Legionnaire Alvar - The Magical Shield

This week's battle challenge is with the mighty Legionnaire Alvar who has the Void Armor ability at level 1. This means that when you have a magic attack, it reduces his armor first instead of his health. The good news is that he has lots of shield. Some other great abilities of Alvar once your level up are the Giant Ability that I covered last week and also Demoralise and Death Blow.

Alvar can be a really powerful card, but today we will focus on the level 1 card and a way that you can use him to real benefit and give you an edge.

My own Legionnaire Alvar is at level 1, but I really need to level him up to be able to maximise his benefit and take advantage of his other abilities. For the Gold/Diamond league, I would really like to have him at least at level 3.

Doubling his attack if you face a strong tank and the demoralise are some great benefits to play him and his cost for a legendary card is not prohibitive compared to some of the other legendaries. The great thing with Alvar is also that he is a neutral monster that can play in any deck you like. A great investment if you ask me.

If you are pretty sure that your enemy will use magic attack, then it can be for sure worth to deploy Alvar. This is because the main thrust of their magic attack will need to go through his 8 shield (in my case 10 with the Queen Mycelia buff) before he loses any health.

This would give you time to deal some serious damage to your opponent as you are about to see here. Alvar takes 10 damage from my enemy, while the rest of my magic attack finishes off Splipspawn and Mycelia Morphoid behind him.

The enemy attack is severely weakened to just 7.

In round 2, with his shield now depleted, we lose our man of the moment Alvar. But not before we take out Centauri Mage, leaving my enemy with just 2 monsters and a total of 5 magic attack left.

Legionnaire Alvar can be a huge benefit if you know that your enemy will use a magic attack, this would give you the benefit of his huge shield. Even if your enemy doesn't use magic in the end, his shield is big enough to withstand some onslaught from ranged and melee attack.

He has a low melee attack that can be off-putting for some, but if you level up, he can also provide extra buffs such as the giant killer, effectively doubling his attack against strong opponents. At level 3 he even weakens your enemy melee attack! What a guy!!

Other ways that I try to use him are to pair him with someone who can rebuild his armor!! Oh yes! That will drive your enemy nuts!! Chanesus the Great or Adelade Brightwing spring to mind. Imagine these 3 together and replenishing so much armor each turn.