What's with this season's Day 2 battles? I often battle Scarred Llama Mage teams a lot, but encountering this many in a row is truly baffling. I kid you not, it was raining Llamas!
Fortunately, it wasn't so terrible. I only had to deal with level 1 Llama teams, so I still had a chance to win. If it were level 2s and above, I wouldn't know what to do.
Let me tell you the story of how my Llama-infested day went and how I was able to overcome it. Read on, and you may be able to discover ways to beat Llama teams. But if you already know about it, then just skip this post. 😅
The Day of Llamas
It was the second day of the new season, and I was battling throughout the morning, aiming to deplete my DEC capture rate to around 70%. I thought it would be the usual day of moderate wins and losses. Until I started noticing that I got into way too many Llama fights.
To make it clear, I don't dread Llama fights anymore. On the other hand, I was happy getting these level 1 Scarred Llama Mages matchups. I know how to counter Llama by heart, so I can win more matches against them. But it was still astonishingly weird. I kept wondering if it was a #splinterlands celebration day for Llamas that I hadn't heard about. 🤔
I took screenshots and patched them up into one long image for easier viewing. Yes, I took screenshots, so you know it happened. 😂 In my battle logs, you'd be able to count 12 Llama teams out of 20. There was a 13th player who had a Llama team too. But they instantly surrendered since the Earth Splinter was blocked.
13 out of 20 consecutive battles are Llama fights! Wut?! Please tell me I totally missed the world Llama day or something.
Know Your Llama
Now that I may have spooked you a bit with all those Llamas. Let's talk about how to deal with them.
Up first, acknowledge the Llama in front of you.
Check your opponent's battle history and never miss out on that chance to know your enemy. The recent five-fight history is pretty telling. For Llama-centric players, if they got a few of it on their last five matches, then count that they'll be using Llama again. Those types of players seem to trust the team too much. So unless Earth Splinter is disallowed, prepare for a Llama fight.
Second, recognize who's Llama pairing up with.
Scarred Llama Mage and Kron the Undying team-up is standard meta. There'll be other monsters, but Kron is the main guy who's best fired up by Llama's Last Stand boost.
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But Llama-Kron is only possible if the battle's mana pool is 17 or beyond. Their cost adds up to 17. So if they can't make it, expect something like Flesh Golem to come up as the Kron replacement. The self-healers are the best partners for Last Stand, so it's often Llama-Kron or Llama-Golem.
Assuming the summoner is at level 1, Flesh Golem could only be at level 3 max. This tandem is much easier to defeat compared to Llama-Kron.
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Lastly, prepare to yield to Mega Llamas
My proposed counter works at a high success rate for level 1 Llama summoners. But if they're on level 2 or above, that's a totally different beast.
Level 1 summoners can only have low-level monsters on their lineup. Even if it's only a step up to a level 2 summoner, that's a lot of potential unlocked for the entire team. My strategy's success rate of around 90% plummets to 30% once Llama is leveled up.
BUT don't fret too much. It's rare to encounter high-level Llamas. The rent cost for level 1 is around 20 DEC a day. It's cheap and affordable. But a level 2's going rate is around 150 DEC per day. That's way too expensive for everyday players. So unless you're in the Gold leagues and above, don't worry about mega Llama matches.
Llama-Kron Essentials
- - 5 Magic Attack
- - 18 Health Points
- - 6 Points of Healing Per Round
These stats never change unless rulesets like Enrage or Explosive Weaponry come. So it's easy to prepare a perfect counter for it for most other battle conditions.
Essential 1: A High-Health Void Tank 🔰
Last Stand-Kron's magic attack is pretty painful if taken at full force. A regular tank won't survive the relentless assault. Void monsters are your best bet to hold off Kron. Instead of taking the entire five-point damage, tanks with Void only get three.
Alternatively, it's also okay to use a tank with Void Armor. It needs a different team configuration, but Void Armor could still work as a good protector. But keep in mind, the monster has to have high health. If it's too fragile, there's a good chance your tank won't even last until Last Stand activation. If that happens, Kron will sweep away the rest of the team with ease.
Essential 2: A Tank Healer ✨
Last Stand-Kron can heal itself for six points per round. Note that status effects like Stun won't stop the healing in most situations since Llama Mage can use Cleanse to remove any negative status. Stun could only work if you got a faster Stun monster than Kron, but those are hard to come by.
So on a standard Llama-Kron battle, expect a severely protracted match as Kron keeps healing itself. And what's the best way to cope with that other than to have a Healer of your own.
A monster is healed 1/3 of its base health, so nine and above health gets healed three points. If you have a combo of a Void tank with at least nine health points and a healer, you can effectively nullify Kron's attacks.
Alternatively, if you have used a tank with Void Armor, you must pair it up with a monster with a Repair skill.
