Published via Ecency

Lore

When a little axolotl egg tumbled into Sheng Xiao’s brood, she didn’t ask where it came from. She simply took it in. When it hatched, she named the creature Calamity and taught it to bend mana into forms both beautiful and dangerous.

Now her child is loose on Praetoria, copying faces, unraveling alliances, leaving bodies behind. The Riftwatchers want her dead.

Stats

Sheng Xiao looks like a control-style Archon that focuses on punishing enemy units rather than dealing damage or protecting your team. With Poison Burst and Corrosive Ward, it excels at messing with your enemies while having a total control of the game by giving your enemies what they want. They want to kill your units? Let them do it then watch them suffer when Poison Burst starts spreading on their team.

Abilities

Icon

Name

Description

Poison Burst

When defeated, 100% chance to apply Poisoned to attacker and 50% chance to apply Poisoned to units adjacent to attacker. Poisoned units lose 2 health at the beginning of each round.

is a match because Taunt works really well with Poison Burst since you can force enemies to attack the unit that will trigger the poison effect once defeated. This combo guarantees Poison Burst hits the enemy team earlier, maximizing its impact right after your Taunt unit dies.

is a counter because Cleanse Rearguard directly reduces the impact of Poison Burst because enemies can continuously cleanse their poisoned backline. Even if Poison Burst spreads well at first, a team with constant Cleanse Rearguard will delay the enemy's deaths and possibly your whole strategy.

is a match because Corrosive Ward becomes especially powerful when facing enemies that rely heavily on Repair. Since the armor removed by this ability is permanent, Repair becomes practically useless once the enemy’s armor is gone. This makes Sheng Xiao an excellent choice against lineups that depend on keeping their frontliners or tanks alive through recovering armor.

is a counter because Corrosive Ward does not work on units with Deflect. Even if they’re melee attackers, Deflect prevents the Corrosive Ward's effect from triggering. In battles where many units have Deflect, Sheng Xiao loses one of its abilities along with its value.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Ferocity	All units have Fury (deals double damage if the target has Taunt).
		This rule gives all units double damage against Taunt monsters, which usually sounds like a bad thing. But for Sheng Xiao, that’s actually what you want. When your Taunt unit gets destroyed faster, Poison Burst activates sooner and spreads poison across the enemy team faster and earlier. It’s the perfect way to weaponize your own tank’s death.
	Up Close & Personal	Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.
		Only melee units can be used here, which means Corrosive Ward always stays useful during the fight. Every hit your enemies land will remove armor permanently. This is very effective especially when they have Repair. It’s a rule that gives priority to Sheng Xiao’s Corrosive Ward. This is one, if not the best, rule to abuse Corrosive Ward.
	Born Again	All units have Rebirth (self-resurrects once per battle with 1 health and 100% of armor; all magic debuffs are removed, and all magic buffs are reapplied; skips turn).
		This rule lets every unit gain Rebirth, bringing them back to life once they’re defeated. What makes this rule special for Sheng Xiao is that when a reborn unit comes back, it also re-applies the abilities it had at the start. That means Poison Burst can trigger again if the same unit dies twice, giving you another chance to infect the enemy team with poison. It’s one of those useful rules where dying actually works to your advantage.

Icon

Name

Reason

Ferocity

All units have Fury (deals double damage if the target has Taunt).

This rule gives all units double damage against Taunt monsters, which usually sounds like a bad thing. But for Sheng Xiao, that’s actually what you want. When your Taunt unit gets destroyed faster, Poison Burst activates sooner and spreads poison across the enemy team faster and earlier. It’s the perfect way to weaponize your own tank’s death.

Up Close & Personal

Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.

Only melee units can be used here, which means Corrosive Ward always stays useful during the fight. Every hit your enemies land will remove armor permanently. This is very effective especially when they have Repair. It’s a rule that gives priority to Sheng Xiao’s Corrosive Ward. This is one, if not the best, rule to abuse Corrosive Ward.

Born Again

All units have Rebirth (self-resurrects once per battle with 1 health and 100% of armor; all magic debuffs are removed, and all magic buffs are reapplied; skips turn).

This rule lets every unit gain Rebirth, bringing them back to life once they’re defeated. What makes this rule special for Sheng Xiao is that when a reborn unit comes back, it also re-applies the abilities it had at the start. That means Poison Burst can trigger again if the same unit dies twice, giving you another chance to infect the enemy team with poison. It’s one of those useful rules where dying actually works to your advantage.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Silenced Summoners	Summoners do not give any stat buffs or debuffs or grant/use any abilities.
		This rule set completely disables all Archon effects, turning Sheng Xiao into a normal Dragon Archon with no abilities. Without Poison Burst or Corrosive Ward, you’re left with nothing that makes Sheng Xiao unique. It’s honestly a waste to use it here since you could just pick another Archon with lower mana and get the same result.
	Noxious Fumes	All Units start the battle Poisoned.
		Everyone starts poisoned in this rule, which makes Poison Burst almost useless. The whole point of Sheng Xiao’s ability is to spread poison when one of your units dies. Since every unit already has poisoned, that advantage disappears instantly. A different archon would be a lot better that could take advantage of this rule instead of Sheng Xiao.
	Deflection Shield	All units have Reflection Shield (0 damage from Blast splash damage and Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns).
		This is one of the worst matchups for Sheng Xiao because all units get Deflect and Corrosive Ward doesn’t affect anyone with that ability. Since most melee attacks will just go unaffected, this may affect your strategy depending on what play you are going for. While Sheng Xiao isn't completely useless in this rule, it's still a bad rule for him as Corrosive Ward will not work.

Icon

Name

Reason

Silenced Summoners

Summoners do not give any stat buffs or debuffs or grant/use any abilities.

This rule set completely disables all Archon effects, turning Sheng Xiao into a normal Dragon Archon with no abilities. Without Poison Burst or Corrosive Ward, you’re left with nothing that makes Sheng Xiao unique. It’s honestly a waste to use it here since you could just pick another Archon with lower mana and get the same result.

Noxious Fumes

All Units start the battle Poisoned.

Everyone starts poisoned in this rule, which makes Poison Burst almost useless. The whole point of Sheng Xiao’s ability is to spread poison when one of your units dies. Since every unit already has poisoned, that advantage disappears instantly. A different archon would be a lot better that could take advantage of this rule instead of Sheng Xiao.

Deflection Shield

All units have Reflection Shield (0 damage from Blast splash damage and Punishment abilities—Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Return Fire, and Thorns).

This is one of the worst matchups for Sheng Xiao because all units get Deflect and Corrosive Ward doesn’t affect anyone with that ability. Since most melee attacks will just go unaffected, this may affect your strategy depending on what play you are going for. While Sheng Xiao isn't completely useless in this rule, it's still a bad rule for him as Corrosive Ward will not work.

Battle

Both sides have 2 units with 3 Magic attack and strong lineups, but the enemy’s tank had the upper hand at the start. The key difference, though, was my Archon. Sheng Xiao’s abilities completely shifted the battle. I granted Poison Burst to Halfling Refugee and Warborn Shaman expecting them to die first. I had a bit of luck as well when my Night Reaper attacked first in Round 2, taking out their Night Reaper. The Poison Burst also helped neutralize their extra tank, sealing the victory for my team.