Looking For The Master: Molten Ash Golem

Hi!

This week's Splinterlands battle is starring Molten Ash Golem, a Rare Fire splinter Ranged attack monster. I have always had difficulties deciding in which place to put this one and because of that, I thought it might not be that useful. Yeah, I was wrong.

On the contrary, I've actually come up with three good spots for Ash Golem to battle. This battle example is one of them. With this short piece of lore, let's check out the teams!

Rising from the ground and forming into loose humanoid shapes, these Molten Ash Golems have only one desire. Find their creator. They will travel the lands searching for the Forgotten One, never tiring and never needing to stop. Once reunited with their source, they serve faithfully for as long as they continue to burn.

My Team

Looking like it's somehow related to the Creeping Ooze, SEPTIC SLIME is one heck of a tank unit.

This Riftwatchers monster costs 8 mana points and for that price, you will a strong armor(5) and plenty of health(9) at level 3.

Even though it is very slow in its movements, it does have a decent Melee attack of 2 points. With Tarsa's summoner buff it can do pretty good damage by itself.

Septic Slime has a chance of Stunning the enemy monster when it attacks. If successful, it will make the victim miss a turn.

Level 2 MOLTEN ASH GOLEM has no armor but an amazing amount of health(10).

It is a Ranged monster but with its Close Range ability, it can attack from every position.

This will make it a very versatile monster in my opinion. Because of the ability, it can be considered to be used as a tank or at the back to absorb opponents' Sneak attacks.

In this battle, I put it in second place to kinda protect Mordeus from being sucked into the first spot too soon.

Speaking of MORDEUS, this powerful Legendary monster is the absolute spearhead of my attack strategy.

Because of its Opportunity ability, Mordeus will attack from the center and target the opponent's weakest unit.

Having a very strong Melee attack(5), it might be able to take out most of the enemy monsters with a single blow.

Being a bit slow and having only 4 health points can be considered to be its weaknesses.

TENYII STRIKER is my last line of defense. This Melee monster has a decent attack power(2) and it will use that on the last monster on the enemy team because of his Sneak ability.

If my opponent should also have monsters with Sneak, they would in turn be targeting Tenyii Striker.

Because of Strikers' good health points(6), I decided to put him in the last spot instead of Mordeus. He is also pretty fast(3) so he might have a chance to dodge those attacks.

Opponent Team

I haven't actually used REGAL PERYTON as a tank unit myself but I can understand the benefits of it. It is quite a fast(5) creature and that added to its Flying ability will it very hard to hit with Melee or Ranged attacks.

MYCELIC SLIPSPAWN is a nasty thing. First of all, it has lots of health(10), and secondly, my monsters will be focusing on it instead of the Regal Peryton.

This is because of Slipspawns Taunt ability making all my monsters attack it. So as long as it is on play my Sneak and Opportunity plans will have to wait.

Fortunately, this beast is quite slow and with the help of Mordeus' powerful Melee attack, we should be able to get rid of it in a single round.

ELVEN MYSTIC is an Untamed monster with some decent enough stats. Note that his magic attack(1) will also be boosted by their summoners buff.

Other than that, Elven Mystic should be taken out with a single swing by Mordeus or Tenyii Striker.

Of course, there has to be a healer unit! In this battle, it happens to be our old friend GOBLIN PSYCHIC.

This monster can become quite a nuisance if it is placed well and you cannot put him down. That is because Goblin Psychic will use its Tank Heal ability to restore some of the health of the first-place unit.

Besides that, it also has two point magic attack and with Obsidian it gets even stronger.

KHMER PRINCESS is holding the opponent's last spot. She would be an easy target for Tenyii Striker but unfortunately, we are forced to focus on the Mycelic Slipspawn first.

Now, let us step into the arena!

Starting Point For The Battle

What we have here is the Standard ruleset 30 Mana battle.

My opponent chose a level 1 OBSIDIAN as their summoner. All of their monsters are using magic so Obsidian will boost everyone's attack by one.

I put my trust in level 2 TARSA who will boost the health of all of my monsters and also buff the Melee attacks.

Down below you can see a picture of both teams when all the buffs have been played out.

The Battle

If you can't wait to watch the whole battle then just go on and click here!

ROUND 1

Little did the massive armor of Septic Slime do for it, enemy magic attacks cut like a knife and I lost my tank before it could do anything! However, Tenyii Striker and Mordeus managed to reduce Slipspawns health 1.

ROUND 2

Molten Ash Golem was now promoted as a tank. The opponent tried to do the same to him as they did to Septic Slime while at the same time we took down Slipspawn and Khmer Princess.

ROUND 3

While Molten Ash Golem took another hit we managed to do an important strike and defeat the enemy healer. It wasn't long before the fiery golem was done for. He suffered a lethal blow from the Elven Mystic.

Round 3 is still going on and now it was time for Moredeus to step up to the tank spot. It managed to hit the fast Regal Peryton and even though the having 5 health points, the creature had no chance.

ROUND 4

Elven Mystic was now the only enemy monster left and it was Tenyii Striker who ended the battle with a swing of a blade.

Conclusion

For this battle I put Molten Ash Golem behind the tank and when the time came, it took the hits for the team and especially protected a little fragile Mordeus. So actually, I think my strategy worked perfectly!

One other argument for putting the Golem in second place would be for him to absorb the ricochets caused by the Blast ability. All in all, I see at least three use cases for him: tank, behind the tank, and at the last spot taking those Sneak hits.

Here are the current prices for this multi-use monster:

Regular Level 1: