This post was made as entry for Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge
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This season, I’ve decided to finally try using Lorkus. I’ve been losing to too many Lorkus-based builds in Diamond League, and what’s worse is that most of them are using just level 1 Lorkus while I’ve been relying on a level 5 Avina of the Wolf Archon. It didn’t make sense at first, but after reviewing several battles, it became clear that there’s something about Lorkus’s ability set that gives players an edge. That’s when I knew I had to test it myself.
Rentals are extremely expensive at the start of the season, and since I’m trying to manage my rental budget, choosing Lorkus felt like the smartest move. All of the mid-level Conclave Arcana and Rebellion summoners costs 100+ DEC per day so I had to settle with someone cheaper because I still need to rent the units afterwards. By focusing my rentals around him, I’m able to avoid overspending on multiple summoners and instead concentrate on key units like Barashkukor from the Rebellion and other Conclave Arcana units. This approach keeps costs low while still giving me decent team. Just a heads up that I don't think this would work in Diamond due to the difference in levels between you and the other players.
Who is Lorkus
Lorkus is a dual-element Archon that allows you to use both Fire and Death element cards in the same team. This gives a huge advantage in building your team and gives flexibility since you can combo Fire, Death, and Neutral units depending on the matchup and rule set. The value of dual-element you also need less archon to rent because this technically acts as your Archon for either or both Death and Fire.
Lorkus also provides two different passive bonuses. First, all friendly units gain +1 Melee and +1 Magic damage, which encourages building teams that rely on both melee and magic attacks. Second, Lorkus triggers Summoner Tactics at the start of the match, granting either Life Leech and Affliction to two units, or Trample and Fury to two others. These additional effects are useful depending on your team composition and what you’re trying to counter.
A Dive Deeper on Lorkus's Abilities
Team Buff: +1 Magic and +1 Melee
Lorkus provides a flat bonus of +1 Melee and +1 Magic damage to all allied units. Because of this, your best value comes from building a team around those two damage types. This might sound straightforward, but it opens a lot of options. What I usually do it focusing on magic-heavy backlines supported by melee-focused frontlines or you can experiment with hybrid attackers that deal both damage types.
This dual-stat boost means Lorkus plays well into a lot of teams and builds. Double Strike and Life Leech units benefit massively from this boost, gaining extra utility and scaling potential as the match progresses.
Summoner Tactics: Affliction and Life Leech
Affliction: When this unit hits a target, it has a 50% chance to apply Affliction, which disables healing on that enemy.
Life Leech: Each time this unit damages an enemy’s health, it gains health equal to half the damage dealt.
This combination works incredibly well with magic attackers. Since magic damage bypasses armor unless the enemy has Void Armor, you get consistent health gain every time your Life Leech unit lands a hit. These types of units are great in long battles, where their health scales over time and lets them survive through sustained damage.
Affliction on the other hand is a good bonus. In some generations like Chaos Legion, healing strategies are dominant, while in others like Conclave Arcana, it’s only a minor part of team compositions. Even so, Affliction never hurts to have. It gives your team some control against healing builds and adds another layer of debuff on undexpected heal-focused builds.
Summoner Tactics: Trample and Fury
Trample: When this unit kills a target with a melee attack, it will immediately attack again, targeting the next enemy in line.
Fury: This unit deals double damage to enemies with the Taunt ability.
Personally, I don't use this combination as often since Life Leech is generally more reliable and consistent, but Trample and Fury absolutely have their place. In matchups where you're expecting multiple tanks or enemies who rely on Taunt to redirect attacks, this combination can break through their frontline very quickly.
Double Strike and high damage units make the most of this pairing. With Fury doubling the damage against Taunt and Trample allowing follow-up hits, you can burst down even the most defensive teams in just a few turns. It's a really strong combo in the right scenario.
Best Combos I Use with Lorkus
Team Desperate
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_50ffd78f66583fad12832003e4dd026a
How it works: This combo uses multiple Taunt units to control enemy attacks and create space for your damage dealers. When you have more than one Taunt unit on the field, the one in the front-most position will be targeted first. If you have Taunt units in positions 1, 2 and 3, the attacks will be redirected from 1, then 2, then 3. In the battle linked above, Bellowmancer takes the first brunt of the attacks, followed by Helheim Demon, then Umbral Elemental. These three tanks soak up all the hits while my backline builds up health through Life Leech.
When to use it: This team can be used in most matches but avoid using it in the Ferocity rule set. Ferocity causes all units to deal double damage against Taunt, which will shred through your frontline before your Life Leech units have time to scale.
How it counters common threats: Taunt is one of the best abilities for disrupting targeted abilities like Snipe, Opportunity, and even Summoner-triggered Snipe in rule sets like Target Practice. In this match, the enemy units get redirected constantly while mine are protected and free to scale. Most strategies relying on Snipe or ranged backline focus will fail against this setup.
Lore: I named this strategy, "Team Desperate," because it came from a last-ditch effort to be competitive after making poor rental choices early in the season. I rented in too fast, too early and overpaid on almost everything, especially my level 1 Lorkus rental for 100 DEC/day. Two or three days later I found the same card going for 75 DEC per day, and several other units I rented were also about 10–20 DEC/day above normal. Instead of wasting what I already spent, I built this team around Lorkus and it somehow worked better than expected.
Team Desperate - Mini
https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_5f6a2a0ab2e3b7d6be80f3e25e27b294?ref=mavis-muggletum
How it works: This version of the original team uses a similar concept but adapts to the Lost Legendaries rule set, which stops both me and my enemy from using legendary cards. I replaced Bellowmancer and Barashkukor with Shadowfey Sheik and Arachne Weaver. The concept of layered Taunt defense is still there, and Arachne Weaver adds additional survivability through Corrupted Healing.
When to use it: Run this version in matches where legendaries aren’t allowed. It works particularly well when you need to rely on Taunt units but don't have that much mana or limits the uses of your units. Adding units like Arachne Weaver, who can keep your frontlines alive with Corrupted Healing is a good substitute when you cannot use triple Taunt in your team.
How it counters common threats: The absence of legendaries usually means enemy teams have lower damage output. With proper Taunt positioning and support healing, your frontlines become very durable. This gives your Life Leech attackers even more time to grow into unkillable threats, especially against teams that bypasses your tanks like those units with Snipe, Opportunity or Sneak.
Disclaimer
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About the Author
Hey! I’m Mavis the Muggle, your friendly Splinterlands addict with a slight obsession for all things Harry Potter. 🧙
When I’m not immersed in gaming or wizardry, I’m busy learning new things. Recently, I’ve been having putting a lot of effort and having a blast creating content on Hive so relax!
You can support me by upvoting this post, reblogging, leaving a comment below or by using my Splinterlands referral link.
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