SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge! MOLTEN ASH GOLEM

Molten Ash Golem is a 6 Mana unit from the Fire splinter. Below is its full stats from Level 1 to 10.

At level 1, it has a speed of 1 with 1 ranged attack and 9 health points. It also has the Close Range ability meaning it can attack at position 1.

By the time it reached level 3, it will have 2 ranged attack, 1 speed and 10 health. At level 5, it will gain another ability, Weaken. Weaken will reduce all opposing enemy units' health by 1.

At its max level, level 8, Molten Ash Golem will have 3 ranged damage, 2 speed, 10 health and gain another ability Demoralize.

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Next lets take a look at how Molten Ash Golem will perform in the various rulesets:

This table is generated using Koodies's Splintertools #3, created by @koodies

Rulesets	Molten Ash Golem Level 1
	🔮 Mana: 6,💗 Health: 9,🛡️ Armor: 0,⏩ Speed: 1
	👍Good ruleset for Molten Ash Golem as without this, it has a high chance of missing because of its slowness.
	👍Extra protection is always good.
	👎It will lose its Close Range and other abilities.
	👎Cannot be deployed.
	No effect as Molten Ash Golem can attack from 1st position anyway.
	👎It will suffer 2 damage from Earthquake per round.
	👎Not advisable to use Molten Ash Golem in this ruleset as it would gives the opposing team units a lot of health.
	👍Allow Ash Golem to pick off low health enemy units.
	👍Can be deployed.
	👍Blast allow Ash Golem to hit more than one unit.
	👎Cannot be deployed.
	No effect. It doesn't have sneak or snipe in the first place.
	👎Means it can't be healed.
	Useful only if the lineup also has a unit that can stunned.
	👍Extra protection is always good.
	👍Can be deployed.
	👎Cannot be deployed.
	👍Can be deployed.
	👍Can be deployed.
	No effect
	👎Will suffer 2 damage from poison every round. But Ash Golem's high health could allow it to stay alive longer than most other units with low health in this ruleset.
	👍Ash Golem is slow so this ruleset actually helps it.
	👍Can be deployed.
	Not much effect as Enraged doesn't give Ash Golem extra attack. It does gain a bit of speed but wouldn't be much as Ash Golem base speed is low.
	No effect.
	Not much effect.
	👍Can be deployed.
	👍Allow Ash Golem to hit enemy backline ranged and magic units. Also can put Ash Golem as tank in the backline for enemy units to hit as its high health allow it to tank.
	👍Ash Golem has no armor in the first place so this doesn't negatively affect it. On the other hand, enemy units without armor means Ash Golem has a better chance of winning.
	👎Cannot be deployed.
	No effect.

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Finally lets take a look at a modern ranked match I had using Molten Ash Golem as one of the unit in the setup. The battle restrictions are:
Healed Out with a max mana limit of 46. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_90e2121f97459ec1a80efa01f0456c9f&ref=genming

TEAM SETUP:

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Quix the Devious	4	Summoner	The opponent has used Yodin in 4 of the last 5 battles so I am quite sure I would be facing Yodin since Fire splinter is allow in this match. With that I decided to use Quix to negate Yodin's +1 range ability.
Coeurl Lurker	11	1st	I used Coeurl Lurker as a tank to draw all my opponent attack to one area. A opponent with Blast if allow to hit my backline would destroyed me in double quick time.
Venator Kinjo	2	2nd	I need Venator Kinjo here to prevent blast damage from hitting my other units.
Molten Ash Golem	6	3rd	Molten Ash Golem is my next tank. When Coeurl Lurker died, Kinjo would died quickly as well so I need a 2nd tank.
Mordeus	7	4th	1 of my 2 main offensive unit. I used Mordeus because it has opportunity and would take out dying enemy units.
Countess Sinash	8	5th	My 2nd offensive unit. I used Sinash because of its speed and Opportunity ability. I need to reduce as many enemy units as I can before they start bombarding me with range attack.
Ash Mirage	7	6th	I used Ash Mirage as the last unit to do some tanking but most importantly to further reduce enemy range attack with its Headwind ability.
Total Mana:	45

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Battle Lineup:

As expected my opponent went with Yodin with a full range lineup at the back. Looking at the enemy lineup, I was glad I deployed 2 ranged debuffs instead of 1.

End of Round 1:

My Mordeus took out the enemy Scavo Firebolt while Coeurl Lurker took on all the enemy attacks and dodging some. My strategy was working at least for the first round but have to see what happened when my main tank die.

End of Round 2:

Coeurl Lurker has been a great tank so far and survived through 2 rounds while dodging many of the ranged and melee attacks. Meanwhile the enemy tank has been destroyed whereas my only damaged unit is my first tank.

End of Round 3:

My Coeurl Lurker is finally dead and Kinjo followed quickly as well. But the opponent also lost its Ferexia General and more importantly, my Molten Ash Golem also killed the opposing Lava Launcher.

End of Round 4:

With the opposing Mantoid dead in this round, I won the match. The last standing Sinash couldn't hit in the first position whereas I still have 4 units on the battlefield so it is just a standing duck for my units.

KEY STRATEGY
I knew the opponent was going for Yodin right from the start so that gives me an advantage on how to plan my lineup. Thankfully I have a level 2 Quix and Ash Golem which would help me counter Yodin's +1 ranged ability. I also can combine Coeurl and Lurker Kinjo to help block the blast damage ability of Yodin as well. Yodin is indeed a very troublesome summoner to fight against and need careful planning to counter it especially in high mana fight.

CONCLUSION ON MOLTEN ASH GOLEM
Molten Ash Golem main weakness is its low ranged damage and speed while its high health is its advantage. Because of this, it is more suited to be a tank. Its other advantage is its ability Weaken and Demoralize. If you know the opponent is going to put out a melee lineup, putting Molten Ash Golem in your lineup would immediately lessen the opponent melee by 1 and also reduce all their health point by 1. Quite a useful unit in higher level game.

Best position to put Molten Ash Golem is in the first or last position as front or back tank respectively. Alternative in Target Practice ruleset, can be placed as 2nd position to attract enemy range and magic attacks.

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