Welcome! So you have found yourself here today. GOOD. You are the first ones to see my newest series "Talking Meta" - in which I will either talk about a certain card or certain lineups that are often used in #splinterlands. We're starting with one of the most loveable and hateable cards, Lord Arianthus, from now on shortened to Lord A.
Let me first share his lore with you, in case you didnt read it. Hes basicly just a space head that likes to battle >_<
Next up let us take a look at his stats page ~
LvL 1 - Starting out he is just a meatshield that can take a few hits thanks to shield and void
LvL 2 - He starts to get annoying starting at lvl two, getting + 2 HP and magic reflect means he can survive more hits and reflect magic attackers now
LvL 3 - This is the Lord A most people hate. The combination of these four abilites means that he takes reduced dmg from all direct sources and reflects two of the three dmg types that exist.
LvL 4 - + 1 HP, not super important if you are on a budget, but nice to have for sure!
TL;DR - Use ranged, snipe or sneak unit against Lord A.
~~~ Why he be so stronk tho? ~~~
If you compare a lvl 3+ Lord A with all others tanks in the 4-6 mana range it becomes very clear why hes so stronk, he has the best defenses of them and can still attack back, even if he is attacked from the backline. (If attacked by melee or magic)
Some high mana cost units with heal like Sea Monsters can survive the frontline against him, but you cant just use 8 mana for a slot in every game, many times the 3 saved mana by using Lord A can be used for another dmg-dealer unit, or a support unit.
While he does not reflect ranged units dmg, he still takes reduced dmg from them. Another problem is, that if you just stack a lot of ranged monsters, you run into situations where your frontline isnt strong enough. And dont forget, ranged units cannot attack from the tank position.
~~~ How me kill? ~~~
To kill Arianthus you have a few options, the first as said before is ranged units, but you can also use melee or ranged units with decent HP, that wont just die in 1-2 reflect hits. You should also try to avoid the enemies Lord A to be healed, you can use the affliction ability or use sneak/snipe units to kill healing units.
There are games where you need to kill the Lord, becouse sneak and snipe abilites are disabled, so its important to know how to, try to use units with the same speed value, so that the enemy dies before any heals.
In most games where its possible, its better to ignore Lord A and go for the backline instead. That is possible by either using sneak, snipe or opportunity units. Make sure that your own frontline doest die tho! Maybe use Lord A yourself, or another good tank unit. Keep in mind, that your unit will attack the enemy Lord and take reflect dmg. So try to pick something with heal or lots of HP.
~~~ Rulesets to be careful about ~~~
Lord A has different uses in different rulesets, two of them are:
name "Target Practice" description “All Ranged and Magic attack Monsters have the Snipe ability.”
In this one, its possible that you will see a tank in the frontline and Lord A in the 2nd spot, so that snipe attacks target him, keep that in mind.
name "Super Sneak" description “All Melee attack Monsters have the Sneak ability.”
While it might be tempting to use Lord A in the first spot and then stack many glass cannon melee units, I have found that in almost every match with this ruleset Lord A will be played as the last unit. That means all melee units will target him. So I found it better to just use a tank in front, ranged and magic users in the back and a Lord A in my last spot aswell.
There are two rulesets where Lord A is harder to kill / used more often:
name "Fog of War" description “Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.”
Here your monsters are forced to go through the frontline, so make sure you got some ranged and tanky units in your lineup.
name "Armored Up" description “All Monsters have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.”
The obvious choice for this ruleset is to use magic users, but dont get baited! Experienced players will take advantage and use monster with magic reflect, like Lord A.
Alright, thats it for the first issue of "Talking Meta", if you can, get your hands on 5 copies of Lord A, maybe try bidding at peakmonsters. Renting is possible aswell! I would not recommend to buy a max version before Untamed, since we wont know if he will still be such a powerhouse!
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Check out some of my other guides!
---> How to create a free2play Splinterlands account <---
Splinterlands beginner overview! Video and Text version
Steem-Engine Overview & How to buy and sell DEC
Peakmonsters Overview & How to rent cards!
Strategy Guides / Splinter Reviews
Water Splinter Review