EFREET ELDER

Hello everyone! I feel like I got my weeks mixed up, since last time was Fire week and I showcased a Water monster, and this time I'm doing the opposite! Even though Fire is not my greatest splinter (I reroll it every time I can), I had a fun battle with the Efreet Elder, which I knew I had to share.

The Efreet Elder is a Rare Fire Monster from an old Reward set. While I didn't get it from a chest, since it was discontinued when I started playing, I got it for cheap a while back, and I've had mixed feelings with it and I'll tell you why in a second.

Lore

Efreet Elders carry a vast array of mystical secrets and spells that were gifted to them in ancient times by Mishna, Mitreyya’s steward who resides in the Burning Lands deep. The most impressive of these is called the envelation of flame. With this spell, which is simple for the Elders but endlessly complex for anyone who does not know the secrets, the castor is entirely enveloped in fire for a short time. This spell is strikingly similar to the natural skills of famed summoner Malric Inferno, who can convert any part of his body to fire, bringing out the part of him that summons with ease the most powerful monsters of flame.

While the Efreet Elders’ council is often sought by those wishing to learn some secrets of their sorcery, the secrets are only shared with the worthy and the old. It is becoming exceedingly rare to find anyone among the Efreet clans that possess both of these qualities.

Stats

At level 1, it has 8 health, 3 speed and 1 magic, and also Last Stand, which raises all of its stats by 50% when it's the only Monster on the team alive. Even though it has great health and speed for its mana cost, the fact that it only deals 1 magic damage is pretty lackluster. Only a handful of monsters cost 6 or more mana while only having 1 magic attack at level 1, but most of those monsters can be used alongside a Magic enhancing summoner. However, the Elder is stuck with Fire, without any summoner to help its attack type.

On the other hand, Last Stand, while great on paper, giving a massive boost to a monster, is hard to pull off, since you have to make sure that every other monster dies, leaving the Elder alone. And you shouldn't account on your other monsters dying to win. Well, not usually.

At level 10, it has 10 health, 4 speed and 3 magic, while also gaining Phase, which allows him to avoid magic attacks as well. While its stats are certainly a lot higher, I don't find it too impressive for being a max level card. However, I do have to say that Phase is nice, since it has good speed.

Battle

Here I'll show you a battle using Efreet Elder, and a strategy that can be useful. I'll describe it as best as I can, but nothing beats the feeling of actually watching the battle, so in this link you'll be able to watch the battle yourself.

Ruleset

• Noxious Fumes: All monsters start the battle Poisoned, which lowers their health by 2 after each round.
• Allowed Splinters: Fire, Earth, Life and Death.

Team

During Noxious Fumes battles, I tend to go for a Water team, with Oshannus and River Nymph, or Life with Mother Khala in high mana battles. However, since Water wasn't available, and it was low mana, I went for Fire, since it has a Cleanser at level 1.

Card	Description
	TARSA She gives both +1 melee and +1 health. While the melee doesn't help at all the Efreet Elder, the extra health is nice for a Poison battle, allowing my monsters to potentially survive an extra round.
	EXPLODING RATS With only 1 health for a Poison battle, these rodents don't stand a chance. However, that's my plan going into this battle: make them attack hard and fast, and then die to make way for the Elder.
	EFREET ELDER As you can see, my strategy for this battle is to have Last Stand proc, letting all my other monsters die. This is extremely risky since you don't want to rely on only 1 monster, but if my opponent goes for a Melee team, this could work out.
	SCAVO CHEMIST The reason I decided to go with Fire for this battle was this card. With Cleanse, this little guy removes the Poison from the ally in the first position. My plan is for it to cleanse Efreet Elder and then die in the second round. Let's see how it goes.

ROUND 1

• My opponent uses a similar strategy with Tarsa and Scavo Chemist, however, their main tank is Living Lava. While it's great against a Melee team, since I'll be mostly using magic, I can bypass its armor and Shield. While I used to go for this lineup before, I realized that a Magic monster for Noxious Fumes works better for me.
• To start the battle, both my monsters attack the Living Lava, leaving it with 6 health and no armor.
• Then both Scave Chemist cleanse the monster on front. Sadly my Exploding Rats are still alive and they waste the cleanse, since they are then quickly killed off.

ROUND 2

• The Round starts with Poison dealing damage to everyone but the Living Lava. This defeats the opposing Chemist.
• My Scavo finally cleanses the old man.
• Finally enemy monsters land their attacks on the Elder, leaving it with only 2 health. Yikes. I'm glad it was cleansed, otherwise it would have died the next round.

With the Living Lava at 5 health, and the Efreet Elder at only 2, this isn't looking good for me.

ROUND 3

• The Poison takes out both backline monsters, making this a 1v1. This is one of the closest battles that I've had in a Weekly Challenge.
• Since my Scavo finally died, Last Stand activates, and Efreet gains 5 health, 1 magic and 2 speed! I can't believe how much of a difference it makes. Now I'm back to 7 health, and things are looking better. However, I'll die to 2 attacks, so I have to get lucky.
• The Elder deals 2 damage, and avoids the Living Lava's attack!

This ensures my victory, since I'm faster than my opponent, and I can take it out with 2 hits as well. Thus, in round 4 and 5, I attack it, and end up defeating it.

Final Thoughts

• While this was a fun battle, and I was able to showcase the Elder's ability, I don't like how risky this strategy is. I was really close to dying at one point, and I got lucky that my strategy worked out and Last Stand activated at the right time.
• I'm still waiting for a Magic Summoner for Fire (Fingers crossed for the Legendary Summoner), and I think that would exponentially boost the Efreet Elder's usage.
• I've said it multiple times, and I'll say it again: I don't know how to play with Fire effectively, and Tarse seems pretty basic to me, however, there are still some fun cards that I wish I used more.

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