This post is for all you brand new Splinterlands players (and boy, are there a lot of you!) who have been wondering, "Out of all these starter cards I've been given, what's actually worth using?" Well, there are plenty of possible answers, but today we're going to talk about one of the stars of the Fire splinter starter cards, Living Lava.

We're going to focus on the level 1 version of Living Lava that all of us have access to as new players. At 7 mana, we expect this monster to have some decent stats, and it doesn't disappoint. His 3 melee damage is quite impressive for a starter card, but he really shines in the amount of damage he can take as a tank. Living Lava has 6 health for the opponent to work through, plus an extra 2 armor that most monsters will have to get through before they can even get to that health. On top of that, Living Lava has the Shield ability, which causes him to take reduced damage from melee and ranged attacks. In other words, unless your opponent is using magic attacks, this monster can be nearly unkillable!

Check out this battle to see the card in action. Here both players are using some more advanced cards, but the only real damage that Living Lava takes is from poison, rather than any of the physical attacks.

Potential Teammates

While Living Lava does a decent amount of damage, he probably isn't going to win many battles all by himself. Here are a couple other starter monsters that pair well with him.

Serpentine Spy is a great card to keep on your back lines. At 3 speed and 2 damage, he hits fairly hard and fast, and the Opportunity ability lets him attack from behind Living Lava's protection and to directly target the enemy with the lowest health. Serpentine Spy can clean up an entire enemy team while Living Lava keeps them occupied. The downside is his 1 health. If any enemy gets a clean shot on him, he's going down.

Giant Roc is another contender for the back line. Its Reach ability lets it attack from the second position, and its 4 health and Flying make it harder to kill than Serpentine Spy. On the other hand, the Roc's 5 mana cost is a bit expensive, and it only has 1 melee damage. This is a monster that might be better to run under Malric Inferno, who will double it's damage to 2.

Potential Weaknesses

Living Lava may be one of the best options for a starter tank, but it isn't perfect. You may have noticed Living Lava missing some of its attacks in the battle up above. That's because it only has 1 speed. In Splinterlands, for each point of speed that an enemy has beyond your monster's, it gains a 10% chance of dodging. So if your 1 speed Living Lava attempts to attack a 4 speed Serpentine Soldier, there is a 30% chance that it will miss. You can make up for this a little bit by using Pyre as your summoner to give all your monsters +1 speed, but Living Lava is never exactly going to be a track star.

Living Lava's other main weakness is it's susceptibility to non-physical damage. As good as he is at ignoring melee and ranged attacks, magic will bypass his armor and impact his health for full damage. Other effects like Poison can be just as dangerous, as you saw in the linked battle. In these cases, if you want to stick to Fire, another starter tank like Cerberus may be a better choice, since it can heal itself. Or you could just try using a fast team under Pyre to kill the enemies before they can kill you. Multiple tanks to hide your ranged damage-dealers in the back is also an option if you have enough mana available.

Final Thoughts

Living Lava is a great starter card for the Fire splinter that will get you through many early matches, and still remains useful late in the game. He can be nearly invincible against teams full of low-damage melee and ranged attackers, but watch out for magic monsters!

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