How many people suffer from Scarred Llama Mage + powerful monsters with self-heal?
Today I'm going to talk about ways to counter Llama + Kron, Hydra, Pelacor Mercenary!
Countering Llama Kron
Countering Llama Kron is not very difficult. You just need Phase + Speed and more than 6 damage
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_c59b81a2399101e3ceb2b2c9782cd2b1
When Kron gets last stand effect, 8 magic attack but only 2 speed if you have slow.
Pelacor conjure easily avoids Kron's attack. You just need to attack with more than 6 damage because Kron heals 6 hp per turn.
You can also use Forcefield + more than 6 damage. A monster with forcefield ability gets only 1 damage if the opponent's attack is 5+.
The easy way to get more than 6 damage is using deathblow and giant killer for kron.
Deathblow monsters
https://www.splintercards.com/abilities.php?ab=90
Giant killer monsters
https://www.splintercards.com/abilities.php?ab=92
Countering Hydra and Pelacor Mercenary
Countering Llama Hydra or Llama Pelacor mercenary is much harder than Kron in low mana battles because of these reasons.
- Hydra and Pelacor mercenary are 7 mana, so giant killer doesn't work.
- They have retaliate. That means if you use melee attack, they might attack you back and kill your monster.
- They still heal 6 hp per turn
*Retaliate: When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker. 50% chance of activation.
VS Llama Pelacor Mercenary battle
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_b04f239cc7ff149e27af8e82d105513d
Beast mode Pelacor Mercenary!
Once laststand activates, Pelacor mercenary has 5 melee attack, 6 speed, 20 hp, heals 6hp per turn, and retaliate. Absolute beast!
My strategy was to have armor and heal the armor with repair every turn so that pelacor conjurer stay alive. However, I didn't have enough damage, so I lost after fatigue kicked in.
The important things to counter beast Pelacor mercenary!
- Armor + Repair
- More than 6 damage per turn
- Think about using deathblow
The most difficult part is how to fit all these points in 14 mana? Llama 7 mana, Hydra, or Pelacor mercenary 7mana, so you might start seeing the combo from 14 mana.
Fire is the best splinter to counter the combo!
I don't have an example battle yet but we can simulate any kind of battle with splintertools.io now. https://splintertools.io/custom-battle
Venari Heatsmith has void armor, amplify (lvl6), thorns (lvl10). This card is the perfect tank against Llama Hydra or Pelacor mercenary because it has armor (void armor, even better), and thorns with amplify, giving 3 thorns damage when melee attack hits. Another good thing about Venari heatsmith is that it doesn't do melee attack. If the tank has melee attack, it can get retaliated by Hydra or Pelacor mercenary. Since they have high damage attack, one retaliate can kill your monster easily. So it's actually better not to do any melee attack.
Flame monkey gets repair at lvl6 with only 1 mana. This is a really key card because the repair ability is hard to come by in low mana.
Gagoya devil is a great card against the last stand because of deathblow dealing 8 damage per turn.
Djinn Apprentice is another great card against the last stand because of deathblow dealing 8 magic damage per turn. The best part is that he is only 5 mana!
Of course, it works against Hydra as well.
Is there any other way?
Yes! but you need Epona lvl4 for repair... currently, it is $2400. We need Epona because we only have 14 mana to work with.
Obsidian is adding +1 magic. so this build does 8 magic damage per turn.
Mylor adds thorns. We have queen mycelia (protect, amplify) so it does 3 thorns damage. Including thorns damage, this build does 9 damage per turn.
I had a great discussion with T&A guild member about this topic. Special thanks to gonz.
I couldn't think of any other way to counter both llama hydra and llama mercenary but there might be more. If you found other ways to counter, please lave a comment!
Conclusion & ending remark
It is very difficult to counter Llama Hydra and Llama Pelacor mercenary in low mana battles such as 14 mana. When I had to fight against those and lost, I really thought the game is not fair.
However, fire splinter works very well against them thanks to venari heatsmith and flame monkey. They are only 4 mana together, allowing us to add a 7 mana attacker monster in the team.
If you haven't joined Splinterlands, the amazing & fun blockchain-based trading card game, please use this link to create an account!
https://splinterlands.com?ref=yukihyakubai