Essential 3: A High-Damage Backline ⚔️
Once you got the Void-Heal combo down, your team is now totally safe from being wiped out. BUT even if you get to keep your monsters alive, would they be able to knock out Last-Stand Kron?
If both sides successfully nullify all damages, the match would head towards the 20th round. Everyone on the battlefield gets hit with unblockable damage upon reaching the 21st round. Afterward, the damage increases per round until one team is knocked out. A pumped-up Kron with 18 health points is usually the one who outlasts everyone else.
To avoid this scenario, you must have an attack force that's strong enough to exceed Kron's six points of healing. But don't just slap a team with an exact seven points of attack. I know that should be enough to slowly chip away Kron's health one point per round. But it's common these days for a Llama-Kron team to recruit a monster with Halving skill. The Epic-rarity, Neutral Halfling Alchemist is usually their best option since it's only costing two mana. If Halving affects any of your monsters, your seven-point damage team is doomed.
As much as possible, after placing a dependable Void Tank and Healer pair, spend all the remaining mana on attackers.
My Line-Up Against Llama-Kron
I saw a few Scarred Llama Mage battles in my opponent's recent history, so I know it's coming up. The match has a low mana pool of 22. This works in my favor because Llama and Kron use up 17 mana. There won't be much left for anybody else.
The battle has the Holy Protection ruleset, giving Divine Shields to everyone. But for Llama-Kron matches, this type of ruleset doesn't matter much.
Here's my lineup following the monster essentials I mentioned above.
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[Summoner] Tyrus Paladium. Summoners and their skills aren't the core of this fight. I'm selecting the Life summoner because it's the only splinter that has monsters I need.
[1st Position] Clay Golem is my Void tank. With Void and ten-point health, Golem could brush off Last Stand-Kron's attack later. As long as my healer is active, Golem will not fall as it faces off Kron.
[2nd Position] Feral Spirit is one of my attackers. I'm creating a force with total damage that goes beyond six points. Feral Spirit was one of the cheaper options. I really don't expect its Sneak skill to contribute at all. My focus is on the endgame where everyone unleashes their attacks on Kron.
[3rd Position] Divine Healer is another core team member as a Tank Healer. I need this healer to keep my tank, Clay Golem, alive until the end-stage. When it does, I'm all set for the win.
[4th Position] Divine Sorceress is my one other attacker. It's very cheap to use at three mana cost and has a decent two-point magic attack. It has a Divine Shield skill, but I'm not expecting much from it.
[5th Position] Peacebringer completes my lineup and acts as my foremost attacker with a three-point ranged attack. Clay Golem also has a three-point melee attack. But I'm expecting Golem's damage output to get Halved at some point.
The Battle: Fighting Off Llamas
This is the live battle captioned -- "How to Win Against Llama-Kron?" 😏
As I have anticipated, we got a Llama! Both sides have mana pool allocation at 100%. It's only 22, so we ought to make the most out of it. I've battled this team configuration countless times and lost to it several times, so I'm fully prepared for it now.
The rest of the enemy monsters are literal cannon fodders who don't contribute much. Aside from Llama and Kron, Halfling Alchemist is the only other member that matters. It successfully inflicted Halving status on my Clay Golem at Round 1, reducing its attack by two points. But again, I was prepared for this, so my team could cope with this debuff.
My Clay Golem is struck with Halving. It's attack would be reduced to one.
We've spent the first few rounds eliminating all the other weaker enemies. The main event starts at Round 5 when Kron the Undying is the last monster standing.
Kron on Last Stand would have fazed me before, but not anymore. We got a perfect counter for this situation. We're spending the next rounds going through this cycle.
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| Kron heals itself by 6 points. | Kron damages my Clay Golem. | Divine Healer fully heals my tank. | My team does 9 total damage to Kron. |
My teams' maximum attack is nine points. That is only if Clay Golem's one-speed stat doesn't make it miss. So it's crucial to go beyond the required minimum in cases of misses or debuffs. My team's total damage output is enough to chip away Kron's health, three points per round.
I eventually overcame Kron at Round 9 as Peacebringer deals the match's 🥳 Victory 🥳 hit.
Battle Retrospective: What I'd Do Differently
I can't significantly change my battle strategy since the core members are practically irreplaceable. Having said that, I should keep these core members in a much safer position. I realize that if my opponent had a Sniper-type monster, they could have eliminated my healer monster, breaking my play.
What I'd do differently is add more ranged or magic attackers before my healer.
Referencing the battle above, the Divine Sorceress should have been placed before my Divine Healer. I could have also replaced Feral Spirit with another three-mana ranged monster to keep my healer safer from snipes.
Luckily, the low mana pool for the match didn't give much leeway for my enemy to add other strong monsters. They only got a few slots left for fodders since Llama and Kron hogged all the mana resources.
To End, I hope this sharing has at least entertained you in case everything I just said was old news to you. 😁 Have a fun time battling!
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