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Stone Golem

Okay, not my most favorite card, I'll admit, but I DO use him, and I DO think he's a solid card. He currently does poorly in the current magic heavy metas, with magic spam throughout bronze to gold, and, even seeing massive amounts of magic spam from tournament players who are diamond+... Well, Stone Golem isn't always a good play.

First, some info on Stone Golem:

THEME	Stone Golem
Edition	ALPHA/BETA
Rarity	RARE
Splinter	EARTH
Attack Type	Melee

The Stone Golems that reside around the Crags of Maglar are quite terrifying to any stranger who wanders into their domain. In spite of the sheer power and weight of them, these Golems are surprisingly gentle and peaceful. A good day for a Stone Golem is one in which he did a lot of heavy lifting.

Stone Golem costs 5 Mana, making him a mid-mana Tank, and functions as a classic tanking role, with 1 Melee, 1 Speed, 2 Armor, and 6 Health, along with the ability Shield which halves all incoming melee/ranged damage, and reduces 1 damage to 0. This makes him a solid anti-melee / anti-range choice, and gives him a decent amount of health against magic. This cements him as your 'traditional' tank card.

At Level 3, he gains +1 Speed from Level 2, and then gains +1 Armor AND +1 Melee at Level 3, giving him a nice power spike, becoming a much more threatening Tank, with even more impressive bulk. As a chunky attacker, he is able to freely attack other Earth comps with Mylor as a summoner, taking 1 damage instead of 2, and he can also function as a tank in Earthquake rounds, where he also takes 1 damage instead of 2, thanks to his Shield ability.

Stone Golem pretty much shuts down ranged and melee attackers who are front focused, shrugging off attacks, especially in Lost Magic

At Level 5, he gets a wonderful little ability in Stun, but loses some bulk, with 2 Melee, 2 Speed, 3 Armor, and 6 Health. This stun allows him to further harass your opponent, hitting hard and knocking their tank out of commission for a round, giving your team even longer survivability.

At Level 10 his final stats are 3 Melee, 2 Speed, 3 Armor, and 8 Health, with Shield and Stun. This makes him a relatively decent tank, hitting hard, stunning, tanking, with a good pool of HP and Armor for 5 mana.

He costs about $9 per BCX in his Beta variant... His Alpha variant costs $22 per BCX...

**LEVEL COSTS**
Level 3 costs $45 for Beta, and $88 for Alpha, this is where he gains **+1 Melee**
Level 5 costs $189 for Beta, and $462 for Alpha, this is where he gains **Stun**
Max Level costs $1035 for a Beta, and $2415 for a maxed Alpha. This, ironically means that Stone Golem is *cheaper to max than most of the Alpha/Beta Commons*.

*Keep in mind that higher BCX Cards come with discounts, this is the math for purchasing 1 BCX Cards, which you should NOT do if you're planning to level.*

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕊𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕣

This guy benefits from adding offensive capabilities, or adding tankability, and as such, he naturally has some great options from the Earth summoners, in *Lyanna and Mylor. Lyanna gives him +1 HP, at Level 10, this increases healing on him by 1! In most other situations, this only adds slightly more tankability. With Mylor, he gains Thorns, which reflects 2 damage back on melee attackers, punishing melee attackers for attacking him, and being one of the best choices if you know your enemy is going to be heavily melee focused. Shield + Thorns is a very punishing combo for melee.

For Dragon Summoners, the options change a bit:

Camila is a defensive choice that you can utilize in order to further weaken melee attackers, this can often times be a better choice than Mylor in melee battles, as if your opponent's melee is reduced to 1, your Stone Golem will singlehandedly slay their team.

Likewise, Drake of Arnak grants him more Armor, which increases his survivability, like Lyanna does, but in some cases, might be the edge your ranged/magic attackers need to survive some crucial blows. That being said, there is 1 Dragon summoner that rounds out Stone Golem nicely:

Then Byzantine Kitty is your answer, look, I know I recommended her last time too, but she's a genuinely good choice for many tanks, and especially true here, as Stone Golem's biggest weaknesses are its lack of sustain, lack of accuracy, and slow speed. What does Kitty solve? All those things. Specifically for adding value to Stone Golem as a tank and offensive pressure, Kitty is best!

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Position 1, Position 6
Stone Golem is a front facing tank, and as such, his positions are very simple: You're either protecting the front, or the back.

Place him in Position 1 to eat the ranged and melee blows of a traditional ruleset.

Place him in Position 6 if you're expecting sneak attackers, the sneak modifier, or have a Mylor and are hoping to finish the remaining soft attackers after the rest of your lineup has weakened them.

Once he gains Stun, Position 6 seems less valuable, without having a sneak modifier to allow him to stack his stun consistently.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

You can see a trend here. If it's melee focused, and encourages melee attackers. It's in here.

Likewise, anything that gives Stone Golem the chance to stack Health or Armor is also a great modifier.

Blast modifier, Stone Golem can be placed in position 2 to nearly negate any blast damage being spread out beyond the primary tank.

Heavy Hitters if Stone Golem is level 5+, will allow it to stun enemies, and then grant your ranged, melee, and magic attackers behind it to deal 2x damage.

Finally, Lost Magic ensures that Stone Golem can capitalize on its Shield protecting it from ALL attacks.

ℕ𝕠𝕥 ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

Even Stevens prevents him from being used, as he costs 5 Mana. No Abilities makes him just like any other tank. Sniping allows their ranged attackers to completely bypass your melee tank. Poison wears down his health quickly, and ignores his armor. Keep Your Distance prevents Melee attackers from being used. Little League prevents his use as well, as he costs 5 mana instead of 4.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝔸𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ab7490f281a185b40567adf4c4d7e5ef&ref=jakkal

24 Mana, Weak Magic, Stampede, and all Splinters except Dragon and Life.

This was a weird composition, I decided to capitalized on Eastwood's armor reduction to allow my Magic attackers to basically attack as if the modifier were not in effect. I was expecting a Mylor situation, in order to capitalize on Stone Golem's Shield Ability, and this ended up being the perfect display of it. Giving Stone Golem a Resurrect from Spirit Druid Grogg, and the supportive healing of Wood Nymph ended up being an extremely good play, and Halfling Alchemist's Halving ability was worthless against a 1 melee Golem anyways! Unfortunately, on my end, Mushroom Seer and Failed Summoner were nearly wasted picks, only offering some backup bulk and magic damage.

This play shows Golem's value: He isn't meant to hit hard. He's meant to GET HIT HARD and he ROCKS at it. Get it? Sorry I'll shutup.

𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕌𝕡 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕊𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕨!

Wanna play with a Stone Golem too? Try him out with Mylor? Join me on Splinterlands! Stone Golem is currently a starter card and you'll be able to use him to your heart's desire! But don't wait too long! He will be leaving the Modern format AND the Starter Cards when Chaos Legion arrives!

Join me on Splinterlands, if you use my link, here:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=jakkal
I'll send you 100 DEC when you sign up and get a spellbook, (as long as you show up as referred) which should help you get started via renting! Also, feel free to message me, I can answer any questions, give tips, etc.