The Earth Splinter is one of my favourite splinters... I have a nice selection of monsters to choose from, and I'm quite partial to the Flesh Golem tank from the Beta series of cards. A tank that has high health and self-healing... when combined with the Earth Splinter summoner and paired with the Healing Wood Nymph, he can really absorb a good amount of damage and heal up ready for the next round!
However, there is very little in terms of damage reduction. Currently, my Flesh Golem is at level 5, so there is no magic damage reduction. This means that it is a pretty hefty trade-off against the Lord Arianthus as lead tank. Lord Arianthus has damage reduction AND hurts the attackers back! Meanwhile, the Flesh Golem has to hope to survive until the healing kicks in... and can just hurt a single monster with his melee attack. Plus, he costs one mana point MORE than Lord Arianthus!
So... many things that work against him that tip the favour towards the Legendary Lord Arianthus.
The Battle
However, if you have the right battle conditions... the Flesh Golem is a pretty attractive pick! In this featured battle, we have the Lost Legendaries battle condition... which rules OUT Lord Arianthus, who would otherwise be the alternative monster for the lead tank slot.
In addition, we have a very LOW mana cap of 13... which means that survivability is a HUGE bonus here! So, I've fielded the ultimate in survival in my team. The Furious Chicken as damage sponge and cannon fodder... followed up by the Flesh Golem and the Wood Nymph. As soon as that Golem gets into the lead position, he is going to be tough to kill... healing 7 HP per turn! Low mana cap also means that the potential for damage is reduced in both teams, so it will be hard to get more than 7 damage per round!
The Haunted Spirit of the enemy team might bring down my Wood Nymph due to self inflicted Magic... but if I can get him down, then I should be clear. The Poison of the Haunted Spider might prove to be a problem as is the reduced health due to the Undead Priest. I am a little bit thrown by the fact that the enemy Furious Chicken isn't in the lead position though!
In the first round, the Furious Chicken does what it is supposed to do... and takes a hit for the team! Luckily, I take no poison from the enemy Haunted Spider, which means that I can easily heal to full health again.
The end of the second round shows the balance between the healing of the Haunted Spirit and the damage that my monsters inflict on it. The critical rate is whether I can take the Haunted Spirit down before the reflected magic damage takes down my Wood Nymph. I will need the extra healing of the Nymph to ensure that the Flesh Golem can survive any poison from the Spider. As long as the Flesh Golem doesn't miss an attack, the balance is in my favour! With only one round (health...) left to spare!
As soon as the Haunted Spirit goes down... it is game over for the opposition!
Conclusion
The Flesh Golem is a great monster to play in the lead position for battles similar to this featured battle. The low mana cap, combined with the Lost Legendaries, meant that there was a huge advantage on focusing on survival. However, this was a heavily front loaded team... if there was an enemy Sneak monster, it would have been game over for me!
