[4.6.0] Mythic Tier List

Up to date with King Bloodwood! Detailed multi-paragraph breakdowns of all 46 Mythics and how to use them, sorted into Tiers: S, A, B, C, and F.

Introduction

Troops with the base rarity of Mythic, separate from troops that have been ascended to Mythic from a lower rarity, are those troops of the highest rarity in the entire game; to obtain one is a 1/5000 chance from Glory Keys, a 1/833 chance from Gem keys, 1/833 for Guild Chests (at 40,000 seals), and about 1/60 for VIP chests (which requires about $70 in purchases for VIP 5 to spend Gems on). As of writing, there are 44 Mythics available in chests (and 3 elsewhere), and on the first Friday of the month, a new troop is made the only Mythic available to be pulled from any Glory, Gem, Guild, or VIP chests.

Mythic troops are also available on rotation from the Soulforge for 4,000 Diamonds (several weeks worth of saving) and from Legendary Guild Tasks (at a 1 in 200 chance, at 1,000,000 Gold per pull, but every member of the guild gets a copy!).

This doesn't mean that 833 Gem keys will guarantee a Mythic; far from it! Given the way that probability works, and given that the game has no "pity timer," some players get new Mythics the day of release while others are at level 500 or higher without owning any of them.

Unlike Legendaries, it is not expected that players will eventually obtain all of them. However, with the Soulforge in place, you are able to eventually earn Mythics troops over time. The question of which ones are worthwhile is a common one, and that is the goal this guide strives to answer.

For each troop, I provide its typing, some lore (if available) with a link to the troop's official announcement forum post, a placement on my Trait Scale (described below), a general summary of usage, a breakdown of the spell, a breakdown of the traits, a breakdown on several synergistic troops, and a curated team for that troop.

I don't cover Dawnbringer or the class weapons, because weapons should be the subject of a separate guide (wink) and I don't cover Sacred Treasure because it's completely irrelevant.

Tier Graphic

Here is a simple summary graphic, displaying all the troops in their respective tiers. Please distribute it and share it with your friends!

What to Craft?

When you've reached 4,000 Diamonds, and are looking for a Mythic to obtain, you need to be careful to figure out what Mythic you choose to craft. It can take a couple months of saving to get this many Diamonds, and it's not the kind of thing you should just throw away on a Gargantaur. Here is a breakdown of what I would suggest every player pick, in terms of priorities in spending Diamonds.

1. Aquaticus, Infernus, Ketras the Bull, or TINA-9000. A primary damage dealing Mythic is your top priority; being able to win in PvP and Kingdom quests reliably is more important than having any utility troop, and the best way to get that is to center your team around a Mythic with high damage output. If you already have one but not the other, obtaining the other is not a priority, and if you're already doing consistently in PvP (Maybe you pulled a bunch of Legendary Dragons, or a Yao Guai) just move on down the list of priorities, skip them, you can get them later. Prioritize instead on obtaining a copy of...
2. Pharos-Ra. Whereas your #1 craft should focus on your performance in battles, your #2 craft should focus on resource gain. You'll be getting a lot of troops, and they'll need Souls to level them; specifically, you need about 3.5 million Souls to level all Troops, plus 1.6 Million to purchase all the weapons from the Soulforge. This number may seem insurmountable, given that a Valkyrie/Warlock team gets you about 100 souls per win at most, which is why Pharos-Ra is necessary for every player to get at least one copy of. It can boost your soul income to triple or more, helping you reach the point where you will have enough souls to level whatever troops you need to.
3. High King Irongut. Your #3 priority is to obtain the best Delve troop in the game. The ability to consistently and recurrently Devour, all while gaining free extra turns, is powerful, and made consistent by combining it with Earth's Fury to boost Irongut's attack, or just looping casts enough times to Devour something; either way, you're boosting your Attack past 100, making each successive cast a guaranteed Devour. I use Irongut in any Delve that allows Blue, Brown, OR Yellow, and in combination with one of the troops from #4, I have no problem levelling almost any Delve as high as I want.
4. The Possessed King or Queen Aurora. These two troops fill the same role; support through improved Mana generation. Although both their spells are pretty good, they're not what you should be focusing on; instead, you use the explosions and increased Mana income to help power up your more powerful troops. There are myriads of teams that would otherwise be terrible, but function smoothly with one of these helping out in the back. It's especially useful in whatever PvP team you build focusing on your damage dealer from #1.
5. WHATEVER YOU WANT. Once you get 4 of the Mythics described above, you should be fine tackling any of the content you need to, and you can focus on getting whatever troops you think are powerful, or just the ones you think look cool! You don't necessarily have to follow the tier list. P.S. Get Scorpius if you have Euryali and vice versa!

And remember, this tier list is just my opinion. It comes from experience playing the game for 2 and a half years, but it is just opinion. You shouldn't be too disappointed if the first Mythic you pull is Draakulis, and people have commented that they've had success with Abynissia. Try things out for yourself, and experiment.

The Trait Scale

The Trait Scale is a metric I've devised, from 1 to 5, which provides a quick reference for how important it is for a troop to be traited. This is not a rating of overall power level (that's what the tiers are for), but rather an economic indicator for newer players.

1 indicates this troop's traits are essentially worthless and its power level is derived almost entirely from its spell. If you're a newer player, you should look to use your precious traitstones somewhere else. (Example: Xathenos)

2 indicates this troop's traits aren't worthless, but... they could be better. (Example: Draakulus, Death)

3 indicates this troop's traits complement its usefulness and it'd be a good idea to grab them if you can, but they're not essential to the troop's usefulness if you can't afford them. (Example: Elemaugrim)

4 indicates that this troop's spell is good and all, and it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to leave it untraited, but you REALLY want to get this thing traited if possible. (Example: Megavore)

5 indicates this troop's traits are powerful and its power level is derived almost entirely from its traits, or that its spell relies heavily on its traits to function. If you want to use this troop, you'll need to trait it first. (Examples: Pharos-Ra, Umberwolf)

===S-TIER===

These troops are the best of the best. They are powerful enough on their own to win on their own if they're lucky, and devestating when combined with troops that synergize with them well. If I had only one Mythic rare troop, I'd want it to be one of these.

Aquaticus

Green/Blue/Yellow Mythic Elemental / Mystic from Merlantis

Trait Score: 3

This troop is nearly a carbon copy of Infernus. It's an Elemental Mythic that deals Splash Damage and Explodes Gems, and whose trait applies a status effect on 4 or more Gem matches. There are several key differences (3 light splash damage instead of 2 normal splash damage, exploding a specific color, Burn vs Submerge, Firestorm vs Spell Armor) but I have found overall that determining whether one is better than the other depends heavily on the situation you are in. Overall, in my experience, Aquaticus is a powerhouse, and great at the center of a Blue-based damage dealing team.

Aquaticus is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Aquaticus, for 24 Mana, will "Deal 30 (Magic + 8) light splash damage to 3 random Enemies. Explode half the Blue Gems on the Board. [2:1]" Given that light splash damage deals 25% of damage to adjacent targets, this Spell deals (30 * 3) = 90 damage if there is only one enemy troop, and ((30 + 7.5 + 7.5) * 3) = 135 damage given optimal targeting. This deals about as much damage as Infernus, and if there are at least 10 Blue gems on the board, explodes as many Gems as Infernus. This spell is quite powerful, but is situationally more or less powerful than Infernus. In cases where Blue gems are scarse, Aquaticus' scaling can be a detriment, but during an Icestorm, Aquaticus can have more looping power than Infernus. The damage being dealt in three hits is a boon to Aquaticus, since Infernus still suffers from a bug where, if it targets the same troop twice but the first hit kill it, the second hit "whiffs." Thus, Aquaticus has less of a chance of whiffing. Finally, Aquaticus deals quite a bit more damage than Infernus in cases where there are fewer troops, and Infernus's higher splash damage is wasted.

Aquaticus's traits are as follows:

• Water Heart: Gain 1 Life for each Blue ally.
  
• Spell Armor: Reduce damage from Spells by 25%.
  
• Tsunami: Submerge all Allies when matching 4 or more Gems.

The traits are where Aquaticus ends up differing the most from Infernus. Whereas Infernus provides Firestorm when an enemy dies and Burn to all enemies when matching 4 or more Gems, Aquaticus provides reduced damage from spells, including complete nullification of spells that deal damage to all enemies. Although being able to trigger a Storm without help is useful, there are many troops that are able to provide an Icestorm to help Aquaticus cast. Additionally, the damage dealt by Burn on its own is quite insignificant; often, a partner is required for the burn to be useful, such as a Fireblade hero or an Elemaugrim.

Overall, Aquaticus is as powerful as Infernus, and midgame to endgame players will have no problem defeating most teams with it at its core. The thing to emphasize when building a team centered around Aquaticus is Blue synergy; look for sources of Icestorm like Jar of Eyes, Daughter of Ice, or Skadi. Additionally, depending on the rest of your team composition, you can use one of two Legendary Lords to provide Aquaticus with +12 starting Mana; the Maraj Queen or Medena.

My curated team for Aquaticus is:

• BANNER: Trident Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Green/-1 Yellow)
  
• Jar of Eyes (Tidecaller/Corsair/Frostmage)
  
• The Maraj Queen
  
• Aquaticus
  
• The Possessed King

[1222,6751,6770,6594,3036,1,2,3,3,0,0,0,14025]

This fast-churning Blue team features Aquaticus as the primary damage dealer and loop facilitator. Jar of Eyes looks to summon an Icestorm quickly, while The Possessed King turns each extra turn into a cascade. The goal here is to fill the board with Blue Gems such that casting Aquaticus destroys far more than 5 gems, likely creating an extra turn through falling Blue gems. Maraj Queen is a good partner here, providing a good finisher with Doomskulls while also starting Aquaticus off with 50% mana. Several hero classes can be useful here; Frostmage (for Lightning Strike, 50% start, and freeze on cast, which are all great for looping), Tidecaller (extra explosions, 50% mana, freeze at start of battle, cleanse, and bonus Blue mana gain), and Corsair (bonus Blue mana, bonus Blue mana, and bonus Blue mana, why can't I hold all this mana?).

High King Irongut

Blue/Brown/Yellow Goblin from Zaejin

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked High King Irongut's release post anyway. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

High King Irongut is a very useful force on offense and a very annoying Troop on defense. Its Devour potential is extremely potent and it can snowball easily. In particular, it is very useful for scaling gamemodes such as Delve and the Tower of Doom.

Irongut's spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 4) damage to a target Enemy, then has a chance to Devour them equal to Irongut's own attack, topped off with the Goblins' signature guaranteed Extra Turn. Irongut has a base Attack of 35,after kingdom bonuses. This is an interesting comparison to other Devouring Troops; Kraken has an identical chance for less mana, and the Great Maw has a guaranteed Devour! However, Irongut has the upper hand over these over Troops in several ways. The Extra Turn in Irongut's spell is guaranteed, whereas these other Troops require luck with their Gem creation. Kraken has no way to increase the Devour chance, and The Great Maw has no ability to continue Devouring after casting once. If you can boost Irongut's attack, Irongut can easily wipe an entire team (as long as they aren't immune to Devour!

The issue is boosting Irongut's attack. In Delves, a single Devour can easily boost you over the 100% threshold. Starting with higher attack from Hoard helps a lot, and Earth's Fury can boost attack to get the munch going, especially if the enemies have about 150 Armor or more (when Earth's Fury + Hoard boosts enough to guarantee a devour). In PvP, Earth's Fury isn't an option, and the existing attack boosters aren't very useful, so my recommendation is to instead rely on looping power! By using Storms and explosions to refill Irongut, you can repeatedly cast until you get a successful Devour, with each successive chomp improving your future odds. See the bottom

Irongut's unique Trait steals 4 Life on Brown Gem matches. I have to say that I underestimated this, however my mistake was overlooking how easily it can be repeatedly triggered. It actually pulls its weight if you use Duststorm to create Brown Gem cascades to ensure multiple Extra Turns while trying to cast Irongut's spell. I have also seen this clean up weak Enemies when no skulls were nearby.

Irongut goes very well with Troops that can boost its attack, as well as Troops that can provide Mana or other support. Princess Fizzbang explodes gems, and has a chance (albeit low) to boost Irongut's power. The Hero weapon Earth's Fury is the most effective method of boosting Irongut's Attack in places like Delve and Tower of Doom, but if your opponents don't have enough Armor, Cauldron can do. One Troop I found to be a surprisingly helpful companion is The Possessed King; its Trait provides helpful explosions, while its spell provides a useful benefit; Transformations! They're the one thing that can get rid of almost any Devour-immune troop, which can help significantly in high-level Delves where a couple of the opposing threats may be immune to Irongut's powers.

Irongut is incredibly potent in Delves and Tower of Doom modes; I was able to use Irongut the day it released to conquer the Tower of Doom, and was able to reach Level 42, against Troops with over 400 Attack and 400 Armor, with a very high win rate. I just used Earth's Fury to boost Irongut's attack, Devour whatever I could, then steamroll the rest with my massive Troop. Overall, 505 have given us an exciting and fun Troop, worthy of being the Goblin Mythic.

This is one of the few Troops where I have decided to include a second team, because I found a different, but equally effective strategy.

My first curated team for this Troop focuses on buffing Irongut's Attack:

• Bear Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Red/-1 Purple)
  
• Earth's Fury (Titan)
  
• Apothecary
  
• High King Irongut
  
• Gimlet Stormbrew

[1199,6256,6650,6590,3010,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,14012]

Gimlet provides a very fast transform, with Enrage for our Hero as an added bonus. Apothecary also provides transforms, but in a more reliable fashion. Both are designed to fill Earth's Fury and Irongut as fast as possible. Earth's Fury strips an enemy's Armor (preferably the first in case you find a good chance to match some skulls). Irongut should gain an average of 20 Attack per cast of Earth's Fury, and 40 Attack per Devour, so you should be able to quickly increase your Devour chance to 90% or more.

Thanks to xC for this second team:

• Kraken Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Blue/-1 Purple)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• The Worldbreaker
  
• High King Irongut
  
• Queen Aurora

[1056,6471,6650,6365,3026,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,14012]

This team actually focuses on looping, and just trying to cast Irongut multiple times until it successfully Devours. Mountain Crusher gets the ball rolling, and Queen Aurora plus banner means any Brown match will fill it, even without Mana Surge. After that, the Duststorms help constantly recur Irongut's Trait and the spells of Worldbreaker and Mountain Crusher, which can both clear the board and create more Brown matches. You can often keep your until Irongut fills, which then provides the opportunity to try to Devour an opponent, and once you do, your Attack will often be high enough to guarantee future Devours. If you're lucky, you can Devour EVERYONE without losing your turn!

Infernus

Purple/Red/Yellow Divine/Elemental from Broken Spire

Infernus lived for a thousand years, content in his deep cavern below the surface of the world; Fire Elementals are not complicated creatures - if it hadn’t been 1000 degrees in his home, Infernus would likely have invented the Margarita, the Banana Lounge, along with various plush robes and comfortable slippers. It is widely believed that Infernus would never have troubled the surface-dwellers at all, except for… the Dwarves. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Infernus has been an S-tier powerhouse since its release. Through new Troops and buffed Troops and even nerfs to itself, Infernus has not given up its throne. Its popularity comes from the simple fact that it does a lot of damage, and its explosions combined with its Traits allow it to steamroll.

Infernus' spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 10) Splash Damage to two random Enemies, and Explodes 5 random gems. This comes out to between 102 to 136 overall damage, depending on how the Splash Damage gets targeted. This is considered among the highest damaging Troops available; Megavore can do more, but only once, and Ketras and Pharos-Ra are capable of doing this much, but require some setup to do so. What's cool about Infernus is that it essentially deals AoE Damage that gets more focused as Enemies die, rather than becoming less powerful like Troops that deal Damage to all Enemies. The explosions are also potent; it's enough to clear a large swath of the board, creating Mana and allowing for cascades that can often provide Infernus with another cast.

This is exemplified by Infernus' second trait; Fiery Death provides a Firestorm whenever an Enemy dies (which is often with its high Damage output), meaning there's a good chance a big block of Red Gems will drop whenever Infernus casts. This will fill Infernus again, allowing it to cast, filling itself allowing it to cast again, etc. Infernus' unique Trait is a little less powerful, but still notable; it inflicts Burn on all Enemies with a single 4 or more Gem match! This works well with Troops that boost off of Burning enemies, (these being Courage, Elemaugrim, and Nightmare).

Overall, Infernus is often used as the powerhouse Troop that you center your team around. Infernus notably has the Divine typing, which makes it useful with Divine Ishball (who provides 40% starting mana) and the Divine Protector weapon (which creates Red and Yellow Gems boosted by allied Divines). It's also useful with Troops that can make use of the Mana generation, such as allied Mythics. He's also great with Elemaugrim, who can use the easy full-team Burn to great effect.

My curated team for this Troop is one that was the best team for a long time. Although it has become weaker, it is still quite powerful if played correctly:

• Wolf Banner (+1 Green/+1 Blue)
  
• Divine Protector (Priest or Titan)
  
• Infernus
  
• Ubastet
  
• Divine Ishballa

[1192,6366,6553,6479,3008,3,2,1,1,2,0,0,14003]

Divines haven't been widely used for a while, but this team is still pretty good. The goal here is to cast Divine Protector early, for 18-24 Red/Yellow Gems, as well as dealing significant single-target Damage to an opponent. The Priest hero class provides Divine typing for Ishballa's bonus and +6 Damage and +6 Gems from Divine Protector, but starting with only 40% Mana means you likely won't fill Divine Protector immediately after the nerf, which is why Titan can also be used, for 50% Mana and ready access to barriers. Infernus also deals significant Damage to enemies; watch Ubastet's mana, since when it's full it can kill one Enemy that Infernus or Divine Protector has weakened, then instantly kill something tougher. Divine Ishballa provides Mana generation, skull creation for extra poke damage, and increased starting Mana for all Troops including itself.

Ketras the Bull

Brown/Green/Red Divine/Tauros from Wild Plains

In times of great need, the Soothsayers of the WIld Plains can summon the might Ancestral Spirit of Ketras the Bull to lend them aid. Ketras appears as a mighty winged bull, wielding an axe as large as a Tauros Chieftain. It is said that with every swing of his axe, he can sweep aside a dozen lesser foes. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 2

RED BULL GIVES YOU WINGS! Ketras has previously taken a back seat to other Mythics, first Infernus and then Ubasetet. However, with the release of Divinia and the nerfing of Ubastet, Ketras has seen a rise in usage as a Troop with high single-target splash damage, with a Boost Ratio that is easily utilized while maintaining high durability, and the ever-beneficial Divine typing.

