Yodin Zaku: Luthien's Bane

Ah, Yodin Zaku. The favorite summoner of my favorite streamer, @clove71. I'm sure you already know who Clove is, but in case you have been living under a rock, here is a link to her Twitch stream.. If you have spent any amount of time on my Twitch stream, you will know that Yodin Zaku is my most feared enemy. I have always had a lot of trouble defeating him, and I know that others share my frustration! He is so overpowered. He gives all friendly monsters the blast ability, increases range damage by 1, and gives all friendly monsters plus 1 health. All in all, he is extremely formidable, and difficult to defeat even when you are expecting him! Using some of these strategies might bolster your odds though, so give them a shot.

Feline vs Feline

So far, the best strategy that I have found to defeat Yodin is Speed. Knock out his monsters as fast as you possibly can, before they have a chance to kill all of your monsters. My favorite summoner to use against Yodin is Byzantine Kitty. Feline vs Feline.

Byzantine Kitty give plus 2 speed to all friendly monsters, which gives you an advantage over Yodin. Use the fastest monsters you can, and try to add an additional speed boost with a monster that has swiftness, like Brownie, Silvershield Bard, or Spirit Miner. You don't necessarily need Kitty to beat Yodin with speed, just try to slow the other team down with a monster that has the Slow ability, and speed up your own team with the Swiftness buff. If you can take out his monsters before they can strike, you will have a much better chance of winning!

Here is an example of a lineup where I used Kitty to defeat Yodin.

Having the Trample ability with Undead Rex also was super helpful in this battle, because I was able to weaken his monsters twice in some cases. Using the Creeping Ooze was also helpful, because it lowered the speed of the enemy monsters. Watch this battle, you will see how many times my monsters were able to dodge his attacks because of their high speed!

Watch my battle HERE

Hunt him with Lir Deepswimmer

Lir Deepswimmer is a really great counter to Yodin, because he gives all friendly monsters the Return Fire ability. He also has the Blind debuff, which increases the chance that enemy monsters will miss. The plus 2 Armor buff is also extremely beneficial! Lir is basically the antidote to Yodin Zaku. I don't use him often because I usually have Kitty rented, but he is a really great summoner!

Here is an example of a battle where I defeated Yodin with Lir. In this case, it was also the Reverse Speed ruleset, where Yodin is usually stronger. I was careful to use very slow monsters so that I would be able to attack first. Normally I would put in my fastest monsters, especially the Serpent of Eld which has Dodge. In this case, Torhilo the Frozen did the trick nicely! You can see how well the Return Fire ability works against the range-heavy teams of Yodin.

Watch the Battle here!

No Legendary Summoner? Try these strategies!

If you don't have Lir or Kitty, you can try a few other strategies to defeat Yodin. Try to minimize the damage that Yodin causes as much as possible. Make sure you have healing in your lineup, whether it is Tank heal or Triage heal, which heals the backline monsters. Use a summoner like Lorna Shine, who gives Divine Shield to each friendly monster. You can try to counter the range boost by using Contessa L'ament, who lowers the Range ability of enemy monsters by 1. Since Yodin gives a range boost, this really only brings the monsters back to baseline, but it can be useful if you don't have many other options. Definitely try to get some monsters into your lineup that have the Return Fire ability. Serpent of Eld is my favorite for this, but Phantasm is another great option, especially if you are using Contessa L'ament. Going with a Magic heavy team, like Alric Stormbringer, is another way you can bring Yodin down, since Magic goes under the shield of enemy monsters. Again, go for speedy monsters here! If you have Wavesmith, the extra shield she provides will help keep your monsters alive longer. Also try using a tank like Almo Cambrio. While he doesn't have any attack, he dodges very nicely and has Phase at higher levels, in case the enemy decides to use some Magic.

Here is a lineup where I used Lorna Shine and beat Yodin. You can see that I also used Silvershield Bard, which gave my team a speed boost. The extra attack from the Silvershield Knight was also very helpful because I was able to take out the other team more quickly since I had extra damage. Watch the battle, and you will see how many times Almo dodged the attacks! That made such a huge difference in the outcome of this battle.
Watch the Battle Here!

I really hope that this post was helpful! I would love to hear what your strategies are for defeating Yodin Zaku. Please leave a comment below! :)