If you are an old head on Splinterlands, then you'd already know how tough it is to win against these Summoners, especially if you aren't battling them with an equally sophisticated Summoner.
For context though, I have been playing Splinterlands for about one month now, my learning period inclusive and my most expensive/sophisticated Summoner is Mylor Crowling(I rented it) which costs around $12 for ordinary foil and $80 for gold foil. Crowling's only buff is giving his monsters the torn ability, where enemy Melee attackers, suffer a form of self-inflicted harm once they attack any of Crowling's monsters.
Crowling's buff is so cool, I won't lie but in comparison, falls short of Yodin Zaku and the Scarred Mage, because it can only work against melee monsters.
In comparison, Yodin Zaku costs approximately $400 for the ordinary foil and $3000 for the gold foil. Zaku gives its monsters +1 health before the battle, gives all its ranged monsters the blast effect and also gives all its range attackers +1 range.
In other words, Yodin Zaku's monsters could kill all your monsters before you even knew what the hell was going on.
The Scarred Llama on other hand is one bad-ass Summoner that I'd love to have someday, I love the buff of Zaku but something about the Llama kinda gives me inner peace by just looking at it. Maybe because it is just an innocent-looking lamb with cool buffs. How did the developers think out all these cool card characters? I keep wondering. Hahaha
The Llama gives all its monsters +2 health, gives them the cleansing ability and gives them the last man standing ability too. This means the added health aside, all damaged friendly monsters are cleansed and rehabilitated at the beginning of every round (I think) then the Last Man Standing buff gives the last surviving friendly monster double of its original health, +1 speed, +1 attack and +1 shield. Can you beat that? Imagine getting all these cool buffs when the opposition Monsters are barely hanging on.
Now you can see why it is difficult battling these guys and why I am celebrating this very little win. LOL. They have completely annihilated me every single time I met them in battle, so these one-off victories need to be celebrated.
My Battle With Yodin Zaku
When the battle loaded and I saw the lineup, I gave up hopes of any chance of causing an upset because that lineup is fierce but I had some advantage I didn't know about at the time. First and foremost, this was one of those battles that have a ruleset and here, melee monsters had the reach ability, so they could attack from any position.
I had Mylor Crowling as my summoner (guaranteed -2 health from enemy melee monsters each time they attack me), and though I had just 3 monsters on my line up as compared to my opponent's 5, my defence had had bigger health and thus could withstand the blast effect and also a combined Melee attack of +6 to cause havoc on the opponent's monsters.
Plus, I had the Stone Golem who is built like a rock, literally and can withstand pressure from both melee and ranged attackers for long. Plus he has +2 shield on him.
But, I reckon if my opponent had chosen more ranged monsters than melee monsters, he would have won the battle with the blast effect and my Mylor's thorn effect wouldn't have hurt him so much. My selection was spot on, but it wasn't intentional at all, neither was it strategic. Blind luck I guess.
My Battle With The Scarred Llama Mage
I don't usually feel as bad when I am defeated by an opponent who uses the Scarred Llama as I do when its Yodin, because like I said, I have a soft spot for the innocent looking lamb. But a win against it is equally celebrated because I usually do not stand a chance against it with the choice of summoners at my disposal.
Again, looking back at my lineup, I dont know if I actually thought that any line up I had was gonna matter, but when I sighted from my opponent's past battles that he had the Llama and I saw the Stone Golem as a monster he loved to use, I knew I had to go for the jugular if I were to stand a chance.
So, went for a magic attack because it affects monsters health directly, instead of their shields first.
I chose Alric Stormbringer as my Summoner, he adds +1 magic to all my magic monsters. That's 8 magic firepower that would hit the opponents health straight on because I had 4 magic monsters on my lineup.
Then I had the Sea Monster leading my attack with 4 melee attacks, 8 health and the ability to heal after each round. Sweet.
To my surprise, this battle ended quicker than I thought it would, with 5 of my monsters still standing.
My opponent had some sick lineup too, the Hydra, Stone Golem and the Sandworm are formidable monsters but magic seems to be their kryptonite.