Ketras' spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 4 + (My Attack + My Life + My Armor) / 2) Splash Damage to a target Troop. In this way, all its Skills contribute to the Spell's Damage output, not just Magic. With maximized bonuses, Ketras starts dealing about 100 Damage to a single target. This is enough to take down all but the toughest of Troops in late-game PVP, and the splash Damage allows you to easily clean up low-health Troops. And that's before buffs!

Speaking of buffs, Ketras' unique Trait is pretty useful if you can afford it. It provides 2 Attack, Armor, and Life per Red match, providing 3 Damage to Ketras' spell on each batch of Red matches. This provides a slowly creeping increase in power as the match continues. Ketras also has Armored, reducing incoming skull Damage by 25% and helping mitigate incoming Damage and maintain toughness, and thus Spell damage. The fact is that this Trait has a notable impact on battle, especially since it can be recurringly activated multiple times in a single turn.

The best way to use Ketras, however, is with Divinia. Divinia is a Legendary Divine/Dragon whose spell explodes all Red Gems, cleanses your whole team, and provides (Magic + 1) Life per cast. With maximized bonuses, this is about 24 Life per cast, which provides not only durability for the entire team, and not just protection against all harmful Status Effects, and not just Mana generation to overcome that 22 Mana cost, but also 12 additional Damage through Ketras' Spell. Divinia's unique Trait can also randomly provide bonuses like Enchant for Mana, or Submerge or Barrier for protection, just to name a few. It's the perfect partner for Ketras.

A few other Troops that work well with Ketras include Divine Ishballa (who provides +40% starting Mana to Divines and a Convert that creates Yellow Mana for itself and other Divines) and Infernus (who provides Splash Damage to make Enemies squisher, and creates Firestorms to give Ketras Mana and activate its trait). Overall, Ketras is the high-powered targeted missile that Gargantuar wishes it could be, and its high potential for exploitable synergy lets it fit well in high-durability, high reliability teams.

My curated team for this Troop is provided by my guildmate, Materia-listic. He uses the following team for high-level PVP:

• Eagle Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Yellow/-1 Purple)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Divinia
  
• Ketras the Bull
  
• Divine Ishballa

[1056,6540,6339,6479,3067,3,2,1,1,2,0,0,14003]

With the banner in place, and the Traits of Ishballa and Titan, starting Mana is only one Mana Surge away from filling either Mountain Crusher with Brown or Divinia with Yellow. After that, you can start a loop of Mana generation and pumping up Ketras the Bull until it has the Mana and Life to destroy the most dangerous Enemy target and deal significant Damage to its neighbors. Then, rinse and repeat. Divinia provides constant increases in Life that keep your Allies from being destroyed, and both Mountain Crusher and Divinia can create barriers to protect Allies against damage, making the team extremely resiliant and highly reliable, although it is somewhat slow (it includes no Empowered Troops).

Pharos-Ra

Blue/Purple/Brown Mythic Divine / Undead from Khetar

Trait Score: 5

Pharos-Ra was my first Mythic. I pulled it the week it came out and spent a long time farming the traitstones, and boy are the Traits important. Its traits, more than any other Mythic, nay, any other Troop in the game, turn Pharos-Ra from a barely-usable poke into an important resource gatherer for newer players. His status on the tier list is quite unstable; he is currently in S-Tier due to recent updates further restricting the ability of players to efficiently farm Souls in Explore, but any future improvements in Soul income could actually harm Pharos-Ra's status.

Pharos-Ra is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Pharos-Ra, for 24 Mana, will "Transform Yellow Gems to Purple. Deal 21 (Magic + 1) damage to an enemy, boosted by my Souls. Give 20 Souls. [1x]" Simple, but with luck, it can provide the alignment to hold onto your turn and even cast again. This boost ratio is potent; the spell deals only about 60 damage without traits, but it can do 120 or more if Pharos-Ra is traited, and more if troops with the Necromancy trait are included. You also need another source of Souls, but even forgetting that the spell provides a boost to one of your resources, targeted damage with an exploitable boost ratio and a potential for mana generation and an extra turn is still powerful.

Keep in mind, however, that without a trait, you can only deal a maximum of about 60 damage. It's a little higher with Troops with Necromancy, but not many of them are actually useful outside of that trait. You also need another source of souls; without a Troop like The Dragon Soul, you have to cast Pharos-Ra in order to get the souls needed for Pharos-Ra's spell to be effective.

Pharos-Ra's traits are as follows:

• Undead Bond: Allied Undead gain 2 Life.
  
• Undying: Immune to Poison, Disease, and Death Mark.
  
• Necro Master: Gain 150% bonus Souls from battle.

Note that Necro Master, as well as Necromancer, are both quite misleading; the traits silently perform multiple effects. Firstly, the trait adds a static amount to the maximum Souls gained within battle (the one at the top of the screen); Necro Master increases the cap by 60 and Necromancer increases the cap by 20. This is additive, not multiplicative; having two Pharos-Ra's on a team (not a bad idea!) will provide a total cap of 140 Souls (+60 per Pharos-Ra). The other effect this has is that it increases Soul gain WITHIN the match; namely, Spells and Traits which provide Souls and the base +1 you get from killing an enemy Troop. The Dragon Soul can now provide as many as 38 Souls per cast with only one Pharos-Ra on the team! Again note that this only applies to sources WITHIN a match; the final Soul reward for a battle is affected by base rewards provided by the game mode, and multiplied by your Armor, Pet, and Ring bonus (the latter three don't apply within a match).

Overall, I think Pharos-Ra qualifies for S-Tier purely for the fact that Souls are so necessary for progression. Without the ability to farm them efficiently, you won't be able to level your useful troops, and you won't be able to experiment with new troops and find more powerful teams. Although Pharos-Ra is highly dependent on Soul income, investment definitely brings a high reward for potential with looping teams. There are several troops that synergize well with Pharos-Ra; troops that have soul income tied to their spell, such as The Dragon Soul, Valkyrie, or Sol'Zara are great partners, and the former two are excellent mana generators which create Gem matches to fuel Pharos. Anything that has Necromancy, such as Warlock or Aziris, is also a great teammate. Look for useful generators and converters, as well as troops that generate Storms, such as Umberwolf, which perpetually generates Purple storms. Finally, the Necromancer hero class, although its trait is quite weak, is boosted by any Necromancy (why doesn't the Hero Class have it?), and has talent trees that provide Mana Source, Arcane Surge, Stealthy, and Rising Shadows at level 100.

My curated team for Pharos-Ra is:

• BANNER: Abyssal Banner (+2 Purple/+1 Red/-1 Yellow)
  
• The Dragon Soul
  
• Pharos-Ra
  
• Phylactery (Necromancer)
  
• Umberwolf

[6236,6297,1090,6453,3021,2,1,2,3,0,0,0,14006]

The Dragon Soul provides Mana generation with its explosions as well as souls to give Pharos-Ra the souls it needs for its boost ratio. Umberwolf provides a constant Purplestorm, making The Dragon Soul more likely to cascade, and more likely for there to be Purple Gems next to Yellow ones. It also provides cleanup damage; don't use it if you're not guaranteed a win immediately though! Pharos-Ra acts as the anchor of the team; use its spell once you fill up on Souls to destroy priority enemies. Phylactery is kinda filler/cleanup, but it does provide Souls, and deals damage without dropping your turn. I recommend this in Explore or Challenges; the lower the difficulty, the faster the matches, the more your soul income increases (sadly Explore no longer has difficulty bonuses that help maximize Soul income). The team is also passable in lower tiers of PVP. If you have a second Pharos-Ra, I'd substitute the Hero Class for it.

TINA-9000

Brown/Green/Red Mech from Adana

Trait Scale: 3

CORE SYSTEMS ONLINE. AUXILLARY SYSTEMS ONLINE. WEAPONS SYSTEMS ONLINE. TINA-9000 READY FOR BATTLE. Finally, the Mech Mythic I dreamed Adana would bring is here! With a powerful spell, great defenses, and a synergistic unique trait, TINA is a powerful damage dealer and a great troop to center your team around.

TINA's spell, for 24 Mana, deals between (Magic + 4) and (2 x Magic + 8) True Damage, three times, to random targets, then provides TINA with (2 x Magic + 8 Armor). The targeting on this spell was wonky for a while, but it now functions as intended; the target for each burst is chosen independently. Thus, the same troop can be hit multiple times, but only if the previous hits did not kill the target. Since the damage dealt is random, most targets will likely take multiple bursts to kill, but as enemies die, the damage gets more and more concentrated on the troops that remain. The overall damage output is great; TINA deals between 27 and 54 damage each burst with maximum Kingdom and Guild bonuses, meaning it deals between 81 and 150 True Damage. This is much more than many other True Damage dealers, like Arachnaean Weaver and Suna, and about as much as Infernus does in non-True Damage! It often only takes 2 or 3 casts to wipe the enemy team. The Armor gain is nothing to scoff at either; not only can it protect TINA from dying, it also boosts Skull damage, via TINA's Traits.

TINA's traits are also excellent. It gains 2 Armor on every 4 or 5 Gem match, which can add up over time, especially with a looping team or Storm. TINA ignores 50% of all Spell damage, which is useful protection that helps keep TINA's armor high for the unique trait. This trait, Electrified Plating, adds 50% of Armor to Skull damage dealt. TINA has a base Attack of 36, but with 60 base Armor, TINA deals 66 skull damage with each attack, and gains 27 skull damage every cast! Although I don't recommend using TINA as your primary frontline attacker (due to the fact that TINA will mana block all of your other troops), these abilities make TINA an excellent spot for the second or third slot in your team, especially if you keep your mana generators in the first slot; this gives you a backup if your other troops die.

Overall, TINA is a massive win, in terms of viability and in aesthetic flavor. It's a giant stomping metal behemoth, for Pete's sake! Of course it destroys everything! I recommend it with the obvious transformers/exploders to give it mana to power up its spell, as well as Magic boosting troops (think Qilin and Diviner) to increase TINA's already high damage. You can also use the Mechanist Hero Class, providing a +50% boost to starting mana (I personally prefer Titan for the explosions and Barrier).

The team I like a lot for this Mythic is:

• Rat Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Green/-1 Blue)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Mechanist)
  
• TINA-9000
  
• Apothecary
  
• Gimlet Stormbrew

[1056,6699,6256,6590,3049,3,1,1,1,1,0,0,14007]

Mountain Crusher and Gimlet Stormbrew provide Mana generation, with Mountain Crusher creating a storm to help loop with itself. Apothecary is a great supporting troop, filling the board with Brown gems, with the goal of letting you continue to loop with Mountain Crusher until TINA fills. Mechanist is an important choice for Hero Class, giving TINA +50% Mana.

Zuul'Goth

Red/Blue/Purple Mythic Boss from Karakoth

Trait Score: 3

Aaah, Zuul'Goth. A lofty goal for even the most dedicated of players, this eldritch abomination features the valuable ability to instantly destroy an enemy, along with some useful side effects. I'll be frank, my initial evaluations were somewhat biased by a desire to say "This thing that requires a lot of time AND money to obtain (due to the cost of reaching the leaderboards) is actually super overrated, don't sweat it!" Later, I did actually obtain Zuul'Goth, and while I could see potential, I had felt that its Skull creation was actually a drawback, and resulted in handing the enemy a couple of wins since one kill spell would result in two troops lost. The mistake here was actually the fact that in order to use Zuul'Goth effectively, you want to use him when the board is properly packed with Skulls; in an ideal match, you only cast Zuul'Goth once or twice.

Zuul'Goth is obtained through the Soulforge, for the high, high price of 50,000 Souls, 300 Gems, and 8 Orbs of Power. It took me about a year and a half to craft it and I was working on it since it was released! My advice? Hoard your Orbs of Ascension. They only have about a 15% appearance rate from Orbs, and were my bottleneck to obtaining him for a couple of months while I had more than enough Orbs of Wisdom and Growth. Try to save up your Orbs of Wisdom if you can, but you don't have to be incredibly stingy with them (they actually appear the most often at 35%).

Zuul'Goth, for 32 Mana, will "Kill an Enemy. Burn and Freeze all remaining Enemies. Create 12 Skulls." That first effect, dealing lethal damage to an enemy of your choice, hits like a ton of bricks when you first read it. The Zuul'Goth obtained by players is actually more powerful than any of the six Zuul'Goths you fight in battles; Buried creates skulls without the statuses, and Dark and Storm only Poison/Freeze and Stun/Burn respectively. The last effect has a high variance; if you use it at the wrong time, the spell might as well read "Kill an enemy. Kill the first ally." The quantity of Skulls here is an odd balance, where it's a coin flip as to whether you get a Gem match, however, as I'll go into detail on in a later section, you need to lean into the Skull strategy, the way you try to create alignment with Yao Guai before casting; once you do that, your teams will be incredibly destructive.

Zuul'Goth's traits are as follows:

• Jinx: Halve enemy Gem Masteries.
  
• Impervious: Immune to all Status Effects, Devour, and Mana Burn.
  
• Manifestation: Gain 5 to all Skill Points when matching Skulls.

Zuul'Goth's traits are nothing to sniff at, but also nothing to write home about, to mix metaphors. The math for Jinx is a little weird, but as a level 1250 player I have a 63% surge chance, and halving my mastery results in a 55% surge chance. Gem Masteries have diminishing returns, but that also means Jinx has diminishing value against tougher opponents. Impervious is pretty great, and depending on how long your battles last, Manifestation can give you quite a bit of boost over the course of a battle.

Now, for my discussion on which troops you should be using with Zuul'Goth. You want to preferably have the board filled with around 8-10 Skulls when you cast, to maximize the chance of an extra turn; ideally, the skulls you create from your casts will kill the first and possibly the second enemy, meaning you don't have to fill up on 128 mana to cast. My preferred way to do this is to utilize any of the compatible double converters, the ones that create a color that Zuul'Goth uses along with Skulls. These are Alderfather, Infernal King, Nimue, Qilin, and (a personal favorite), Glaycion. Zuul'Goth's high mana cost also benefits from any troops, weapons, and hero classes that boost mana income, such as Tidecaller/Corsair, anything that creates matching Storms (such as Jar of Eyes or Umberwolf), The Possessed King, or Queen Aurora.

My curated team for Zuul'Goth is the team I'm currently using for PvP, as well as high-level Challenges and Explores:

• BANNER: Frozen Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Purple/-1 Red)
  
• Glaycion
  
• Jar of Eyes (Tidecaller)
  
• Zuul'Goth
  
• Queen Aurora

[6565,1222,6529,6365,3011,1,2,3,3,0,0,0,14025]

As mentioned, Glaycion provides generation of both Blue Gems and Skulls, things that Zuul'Goth wants to have on the board. Jar of Eyes clears the board, providing mana, while also creating an Icestorm to increase the chance of cascades. Queen Aurora improves your mana income whenever you make a match, and Zuul'Goth of course kills your opponents biggest threats while creating Skulls to take out the rest. Again, you want to cast when boards have suitable numbers of skulls, to avoid handing Skull matches to your opponent.

===A-TIER===

These troops, although quite useful, don't exactly make the cut for S-tier. Most of them either fill a niche, or are powerful damage dealers. Although some of them are better damage dealers than even the S-Tier troops, they often require a lot of support and setup, or are just support for something else. They're still worth the Diamonds if you have everything in S-Tier though.

Arachnaean Weaver

Green/Purple/Yellow Elf/Monster from Zhul'Kari

This emissary of the Spider Goddess is sent to defend Zhul’Kari in times of trouble.
Once it breaches the mortal plane, it will take over command of the minds of the Sec’Tari Dark Elves, all except the Widow Queen, and will proceed to control them in battle with its hive mind, summoning spiders, and entangling foes in its sticky webs as it goes. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Arachnaean Weaver is a powerhouse with the right playstyle. Its full-team Web cripples, it destroys most Troops in PvP in two casts (once if you weaken them up first), and if needed it has one of the best summoning abilities in the game. And once its spell knocks out an enemy, you won't be able to stop it!

Arachnaean Weaver's spell, for 20 Mana, Webs all enemies, then deals (Magic + 5) True Damage to the last two Enemies. If either of them die from this True Damage, Weaver explode 15 Gems, enough to clear the board and regain a significant amount of Mana. Therefore, the goal with Weaver is to get Enemies within kill range, either through multiple casts, boosting Magic, or softening Enemies up. It's not the end of the world to cast the spell without having lethal damage, since very few Troops can survive two casts, and Web will reduce Enemy Magic to zero for the duration, allowing you to stall until you can cast again, so it's actually a pretty good idea to cast in many situations. The main issue is that if you are somewhere like Pet Rescue or Delve where Troops have high durability, getting Troops in kill range can be quite difficult.

Weaver's Traits are quite great. It uniquely has the combination of Stealthy and Impervious; it can't be targeted by spells unless it's the only Ally remaining, and it can't be affected by any status effects, including Stun, Frozen, or Devour. This combination makes Weaver highly resiliant in battle, and it is very hard to specifically counter it. Weaver's unique Trait is also quite good; any time an Enemy dies, there is a 75% chance to summon a Webspinner. Webspinner is an excellent target to summon, especially in the first slot where Troops are most likely to die; its spell generates Green Gems (powering up itself and Weaver) and does a moderate amount of damage, which helps with weakening Troops to bring them in range of Weaver. Noteably, since Webspinner loops into itself, it is excellent in multiples, which is great if you are in a rough situation and end up losing a couple Troops. Also of note is the fact that Webspinner inflicts Web on skull damage, then deals triple skull Damage to Webbed or Poisoned enemies. And yes, if the Enemy is not immune to Web, the Web that Webspinner applies will immediately trigger the triple damage, meaning Webspinner essentially always deals triple skull damage. Great for getting out of those sticky situations! No pun intended.

Overall, Arachnaean Weaver can be as finicky as spelling its name (remember, there's no I in Arachnaean!), but the results are rewarding. Weaver synergizes well with any Troops which can help it with its goal; kill an Enemy with its spell. Other True Damage dealers like Tesla and Crimson Bat can weaken the Enemy Troop into kill range; keep in mind that using normal Damage to weaken Enemies is inefficient, since you have to go through all the Armor before you can start making an impact. Troops that boost Magic can be useful; Diviner is the best of these, since it creates Yellow Mana for Weaver and has a chance to increase Magic by a significant amount. Finally, Troops that apply Faerie Fire are at their best with Weaver, since True Damage is fully affected by it after a bug fix. Glitterclaw is a reliable source of Faerie Fire that creates Green Mana as well.

