The Lava Spider, at level one, is a 3-mana, 4-health sniper belonging to the fire splinter. When summoned by Tarsa who has a +1 health bonus, the Lava Spider becomes a 5-health, ranged attacker with the snipe ability and a low 3-mana cost. It’s high health for its cost makes it a staple in bronze-league, fire-splinter teams.
In bronze-league battles, the Lava Spider often fills the role of secondary tank. In this position, its primary role is to give the fire splinter’s powerful backfield attackers more time to do their work by absorbing a few hits from their opponent’s frontline. With 5 health, the Lava Spider is very effective in this role.
At level 6, the Lava Spider gains the snare ability, and at level 10 it gains the poison ability. Both of these abilities make it a more deadly sniper at higher levels.
I used the Lava Spider in a 24-mana, equal-opportunity match with the water and death splinters disabled. The disabled splinters were a wash as while fire fares very well against death, it is commonly doused by water.
But the kicker for me in this match was the equal-opportunity rule, because it is a perfect ruleset for me to unleash my ace in the hole. Buying a limited number of Chaos Legion booster packs, I was lucky and managed to catch a Grum Flameblade airdrop!
Equal opportunity is a nearly ideal rule for Grum. With his high health, opponents with the opportunity ability will ignore Grum until all of the other members of my team are destroyed, which only serves to give him time to accumulate kills and grow more powerful thanks to his bloodlust ability.
The key is keeping Grum out of the first position for as long as possible, so he can feast on the lowest health members of my opponent’s team. The Lava Spider becomes a good pairing here. Placed in front of Grum on my team, it will absorb a few hits from opposing opportunists, and help keep Grum in my backfield.
I chose Pyre as my summoner, as I often do when using Grum. The Flameblade is powerful to start and will get more powerful as the match continues. But he is slow and needs to get going with his first kills. Having the extra speed bonus from Pyre greatly helps in this regard.
As my tank I used the Antoid Platoon. This choice is all about its shield that will allow it to absorb more hits and keep Grum in the backfield that much longer.
My secondary tank is the Lava Spider, as described above. In this match I am sacrificing the 5th health for extra speed. But starting at 2-speed and increasing to 3, the Lava Spider might get a miss from a slow attacker, so it might all even out.
In third position I place Grum. I placed him here just to try to save him from any attacks from sneaks, although I admit I am not sure if a sneak would attack the back of my line or use the opportunity ability. I will keep my eyes open for how this works in the future.
With my 3 remaining mana, I add two cards with low health to take the initial hits from opportunists and sneaks. The Radiated Scorcher and Xenith Archer round out my team.
On seeing my opponent’s team, I thought it was an excellent match-up for me. With no armor and a number of low-health/low-speed team members, it looks like the kind of team that Grum could get on a serious roll against. The only question was if my front-two would hold up long enough to let him get enough kills under his belt to roll all the way to victory.
How did it turn out? You can see for yourself here.
My Platoon and Spider did an admirable job holding the line, both taking multiple hits. And when Grum advanced to the head of the class he was the quickest student in the room with an attack power of 7, facing off against my opponent’s Venari Knifer with its 7 health. That's one hit knockout territory—negating the power of the Knifer's thorns—and the match was all but over.
I almost feel guilty using Grum in the bronze league. Playing this card does not guarantee a victory, but played well Grum is a force beyond reckoning! But it is fun to watch him do his thing.
As you might guess, owning a Grum has made fire my favorite splinter. That said, the Lava Spider takes a slot in many of my teams, even those that don’t include Grum. With it’s low cost and relatively high health it does an admirable job as a secondary tank allowing fire’s powerful Serpentine Spy and Tenyii Striker to run wild in an opponent’s backfield. Its snipe ability is just a nice bonus as this card is very useful even in matches where it never gets a chance to fire a shot!
