This unit isn't flashy. It's a simple unit with a simple idea, dominate your opponents with brute force and damage. This tank not only keeps your team safe but can also kill your opponents in one shot. Chaos Golem is not something a lot of players uses but if they did, be prepared to be in a world of hurt.

Lore

The pride of the chaos animator Tenni Mayla, the formidable chaos golems are a blend of magic and mechanics that serve the Chaos Empire as voiceless, tireless, and highly lethal sentinels.

They act as an extension of Tenni's will and, subsequently, tend toward a nefarious streak.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/619/regular/12?tab=lore

Stats

Chaos Golem is a strong frontline tank because it has high damage, good armor and big health so it can take hits while hitting back hard. Its abilities let it punish enemies who attack it making every attacks toward Chaos Golem a dangerous one. Chaos Golem works best with other units that affects his melee attacks to help it hit harder and more accurate.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Return Fire	When hit with a Ranged attack, Units with Return Fire will return half the damage (rounded up) back to their attacker.
		is a match because Return Fire only works when the enemy’s ranged attack actually hits so if the enemy has True Strike, that makes sure their shots never miss. This gives Chaos Golem more chances to bounce back damage and slowly wear enemies down through Return Fire. In long fights, all these steady Return Fire hits really add up and even killing the enemies with it alone.
		is a counter because Swiftness increases your team’s speed and that makes enemy ranged attackers miss more often. When they miss, Return Fire does nothing. Chaos Golem loses a lot of damage from those missed attacks. This might be okay since every missed attack means no damage with Chaos Golem but also a loss because that attack can mean the death of a range unit attacking Chaos Golem.

	Enrage	This Unit has 50% bonus Melee attack and Speed when not at full health.
		is a match because Enrage boosts Chaos Golem’s melee attack and speed by half but Inspire makes this increase even stronger. When both effects stack, Chaos Golem becomes very dangerous as the increase in damage can hit very hard. The extra speed also helps Chaos Golem start landing hits before enemies can react and make sure he misses less.
		is a counter because Even if Chaos Golem becomes stronger and faster from Enrage, the hits still won’t matter if they miss. Dodge raises the enemy’s chance to avoid melee attacks, making Chaos Golem waste its increased melee damage. This removes a lot of the power spike that Enrage normally gives to Chaos Golem.

	Retaliate	When hit with a melee attack, Units with retaliate have a 50% chance of immediately attacking their attacker.
		is a match because Retaliate is treated like a normal melee attack. It can miss if the enemy has Dodge or high speed. True Strike makes the Retaliate always land which makes every counterattack reliable. This lets Chaos Golem punish melee attackers more consistently with his high attacks.
		is a counter because Retaliate counts as another melee attack so every time Chaos Golem retaliates, it also risks taking Thorns damage. This means Chaos Golem can end up hurting itself as well during long battles when the enemy have thorns. Thorns counter all melee attacks which can stack up over time.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Aim True	All units gain True Strike (attacks will never miss).
		Aim True is great because Chaos Golem wants all of its big melee hits to land. When everything becomes a sure-hit, its damage becomes more reliable and Retaliate is also more useful. This rule lets Chaos Golem apply damage more consistently across all of its abilities.
	Fog of War	Units lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
		With Fog of War, all attacks come from the front so enemies are forced to hit Chaos Golem. This activates both Return Fire and Retaliate more often which gives Chaos Golem more value when those attacks are melee and range. It also keeps the fight simpler where Chaos Golem’s stats can help the most since Chaos Golem is also a tank att its core.
	Lost Magic	Units with Magic attack may not be used in battles.
		Without magic attackers, Chaos Golem only deals with melee and ranged hits which its abilities counter well. This gives Chaos Golem more chances for both Return Fire and Retaliate. Its armor also help it lasts longer because no attacks will be ignoring the armor like magic attacks.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Briar Patch	All units have Thorns (returns 2 damage to attacker when hit by a melee attack)
		Thorns is a big problem because Chaos Golem relies on melee hits. Every attack means free damage back which reduces Chaos Golem’s armor and health. This affects both his normal melee attacks and Retaliate which means double the problem for Chaos Golem.
	Reverse Speed	Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
		Reverse Speed makes Chaos Golem’s high speed from Enrage a disadvantage. This means slower enemies hit first and Chaos Golem can also miss more. These misses both applies to melee and Retaliate.
	Unprotected	Units do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
		Unprotected removes armor which is half of Chaos Golem’s defense. Without armor, Chaos Golem reduces its health too fast which makes it more vulnerable as well as a tank. This also reduces the number of times Return Fire and Retaliate can activate.

Battle

Link to battle

This battle is one of my favorites. The current rule is Counterspell which adds Magic Reflect to all units. Magic Reflect returns half of magic attack back to the attacker. This means that this battle will discourage the use of magic attacking units. With that in mind, my strategy is clear. Focus on melee and range attacks. The mix of Death element and Fire element are good at making the enemy weaker. With Dark Arborist and Emberguard, both of their Demoralize will reduce the enemy melee attacks by 2. For the range attack, I have Chaos Golem with its Return Fire dealing half of the range attack back to the attacker. This strategy on Counterspell rule covers all attacks, melee, range and magic which gives the enemy team a huge disadvantage whatever they do.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

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