My curated team for this Troop is a spicy one I've been testing out:

• Slayer Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Purple/-1 Yellow)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Clockwork Sphinx
  
• Tesla
  
• Arachnaean Weaver

Mountain Crusher provides protection in the form of Barriers on every Brown match, and great Mana generation from explosions and Duststorms; it's basically a better Gorgotha! Clockwork Sphinx provides the team with Mana and protective armor; you can target the biggest color on the board for more Armor gain or target a color such that when it's destoryed you get an Extra Turn. Telsa boosts off that Armor to either wipe out the whole team in one cast if your armor's high enough, or weaken the Enemy Troops to enable you to destroy them with Arachnaean Weaver, who will then explode and give you more Mana to hopefully cast again.

Famine

Brown/Green/Yellow Daemon/Mystic from Apocalypse

From the mysterious hidden kingdom, Apocalypse, another rider has appeared. Known simply as Famine, the realms of Krystara fear the sound of his hollow hoofbeats, as where he rides, crops wither and locusts swarm.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

One of the earliest Mythics to be added to the game, and still one of the ones with the highest utility. Often lumped in with Khorvash, Famine's primary use case is the spell, with its all-encompassing Mana Drain and high single-target damage. Although recent additions have indirectly nerfed Famine, it is still very useful for avoiding that Mythic Troop's spell.

Famine's spell, for 24 Mana, drains all Mana from every Enemy, then deals (Magic + 5 + 2 x Total Mana Drained) to a single Enemy of your choice. Since Famine's release, Troops with immunity to Mana Drain (via the Mana Shield and ____ Ancestry traits) have made this less reliable, but it is still very potent against everything else, even Troops with Impervious. Mythic Troops especially have a hard trouble gaining the Mana to cast when facing Famine, especially when they are being controlled by the AI, and if you can cast Famine when they are almost full on mana, you can deal upwards of 60 Damage or more to a single target, all while denying the enemy's spell and setting them back several turns. This is very powerful and important ability, and it's great for a controlling strategy.

Famine's unique trait, on the other hand, is quite weak; it drains 3 points from a random Skill from the first Enemy at the start of each turn; this does not include Extra Turns, and has minimal impact in most situations, since you only have a 1/4 chance to hit the Skill you want. In a game where battles can last about 10 turns at most, Traits that trigger at the start of the turn rather than on Extra Turns are simply underperforming. The other Traits aren't even worth mentioning! Who pays 18 Arcane traitstones for 1 Armor per turn?

Overall, Famine is great in a controlling strategy, even if its Traits aren't so good. Use it with other controlling Troops, like Emperor Khorvash (Khorvash is particularly useful since its Stun clears _____ Ancestry).

My curated team for Famine is this one:

• Bear Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Red/-1 Purple)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan Class)
  
• Emperor Khorvash
  
• Famine
  
• King Highforge

This is a controlling team focused on Mana drain and stun. Emperor Khorvash provides easy stuns on 4 or more Gem matches, disabling Enemy Traits that would prevent it from using its spell to Mana drain them, preventing them from casting. Famine does this too, while also providing highly-targeted damage. King Highforge is another source of stun; combined with Khorvash, they can reliably Stun and Damage all four Enemies with their spells. All these are supported by the Mountain Crusher with Titan hero class, which providing large amounts of Mana generation via explosions and Duststorm, and reliable barriers to protect from skulls.

King Bloodwood

Green/Yellow/Brown Mythic Elemental / Fey from Forest of Thorns

Trait Scale: 4

King Bloodwood is in an interesting spot, where it has great damage potential, but enough in the way of little drawbacks that you question your ability to utilize it fully. If you are in early-game or mid-game PvP, Bloodwood will be a destructive force that wipes teams, but in the late game, the boost ratio is not enough; you need to support it by spamming status effects like Faerie Fire on Enemies.

King Bloodwood is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

King Bloodwood, for 23 Mana, will "Deal 28 (Magic + 8) heavy splash damage to an Enemy, boosted by Entangled and Bleeding Enemies. Steal 10 Life from all Enemies. [8x]" Since you can apply both Entangle and Bleed to each enemy (multiple stacks of Bleed don't count), and heavy splash damage deals 75% to each adjacent enemy, this will result in a total damage output of (28 + 8 x 4 + 8 x 4 = 92) x (1 + 0.75 + 0.75) + 10 x 4 = 270 total damage in one cast. That's about as much as Megavore, and it doesn't depend on the enemy having Armor! However, there are several issues with this spell. The first is that you will have to take multiple turns of setup to get Entangle and Bleed on enough enemies to deal maximum damage. The second is that despite dealing high damage overall, it isn't quite enough to destroy many opponents in high-level PvP, who generally has about 120 total toughness (more if you're facing Giants). The third and most important issue is that the spell will always end your turn. There are other spells that have a higher potential to make them effective in Delves, while scaling off of attributes that improve your ability to win anyway (such as Ketras the Bull).

However, one important thing to note about King Bloodwood is that it is one of the biggest dealers of SPELL damage in the game. It deals about as much damage as Megavore does, but Megavore does it by stripping Armor. The thing to emphasize here is that King Bloodwood gets much more of a boost from Faerie Fire than Megavore. With Faerie Fire, since both the Heavy splash and the Lifesteal are affected, you deal a whopping 138 damage to your main Faerie Fire'd target with all Enemies Entangled and Bleed, and 104 to adjacent enemies. 345 TOTAL DAMAGE, enough to one-shot your direct target almost guaranteed, and heavily wound adjacent Enemies. The only things that can even compete are troops commonly used in Delves, like Ketras and Irongut!

King Bloodwood's traits are as follows:

• Elemental Bond: Allied Elementals gain 2 Life.
  
• Barkskin: Reduce damage from Skulls by 33%.
  
• Bloody Boughs: Entangle and inflict Bleed on a random Enemy when matching 4 or more Gems.

King Bloodwood's traits are good at helping to do its work; it provides a source of Entangle that is easily repeatable, as well as Bleed. Let me discuss the viability of these status effects here for a moment; Entangle is great, since you're denying your opponents any Skull damage they may deal, but it has no effect on troops that aren't in first slot, making the only use case for

Overall, King Bloodwood is a pretty good nuker if you can support him with Faerie Fire, or if you are facing enemies that are in the 90-100 total toughness range. There are several troops that do well as partners for King Bloodwood. Other sources of Bleed and Entangle, such as Chief Dargon, Alderfather, and Yasmine's Chosen will certainly help, and Vash'Dagon can provide Curse to ensure the statuses don't dispel. Since Bloodwood is an Elemental, The Maraji Queen can be used to start with 50% Mana. The best sources of Faerie Fire are Queen Titania, who does it on 4+ Gem matches, and Glitterclaw, who does it while creating Green Gem matches. And of course, mana generators and supports like Mountain Crusher, TPK, and Queen Aurora are always helpful.

I have two teams for King Bloodwood today, here's the first:

• BANNER: (+Green/+Purple)
  
• Webspinner
  
• Stringfiddler
  
• King Bloodwood
  
• Yasmine's Chosen

[TEAM CODE]

This is a status-effect-based Green looping team, designed to cripple your opponent while looping. Stringfiddler starts you with a Leafstorm, while causing explosions, Silencing enemies, and guaranteeing you an extra turn to take any new matches that drop due to Storm. Webspinner inflicts Web, while also creating Green Gems and dealing AoE damage, to soften up enemies; it also triples your Skull damage if enemies are vulnerable to Web. Yasmine's Chosen doubles up on your Entangle to power up your spell quicker, and her spell easily deals lots of scatter damage with Bloodwood's trait causing Entangles as well. Finally, King Bloodwood is the thing your loop mana is going into; to counteract the fact that casting Bloodwood causes you to lose your turn, we ensure the enemy team can't do anything useful in that turn, by Silencing, Webbing, Entangling, Bleeding, and Poisoning them. If you prefer, The Wild Queen would make an excellent choice last slot as well; she creates Green, and allows Webspinner to utilize its massive Skull damage while shrugging off any misses due to Entangle.

The second is one from a great content creator called KeyLime, it solves a lot of the problems that the first team has in terms of King Bloodwood not dealing enough damage:

• BANNER: Ocularen Banner (+2 Green/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Jar of Eyes (Frostmage)
  
• Glitterclaw
  
• King Bloodwood
  
• The Maraj Queen

[TEAM CODE]

You can check out KeyLime showing off this team in this video, where he describes how it functions.
Here, the key is using Jar of Eyes to fill the board with Blues, enough to fill Glitterclaw's spell and build alignment with Green Gems on the board. Once Blue and Green align, Glitterclaw will Faerie Fire all enemies, while pouring a large amount of mana into King Bloodwood and triggering his trait. Once you're ready, Bloodwood will deal massive amounts of damage, enough to one-shot in all but the toughest PvP battles, and two-shot in Level 12 Explore. The Maraj Queen is used here as a finisher, filling up from Jar of Eyes and turning the Greens from Glitterclaw into Skulls; if you prefer, substitutions for this troop include The Possessed King or Queen Aurora to supplement mana generation, or empowered Mana generators like Moonsinger or Leprechaun.

Megavore

Blue/Brown/Red Merfolk/Monster from Blackhawk

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked Megavore's release post anyway. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Megavore is a devestating beast; it deals large amounts of damage with its spell, and its trait, with some luck, can be exploited to literally destroy Enemy Troops instantly with very few countermeasures. Also I'm surprised Infinity Plus Two got away with naming a Troop Megavore I mean come on.

Megavore's spell, for 24 Mana, destroys all Armor on all Enemy Troops, then deals (2 x Magic + 7) Magic to a target, and Submerges itself. The damage of this troop is quite high; the average top-tier PVP team will have in excess of 200 Armor on it, and with maximum bonuses, Megavore deals about 60 additional Damage to one Target. 260 Damage is enough for you to severely Damage several Troops, and severely cripple (if not destroy outright) the most imminent threat on the Enemy team! Note that the Armor destruction is unphased by Barrier, and that Megavore's spell has the unique property of Magic multiplication; every 1 Magic means 2 more damage.

Megavore also has a very powerful set of traits. It has Impervious, making it immune to Devour, as well as all status effects, from Frozen to Disease to Stun. Immunity to Stun is important because it makes it impossible to disable its unique trait, which provides an 8% chance to deal Lethal Damage to the last Enemy on 4 or more Gem matches. This is highly exploitable with looping converters, or you can just throw it on the team and enjoy a pleasant surprise on occasion whenever you take an incidental 4 or more Gem match. This instant kill can't be blocked by the likes of Impervious or Indigestible either; the only counter is Barrier.

The main issue with Megavore is that it needs a lot of help from your other troops. You want troops to loop with it, you want troops to boost its damage, and you want troops to clean up, because most troops won't die after one Megavore cast, and it is very inefficient to kill the rest of the enemy team with such an expensive spell. In these regards, some of the best synergies come from common looping converters (Alchemist and Hellcat/Moneylender or Green Seer and Giant Spider/Spiritdancer), from Faerie Fire appliers (Glitterclaw or Queen Titania), and from Magic Boosters (Diviner or Humility), respectively.

My curated team for this Troop is this one:

• Meteor Banner (+2 Red/+1 Brown/-1 Purple)
  
• Alchemist
  
• Moneylender
  
• Queen Titania
  
• Megavore

This team combines looping AND Faerie Fire for mass destruction. Alchemist and Moneylender loop together to produce many red matches for Megavore's trait, and any Red Mana Alchemist cannot use overflows into Queen Titania and Megavore. Queen Titania provides a source of Faerie Fire to boost Megavore's already-high single target damage, as well as provides cleanup after it casts; Titania's spell can kill unarmored Troops in one or two casts once Faerie Fire is applied.

Obsidius

Brown/Red/Purple Daemon/Elemental from Dhrak-Zum

Trait Scale: 4

Obsidius is a pretty good damage dealer and a great mana generator, with a powerful Trait tacked on. A great troop to use, especially if you face teams that rely heavily on traits.

Obsidius' spell, for 24 Mana, destroys a 5x5 block centered on the Gem of your choice, deals (Magic + 8) heavy splash damage to a random enemy (dealing 75% to adjacent enemies) and has a 50% chance to deal (Magic + 8) light splash damage. If you don't land that 50% chance, you deal 34 damage to one target, 58 to two targets, and 82 to three targets, and you deal 68/101/134 damage if you do. This gives you an average damage of about 69-95 damage. This is less on average than Infernus, Obsidius' closest comparison, but where Obsidius lacks in damage it makes up in mana generation. Obsidius' destruction clears 25 gems, provides you with the entirity of the mana (as opposed to Infernus' 50%), and has a chance to cascade into more matches (which is even higher if you have, say, a Duststorm active!). I often completely refilled Obsidius in my testing, and that doesn't happen too often with Infernus.

Obsidius' traits are the main resason to include it in a team. Stoneskin's 50% skull damage reduction is always great, if you end up in a situation where your frontline troops die and Obsidius needs to take a hit. Rocky Dead's Duststorms, created when enemies die, are highly synergistic, and allow you to create 4 or more Gem matches easily especially if you utilize an explosion or Obsidius' spell. The main course, Earthquake, is a powerful trait that instantly Stuns all enemies on 4 or more Gem matches. There are many applications to this, from countering opposing Stoneskins in Skull teams, to removing immunities in Scorpius teams, to merely countering a specific trait you find hard to deal with.

Obsidius can do just fine as the center of a team, specifically when trying to counter meta teams that rely heavily on traits, such as Lust. A single 4 or more match will keep Lust stunned long enough for you to dispatch it. I recommend Obsidius with standard Brown partners like Mountain Crusher and Apothecary (for the transform), to capitalize off the Duststorms the second trait creates. You can use Honor as a partner as well, to capitalize off Honor's boost ratio. Another good partner is the Maraj Queen, which provides a +50% mana start.

Here's the team I used while testing.

• Slayer Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Purple/-1 Yellow)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Obsidius
  
• Apothecary
  
• The Possessed King

Mountain Crusher provides an explosive mana generator and a source of early Duststorm to keep the Brown Gems coming; once troops start to die, Obsidius' trait will keep the Duststorms up. Apothecary is the only Brown converter, and it's particularly useful with its Cleansing ability; use it to fill Mountain Crusher and Obsidius. The Possessed King provides additional mana and board clearing thorugh explosions; only cast it if the damage will kill something. My suggestion for using Obsidius is to try to target an area with as few Brown gems as possible, to make way for more Browns.

Queen Aurora

Green/Purple/Yellow Divine/Beast from Silverglade

Mythical Pony
I used to wonder about the RNG
Mythical Pony
Until I pulled her from a Glory Key
24 Mana
Tons of fun
43 points of Heart
Faithful and strong
30 Armor,
Yellow, purple, green
12 Magic makes her all complete
You have a mythical pony
Do you know you’re all my very best friends?ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Um. That's certainly a piece of lore. I mean I have higher stats than that, but I don't get the joke, is this a reference to something? Anyway, Queen Aurora is a useful piece of support, providing Life, Barrier, and Mana to Allies, making it great to protect and empower other squishy Mythics. It, alongside The Possessed King, is one of the Troops I consider to throw in the 4th slot of my team for those extra benefits it can provide to any team.

Queen Aurora's spell, for *sigh* 24 Mana, provides all other Allies (notably excluding itself) with Barrier and (Magic + 1) Life. It then creates 10 Gems of a color of choice; although this is less than some other Troops, the flexibility in allowing you to choose will let you create the color the team needs the most. Keep in mind that this spell can be quite risky, and unless there are something like 12-14 Gems of a given color already on the board, you'll likely end up making only a couple 3 matches and giving your opponent a beneficial board.

Queen Aurora's unique Trait provides powerful support. It adds +1 to all Gem matches, essentially acting as Water Link, Nature Link, Fire Link, Air Link, Magic Link, and Stone Link simultaneously. Alongside banners, you can make the colors of focus almost guaranteed to fill allied Troops, especially with a Mana Surge. Notably, this Trait makes Queen Aurora one of the Troops I wouldn't mind using in multiples. Throw two in the back, an exploder in the front, and a Troop you want to fill in second slot, and you'll be filling it in no time! Aurora's other Traits aren't too significant.

Overall, Queen Aurora is a great piece of support; it can't devastate teams on its own, but they can make Allies shine, providing them with increased Life and Mana. Use it together with Troops that benefit from the Barrier (i.e. Jotnar Stormshield), or Troops that just need a bit more Mana to get going, like The Worldbreaker.

My curated team is a tanky and resiliant one:

• Guardian Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Brown/-1 Green)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Divinia
  
• Megavore
  
• Queen Aurora

This team is tough enough to survive even deep in Delves. Mountain Crusher provides protective barriers and cheap explosions. Divinia provides more explosions, cleansing of harmful status effects, and additional toughness for the whole team. Queen Aurora provides more Barriers and Mana generation, and additional health. Megavore is the offensive center of the team, dealing high Damage with its spell and occasionally grabbing kills with its trait.

Scorpius

Brown/Purple/Yellow Monster from Drifting Sands

A thousand years ago, the Drifting Sands was known by another name: Al-Maraj. It was a magnificent kingdom, whose beauty belied the fact it was ruled by the Emperor Scorpius, a terrifying creature, with no sense of decency, morality, or kindness about him at all... The truth is that he was neither God nor Daemon, simply a creature of the desert, as harsh as the Burning sun, and as relentless as the searing winds of his birthplace. He would delight in tearing both friend and foe limb from limb, and to displease him in any way would result in a long and painful death from the sting in his tail. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

After it got buffed to be no longer a one-shot spell, Scorpius has become more reliable, able to get KOs reliably against anything that isn't immune to Poison. Although this is a common immunity, it can be circumvented through several means, making Scorpius a great offensive center to teams built around it.

Scorpius' spell, for 28 Mana, deals (Magic + 15) Damage to 2 enemies, and if either one is Poisoned, Scorpius will deal Lethal Damage to them. This is a powerful gimmick, and should be exploited whenever possible. If you can get two opponents Poisoned, it's an extremely destructive spell. The problem is that any troop that is immune to Poison will be immune to this instant destruction, and there are a lot of Poison immunities. Undying, Impervious, Fortitude, and Sturdy will all stand in your way. The solution is either Stun (which doesn't work on Impervious) or Curse. Once there is a troop that can reliably Curse enemies, the sky is the limit.

Scorpius' Trait is very similar to the one of Champion of Anu; it provides 1 to all stats to all Brown Allies zat the start of each turn. Compared to other Traits that boost at the start of turn, this one is much more powerful, since it boosts allied Skills by up to 16.This can add up quickly, boosting your Damage output and durability very high. In fact, this Trait is so useful that the troop can slot into any Brown team easily; if you have the Shadow talent tree on your hero, most Brown teams can viably use Scorpius!

