position. Monsters with Sneak and Snipe can't perform their usual attacks from the backline which limits Melee options. Ranged monsters can be effective, but risk getting to the front and not being able to attack.

Position	Card	Mana Cost	Notes
Summoner		7	An underleveled Yodin can still be a serious threat. With the Fog of War ruleset, the blast ability lets me deal a bit more damage beyond the frontline. The added health and ranged damage will come in helpful here too.
1		11	Grum is slow, but also a huge tank here. Knowing magic is common in Fog of War rulesets, the Void Armor ability helps absorb those blows. Combining his Bloodlust with Yodin's blast ability can also be incredibly effective in some cases.
2		7	Fineas is a fast attacker with decent melee damage. His reach ability helps attack from the second position, even in Fog of War. Coupled with the Blast ability, those hits ripple backwards.
3		6	The Molten Ash Golem marks the start of my ranged line up. Taking the range damage buff from Yodin along with the blast ability, it becomes much more effective. The close range and high health means if it gets to the frontline it'll still be able to hold its own and deal out damage.
4		9	Similar to the Molten Ash Golem, the Lava Launcher is an easy ranged attack choice here with the Yodin combo. The close range means it'll keep hitting until it's taken out entirely.
5		8	Countess Sinash is another easy pairing with Yodin, making her much more effective. She's doubly effective here given the Fog of War and her Camouflage and Opportunity abilities. She'll be able to target creatures beyond the frontline as Opportunity is not affected by Fog of War, though she herself won't be a target due to her Camouflage. Adding blast, and it's likely she'll be doing damage to three monsters in a turn. Boom!
6		10	Rounding out the lineup is Tinderlock. Again, a ranged attacker with Close Range who'll benefit from Yodin. The Last Stand ability would kick in if it's the last monster standing (likely in this scenario, it has high health to avoid it being targeted by Opportunity, and is at the back in a Fog of War match).

Looking at the field, my anti-magic/heavy ranged approach paid off well:

There's a good chunk of healing being applied to Kron, with the self heal and the tank heal from the Goblin Psychic in the back. Most of my attacks are being pulled towards the back with the Taunt from the Mycelic Slipspawn. This is actually in my favor, thanks to blast. The heavy ranged damage quickly chews threw the armor provided by Queen Mycelia, and then through the Goblin Psychic. Thanks to its high health and close range ability, the Molten Ash Golem helps hold the line after both Grum and Fineas fall.

Final Thoughts

The Molten Ash Golem is a solid ranged attacker with a tanky build, but is held back by its slow speed. Obviously, pairing with Yodin Zaku is going to make it much more effective, but it can stand on its own in most cases. Back to Basics matches breaks the overall utility of the card by stripping the Close Range ability, but there's not many other rulesets that would rule out the use of this monster. Thanks for reading!