Legionnaire Alvar - Do You Wish To Serve?

Hello Splinter family!

In this Splinterlands article we are going to focus on a true tank unit, Legionnaire Alvar.

"A good legionnaire is willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of his team". This could very well be an ancient Roman expression, I really don't know. Still, Alvar doesn't make an exception but taking out this legendary monster isn't going to be an easy task.

LEGIONNAIRE ALVAR is a Neutral unit of a Chaos Legion edition. When looking at his stats the one thing that strikes out first is his strong armor(8). Once that is removed, Alvar is still left with 6 health points which is a pretty decent amount.

What makes this monster a great tank unit, especially against teams with plenty of monsters using magic attacks is his Void Armor. This ability will make all the magic attacks hit his armor first before reducing his health.

Even though Alvar is not that dangerous offensively I have made a cunning plan to team him up with Fire splinter and their summoner Tarsa who will boost both melee attack and the health of friendly monsters by 1.

We will then show those magical forest people who will have the last laugh.

---

My Team

As mentioned, Tarsa as my summoner will boost melee attacks but she'll also boost the health of all my monsters bu 1 point.

To help Alvar to defeat the opponent tank monster I chose RADIATED BRUTE because of his Reach ability which will make him able able to attack from the second spot. My Radiated Brute isn't actually as tough as it seems in picture below because my summoner is only at level 2 so the monsters stats are reduced to level 3.

Nevertheless, the stats of the monster remain the same except the melee attack is reduced to 2(which Tarsa will boost back to 3!). Brute also has a decent amount of health to absorb possible Blast shrapnels.

Next up is URAEUS. This monster I chose mainly because of its Sneak ability to take out possible enemy healers and other nasties in the back.

---

PARASITIC GROWTH is an important piece of my master plan. While Alvar & Brute are battling against the tank and Uraeus is busy working against the last monster, Parasitic Growth will be targeting the weaklings using the Opportunity ability.

Everyone has a role to play, even FLAMING MONKEY who is the last monster on my roster. Just like Parasitic Growth, Flaming Monkey may not seem that lethal offensively but if we keep in mind Tarsas +1 melee attack buff then this little creature could become a potential threat.

The showdown you are about to witness is 26 mana Reverse Speed battle. Therefore the speed of all monsters is in the range of 1 to 2. Slow becomes fast.

---

Entering The Arena

Looking back at my opponent's battle history I was pretty sure they'd go with Earth splinter with lots of magic monsters. To my surprise, they chose Water splinter with Kelya Frendul as a summoner.

Kelya's buffs are to give all their monsters +1 armor and +1 speed. I wasn't that excited about the armor but the speed increase is actually going to work against since the Reverse Speed rule is applied.

The surprises didn't stop there. For some reason, they'd chosen the Creeping Ooze for the team, ok, I've made that mistake too... Still, this monsters Slow ability will work against itself making my units even faster. Take a look:

---

Opponent Team

Creeping ooze was already mentioned but there are some other monsters on the enemy team I'd like to highlight.

The first one is DJINN OSHANNUS, a powerful legendary tank unit. Gladly, my strategy is based on the idea of facing bullies like him and this is where Alvar's Void Armor comes into play. Oshannus' magic attacks(2) will hit Alvar's armor first making Alvar a much stronger tank compared to Oshannus.

Unfortunately, there is a healer unit on their team. Hate those guys(unless they are on my side). This particular healer is MERDAALI GUARDIAN and she will use her Tank Heal to heal Djinn Oshannus.

Probably the most dangerous monster on their team DEEP LURKER. This creature will use Opportunity to target my weakest units. This sounds like a job for Flaming Monkey who will sacrifice itself for the greater good with pleasure.

---

The Battle

It's time to take a look at how Alvar and his bunch of misfits did on the battlefield. Can Armored Alvar protect the team and himself? Check out the whole battle here or continue reading!

ROUND 1

Our team was first to strike as things were reversed in this battle. Parasitic Growth went on to attack Creeping Ooze, the one enemy monster who is actually helping my team. Great start! The opponent's monsters then began pounding Alvar except Deep Lurker who took Uraeus as a target instead of the monkey.

ROUND 2

Creeping Ooze was the first one to fall, thanks to Parasitic Growth. Uraeus then took down Xenith Archer but fell shortly after that when facing Deep Lurker unarmored. We had withered down the health of Djinn Oshannus quite a bit but he was healed back to 7 points at the end of the round.

ROUND 3

Alvar and Radiated Brute managed to get Oshannus' health to only 1 point but again, he was healed by Merdaali Guardian. Before that, Deep Lurker destroyed Flaming Monkey.

I told you it was dangerous.

ROUND 4

The battle between the two tank units remains even while Parasitic Growth defeated Pirate Archer. Radiated Brute then got Osannus' health down to 1 again and it was Alvars job to finish him off. At the end of the round, Alvar took a nasty hit from Deep Lurker which had now taken the tank spot.

ROUND 5

Radiated Brute removed the armor from Deep Lurker while Parasitic Growth did the same to Merdaali Guardian. The Legionnaire had served and fought well but now had to make an ultimate sacrifice against the Deep Lurker.

ROUND 6

This is gonna be a close one. Merdaali Guardian was hit by Parasitic Growth but was still alive and helped Deep Lurker to get some of its health.

ROUND 7

Because of their summoner buff increasing speed, we still had the opportunity to attack first and the tank healer was finally destroyed. Brute attacked the Lurker and left it almost dead but the fish retaliated. Miss! Now it's payback time. It was Parasitic Growth who delivered the final blow dedicated to the memory of The Legionnaire.

---

Conclusion

Even though my strategy was designed against Earth magic opponent without armor, it worked surprisingly well in this one too. I cannot emphasize the impact of Alvar and his Void Armor enough. He absorbed many hits while protecting his team and would have easily beaten Oshannus if wasn't a healer.

I can imagine a couple of more use cases for Alvar too. He could be a great second unit behind the tank or a last monster in high mana battles as well.

When Legionnaire Alvar grows up he is really gonna be a force to reckon with. A fully maxed-out Alvar will then possess Giant Killer, Demoralize and Deathblow abilities in addition to Void Armor. At the moment Alvar is the cheapest of the legendary Neutral monsters as the price of one card is $4.11.

Perhaps the best thing about Legionnaire Alvar is him being a Neutral unit. You can try out different combinations with all the splinters and summoners to find out to make the most of his abilities.

Thank you for reading!