Using Scorpius effectively requires a source of Mana generation and a consistent source of Poison. Euryali is the best, providing a full-team Poison in the vein of Infernus, while the Shadow talent tree provides 1 Poison on purple matches at Level 70, and is available on the Assassin or Thief. Currently, the only things that can apply Curse do it at random (like Mangus), but in the future, any Troop that can reliably apply Curse will also be a great partner. Stun also helps, and Emperor Khorvash is the most reliable source of it (and it's Brown for that buff!)

Here's my Scorpius team:

• Dark Banner (+1 Brown/+1 Purple)
  
• Rock Troll
  
• Dragon's Eye (Titan)
  
• Euryali
  
• Scorpius

Banner choice for this is very difficult; Slayer is bad since we don't want to reduce Yellow Mana if we can help it, so I ended up using Darkstone's banner. The Titan hero class provides protection, plus a jump-start to Rock Troll. Rock Troll gets the Mana flowing, giving you 4 or more Gem matches and putting Mana into Scorpius so it can do work. Euryali is really only there for the poison, but can cast if it will help the situation. Dragon's Eye is how you deal with Poison immunity; just turn the opponent into a helpless dragon! Three of your troops are Brown, to help profit off of Scorpius' trait.

The Gray King

Blue/Purple/Brown Mythic Undead from Ghulvania

Trait Score: 3

The Gray King has great potential in terms of defensive utility and control. Its ability targets enemies based on a Gem color you destroy, dealing true damage, and inflicting mana drain, Silence, and Freeze. Its trait allows it to scale in power as the battle progresses, lending itself to a slower, controlling strategy.

The Gray King is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

The Gray King, for 22 Mana, will "Destroy all Gems of a chosen Color. All Enemies of that Color take 29 (Magic + 9) true damage, and are Mana drained, Silenced, and Frozen." This spell has great power; above average true damage (with the potential to scale over time, see the section on the traits) can kill most enemies in one or two casts, Silence and Freeze (two of the best status effects in the game) and Gem destruction. There's also the Mana drain, which you won't notice as much, but it still means the troop has to start off from square one after the Silence wears off. It is important to be careful when targeting this spell; you can choose to take the color that will allow you to deal the most damage, but it is critical to keep the effects of destroying a color in mind. Think about mana gain for your other troops, whether the resulting cascade will result in an extra turn for yourself (or your opponent), and consider using the Silence on a single target if it means they don't cast. One other important aspect of this spell is the fact it targets by color; this means that you can hit right through Stealthy to attack opponents that are otherwise insulated from spell damage, like Orbweaver with Life and Death.

The Gray King's traits are as follows:

• Undead Shield: Allied Undead gain 2 Armor.
  
• Undying: Immune to Poison, Disease, and Death Mark.
  
• King's Legion: All Undead Allies gain 2 Armor and Magic when matching 4 or more Gems.

King's Legion is a pretty great Trait. It provides an effect that is easy to trigger, while providing a boost in The Gray King's damage over time as you make Gem matches. Of course, it also buffs your other Undead, which is a plus. Undying is icing on the cake, providing immunity to a couple of annoying effects.

Overall, The Gray King has a suite of powerful effects, and it is quite useful, especially in scaling battles that don't heavily feature immune enemies. Keep in mind that this troop does not quite pass the bar for S-Tier due to the fact that the PvP meta in this game is quite fast, and The Gray King can't keep up, especially when the enemy team features a varied set of colors.

My curated team for The Gray King is:

• BANNER: Slayer Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Purple/-1 Yellow)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Glaycion
  
• The Gray King
  
• Queen Aurora

[1056,6565,6789,6365,3035,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,14012]

This team is, as expected, slightly on the controlling side. Gray King locks down enemies with its array of status effects, while Queen Aurora in the back boosts mana production and uses its spell to provide mana generation and Barrier. Mountain Crusher provides a steady stream of Brown mana and Glaycion provides damage while producing Blue, both to fuel Gray King's damage output.

The Possessed King

Blue/Green/Purple Human/Daemon from Darkstone

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked The Possessed King's release post anyway. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Ultimately, when I first rated The Possessed King, I underestimated its usefulness. I thought the Trait was cool, but didn't realize how extraordinary it ended up being, and didn't see the occasional greatness hidden in its spell. Ultimately, I consider it one of the "support" Mythics; it and Queen Aurora are two Troops that I think about throwing into any time that has space, drastically improving their consistency.

The Possessed King's spell, for 26 Mana, deals (Magic + 2 + 2 x Allied and Enemy Demons) Damage to all Enemies, then has 3 separate 20% chances to turn a random Enemy into a Demon. These means about 22 AoE Damage with no other Demon Allies; not reliable enough to be able to use for damage, due to its inability to scale well. Additionally, its Transform means between 0 and 3 different Enemies will be transformed into a random Troop with the Daemon Troop type. The Troops level will be half (if they were level 20, they are now level 10), and its Traits will be whatever ones are owned by your opponent. If the Enemy you Damage dies, it won't be considered for the transform, so you can safely clean up low-health enemies, but since the spell is more expensive than even other Mythics, this is often considered only a last resort. It does make a great last resort though; if you're in a sticky situation, that Transform might just get rid of that one Stealthy Troop, or that one Troop that has almost filled its spell.

Statistics time, skip this paragraph if you want. There are, at time of writing, 56 Troops with the Troop type Daemon; of those, 9 are Mythic and 14 are Legendary. It is undetermined if the rarity of the Troop transformed affects its probability of being the result. Don't worry about the Transform probability math, I've done that already! There is a 51.2% chance for no transforms to happen (thus a 48.8% chance for at least one transform), a 38.4% chance to Transform exactly one Troop, a 9.6% chance that two Enemies will be transformed, and a 0.8% chance that three Enemies will be transformed. Note that different targets are chosen for each transform, meaning the same Troop can't be transformed twice (i.e. no transforms are "wasted").

The main reason to run The Possessed King is its trait. TPK's unique trait, Unstable Possession, explodes two Gems whenever you make a 4 or more Gem match. This is quite powerful; every 4 or more Gem match you make clears a larger swath of the board than normal, increasing the chance of getting the Gems on the board aligned the way you need them. This Trait makes The Possessed King one of the few Mythics viable in multiples; throwing 2 copies in the back is hilarious, as you sweep half the board every Extra Turn.

The Possessed King is primarily a support Troop; I'd recommend using it with Troops that require good alignment to work properly. This includes double transformers like Wrath, Infernal King, or Nimue, as well as Doomskull creators like King Bloodhammer, Glaycion, Doomed Blade, or Doomed Club. Doomskulls synergize particularly well with TPK; you'll notice a much larger swath of the board gests destroyed whenever TPK's explosions affects a Doomskull, creating a chained explosion. Don't forget about TPK's transform; I personally have found it very useful against teams that are filled with immunities. Troops like Scorpius and High King Irongut faulter when they face Troops immune to Poison or Devour (respectively), but as long as you aren't in a Raid Boss or something where a Troop has Invulnerable, any Troop can be Transformed, and after transformation, not only is the Enemy significantly weakened, they are also targetable by your more powerful spells!

My curated team featuring The Possessed King is:

• Sorrowful Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Brown/-1 Yellow)
  
• Doomed Blade (Titan is probably best)
  
• Keeper of Souls
  
• King Bloodhammer
  
• The Possessed King

This is a Doomskull-based team. You're trying to get alignment such that casting Doomed Blade or King Bloodhammer nets you a 4 or more Gem match. DO NOT cast either if you won't get an Extra Turn, because once you get Doomskulls on the board you don't want to give them to your opponent. Once you get a kill, the Doomstorm, along with Keeper of Souls and TPK, should help sustain additional cascades. The Possessed King will help keep the board moving, with the goal being to align Blue Gems or Red Gems with existing Skulls. Keeper of Souls lets you make matches with Doomskulls on the board wherever there is alignment; I find it important to this team, because if you use Glaycion instead, you end up with situations where you don't have any places you can get alignment. If you don't own Doomed Blade, one of the other Doomed weapons (watch that you use one that creates Doomskulls!) may work for you.

The Wild Queen

Green/Purple/Brown Mythic Elemental / Wildfolk from Pan's Vale

Trait Score: 1

The dancing Queen of the Wildfolk is a powerful looping Gem creator, whose spell fills the board with Skulls and Green Gems, then steals Attack from enemies to improve your Skull damage while mitigating the effects of potential misfires from her spell.

The Wild Queen is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

The Wild Queen, for 22 Mana, will "Steal up to 26 (Magic + 5) Attack from an Enemy, and give it to my first Ally. Create a mix of 22 Skulls and Green Gems. [1x]" This spell is pretty potent in its Gem creation, and depending on the quantity of Gems on the board can quite consistently result in a lot of Green mana, some Skull matches, and an extra turn. However, keep in mind that in many circumstances, The Wild Queen will "whiff" and create no matches of 4 or more Gems, resulting in the enemy taking your turn and capitalizing off your flood of Gems. However, keep in mind that Wild Queen's Attack stealing can help mitigate this.

The Wild Queen's traits are as follows:

• Wildfolk Bond: Allied Wildfolk gain 2 Life.
  
• From Bones: Summon a Bonestorm when an ally dies.
  
• Wild Frenzy: All Wildfolk allies gain 2 Attack at the start of every turn.

The Wild Queen's traits are sub-par as far as Mythics go; her unique trait provides only a minor 2 Attack, and only at the start of a turn (which doesn't happen very often in Gems of War; most teams try to loop with Extra Turns!). Additionally, From Bones can be useful in certain circumstances, but if your first troop just died, there's a good chance that the enemy will be able to capitalize on the newly-created Bonestorm.

Overall, The Wild Queen is a powerful addition to a Green and/or Skull looping team; when building a team around her, look for effective partners in these regards. This includes Green looping troops such as Stringfiddler, Webspinner, and Yasmine's Chosen, or troops with Skull synergy, such as double converters like Wrath, Glaycion, Alderfather, and Forest Guardian, or weapons like Doomed Glaive or Doomed Club. As a Elemental Wildfolk, The Wild Queen has access to two Lords to start with 50% Mana; the relatively weak King Silenus and the powerful and synergistic Maraji Queen, the latter of which converts the Green Gems that The Wild Queen creates into even more Skulls, while also having no color overlap with TWQ (so they don't hinder each other).

My curated team for The Wild Queen is:

• Mushroom Banner (+2 Green/+1 Brown/-1 Red)
  
• Wrath
  
• Doomed Club (Archer)
  
• The Wild Queen
  
• The Possessed King

Here, we're focusing on the Skull damage aspect of The Wild Queen's spell. Wrath's ability allows the skulls you create to explode the board, and there are a lot of sources of skulls; Wrath's transform creates them, as well as Brown to refill himself, Doomed Club, and Wild Queen, Wild Queen creates Skulls, along with Green to refill herself and create alignment to allow you to cast Doomed Club to create lots of Doomskulls. And every time you create a 4 or more match with any of these, The Possessed King will clear off more of the board.

The Archer Hero class has an absurd number of synergistic and useful quirks: +5 Magic to Green Weapons, +50% Starting Mana, Entangle at the start of battle, Hunter's Mark on 4 or more Gem matches (to further increase Skull damage), and one of the few sources of Leafstorm, Nature's Aura, creating one at the start of battle.

Also the full lore is an alluring piece of writing it's great please read it.[community.gemsofwar.com]

The Worldbreaker

Green/Red/Yellow Dragon/Centaur from Divinion Fields

After feasting on Moas for the last few days, not only had Queen Grapplepot finally eaten her fill, but even Death had crashed on his Apocalyptic Sofa of Bones for a nice afternoon nap. This lull in the constant chaos that is Krystara, was suddenly broken by a thunderous screech, as if something was rending the very fabric of space-time itself (or at the very least tearing a drumstick off a Moa the size of a small city). It seemed that the aroma of a million roasted melt-in-your-mouth Moas had cried out across the Universe, and summoned the largest Dragon Centaur anyone had ever seen to their homeland - the Divinion Fields.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Put away the pâté, it's The Worldbreaker! It does two things, and it does them well. In the vein of The Dragon Soul, Worldbreaker explodes Gems and deals AoE damage, but it simply does them better, to the point where it is an offensive powerhouse.

The Worldbreaker, for a whopping 30 Mana, explodes 18 Gems and deals (Magic + 5) Damage to all enemies. Unlike many other Troops and weapons, its Gem explosion is constant, large enough to nearly wipe the board, and cannot be nullified by Magic reduction or Web. Although its Damage is easily negated by these Magic reducers, or the Submerge status effect (it literally can't deal Damage when it is applied), it makes up for this with its high, easily-boosted Damage output. Its high Mana cost can be mitigated by complementing it with great Mana generation, as will be discussed later.

Worldbreaker's final Trait is quite important to its performance. It gains 5 points in a random Skill every 4 or more Gem match; there is a 25% chance this will be Magic, boosting spell Damage by 5. This can create a crazy ramp-up in spell power, and therefore, you want to maximize the number of 4 or more Gem matches you make, primarily using loops, to boost Worldbreaker's damage.

Worldbreaker is a powerhouse if supported well, and the best support is to keep its Mana up through looping. If Worldbreaker is complemented with a Storm, then whenever it casts, it has a very good chance to create a 4 or more Gem match, creating an Extra Turn, potentially boosting Worldbreaker's Magic, and allowing you to cast another exploder. Mountain Crusher and Jar of Eyes are two very good complements, destroying Gems on the board and providing Mana while creating a Storm to keep those 4 or more Gem matches coming. Magic boosting spells and the damage-boosting status effect Faerie Fire are also great complements, and Troops like Diviner and Queen Titania can provide these, respectively.

My curated team is a Green Guild War team:

• Ocularen Banner (+2 Green/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Dark Maiden
  
• Glitterclaw
  
• Mercy
  
• The Worldbreaker

Mercy and Dark Maiden are both here to simply provide Mana generation, one to create Yellow and one to Convert it to another color. This, along with Glitterclaw's conversion, creates a loop of Mana generation. Glitterclaw provides Faerie Fire along with the chance for an Extra Turn. Here, The Worldbreaker acts as our primary Damage dealer (as it usually does), dealing AoE Damage boosted by Faerie Fire.

Ubastet

Brown/Red/Yellow Divine/Raksha from Pridelands

Known by the Raksha as “The Sleeping Terror”, Ubastet is said to inhabit a palace high above the clouds where he sleeps in the Sun all day, and when it is night, he flies down to the Pridelands to hunt. While attracting his attention at night is dangerous, during the day, the Raksha only worship him in whispers, as it is said that to wake him, is to invite certain death.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Certain death indeed. Ubastet USED to be an S-Tier powerhouse. Formerly, its damage output was so high that it could instantly kill two enemy troops after only a single Skull poke with one cast of its spell. Now, post-nerf, it takes more damage to get going, but the spell is still potent, making it a valuable offensive force if you can get it set up.

Ubastet's spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 2 + Allied and Enemy Attack / 6) damage to two enemies, and if either dies, Ubastet deals Lethal Damage to the other. Even after the nerf that reduced the boost ratio, this deals about 70 damage to each enemy, which is enough to kill most troops after a weakening attack. There are two main differences that make this superior to Wulfgarok, which has a similar effect; its spell does an instant kill rather than a Devour, which makes it unaffected by enemy troops with Impervious or Indigestible; additionally, Ubastet's spell simply deals a lot more damage due to the boost ratio, making it much more reasonable to get kills than Wulfgarok. If Wulfgarok had a boost ratio that could be easily used, it would be a lot more viable (especially with the many Beast synergies).

Ubastet's Traits are unimpactful in comparison to its spell. 1 Attack and 1 Magic per turn is practically useless, especially since there are no other good Raksha to synergize with this effect. its second trait is somewhat helpful, however. It provides a Firestorm whenever an enemy dies; if you follow up Ubastet with an exploder, you will receive a large amount of Red Mana to spend on casting Ubastet's spell again.

Overall, your goal is to weaken the most important enemy troop to where it will die, taking another enemy down with it. Some good units for this work with Ubaset's Divine typing as well; Divine Protector deals around 50 damage with 4x Divines and creates 24 gems in colors that match Ubastet. Infernus is very good at weakening enemies as well, and its explosions can provide mana for Ubastet's spell. Divine Ishballa provides 40% starting mana to Ubastet and all the troops mentioned in this paragraph. Faerie Fire is also a useful resource, as it multiplies the damage output of the spell, making it easier to get a troop in killing range. Magic boosters such as Diviner also help Ubastet deal more damage.

My curated team for Ubaset, rather than going with the Divine direction I already described in my Infernus team, is a 4x Brown team:

• Bear Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Red/-1 Purple)
  
• Ragnagord
  
• Emperor Khorvash
  
• Diviner
  
• Ubastet

Ragnagord provides fast mana generation; use it to get an early explode to get mana for the other troops, and cast it often to keep mana flowing. Emperor Khorvash is a signature Guild War troop, whose mana drain prevents enemy troops from casting before yours do. Diviner provides Yellow mana for Ubastet, a useful teamwide cleanse, and Magic to boost the spells of Ubastet, Khorvash, and Diviner itself. All this mana flows into Ubaset, who can kill one of the troops weakened by Khorvash after both their spells are boosted by Diviner.

===B-TIER===

These troops are the middle of the pack. They occasionally have powerful use cases in small niches (such as Guild War days) but I ultimately wouldn't consider them widely usable or worth spending lots of Gems pursuing. If you do happen to pull them from a lucky Gem Key though, you can dedicate a team to them and they can pull their weight.

Champion of Anu

Blue/Red/Yellow Human/Knight from Sword's Edge

The two deities of Sword’s Edge are Gaard the Protector, and Anu the King. Every year, as Winter draws to an end, and armies prepare for war, there is a huge tournament at the Royal Court, currently overseen by Queen Ysabelle. The winner dons the Armor of Anu, which magnifies their strength tenfold, and for the next 12 months they lead the armies of Sword’s Edge into battle. In turn, the runner-up dons the Armor of Gaard, and for the next 12 months, they protect the homelands of Sword’s Edge.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Champion of Anu is one of a trifecta of "Guild Wars Blue Mythics." They are very focused Troops, that rely on Blue Troops on the team, that provide useful status effects or buffs. This one provides a suite of useful debuffs on a single target, while providing consistent buffs to teammates. I would recommend having one of either this, Skadi, or Undine when trying to do well with 4x Blue teams.

Champion of Anu's spell, for 24 Mana, is quite controlling; it Silences, Stuns, and Mana Drains an enemy, then deals (Magic + 4) Damage to them and the Enemies below. This is powerful control, completely turning off an ememy you're having issues with. The Damage dealt is a nice bonus, but not too significant.

Champion of Anu's Trait is the main reason why it's mainly considered for Guild War Blue days. It provides 1 to all stats (including Magic) to all Allies at the start of the turn. This may not seem like much, but the +16 stat points spread across the team will build up fast.

