Yodin Zaku: Luthien's Bane
Ah, Yodin Zaku. The favorite summoner of my favorite streamer, @clove71. I'm sure you already know who Clove is, but in case you have been living under a rock, here is a link to her Twitch stream.. If you have spent any amount of time on my Twitch stream, you will know that Yodin Zaku is my most feared enemy. I have always had a lot of trouble defeating him, and I know that others share my frustration! He is so overpowered. He gives all friendly monsters the blast ability, increases range damage by 1, and gives all friendly monsters plus 1 health. All in all, he is extremely formidable, and difficult to defeat even when you are expecting him! Using some of these strategies might bolster your odds though, so give them a shot.
Feline vs Feline
So far, the best strategy that I have found to defeat Yodin is Speed. Knock out his monsters as fast as you possibly can, before they have a chance to kill all of your monsters. My favorite summoner to use against Yodin is Byzantine Kitty. Feline vs Feline.
Byzantine Kitty give plus 2 speed to all friendly monsters, which gives you an advantage over Yodin. Use the fastest monsters you can, and try to add an additional speed boost with a monster that has swiftness, like Brownie, Silvershield Bard, or Spirit Miner. You don't necessarily need Kitty to beat Yodin with speed, just try to slow the other team down with a monster that has the Slow ability, and speed up your own team with the Swiftness buff. If you can take out his monsters before they can strike, you will have a much better chance of winning!
Here is an example of a lineup where I used Kitty to defeat Yodin.
Having the Trample ability with Undead Rex also was super helpful in this battle, because I was able to weaken his monsters twice in some cases. Using the Creeping Ooze was also helpful, because it lowered the speed of the enemy monsters. Watch this battle, you will see how many times my monsters were able to dodge his attacks because of their high speed!
Hunt him with Lir Deepswimmer
Lir Deepswimmer is a really great counter to Yodin, because he gives all friendly monsters the Return Fire ability. He also has the Blind debuff, which increases the chance that enemy monsters will miss. The plus 2 Armor buff is also extremely beneficial! Lir is basically the antidote to Yodin Zaku. I don't use him often because I usually have Kitty rented, but he is a really great summoner!
Here is an example of a battle where I defeated Yodin with Lir. In this case, it was also the Reverse Speed ruleset, where Yodin is usually stronger. I was careful to use very slow monsters so that I would be able to attack first. Normally I would put in my fastest monsters, especially the Serpent of Eld which has Dodge. In this case, Torhilo the Frozen did the trick nicely! You can see how well the Return Fire ability works against the range-heavy teams of Yodin.
No Legendary Summoner? Try these strategies!
If you don't have Lir or Kitty, you can try a few other strategies to defeat Yodin. Try to minimize the damage that Yodin causes as much as possible. Make sure you have healing in your lineup, whether it is Tank heal or Triage heal, which heals the backline monsters. Use a summoner like Lorna Shine, who gives Divine Shield to each friendly monster. You can try to counter the range boost by using Contessa L'ament, who lowers the Range ability of enemy monsters by 1. Since Yodin gives a range boost, this really only brings the monsters back to baseline, but it can be useful if you don't have many other options. Definitely try to get some monsters into your lineup that have the Return Fire ability. Serpent of Eld is my favorite for this, but Phantasm is another great option, especially if you are using Contessa L'ament. Going with a Magic heavy team, like Alric Stormbringer, is another way you can bring Yodin down, since Magic goes under the shield of enemy monsters. Again, go for speedy monsters here! If you have Wavesmith, the extra shield she provides will help keep your monsters alive longer. Also try using a tank like Almo Cambrio. While he doesn't have any attack, he dodges very nicely and has Phase at higher levels, in case the enemy decides to use some Magic.
Here is a lineup where I used Lorna Shine and beat Yodin. You can see that I also used Silvershield Bard, which gave my team a speed boost. The extra attack from the Silvershield Knight was also very helpful because I was able to take out the other team more quickly since I had extra damage. Watch the battle, and you will see how many times Almo dodged the attacks! That made such a huge difference in the outcome of this battle.
Watch the Battle Here!
I really hope that this post was helpful! I would love to hear what your strategies are for defeating Yodin Zaku. Please leave a comment below! :)
I loved those battles @luthien12! Yodin is a very difficult summoner to counter. Another one that I have found difficult to beat in Bronze are Mimosa and Mylor. Oh! How I hate Mylor!!!
Great article @luthien12 and thanks for sharing it. I usually panic when I see one of the summoners like Yodin. This will help me have a chance.
You are welcome! I hope it helps. Try out Lorna Shine against him! :)
The only summoner I own is Brighton Bloom...hahaha
That battle was sick, I made a post on how Byz kitty is a priceless card and this battle showcases all his strengths the insane speed and heal you get combined with that true strike is such a nasty mix.
Poor Yodin got caged here and couldn't hit a thing, was awesome to see the backfire as well very nice post Luthien, I also really like Lir for countering Yodin however seen a lot of melee Yodin comps recently which can throw things off.
Thanks Drabs! Yes, I have seen more Melee with Yodin recently too, which makes Lir not quite as useful. Kitty is always my go-to! I really want to buy that card but Beren says NO. lol!
Yeah, I personally use the Yodin-Melee combo often! It isn't countered as easy, and unsuspected most of the time!
Water does good against Yodin! Using Lir in combo with the naga windmaster can really dampen the damage output, and return fire from Lir helps knock down the lower HP opponents quickly!
Oh yes, you are right!! I don't have any monsters with Headwinds yet, but I imagine that would be excellent against Yodin!
A good one to considerate
A great Splintrlands post! You will not like my upvoted gif below, LOL!! See you on your next live stream! Don't forget about 3speak! You can upload videos there in the Splinterlands 3speak community! ~@clove71
Haha thank you Clove! I love the gif. I think I would probably like Yodin a lot more if I practiced playing with him. I know how much you like him! Thank you for the upvote, and for all the love and support you have shown me. <3
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Sissy!!! That was an excellent battle, you didn't lose a single monster! That speed really helped, there were so many misses! That was so great! <3
i defeated yodin by that same strat many times.. I think speeding up is really a good counter to yodin but still depends on your opponent if he or she is good at using yodin..
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_40a8601ab7b73462a96fb37d221cc695&ref=iamsupersmith
Awesome post! As the saying goes, offense is the best defense!