Anu is a great utility Troop, primarily for Blue Guild War days when you need to make certain that you're going to win, by completely shutting down your opponent's biggest threats. It's ultimately placed in this tier because it doesn't have wide usefullness; it fills a niche, and fills it well, but it doesn't provide the universal utility or Damage needed for general PvP.

My curated team for Champion of Anu is:

• Sorrowful Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Brown/-1 Yellow)
  
• Jar of Eyes (Frostmage)
  
• Emperor Khorvash
  
• Champion of Anu
  
• Queen Mab

Champion of Anu's most useful when it is in a team that can fully utilize its trait. To that effect, I created a 4x Blue team, great for Guild War days. Emperor Khorvash provides a source of Stun and Mana Drain, as does Champion of Anu. Khorvash benefits greatly from Anu's once-per-turn Magic boosts, since it deals True Damage to enemies. For the hero, Jar of Eyes provides a source of Mana generation as well as Icestorms, increasing Blue Mana income. Frostmage is a great hero class once you get it to level 70, since it can explode Gems on 4 or more Gem matches, improving your ability to change the board until it is favorable to you, while also freezing enemies, but Titan is just as good. Queen Mab also helps, to the point where the Enemy team will quite quickly become frozen, eliminating the chance they will accidentally loop out of control; Mab also provides a great source of Damage output via Mana Burn.

Champion of Gaard

Red/Green/Yellow Mythic Human / Knight from Sword's Edge

Trait Score: 4
This troop is an interesting and useful variant of Stonehammer. It creates different colors, which changes its synergies, and although it has lower Skull damage resistance, it features a high Spell damage resistance, meaning it has less of a specific weakness. Most notably, it creates a large amount of Armor, that becomes even higher in the face of danger.

Champion of Gaard is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Champion of Gaard, for 24 Mana, will "Gain 50 (2 x Magic + 8) Armor, if there's 13 or more Skulls, give double the Armor. Then create a mix of 22 Blue and Red Gems." This is a pretty significant amount of Armor, especially if the condition is met. The Gem creation is similar to The Wild Queen and Stonehammer; it can have variance. It often will create a match, but not always, and then your opponent reaps the benefits.

Champion of Gaard's traits are as follows:

• Spell Block: Reduce damage from Spells by 50%.
  
• Aegis: Reduce damage from Skulls by 60%.
  
• Blessing of Gaard: All Red Allies gain 1 to all Stats at the start of each turn.

Champion of Gaard is the troop that finally brings Spell damage and Skull damage reduction together. The combination means that, barring Stun, Champion of Gaard gains an effective 200 toughness on cast if his condition is met.

Overall, Champion of Gaard's spell is somewhat inconsistent, but the high Armor gain makes him interesting, especially for Armor-based teams. If you'd like to keep this troop at the helm, there are some great partners you can use. If you're looking to avoid Stun, then Bless (from units like Vanya Soulmourn or Moon Rabbit) is what you want. Holy St. Astra is a lord that provides this Human with 50% starting mana. Sekhma is an unexpectedly ally; it takes Reds that Gaard produces, removes the Blues that Gaard produces to create more mana for Gaard, and creates skulls that boost the power of Gaard's spell. And of course, there's the most useful partner, Tesla, whose spell takes both of the colors Gaard produces and whose damage increases as Gaard's armor builds.

My curated team for Champion of Gaard is:

• BANNER: Saurus Banner (+2 Red/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Champion of Gaard
  
• Shield of Urskaya (Sunspear)
  
• Sekhma
  
• Tesla

[6745,1221,6354,6320,3050,2,2,1,2,0,0,0,14016]

The team features Champion of Gaard at the front, blocking skull hits for the rest of the team. Look to cast the spell early, to fill the board with Reds and Blues. Sekhema provides mana generation and additional Skulls once you achieve alignment; the yellow fuels Gaard to create more Gems while the Skulls cause Gaard to gain even more Armor. Shield of Urskaya provides additional Armor in significant quantities to Gaard, further boosting the damage of our last troop, Tesla. Using the Red mana that overflows from the other troops, casting Tesla after a post-Sekhma-cast will deal a large amount of True damage to all enemies. Sunspear hero class is used to keep the gems that fall filling up Gaard to continue looping. The Shield might not be the most optimal weapon since I rarely tend to fill it; see what other weapons can be useful!

Doomclaw

Blue/Brown/Green Daemon/Urska from Urskaya

Finally, one night when the moon was full, Asbjorn found them, preparing for an invasion, with Kurandara himself standing by his summoning portal, and Hellspawn pouring through. Without thought, Asbjorn charged him. The battle was fierce and raged on for many minutes until King Asbjorn Doomclaw grabbed the Daemon Lord and they fell back through the portal. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Doomclaw is in kind of an intresting spot; it looks like it's supposed to be a damaging Troop, but really its best use case as support for other damaging Troops in the form of its trait.

Doomclaw's spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 8 + (10 x Enraged Allies)) Damage to an enemy, with separate 25% chances to Devour the Enemy above or below. This means a 9/16 chance to get no devours, or a 43% chance of getting a devour, which is slightly above average (Kraken is at 35%, Irongut starts at 35%, Kerberos is at 50%, Great Maw is at 100% but can't cast twice). Up to 70 Damage to a target is nice, but requires a lot of work (Infernus has the same cost, and does 120 Damage with no work), and the Devour can be quite inconsistent, especially given the prevalence of Impervious Troops.

Doomclaw's Trait gives it some great utility outside of its spell. Enraging a random Ally on 4 or more Gem matches is interesting, because you'd prefer Enrage on the first Ally (since that's the only one that actually deals skull damage) most of the time, but if you lose the first Troop then the second one having Enrage is helpful. It is also quite synergistic with its spell, increasing its targeted damage.

Overall, Doomclaw isn't too bad; I'd primarily base its power off of its trait, and utilize the easy Enrage for your benefit. Since this is the primary source of trait-based Enrage in the game, as well as having a decent chance of Devour tacked on, it's actually useful for Delves and high-level battles as a source of extra skull damage.

My curated team is:

• Kraken Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Blue/-1 Purple)
  
• Wrath
  
• Doomed Blade (Titan/Frostmage)
  
• Keeper of Souls
  
• Doomclaw

This team capitalizes on 4 or more Gem matches; with Lighting Strike on either of the chosen hero classes, you get explosions that let you move the board around until you get alignment for Wrath or Keeper of Souls. Doomclaw will ensure Wrath has Enrage when ready to strike, and Keeper of Souls is more reliable than Glaycion at ensuring the skull Damage chain keeps going.

Elemaugrim

Red/Purple/Brown Mythic Daemon / Dragon from Dragon's Claw

Trait Score: 4

Elemaugrim is a relatively gimmicky looping troop that is prone to failure from many fronts; if the enemy Freezes one of your Purple allies, or Submerges themselves, or becomes Blessed, or has immunity to Burn, or even if you miss getting an extra turn, your enemy is going to reap the benefits of the Gems you create, and there are more powerful looping Gem creators in the game today (such as King Gobtruffle, who guarantees an extra turn on cast). You won't crash and burn if you run him, but Elemaugrim's prime is long past now.

Elemaugrim is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Elemaugrim, for 25 Mana, will "Deal 26 (Magic + 3) damage to all enemies. Create 8 Purple Gems, boosted by Burning enemies. [1x]" This has the potential to create up to 12 Purple Gems, which depending on the board has a good chance to provide an extra turn, but you need to be lucky, and your odds decrease even more if any Enemies aren't burned. It also deals an acceptable amount of damage, but with no boost ratio and a vulnerability to Submerge, I don't recommend it as your primary damage dealer.

Elemaugrim's traits are as follows:

• Magic Heart: Gain 1 Life for each Purple ally.
  
• Impervious: Immune to all Status Effects, Devour, and Mana Burn.
  
• Darkness: Decrease all enemies' Attack by 4 on 4 or 5 Gem matches.

Elemaugrim has some relatively useful traits. Impervious is a massive boon on any troop, with the power of status effects in the game currently. Darkness is also quite potent, and can easily capitalize off the looping that Elemaugrim creates.

Overall, Elemaugrim can be risky, but if you're in the early or mid-game, creating a loop with him can be a great payoff. Look for troops that put large amounts of Purple on the board, like Umberwolf or Dark Troll. Dragons like Divinia, The Dragon Soul, Krystenax, and the Mace of Claws weapon are great partners as well. Since you need a reliable source of Burn, look for troops that can provide it, like Wrath and Infernus.

My curated team for Elemaugrim is:

• BANNER: Old Gods' Banner (+2 Purple)
  
• Asha
  
• Infernus
  
• Elemaugrim
  
• Umberwolf

Asha acts as a Mana generator with immunity to Mana Drain, useful against Psion and Khorvash. If you don't like Asha, you can use Hellcat instead (this opens up the banner to allow you to use the Crypt Banner for +2 Purple, +1 Red, -1 Green). Infernus provides high damage, team-wide Burn, and Mana generation, all things that help out Elemaugrim a lot. Elemaugrim deals Damage and provides Mana to the other Troops as discussed above. Umberwolf is here purely for support; its Trait provides Purplestorms every turn it's alive, meaning every Gem match and cascade is that much more likely to cause more Purple Gems to fall. Its spell deals a bit of damage, but causes Umberwolf to be transformed and its Trait lost; use it only if it'll win you the battle immediately, or if you're in a dire situation.

Gard's Avatar

Brown/Red/Yellow Divine/Knight from Whitehelm

The Patron Deity of Whitehelm is known as Gard, Lord of Righteousness, and Master of Justice. In times of trouble, he will send his servants, such as Mercy, to help the people of Krystara. When things are REALLY grim though, he will manifest himself upon the world as a mighty flaming Avatar.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Gard's Avatar is a relic of a bygone era. It used to be a S-tier powerhouse in PvP around 2 years ago, but now that the meta has sped up, Gard has simply fallen behind. If it's your only Mythic, it can still be used to good effect, but Gard simply cannot be relied on the way it used to.

Gard's Avatar's spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic / 2 + 2 + Armor/2) to all enemies, then Burns Undead and Silences Daemons. The side effects are barely useful, since Burn doesn't have a high impact most of the time and teams with high numbers of Daemons are highly uncommon. The main draw of this Troop is the high AoE damage. It deals about 37 base Damage to all Enemies with all Kingdom bonuses, and goes up as you boost Gard's Armor. The problem is that almost all of this comes from the boost ratio, and this means you have many strategies which you are weak to. Any weapon that strips Armor, any Troop that deals True Damage, or simply any Troop that deals a large amount of single target Damage can completely negate Gard's effectiveness. Ketras embodies this "boosting based on toughness" strategy better, since it boosts based on all stats. Ketras deals more Damage as a base, and if you can use a Troop that boosts Life, you can increase Ketras' Damage without being vulnerable to Megavore or Arachnaean Weaver.

Gard's Trait can be quite helpful for its strategy; it provides itself with 4 Armor whenever an Ally casts a spell. Since this boosts Gard's damage, it means that looping Troops (like Alchemist and Hellcat) can be quite useful. It's not essential to using Gard (since there are other ways to boost Armor) but adding 2 Damage every time an Ally casts is quite helpful.

Overall, Gard is a pretty good Damage dealer, and if it's your only Mythic it's a good idea to center your team around it. Just avoid Enemy teams with Megavore on them... Good synergies include any Troops which can boost your Armor efficiently, like Honor or Clockwork Sphinx. You can also use Divine Ishballa for 40% starting mana, and Troops that loop.

My curated team for Gard's Avatar is:

• Guardian Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Brown/-1 Green)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Clockwork Sphinx
  
• Gard's Avatar
  
• Divine Ishballa

Rather than just describe one of the teams used back when Gard was popular, I decided to build a modern team for this Armor-based Divine. Mountain Crusher provides Duststorm, and Titan provides Barrier, with the goal of maximizing Brown Mana (rather than Yellow like older Mercy-based teams) while preventing any Skull damage. Clockwork Sphinx acts for a dual purpose here; it gathers Mana for your other Troops, and boosts Gard's armor. Divine Ishballa provides Mana generation with its Transform spell, and provides Gard with 40% starting mana.

Jotnar Stormshield

Blue/Red/Yellow Divine/Giant from Stormheim

This mighty lord of the Storm Giants has been absent these past years, collecting lightning from the stormy Fey lands of the far north, but now he is returned, it said that he is untouchable, protected by spells and enchantments of ancient Fey lightning that only he can command.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Jotnar is an interesting mix of mediocre offense and great support. It provides Damage with a spell that heavily forces your team composition to be used effectively, and protection with a uniquely powerful trait.

Jotnar's spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 5 + 7 x Allied Barriers + 7 x Allied Giants) True Damage to a single target. For a mythic, this is underwhelming; Arachnaean Weaver or Suna can do as much to two enemies, with additional benefits on top of that. However, these boost ratios (Allied Barriers and Allied Giants) actually end up being quite significant; with 19 base True Damage, and a full team of Giants, we end up with between 47 and 75 True Damage. Although this can instantly kill many Troops at its best, it doesn't do much Damage for a spell that takes away your turn and provides no Mana.

Jotnar's primary use is the unique trait; it provides a Barrier to a random Ally on each 4 or more Gem match. This is extremely potent protection, isn't difficult to activate, and protects you reliably through everything but status effects like Burning. It even synergizes with Jotnar's spell! This Trait is quite potent, and is what makes Jotnar worth using.

Jotnar provides great support and protection, but is held back by the relative weakness of its spell. It can kill things, but requires setup and restricts your team composition to do so (Megavore can kill Troops without requiring a fully Barriered team of Giants!). However, Giants end up being quite a synergistic Troop type; Jotnar Stormshield and Fire Giant can help sustain an infinite loop of 4 or more Gem matches (which Jotnar loves!), the Hero class provides 50% starting Mana to all Giants while also, you know, being the best class in the game, and Hyndla Frostcrown can boost the toughness of Allies while ensuring Enemies cannot capitalize on the Gems you create. It also boosts spell power, which is particularly valuable to Jotnar, who does True Damage rather than normal Damage.

My curated team for Jotnar is, thusly, Giant-focused:

• Meteor Banner (+2 Red/+1 Brown/-1 Purple)
  
• Flammifier (Titan)
  
• Jarl Firemantle
  
• Jotnar Stormshield
  
• Hyndla Frostcrown

This is a looping team, that capitalizes heavily on all aspects of Jotnar Stormshield. Having the Titan hero class is a must here for the quick start, Barrier on Brown matches, and Lightning Strike to aid in looping. Flammifier is the weapon here, because the Red Gems it creates can easily create 4 or more Gem matches and fill Jarl or Jotnar. Jarl is also great, since it uses Red created by Flammifier and itself, and creates Red and Yellow gems, which are used by Flammifier, Jarl, and Jotnar. Once you've looped a bunch and Barriered a few Allies, it becomes much less risky to end your turn casting Jotnar to kill an enemy. Through all this looping, Hyndla is boosting the toughness (and spell power!) of your Allies. If you cast Hyndla as a last resort, it can Freeze three enemies, preventing you from any risk of a Gem creator "whiffing" and giving your opponent multiple Extra Turns.

Phoenicia

Red/Green/Yellow Elemental/Stryx from Suncrest

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked Phoenicia's release post anyway. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Phoenicia's story is one of a sad plummet from grace. When its statistics were first found in the game files, those who saw it were excited. The numbers didn't lie; it was reasonable to expect over 100 Damage to all Troops in a single cast, without Faerie Fire! It required a lot of support to pull off, but it would definitely have made A-tier on this list. Sadly, those numbers were stealthily changed, clipping its wings before the Troop was even released.

Phoenicia's spell would have been the tier placer. For 24 Mana, it deals (Magic + 1 + Burning Enemies + Red Gems), doubled if there is an active Firestorm, to all enemies. With a reasonably populated board (12 Red gems) and all Enemies Burning (4), you get about 33 damage, 66 if there is a Firestorm. Although respectable, most Troops have much higher health than this, even if you strip away their Armor with Megavore, and since using this spell requires you lose your turn with many Red Gems on the board, you're just asking for Yao Guai to sweep you. In a different meta, maybe, but not this one.

Previously, Phoenicia's spell had a boost ratio of 2 and a base Magic stat of 8, meaning with the average board (4 Burning enemies, 12 Red gems), you deal 53 AoE damage, 106 if there is a Firestorm. That would have been enough to kill all opponents if you had stripped Armor beforehand, and with Faerie Fire you might be able to 1HKO most enemies! It would have been worthy of its Mythic tier. Sadly, this was not to be.

Phoenicia's Trait is simply hot garbage. It only has a 50% CHANCE to Burn enemies, and since it triggers at the start of the turn, and doesn't count Extra Turns, it takes several turns for it to trigger a significant number of times, not to mention the fact that it can target the same Troop twice, or target a Troop that can't be Burned, or the Burn can wear off. Look for a better source of Burn (*cough* Infernus *cough*) if you want that. Even Death's Trait is a better source of Damage output, and that's saying something!

Overall, Phoenicia requires a lot of work without dealing a worthwhile amount of Damage in exchange. If you do get a copy, and want to capitalize on Phoenicia the best, you will want to maximize Red Gems on the board, and ensure Firestorms exist at all times, and maybe try to get a source of Burn. The Sunspear Hero class provides a Firestorm at the start of every turn, both increasing the number of Red Gems and doubling the spell's damage; it also has a variety of useful utilities, like Dawnbringer, Mountain Crusher, and Flammifier. Infernus can provide Firestorms and a reliable source of Burn, and its spell provides great Mana generation and damage. Hellcat, Moneylender, Flame Troll, and Tai-Pan are all transformers that are a major source of Red gems, and Alchemist loops with Hellcat and Moneylender well.

My curated team for this Troop is this one:

• Crypt Banner (+2 Red/+1 Purple/-1 Green)
  
• Flammifier (Titan/Sunspear)
  
• Queen Titania
  
• Phoenicia
  
• Tai Pan

Flammifier and Tai-Pan provide a big burst of Red Gems to kickstart everything. If you have Sunspear as your hero class, you get a guaranteed source of Firestorm, but Titan does provide Barrier on brown matches and explosions on 4 or more Gem matches to help you out in other ways. Queen Titania provides a source of Faerie Fire to boost spell damage, and can either weaken Enemy Troops for a big hit or clean them up when they're weak, and you can't complain about that free Extra Turn!

Skadi

Blue/Purple/Yellow Divine/Fey from Glacial Peaks

Despite her size, Skadi, the Queen of the Winter Solstice, is one of the oldest and most powerful creatures in Krystara. Many believe that she was a servant of Anu, whom he tasked with creating the frosty northern lands, and she loved her work so much she chose to remain there. Others tell tales where she was the first Fey of the Winter Court, and Queen Mab is her direct descendant.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Skadi is one of a trifecta of "Guild Wars Blue Mythics." They are very focused Troops, that rely on Blue Troops on the team, that provide useful status effects or buffs. Skadi provides many great boosts to the team; it provides control, disruption, improved Mana generation, AND a summon if you need it. I would recommend having one of either this, Champion of Anu, or Undine when trying to do well with 4x Blue teams.

Skadi's spell, for 20 Mana, Freezes the first two enemies, deals (Magic + Mana collected) Damage to the, then pushes them to the back. Additionally, Queen Mab (a legendary) will be summoned if there is space on the team. This is a very helpful spell that provides great utility and disruption; Freezing Enemies will limit the number of Extra Turns they can get from matches or casting spells, while knocking Enemies to the back messes up their Mana. Think about it; usually, when building teams, you tend to put Mana generators at the front so they fill quickly, and then put the big Damage dealing Troops behind them. Skadi throws that under the bus, putting your opponent's big threats right up front where you can smack them, and your opponent's Mana generators in the back where they can't get Mana. This is also one of the most synergistic and useful summons in the game; Mab's Trait provides a great source of Freeze to supplement Skadi's, Mab's spell provides additional Mana Burn while also benefiting from having lots of Blue Gems on the board (via Extra Turn), Overall, an amazing spell, especially if you're behind and need to get back on top.

Skadi's unique Trait provides an Icestorm at the start of every turn. This is why it's primarily used on Blue Guild War days; it allows you to consistently provide Mana for your other Troops on your team with a guaranteed boost to the number of falling Blue gems.

Skadi is ultimately not fast enough for general PvP, but it's certainly powerful and reliable. It's a great Troop to add to your team if you're thinking "it's Guild Wars, my team needs 4 Blue Troops, and I want to make sure that everything gets Mana and that my opponents are at their worst," and that's a great niche to be in, and one Skadi excels at filling.

My curated team for Skadi is somewhat for fun, a three-Mythic Blue day team!

• Frozen Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Purple/-1 Red)
  
• Azura
  
• Champion of Anu
  
• Undine
  
• Skadi

This one is particularly suited to beating up defensive Undine teams; if you can't beat them, join them! Azura combined with Skadi means a constant flood of Blue mana, which you'll need if you want to fill your other Troops. Anu provides Silence, Stun, and Mana drain on a chosen target, which is especially effective against expensive Mythics with annoying Traits and spells (**cough** Undine **cough** Wow I need to see a doctor or something that cough was bad!). Undine provides Silence against Blue Enemies (which will affect the whole Enemy team if you're lucky!) as well as Submerge for the whole team, greatly reducing Damage dealt by Enemies like Krystenax. Skadi provides Freeze, Mana Burn (which does quite a bit of damage), and Summon to help recover in case a Troop dies.

As stated before, this team is particularly suited to fighting Undine. Anu stuns to prevent Mana Shield from protecting Undine against Mana Burn from Skadi, Skadi freezes to slow the Enemy team down, Anu Mana Drains the Enemy to prevent casting, and Anu and Undine Silence Enemies to prevent them from casting or gaining mana. This is important, since if Undine casts, you're basically done for, since every Ally will be silenced! If you want to maximize your chances with your 4x Blue team, this is a good option to try!

If you're looking for a team that isn't incredibly expensive, try Azura/Emperor Khorvash/Krystenax/Skadi. I didn't feature it here because I already featured very similar teams for Undine and Champion of Anu, and really, any of the trio can be slotted in to create an effective Blue day team.

Stonehammer

Blue/Brown/Yellow Divine/Dwarf from Khaziel

At the battle of Khazdorin Peak, when his whole clan was slain, he refused to give up until every last Orc lay dead.
In the great Forge-Explosion of Dwarrow Deep, he refused to let the fire burn him or the rock crush him, as he clawed his way from the rubble.
When his time as King of Karak Khaziel was over, he refused to lay down on his bier to go and meet his ancestors.
And, finally, when Death came seeking him, he kicked Death fair and square in the nuglets, and went on his way.
They say he once made fire in far north by rubbing 2 icicles together.
That a Sand Cobra once bit him on the leg, and after 5 days of excruciating pain, the Cobra died.
And that he once cooked one minute noodles in 15 seconds. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Watch your minute noodles, it's Stonehammer! Recent buffs have really improved this troop. Even though this troop's Trait still makes you put it in front, blocking many colors, the spell has been drastically improved, although not a guarantee.

Stonehammer, for 24 Mana, creates a mix of 22 Red and Brown Gems, Stuns and Burns all Enemies, and gives itself (Magic + 1) Life. This is up from the 15 Gems created before the 4.3.0 update; on average, you'll get about 11 of each Gem, but since it's random, you may get more of one or the other. Due to the RNG aspect of this Mana generation, it usually ends up granting you some mana, but occasionally results in setting a 4 or more Gem match up for you opponent. Burn isn't usually too impactful, the Life gain is an afterthought at best with the quantity that it gives, but Stun is a great bonus (although this isn't the most efficient source of Stun anymore).

Stonehammer's unique Trait reduces incoming skull Damage by 80%. It takes 5 times as much skull Damage to kill Stonehammer, and this makes it very useful in high-toughness gamemodes like Delves and the Tower of Doom, where, in the highest levels, a single errant skull can destroy one or even two Troops. Not with Stonehammer!

Stonehammer is in an odd position; you want it at the front taking skull Damage for you, but it also blocks three colors of Mana with a mostly unhelpful spell. Most of the time, I'd be using the Titan Hero for what I'd be using Stonehammer for anyway.

Stonehammer's curated team is this one for high-level Brown Delves:

• Bear Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Red/-1 Purple)
  
• Stonehammer
  
• Doomed Club
  
• King Bloodhammer
  
• Doomclaw

This is a team centered on Skull Damage. Doomed Club and King Bloodhammer help create Doomskulls, while Stonehammer's Trait defends against the opponent trying to use them against you. Doomclaw's consistent Enrage boosts damage, prevents Enemy Traits from hindering our Skull damage, and gives a chance to Devour once in a while. Try to cast Doomed Club or Bloodhammer if your team creates a 4 or more Gem match, or you know the damage they deal will win you the match.

Suna

Green/Purple/Red Divine/Fey from Bright Forest

Queen Suna led the Fey of the Summer Court in Bright Forest for so many years, that the recorded history of the Humans does not stretch back to the time when she ascended the throne. And she would, no doubt, still be there today if the Al-Maraji Empire, under the cruel leadership of God-Emperor Scorpius, had not invaded 1000 years ago... ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Suna is capable of some pretty high Damage numbers, and does so while also increasing its own durability, and providing support to its own Damage with its trait. In general, however, it takes some time to get rolling, and other Troops are capable of destroying things more quickly, making this kinda slow for the current metagame.

Suna's spell, for 20 Mana, deals (Magic + 3) True Damage to the two weakest enemies, gains Life equal to the Damage dealt (written as Steal Life), then steals 8 Magic from each of the two strongest enemies. This spell, though the Damage starts small, snowballs pretty well; it deals 22 base True Damage with all Kingdom bonuses, and increases by 16 when you cast. It deals 38 Damage the second cast; after the second cast, you've dealt 60 True Damage, and it's likely two Troops have died, and the other two have much weaker spell power. And that's without considering Faerie Fire!

Sun Fire is a highly synergistic unique trait. It applies Faerie Fire on a random Enemy each time Red Gems are matched. Although probably more of a legendary-tier ability (Queen Titania and Tinseltail both have similar ones), a reliable source of Faerie Fire is definitely nothing to scoff at, and it is quite easy to loop with Red Gems (as we'll see in the team below).

Overall, Suna is a pretty good Damage dealer, not only boosting its own Damage over time through its spell but also through its trait. Not the best Damage dealer (higher-tier Troops take that throne) but certainly usable.

My curated team is:

• Meteor Banner (+2 Red/+1 Brown/-1 Purple)
  
• Flammifier (Titan)
  
• Yao Guai
  
• Suna
  
• Tai-Pan

This is basically a standard Yao Guai team, but with Suna doing the job of Queen Titania. Flammifier and Tai-Pan work together to provide an extremely quick start, with the goal being to power up and cast Yao Guai. As they do so, they will produce Red Mana that will Faerie Fire enemies, as well as overflow from Yao into Suna.

If you're looking to try this team without Suna, the much more popular variant uses Queen Titania in this position as a source of Faerie Fire.

Undine

Blue/Green/Red Divine/Merfolk from Merlantis

Undine is the Demigod of the western oceans, son of the Sea God Seidonis. He is worshipped by the Merfolk of Merlantis, and although he mostly resides in a separate plane of existence, he keeps a close eye on the seas and the folk who pay him tribute; even many of the Blackhawk pirates have an unwavering faith in Undine’s ability to grant them safe passage.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Undine is one of a trifecta of "Guild Wars Blue Mythics." They are very focused Troops, that rely on Blue Troops on the team, that provide useful status effects or buffs. Undine is different in that its usefulness is restricted to when the Enemy team contains mostly Blue Troops. When facing it on Defense, it can be a very difficult foe if you're not prepared. I would recommend having one of either this, Champion of Anu, or Skadi when trying to do well with 4x Blue teams.

Undine's spell, for 20 Mana, deals (Magic + 3 + 8 x Merfolk Allies + 8 x Submerged Allies) Damage to an Enemy and the one below it, if any. It also Submerges Blue Allies and Silences Blue Enemies. The Damage isn't too useful, the side effects are very much important; the Silence can be quite niche, but it's great when facing teams of mostly Blue Troops or teams containing Blue Troops you want to Silence (like an Enemy Undine!). The Submerge is also very useful for decreasing the enemy's Damage output. If you're lucky enough to face a 4x Blue team, or unlucky enough to be facing this with a 4x Blue team (which usually ends up happening at least once every Guild War Week), a full-team Silence can basically shut down an entire Enemy team for several turns, which is a long time in this game. Ultimately this spell is good when you can both guarantee the Enemy has 4 Blue Troops, and the stakes are high and turns are essential; again, sounds like a Guild War day! Overall, a great anchor for a Blue day defense.

Undine's Trait is also quite annoying. It Submerges at the start of the turn! This can be very disruptive to anything that damages all enemies. Don't overlook the second Trait though; it provides immunity to Mana Burn and Mana Drain! Although this doesn't work on Emperor Khorvash or Champion of Anu since they Stun first, it does provide additional protection against bothersome Troops like Psion and Queen Mab.

Undine ultimately ends up being very niche; I only use it once a month, but when I do, it provides powerful control, and if it manages to cast, your opponent is not going to have a good day.

My curated team is my Blue Day defense:

• Frozen Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Purple/-1 Red)
  
• Azura
  
• Emperor Khorvash
  
• Undine
  
• Queen Mab

This is a very controlling defensive team. It provides Submerge through Undine, Dispel and Mana generation through Azura, Stun and Mana drain through Emperor Khorvash, and Freeze through Queen Mab. Very difficult to defeat if Undine manages to cast and the opponent don't get cleansed quickly.

Voice of Orpheus

Purple/Red/Yellow Divine/Human from Leonis Empire

When Orpheus needs to speak with his priestesses urgently, however, he does not have time to wait for a bunch of singing winged lion-scorpions to figure out what’s up and sing about it… He sends a messenger - the Voice of Orpheus. This divine creature appears as a beautiful human, and their voice is so mellifluous, that all but the Devoted become immediately entranced.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 5

Voice of Orpheus is a great supporting Troop, whose Trait provides almost complete protection from status effects. Throw it in the back of your team if you find yourself losing to status effects, or you need to make sure they aren't a problem during your Guild War battles. Besides that, however, I wouldn't consider it extremely useful.

Voice of Orpheus' spell, for 22 Mana, deals (8 + Magic + Allied Mana) Damage to a single target. It then cleanses all Allies and gives all Allies (except itself) 5 mana. This spell is rarely worth using; it is, at best, only useful for cleaning up Troops that are almost dead anyway. It's not helpful for Mana generation since it causes you to loose the turn, but maybe if you REALLY need that cleanse...

Voice of Orpheus' Traits are certainly the best part about it. Impervious is a massive boon, and one of the most powerful Traits in the game, providing immunity to every status effect but Curse. Its unique trait, Adagio, cleanses all Allies on Yellow matches. This counters everything your opponents could try to throw at you, from Frozen to Stun to Entangle and Web. As the most reliable source of Cleanse in the game, it's a great resource.

Despite the limited viability of its spell, Voice of Orpheus provides great utility in the form of its unique trait, allowing you to remove any negative status effects with ease. I'd recommend putting Voice of Orpheus in the back of your team, so it doesn't block mana, while providing full use of its Trait (as well as preventing Devour from Troops like Kraken that Attack the back line!).

My curated team for Voice of Orpheus is:
* Crypt Banner (+2 Red/+1 Purple/-1 Green)
* Divine Ishballa
* Infernus
* Suna
* Voice of Orpheus

It's a Divine team, but not one you're used to! You have the typical Ishballa-powers-Infernus combination, but you also have Suna, who provides Faerie Fire to improve the Damage dealt by both Infernus and Suna. You also have Voice of Orpheus in the back, providing support with its consistent Cleanse, preventing Enemy Troops from using

Yasmine's Chosen

Brown/Green/Purple Divine/Fey from Forest of Thorns

When the Forests of Krystara are under dire threat, the Goddess Yasmine, mistress of life and nature, has a unique way of defending them. She will choose one of the oldest trees deep with the woods, “break off” a small portion of her spirit, and place it within the tree. The tree will spring to life, often taking on the form of Yasmine herself, and use its god-given power to wrap any Enemies in vines and smite them. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Yasmine's Chosen is primarily an infinite looping Troop. It can be unreliable at times, but when it works, it deals Scatter Damage while consistently creating the Mana to gain Extra Turns or even cast again.

Yasmine's Chosen's spell, for 21 Mana, deals (Magic + 10 + 10 x Entangled Enemies) Scatter Damage, then creates 10 Green Gems. The Scatter Damage (which ranges from 22 to 62 depending on Kingdom bonuses) makes it good at cleaning up low-health Enemies, while also creating the Gems to gain an Extra Turn, fill Allies, or even cast again if you're lucky.

Yasmine's Chosen's unique trait, Wild Vines, Entangles a random Enemy on Green Gem matches. Although Entangle on a Troop that is not the first Troop isn't necessarily useful, it does boost Yasmine's Damage by 10 for each Troop entangled, improving the power of Yasmine's loop. The fewer times you need to loop to kill the Enemy's Troops, the fewer chances you have to "whiff" and miss your Extra Turn with Yasmine's Gem creation.

Overall, Yasmine can deal about 60 Scatter Damage on average, with all Enemies Entangled. Although this is less than simpler Troops like Sunbird, Yasmine makes up for bit by creating Green Gems to attempt to cast again. This makes it useful with Troops that can capitalize on or guarantee Green loops. Any Troop that boosts Green Mana gained, such as Dark Maiden or Queen Aurora, will help boost Mana income with the aim of refilling Yasmine. Troops that can also loop with Green like Webspinner will also be quite useful.

My curated team is actually based on Tacet's long-time Green Guild War team:

• Ocularen Banner (+2 Green/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Webspinner
  
• Yasmine's Chosen
  
• Dark Maiden
  
• Queen Aurora

This is a team focused heavily on looping; if you are facing a team which is capable of Freeze, you might want to switch. Webspinner and Yasmine both create Green gems, powering each other to deal more Damage and create more gems. Queen Aurora is in the back, catching excess Mana to protect Allies, and using its Trait to attempt to maximize Green Mana income. Dark Maiden has Nature Link and is a transformer that converts Yellow into a desired color, for even more green generation. Ultimately, the Banner combined with the link Traits provides 7 Green Mana per Green 3-match, and that's without Mana Surge! All this Green focus is to attempt to ensure that Yasmine and Webspinner can continue looping.

===C-TIER===

These mythics aren't very useful at all. These are the troops that make you wish they worked well; they ultimately don't, but they're just good enough to make you feel like "hey, I can make this thing work if I dedicate my entire team to it" until you lose and realize that was a waste of time.

Abynissia

Blue/Purple/Yellow Daemon from Blighted Lands

For centuries, it had been believed that the Infernal King had entered Krystara of his own volition, a great leader in his own right, aiming to conquer the world. However, a great disturbance in the rift between worlds has recently been observed, and through it has come the TRUE leader the Blighted Lands, Abynissia, the Daemon Queen. The Infernal King, it seems, is merely her servant, and she can summon him at a whim, as well as strengthen any Daemonic Allies called to her side. Bow down before her might! ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Abynissia is one of those Troops who just doesn't do its job better than anyone else. Its role is as a supporting Troop that you throw in the back (like The Possessed King and Queen Aurora), intended to provide consistent benefits with its spell and trait. However, the spell is more expensive than more reliable exploders, and the summon doesn't make up for it.

Abynissia's spell, for 22 Mana, explodes all Gems of a chosen color, and summons an Infernal King. The Infernal King's level is the lowest of either Abynissia's Magic or your Infernal King's level, so be sure to obtain and level IK before using Abynissia. Infernal King isn't too bad of a summon, but this doesn't make up for Abynissia's high Mana cost, especially in comparison to other exploders.

Abynissia's unique Trait gives 1 Attack and Life to all allied Daemons at the start of each turn. Since this triggers on turns and not 4 or more Gem matches, the impact of this effect over the course of a battle will be very minimal. You'd be lucky if this Trait helped you survive a single hit! Not worth the 40+ traitstone cost.

Abynissia is, again, one of those Troops that doesn't do anything better than its competitors. It has a pretty good summon, but other Troops (like Arachnaean Weaver) can summon Troops that are just as good while also having a better spell. Speaking of the spell, it is much too expensive for Mana generation, compared to better exploders like Ragnagord, Azura, Leprechaun, or Mountain Crusher. If you don't need the extra Troop, Abynissia's spell is a waste of mana. If you're looking for a support Troop to use in the last slot, I'd prefer a Troop with a persistent, powerful trait, like Queen Aurora or The Possessed King.

My curated team for Abynissia is:

• Lantern Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Red/-1 Green)
  
• Glaycion
  
• Divine Ishballa
  
• Infernus
  
• Abynissia

Here, the plan is to mainly use Infernus to generate Mana and deal damage, while using Glaycion and Ishballa together to make Skull and Doomskull matches. Any overflow Mana goes into Abynissia (which will be a bunch, since both Glaycion and Ishballa create Mana that Abynissia can use), whose explosion creates Mana for the other Troops. If Glaycion happens to die, Infernal King makes a great replacement, also creating more Skulls and creating Mana for Infernus.

Death

Blue/Purple/Red Undead/Daemon from Apocalypse

From the mysterious hidden kingdom, Apocalypse, the last rider has appeared. Death is most feared of all the horseman, for once he has placed his mark upon you, your soul belongs to him!ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Death is interesting in that it fills no niche. I think it's still probably the most consistent source of Death Mark in the game, but there are Troops that use Death Mark to much better upsides, and why rely on the random chance of Death Mark when you can just deal damage?

Death's spell, for 24 Mana, Death Marks all enemies, then deals (Magic + 15 + (Death's Life / 3)) to all enemies. So that's... less Damage than Sunbird does. For twice as much mana. And if you want a way to Death Mark enemies, you could use the Death Knight hero class, or the Doom Troops (although they only have a percentage chance to apply it). So yeah, not a very useful spell.

So, let's move on to the Traits then, maybe its unique Trait can redeem it? Nope, steal 2 Life at the start of the turn. That's it. In modern matches where one game was so important, this is insignificant. Maybe at best it cleans up one Troop you could have killed next turn anyway. I don't even see how this Trait could be useful even in the era when it came out?

Overall, I don't fear the Reaper at all, it's rarely capable of doing any harm.

I might try this curated team though, just for fun. Thanks to NecroDancer for this one:

• Abyssal Banner (+2 Purple, +1 Red, -1 Yellow)
  
• Wall of Bones
  
• Grave Seer
  
• Death
  
• Widow Queen

Grave Seer kicks off the Mana generation with an empowerered conversion, while Wall of Bones provides continued boosts of toughness and mana. Widow Queen provides Web, reducing the enemy's spell power. It can also sacrifice an Ally to deal Damage to enemies. Death itself has a spell that provides Death Mark and scatter damage.

Draakulis

Blue/Green/Red Undead from Ghulvania

As the famous bards Goblin & Sullivan once wrote:

When I sally forth to seek my prey
I help myself in an Undead way.
I bite a few more necks, it’s true,
Than a well-bred monarch ought to do;
But many a king on a first-class throne,
If he wants to call his crown his own,
Must manage somehow to get through
More dirty work than ever I do,
For I am a Vampire King!
And it is, it is, a glorious thing, to be a Vampire King. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Draakulis is could be good if you get the Magic for it, but it simply is less powerful than other Mythics. Keep in mind it was one of the very first Mythics added to the game, and thus power creep has made it obsoleted. As it is, there are way more Troops that need much less support to work, and can do much more with the support that you would need just to make Draakulis functional.

Draakulis spell, for 20 Mana, deals (Magic + 5) True Damage to all enemies; Draakulis then gains Life equal to the Damage dealt (this is phrased as Steal Life). This can be boosted with Magic buffs and Faerie Fire, but the ultimate problem is that there are simply better Mythic Damage Troops, like Elemaugrim, Infernus, or Worldbreaker, and Draakulis has fallen behind in output. In particular, Suna does the same thing, has a built-in source of Faerie Fire, and does more Damage each time you cast without requiring another Troop to buff.

Draakulis' Trait provides 8 Life when it deals Skull damage. This is a difficult qualification to meet; it requires placing Draakulis at the front of the team, which not only makes it vulnerable to Enemy Skull matches, but also means that your first Troop is blocking three colors! Overall it's not worth trying to exploit this Trait at all; if you want a frontline tank, try Gorgotha or the Titan hero class.

Draakulis was originally a great variant of Crimson Bat with high Damage potential, but newer mythics have pushed it down to lower viability. If you want to make it work, try using it with Damage boosters and Troops that increase Magic like Glitterclaw, Diviner, and Humility.

My curated team is:

• Talon Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Green/-1 Blue)
  
• Humility
  
• Humility
  
• Draakulis
  
• Moon Rabbit

Use Moon Rabbit to quickly power up Humility. Use the Humilities to pump up Draakulis' Magic stat, and to create Mana, then cast Draakulis once it gets Mana. One lucky cast of Humility can boost Draakulis' AoE Damage by 20 or more, and if Humility takes damage, that also boosts Draakulis' damage. This team previously used Mercy, but I switched to Moon Rabbit because I prefer the Life buff for the Humilities on top of the Blessing to help protect the first Humility from harmful status effects.

Euryali

Blue/Green/Yellow Divine/Naga from Mist of Scales

Many centuries ago, a special Naga child was hatched. She was half snake, half humanoid, like her mother, but she had the most wondrous set of wings. It was widely believed, though never confirmed, that the father was Undine, God of the Sea. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 5

Euryali provides minor utility at best. It has mediocre True Damage that's way too expensive and a trash-tier summon. Its only redeeming quality is that the Unique Trait is the most reliable source of Poison in the game, and if it didn't have that... Oh yeah and she's super hot 10/10 I'd let her step on me. Or whatever the equivalent for a snake lady is.

Euryali's spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 1 + (2 x Naga Allies) + (2 x Undead Allies)) True Damage to all enemies, then summons a Bone Naga. This usually ends up being about (8 + 1 + 12 + 2) = 23 True damage, since Euryali is itself a Naga. This is 7 more Mana for the same effect as Crimson Bat, with a summon tacked on? The summon can be somewhat useful if you have space (since it increases the spell Damage by 4), but come on, an Ultra-Rare? You're a Mythic, babe, there are (ahtata, carry the 2..., factor the 8) THREE Mythics that can summon Legendaries, and they're all GOOD ones too! If they added a new Legendary, Undead Naga, then buffed Euryali to summon it, it'd see a lot more use.

Euryali's unique Trait poisons all Enemies on 4 or more Gem matches. Although this won't deal much damage, it's probably Euryali's main utility; you'll probably be using this Troop with other Troops that benefit from Poison (Exhibit A: Scorpius!)

The best thing to use Euryali with is something that wants Poison (*cough* SCORPIUS *cough*). Woof, you know who could help with that cough? Doctor Magnus, whose AoE Damage is boosted by Poison. You can also use Troops that create Faerie Fire, or boost Magic, to increase Euryali's Damage output (Queen Titania and Diviner do these respectively.)

My curated team for Euryali is:

• Saurus Banner (+2 Red/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Chief Dargon
  
• Maralith
  
• Euryali
  
• Tai-Pan

This team is based around Naga, increasing Euryali's Damage via boost ratio. Tai-Pan kicks off the battle quickly. Chief Dargon and Maralith both provide extra Mana on cast, and casting them multiple times can help power up Euryali. Here, your goal is to either kill Enemies with high Attack from Chief Dargon, or with True Damage from Euryali.

Fallen Valdis

Blue/Brown/Purple Undead/Mystic from Dhrak-Zum

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked Fallen Valdis' release post anyway.ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Fallen Valdis was clearly intended to be a counter to the 4x Divines meta team, but it was released when Divines were already leaving the meta, so Fallen Valdis has quickly fallen out of favor, pun intended. Even its trait is obsoleted by the Plaguelord hero class, which has much more utility and flexibility.

Fallen Valdis' spell, for 24 mana, deals (Magic + 7) Damage to all Enemies, explodes (3 + Divine Enemies) Doomskulls, and Silences all Divines. This seems like an odd mixture of abilities, until you realize this Troop is designed to be a hard-counter to Divines. Its AoE Damage is mediocre as far as Troops go, but not abysmal, and its Silence is very useful, since many of the Troops that it affects are powerful Mythic Troops. The explode is very niche though, since the odds of having 3 Doomskulls on the board, much less 7, is slim to none outside a Doomskull team.

Fallen Valdis' traits are an interesting situation. Dark Death (Summon a Darkstorm when an Enemy dies) is quite useful, allowing you to easily cascade after an Enemy dies in a manner similar to Infernus. Valdis' unique trait, Grim Curse, Diseases a random enemy on Purple matches, halving the mana they gain from gem matches until it dispels. Although this is a useful ability, and a relatively consistent method to apply it, it is superceded by the much more useful Plaguelord class. With just Champion Level 10 and three Traits, it can apply Disease not just with 4 or more Gem matches, but also with green Gem matches. Combined with the fact that Plaguelord has the powerful Stone talent tree, a 50% mana start, and can use any of the available weapons, Fallen Valdis is completely beaten out of its support niche by Plaguelord. The trait isn't unusuable though, especially in a Purple-heavy team.

Overall, I wouldn't rely on Fallen Valdis to single-handedly destroy the Enemy team, but she'd make an interesting support Troop in the fourth slot of a team primarily based on Purple mana, especially at times when Divines are a useful defense team. There are many better support Troops to use here, but there are also worse ones.

Here's a cool team, utilizing 4x Purple Troops for Guild Wars:

• Abyssal Banner (+2 Purple/+1 Red/-1 Yellow)
  
• Hellcat
  
• Infernus
  
• Elemaugrim
  
• Fallen Valdis

Hellcat is a Mana generator to power up Infernus and Elemaugrim. Once Infernus gets a kill, it will create a Firestorm, but Valdis will replace it with a Purplestorm. This means that Elemaugrim will be able to loop to its fullest, and every Purple match will cripple the opposing team's ability to gain the Mana needed to cast their spells.

Plague

Blue/Green/Purple Daemon/Fey from Apocalypse

From the mysterious hidden kingdom, Apocalypse, another rider has appeared. Plague is much-feared by all the mortal races, for not only does he carry regular diseases with him, but he also inflicts a terrible wasting sickness upon all who behold him, where they slowly wither and die. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 3

Plague is... weird. He's kinda interesting in that it can slowly wither away at an enemy's offensive power to weaken them into becoming unable to fight you, but this has two problems: Firstly, Gems of War rewards quick games, where you can destroy the Enemy team as fast as possible, both in that you can move on to the next battle for more rewards quickly, and literally in the form of points in Guild Wars! Secondly, other teams will be much faster than you, to the point where even if you did decide to go slow, you wouldn't be able to weaken them before they destroyed you! This might be cool in older versions of the game, but not now.

Plauge's spell is pretty interesting; for 22 Mana, it Poisons and Diseases (the latter halving Mana gained from matching Gems), and decreases a random Skill by (Magic + 2). The Skill lowered can be different for each enemy; you can decrease Life or Armor, which is essentially like dealing Damage or True Damage, but it's almost never enough to kill something. The other half of the time, you impact a Troop's offensive power, and eventually their Attack and Magic will drop to zero! Poison is unimpactful, but Disease's reduction in Mana gain means it's easier for you to cast than them, and eventually their blades will become not unlike those rubber toy mallets that make a squeaky sound when you hit things! Then it's just a matter of time before you win... Yeah, in this game that's too slow on offense, generally.

Plague's Trait is synergistic with its spell, which is a plus. Every 4 or more Gem match, all Enemies lose 3 points in a random skill; if that's Life or Armor, it's almost as though nothing happened, but since most Troops generally only have about 20 or so Magic and 35-40 attack, every time you reduce those will improve your ability to survive.

I don't know what I'd do to change Plague to make it better. It just seems like it fills a niche that the rest of the game discourages? I don't know, he's pretty good on defense and maybe that's good enough.

Here's a frustratingly slow defense team you can make with Plague:

• Trident Banner (+2 Blue/+1 Green/-1 Yellow)
  
• Humility
  
• Lady Anariel
  
• Behemoth
  
• Plague

I've actually seen this team on defense before, and it's a pain if you don't know what you're doing when you fight it. The strategy it's going for is to become so tanky it's impossible for you to kill them. Firstly, if you deal a bunch of chip Damage to Humility, it boosts the Magic stat of EVERYBODY, then when you actually cast Humility, it provides Mana to everybody else while also boosting a skill; it's more likely than not to be toughness, but if it hits Magic, you're in for a rough time when Lady Anariel casts and gives everybody 40 Life while also giving itself more mana. Behemoth gains 10 Life EVERY TIME your team makes a 4 or more Gem match, including from Gems made by the Mana generators, and it provides a bit of Damage and Mana generation with its spell. Plague is using all these 4 or more Gem matches in the back; each one reduces Skill bit by bit, making your Troops become frailer and frailer. Once it actually casts, you'll suddenly realize that their Troops are tougher than ever, and your Troops have no Attack or magic! A fun team, but not on the receiving end.

Queen of Sin

Brown/Green/Yellow Daemon/Mystic from Sin of Maraj

Trait Scale: 3

This is one of those Mythics I can confidently place at a mere glance. A spell dealing a mediocre of damage with an okay summon, and a niche side effect that requires warping your team composition for a mild benefit? Yeah, no thanks..

Queen of Sin's Spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 1) True Damage to the first two Enemies, then randomly summons either Wrath or Lust (50% chance for each), then applies Bless to all allied Daemons. The summon isn't too bad as far as summons go, at least they're Legendaries (I'm looking at you, Euryali) and they are pretty useful if you're behind. However, for the low amount of damage Queen of Sin does, I'd much prefer a better Mythic to take up that precious team slot. Like Arachnaean Weaver, who deals True Damage instead, has a higher base damage, doesn't need to cast to summon, and has potential to provide Mana and Web!

Queen of Sin's traits aren't too useful either. Losing random skill points can be sorta useful, especially when Magic or Attack get hit, and the trigger is somewhat repeatable, but it's not ideal, and it takes a long time to get anything useful done, even when it does work.

Overall, Queen of Sin just doesn't have a place in the game. Its trait is pitiful, and its spell is superceded by other, more powerful spells and abilities. If you're looking for Bless, try Qilin or Vanya Soulmourn; if you're looking for summon, try Arachnaean Weaver; and if you're looking for damage, just scroll up to the top of this list! If you are going to use QoS in a team, I'd pair it with other good Daemons, like The Possessed King, Obsidius, Glaycion, or Wrath.

Here's my Daemon team for Queen of Sin, if you really want to use it:

• Slayer Banner (+2 Brown/+1 Purple/-1 Yellow)
  
• Wrath
  
• Glaycion
  
• Queen of Sin
  
• The Possessed King

When looking over the list of Daemons, I noticed a lot of components of Skull spam teams. Wrath and TPK together provide a lot of explosions, to continually clear the board until one of your transformers has alignment. One of the big weaknesses of Skull spam is status effects, such as Freeze to prevent extra turns and possibly hand your opponent a board of Skulls, Stun to counter the explosion effects, and Entangle for obvious reasons. Queen of Sin is a great supportive partner here, providing a way to bring back your Skull spammer, then immediately protect it from harmful effects!

Tian Yi

Blue/Red/Yellow Wildfolk/Mystic from Shentang

Since the release of the Lorekeeper, Mythic Troops no longer have lore provided. I linked Tian Yi's release post anyway. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 2

Through the history of video games, there have been many monkey kings. Many of them are powerful, unique, or useful. Tian Yi is none of these things. It simply doesn't do anything better than other Troops can. Other Troops can do more damage, Stun for cheaper, summon better Troops, and negate Enemy Magic more effectively. Tian Yi is the epitome of "Jack of All Trades, Master of None."

Tian Yi's spell, for 24 Mana, deals (Magic + 5) Splash Damage, doubled if Tian Yi's Attack is greater than the target, stuns all Enemies hit, and summons between 1-3 Monkey Disciples. With max Magic, this totals to 52 damage, 104 if Tian Yi's Attack is greater. You need to do work to ensure its Attack is greater, in order to do less Damage than Troops like Infernus and Worldbreaker which don't need any work to do the same amount of damage! What's more, the Stun is more easily applied by Troops like Emperor Khorvash and Obsidius, and neither of them need to cast their spells! As for the summon, Monkey Disciple is okay as a Troop; it provides Tian Yi with mana, but not much else. Compared to other summons, especially at Mythic (like Weaver's Webspinner and even Abynissia's Infernal King), it's quite mediocre.

Tian Yi's only noteworthy trait, the unique Monkey Magic, steals 1 Magic from the first Enemy at the start of your turn. If you are looking to boost Damage output, there are easier ways to do that (Faerie Fire, spells that boost Magic), and if you are looking to reduce spell damage, there are easier ways to do that (mainly Web). Even if you do get a couple turns with it, battles are short enough that you don't get much long-term benefit from the ability.

Overall, if you're looking for splash damage, stun, summon, or Magic reduction, Tian Yi does all of these, but does none of them particularly well. Emperor Khorvash or Obsidius can Stun Enemies more easily, and for less mana; Ketras and even Gargoyle (an Epic for crying out loud!) do more splash damage; Arachnaean Weaver is better at both negating Enemy Magic and summoning Troops. If you are looking to use Tian Yi, you'll probably want something to boost Tian Yi's attack; Earth's Fury is the most reliable of these, but Chief Dargon also works. Some Mana generators to help pay for the expensive spell might help. King Silenus starts Tian Yi with 50% mana, and Medea synergizes with Mystics like Tian Yi.

My curated team for this Troop is:

• Saurus Banner (+2 Red/+1 Blue/-1 Brown)
  
• Jar of Eyes
  
• Chief Dargon
  
• Medea
  
• Tian Yi

Jar of Eyes provides Mana generation, and an Icestorm to fuel Tian Yi. Chief Dargon clears more Gems to get blue cascades, while boosting Tian Yi's attack. Medea uses these cascades to boost Tian Yi's magic, and Barriers it on cast. Tian Yi itself creates Monkey Disciples, whose spell creates Gems that fill Chief Dargon, Medea, or Tian Yi, which is helpful if your hero dies.

Vash'Dagon

Green/Blue/Brown Mythic Daemon from Karakoth

Trait Score: 4

This troop is... odd. It is reminiscent of a weird combination of Black Beast and Widow Queen, based around True damage, life gain, and Curse. The final trait is interesting in that it provides Curse to support troops that need it, especially ones centered around Brown mana.

Vash'Dagon is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Vash'Dagon, for 24 Mana, will "Devour an Ally, then summon a Daemon if the Ally is devoured. Deal 36 (Magic + 16) true scatter damage, boosted by my Life. [3:1]" Note that this conditional bit is intended to prevent summoning when targeting an Impervious or Barriered ally (unlike Black Beast, Barriered troops aren't dispelled by Vash'Dagon before attempting to Devour). Instantly destroying an ally is a big detriment, and should provide a big benefit in return, but gaining a bunch of stats, dealing some True damage, and summoning one of (at time of writing) over 60 Daemons is a mediocre benefit.

Vash'Dagon's traits are as follows:

• Spell Armor: Reduce damage from Spells by 25%.
  
• Impervious: Immune to all Status Effects, Devour, and Mana Burn.
  
• Curse of Madness: Curse a random Enemy when matching Brown.

Vash'Dagon's unique trait, in contrast with its spell, is quite useful; Cursing enemies can be powerful, and matching Gems is a consistent recurring trigger that can easily allow you to curse the entire enemy team. Imperivious is also nothing to sniff at either; immunity to everything barring Curse is useful protection.

One use I have found for Vash'Dagon is its final trait. Try putting it in the back of teams that rely heavily on certain status effects, such as Scorpius/Euryali or High King Irongut. If you want to focus on the spell, summoning partners aren't too helpful since Vash does that for you; instead, check out mana generators as well as troops that buff health. Check out Divinia and Queen Aurora.

My curated team for Vash'Dagon is a Brown Delve team for when immunities are a big problem:

• BANNER: Guardian Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Brown/-1 Green)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• High King Irongut
  
• Obsidius
  
• Vash'Dagon

[1056,6650,6746,6700,3042,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,14012]

In many cases, when running Irongut teams in Delves, I find troops that are packed with immunities, such as Dwarves, as well as troops with Impervious or even Invulnerable if I'm fighting in the Tower of Doom. In that case, I like to use a team like this. The goal here is to repeatedly cast Mountain Crusher and Obsidus to generate mana; as I'm generating Brown mana, I'm Cursing enemies with Brown matches and Stunning them with 4 or more Gem matches. In this way, I'm able to make them vulnerable to Irongut's spell. This strategy relies less on buffing Irongut's attack but instead on casting over and over to get the first kill. If you lose your turn in the meantime, you can rely on Titan's Fortitude and Rock Solid to protect you.

To deal with the Invulnerable Doom is simple with this team; once you've devoured all other enemies, High King Irongut will have large amounts of health. If you cast Vash'Dagon here, you can devour a massive troop and, at the highest levels of the tower, deal 350 True damage or more in one cast. At this point, if the Doom even survives this massive hit, you will summon a Daemon, and likely have Mountain Crusher and Obsidius ready, and the rest of the battle is in the bag.

War

Blue/Brown/Red Daemon/Knight from Apocalypse

War was the first Mythic Troop, they didn't release lore back then!
ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

WAR! WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR? Not very much as it turns out.

War's spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 1 + Attack) Damage to an enemy, and grants an Extra Turn if the target dies. This can generally deal around 70-80 damage, which often isn't enough to kill a Troop that is full health, but after a skull hit with War's high damage, you'll be able to kill them while also gaining another turn!

War's Traits are intresting. It has Armor Piercing, granting it a 50% chance to deal skull Damage as though it were True damage, and Aspect of War, giving it 3 Attack at the start of the turn. Since many games go only a few turns, this will generally only grant +9/+12 Attack unless the battle goes long. However, the chance to pierce Armor makes it a pretty great first slot for skull-based teams.

The main problem with War is that its Traits push it towards being used as your first-slot Damage dealer, but since it uses 3 colors and 22 mana, you end up blocking many of the Troops behind it, particularly those in the colors that might help War with generating skulls. Keeper of Souls, Doomed Blade, King Bloodhammer, and Glaycion all are hurt by this; although their skull generation is useful, you have to fill War to even start filling the Troops behind it. Skull generators that do work are the double converters like Infernal King, Nimue, Alderfather, and Forest Guardian.

My curated team for War is:

• Lantern Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Red/-1 Green)
  
• War
  
• Infernal King
  
• Qilin
  
• Moon Rabbit

War works best placed in the front, where its Traits (piercing Damage and Attack boost) can be fully utilized. War works well with double converters, but since it has a high Mana cost, you want to choose transformers you can fill from behind it without fully blocking. The ones I have chosen are Infernal King (who creates Skulls, as well as Red to power War's spell), and Qilin (who creates Skulls, as well as Red to refill itself, and blesses Allies to prevent negative statuses like Entangle). Moon Rabbit is my last Troop I have chosen; it provides Mana to fill Infernal King and Qilin quickly, and get things started right.

Some replacements could be made here; if you find War keeps dying often, or your skull Damage keeps backfiring, Alderfather could be used in place of Qilin, providing Entangle on Enemy Troops while also creating Treants to replace War as an attacker. Moon Rabbit is a supporting Mana generator; you could also used The Possessed King or Queen Aurora if you have them.

Wulfgarok

Green/Purple/Red Wargare/Beast from Maugrim Woods

Wulfgarok is the ancient ancestor of the Wargare people; they speak his name reverently, as if he were a God. Many believe that his return is a sign that the Wargare should rise up and fight alongside him to conquer the neighboring lands. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 4

Wulfgarok ends up being a lesser variant of Ubastet (although Wulfgarok came first!). It has the double kill ability, but with a worse boost ratio and traits. However, Devour is very useful, and the Troop has a lot of potential, if you can get it going.

Wulfgarok's spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 2 + (4 x Wargare Allies)) to a target; then, if it dies, Wulfgarok Devours another random Enemy. The advantage is that you can choose a target for the killing blow (say if two Enemies could die and one has Barrier), and Devour is objectively better than instantly killing, but you're only doing about 26 damage base! Ubastet can do something like 70 Damage without Attack boosts, and Irongut doesn't need to weaken enemies first! Keep in mind, too, that Ubastet ignores immunities to Devour like Fortitude (and Impervious!).

Wulfgarok's unique trait, First Wargare, was revamped in the 4.3.5 update. It provides it and other Wargare with 2 Magic and Attack on 4 or more Gem matches. This is a marked improvement, since 4 or more Gem matches are much more recurrable and build up over a game much more quickly. Despite this buff, I still found Wulfgarok rather finicky to use, and it required a lot of effort to weaken enemies and buff Wulfgarok enough for the Devour to trigger.

Overall, Wulfgarok is interesting, in that you need to weaken a Troop to near death before it can do work, but Devour is quite nice. Spiritdancer is one of the best complements to Wulfgarok; it provides Green Mana that Wulfgarok can use, AND boosts Wulfgarok's Damage via the boost ratio. Boosting Wulfgarok's Damage is also great; Faerie Fire through Tinseltail or Queen Titana can be useful. Previously, it was very good in combination with Dragon's Eye, which weakened Enemies to the point where the Devour could easily be triggered. Sadly, those days are in the past, after the weapon was nerfed. Ultimately, Wulfgarok has a lot of potential, and depending on what teams are built with it, we could see it become more widely used in the future, but as is, the amount of effort and luck required to kill a troop with Wulfgarok is enough for other troops on this list to kill an entire team..

My curated team for Wulfgarok is:

• Riven Banner (+2 Purple/+1 Green/-1 Red)
  
• Giant Spider
  
• Green Seer
  
• Wulfgarok
  
• The Possessed King

The Green Seer/Giant Spider loop is an old, reliable combination, that's been in use for years. Spider creates purple that the other can use, while Seer creates green that Spider can use, and all the overflow goes into Wulfgarok. Each 4 or more Gem match you create with the converters boosts Wulfgarok's damage and clears a swath of the board due to The Possessed King. It takes some skull damage and a lot of matches to get Wulfgarok's spell damage high enough, but once you do, the reward is great. At least, if the troop Wulfgarok chooses doesn't have Fortitude.

Xathenos

Brown/Purple/Yellow Undead/Mystic from Apocalypse

Xathenos came out on the same day as the 3.1.0 update that introduced the Soulforge, thus it didn't get a lore snippet. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 1

Xathenos is hard to obtain. It isn't available in chests; it can only be obtained by purchasing three weapons from the Soulforge (Eye of Xathenos, Soul of Xathenos, Heart of Xathenos) for 100,000 Souls each, then crafting Xathenos from the soulforge for 50,000 Souls and 4,000 Diamonds. Since these Diamonds can only be obtained through Dungeons and the occasional Gnome, it takes time to obtain this many, but it can be achieved within a couple months; however, since these Diamonds can also be used to obtain any Mythic of your choice, many users would rather opt to obtain Infernus or Pharos-Ra with these Diamonds. He isn't a very good choice unless you own literally any other useful Mythic out there.

Xathenos' spell, for 22 Mana, deals (Magic + 12) True Damage to an enemy, grants Life equal to the Damage dealt, and steals half the target's Magic. Xathenos then summons up to 3 Undead Troops if the target dies. With maximized kingdom bonuses, Xathenos deals about 33 Damage. This is quite low compared to other Mythics; Arachnaean Weaver does that much True Damage to two enemies, and has a much more useful effect when it gets a kill!

Xathenos' Traits are odd; it has immunity to Devour and some status effects, but not all of them, since it doesn't have Impervious. He is notably vulnerable to Stun, Freeze, Faerie Fire, etc. Xathenos' unique Trait provides 5 Magic and 5

Unlike with Zuul'Goth, I'm sad that Xathenos isn't good. Since obtaining the resources only takes a few months rather than about two years, it's reasonable for high-level players to obtain, and since everyone can work towards it, it's not a matter of luck to obtain. Ultimately, however, it is just a worse version of Arachnean Weaver. If you want to use it though, try the things that make Weaver good; Xathenos works well with Faerie Fire and sources of Magic, to boost Damage and guarantee kills.

Based on this, try this curated team:

• Guardian Banner (+2 Yellow/+1 Brown/-1 Green)
  
• Mountain Crusher (Titan)
  
• Diviner
  
• Glitterclaw
  
• Xathenos

Mountain Crusher provides Mana generation, and Duststorms with the +9 upgrade, providing more Mana for Mountain Crusher, Diviner, and Xathenos. Titan hero class provides 50% Mana for the hero, Barrier on Brown matches, and explosions on 4 or more Gem matches, ultimately making a powerful Mana generator and tank beyond the capabilies of even Gorgotha. Diviner provides Yellow Mana aimed at filling Xathenos, and provides either Cleanse or a boost in Magic. Glitterclaw mainly is focused on Faerie Fire to boost Xathenos' spell, but it also provides Green Mana for Diviner. With Xathenos, wait until a Troop will die before you cast; check your math with Xathenos' Magic and Enemy Faerie Fire. If multiple Troops will die, and one doesn't stand out as a big threat or high damage-dealer, check which Troop has the highest Magic and snipe them first. Try not to Damage Enemies that won't die as this is a waste of mana. Keep in mind the per-kill Magic boost Xathenos gets provides a little bit of a snowball effect, and the summon can help if Mountain Crusher does end up dying.

===F-TIER===

"F" is short for "Flaming dumpster in the sketchy part of town but it's a Gems of War troop."

Gargantaur

As Gar’Nok has proven, Orcs can become strangely obsessed - sometimes romantically - with things far beyond their reach. Traditionally, Orcish invasions into the Blighted Lands have never gone well, but Dar’Lekka was faring better than most, when unfortunately she caught sight of her first Incubus… [Insert piece of raunchy Orc x Daemon fan-fiction here] Six months later, Gargantaur was born, half-Orc, half-Daemon. ˢᵒᵘʳᶜᵉ[community.gemsofwar.com]

Trait Scale: 2

Unlike the story suggests, Gargantaur is pitifully weak as a Troop. For 22 Mana (to be fair, that's low among Mythics), it deals (Magic + 13 + 15 x Allied and Enemy Troops Killed) Damage to a single enemy. At max level and Kingdom bonuses, it deals 37 total damage. This is pitifully low; it isn't enough to destroy a Troop's Armor at higher levels! Infernus alone does several times this amount, and most of the other Mythics will have some other side benefit (such as status effects or Mana generation) besides dealing damage...

...or a great boost ratio! Troops like Ketras the Bull and Pharos-Ra are both Damage dealers that have boost ratios that can be exploited to allow them to nuke a single target. Gargantaur, however, has to either allow Allied Troops to die (which can put you massively behind), create a recurring sacrifice engine (other Mythics can achieve much higher potential for much less work), or kill Enemy Troops (...just use whatever you're using to kill them then?).

Its unique Trait increases its Attack and Magic by 8 whenever it takes Damage (This works with Armor too, I was mistaken earlier). This essentially requires it to be on the front lines, where it is liable to simply die. And since Gargantaur spans 3 colors of Mana, that restricts what you can put behind it without Mana blocking. The fact that Gargantaur has Impervious would be a great boon, except for the fact that Poison, Bleed, and Burning actually help deal small amounts of Damage to boost its power. Kinda sad.

Gargantaur isn't even good in the early game because its Mana cost is so massive and its Damage output is only marginally better than even Troops like Ranger. Ultimately a complete waste of whatever keys or Diamonds you'd use to get it, but if you are looking for synergies, there's Dark Priestess (which deals True Damage to Gargantaur and boosts its Attack, on top of providing Skulls, Barrier, and Cleanse, enabling large amounts of Skull damage), Princess Elspeth (who can repeatedly sacrifice allied Troops for Mana generation and boost ratio), Gar'Nok (the Orc lord provides +50% Mana to Gargantaur, and has a spell that creates Tribute fodder and deals chip Damage to Gargantaur in the process), Sacrifice (a source of Mana generation, a Troop to sacrifice with, and a large boost to Magic each cast) and Sunbird (who constantly resurrects itself, providing Damage output and boost ratio each cast).

If you're masochistic enough to use this, here's a team:

• Crypt Banner (+2 Red/+1 Purple/-1 Green)
  
• Orc
  
• Gargantaur
  
• Drake Rider
  
• Gar'Nok

This team is centered around Orcs, and designed around providing Mana to Gargantaur. Gar'Nok starts things off with 50% Mana to the whole team. Gar'Nok can also create Gems with its spell, and replace the Orc at the front in case it dies. Orc is one of the better Commons; it has the ability to Transform Green to Brown, and gains Attack and Enrage. The consistent source of Enrage makes it a great attacker, and the Fire Link is a plus. Drake Rider provides another source of transform. Keep using these Orcs to pour Red Mana into Gargantaur, letting the Orc at the front die if convenient, and casting Gargantaur when necessary.

Shade of Zorn

Red/Blue/Purple Mythic Undead / Orc from Grosh-Nak

Trait Score: 2

Ugh. Blegh. Ooof. Why? It seems like every time Grosh'Nak rolls for a Mythic it gets a Nat 1. This troop has many of the problems of Gargantaur, but does some things worse. Its spell still just deals a static amount of damage, and while it doesn't scale based on deaths, but it does take multiple casts to succeed, and the payoff is incredibly bad, especially for multiple casts of a Mythic. Nice abs though, damn.

Shade of Zorn is obtained through random chance, from Gem, Glory, Guild, or VIP Keys. It is also on rotation in the Soulforge, available to craft for 20,000 Souls, 4,000 Diamonds, and 10 Celestial Traitstones.

Shade of Zorn, for 24 Mana, will "Deal 28 (Magic + 5) damage to an Enemy, boosted by Red Allies and Skulls. If the Enemy dies, summon 2 Fists of Zorn. [4x]" The boost ratio is somewhat helpful, and results in this troop being able to do a fair amount of damage, but it's sub-par, especially for a Mythic, many of which deal more than that as true damage, and have useful side effects without a significant condition. Speaking of the condition, it's harsh, and requires that you to use another troop to deal damage first to weaken enemies (why not use that again then?), to fill the board with Skulls before casting (that's really dangerous!) or to cast Shade of Zorn multiple times (lol). Casting a nuke that ends your turn and costs a whopping 24 Mana is not a good deal. Then, if you manage to successfully kill an Enemy, then in order to benefit you need to have first lost an ally (which you probably will have since you wasted several turns casting Shade of Zorn), multiple if you want the full effects, and you get... two Empowered converters... of the same color? Even if you happen to have alignment, the second converter is completely useless since you just got rid of all the Yellow Gems! (I don't think summoned troops even trigger Empowered, but I'm not sure...)

Shade of Zorn's traits are as follows:

• Stealthy: Cannot be targeted by spells (unless there are no other targets).
  
• Undying: Immune to Poison, Disease, and Death Mark.
  
• Zorn's Fury: Gain 4 Mana when I take damage.

I mean, Stealthy isn't too bad, except it is when you unique trait wants you to take damage. It has the same problem as Gargantaur; it wants to take damage, but that means it wants to either take Poison, which it can't because it's immune, or be in the front so it can take Skull damage, but then it's blocking all the troops behind it. The worst part is that first slot is the most vulnerable, and thus it's likely to die first, meaning you don't even get to use the summon!

Overall, Shade of Zorn is as much of a clunky mess as Gargantaur is. It doesn't know what it wants to be so it does a bunch of random garbage badly, resulting in bad times for everyone involved. If you do have a masochistic streak, you can combine this troop with Gar'Nok, who provides a source of 50% mana, True damage for extra mana, and Red gems, as well as Yellow gems for Fist of Zorn to turn into skulls. You can also partner it with Skull creators, such as Keeper of Souls or King Bloodhammer.

My curated team for Shade of Zorn is:

• BANNER: Dragon Banner (+2 Red/+1 Yellow/-1 Brown)
  
• Shade of Zorn
  
• Sekhma
  
• Glaycion
  
• Gar'Nok

[6747,6354,6565,6135,3019,2,2,2,3,2,3,2,14012]

This team focuses on looping between multiple converters, generating mana and skulls. Gar'Nok creates Yellow to fuel itself and Glaycion's spell, Glaycion creates Blue for Shade of Zorn and Sekhma's spell, Sekhma creates yellow for Gar'Nok and Glaycion, and all of them create Skulls to destroy the opposing team and increase Shade of Zorn's damage. I'm going to be honest though, Shade of Zorn doesn't do much more other than tank a couple Skull hits and use its spell to finish off the last opponent, since casting while Zorn can deal a lot of damage is less efficient than just matching Skulls.

Conclusion

If you have any issues with this guide, such as incorrect statistics or just opinions about troop viability, feel free to put them in the comments of this guide.

Special thanks to Lyya at https://gowdb.com/ and Taran at https://www.taransworld.com/ for many of the statistics, to my guildmates from the Epic Housecats for helping with team curation, and Infinity Plus Two and 505 Games for making an awesome game.

If you're looking for more helpful information, check out my other guides:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1600170640

[What Zit Tooya]

Hey @NixGutDiese, just wanted to let you know that I fully agree with you.

However, this guide was written several years before the Explore rework, and before that players only ever ran Explore at the lowest difficulty, where Sunbird did just as well for much less mana.

As for the about 30 or so mythics that have been added since this guide last updated, I may end up revamping the guide but we'll have to see.

[NixGutDiese]

you have nno idea what you are doing... phoenicia is a clear S-Tier you can one hit exploration 9 with her, no matter which class you use... so you can level every class easily

[BLaZe]

god no.. high king irongut and the possessed king are first priority.

[WolfmanStarrk]

Mother of Darkness, and Amarok need to be added

[anavn]

the graphic disappeared would it be possible to put it back ?

[niniusnunius]

You're missing a couple of new ones. I hope you update the list.

[Конструктор]

I just found one major flaw in your Tier List: Umenat is missing in it...

I mean, Umenat is a Mythic too!

[Aphotic]

Conclusion King Iron Gut and win the whole game X)

tnx for the guide, rated, faved... book marked & sent to neighbors.

[ignite ice]

Last updated August 3rd, with Champion of Gaard, Aquaticus, and The Gray King, and Vash'Dagon released since then.

[Koromac]

When do you plan to update your Guide?