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^{This post was made as entry for Social Media Challenge}
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Lorkus and Usut are one of my favorite combos in Splinterlands because they just work so well together. Lorkus boosts both melee and magic damage which is great for increasing Usut's damage that increases his ability's potentials. Usut, being a powerhouse with his Heal and Bloodlust abilities, can take full advantage of those buffs and when Lorkus’ increased magic combines with Usut’s good damage it really becomes a dangerous combo for your opponent when you factor in Lorkus's Life Leech ability.

What makes this combo extra strong is the Life Leech ability from Lorkus gained by Usut. As Usut keeps damaging enemies, he steadily increases his health over time which makes him harder to take down the longer the battle goes on. Since Lorkus is also giving extra magic damage, Usut’s Life Leech kicks in even more. The higher the health he gets from Life Leech, the higher the effect on Heal on himself.

With Lorkus backing him up and boosting his stats, this combo really feels like a tanky, unkillable duo. When these two are paired up, they can pretty much outlast and out damage most opponents thrown their way. Just make sure that your opponents doesn't have Affliction that may stop the Heal (But it doesn't stop the Life Leech.)

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Here are the some of the highlights
of my best battles with Lorkus

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Battle 1: Life Leech for Everyone!

https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_adb43c3742a6b20898ed9057ba0434a7?ref=mavis-muggletum

This lineup is both fun and annoying for your enemies so it's good. Life Sapper and Venari Bonesmith both have Life Leech that can gain themselves health each attack. With Lorkus, Xenith Monk and Usut both gain Life Leech as well along with Affliction.

This means all four units then have Life Leech. It's up to your enemies to quickly eliminate your team or else their health will explode to astronomical amount.

But to do that, they have to get past both Xenith Monk's Heal and Void and Usut's Heal, which all increases potential due to Lorkus's Life Leech.

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Battle 2: Lorkus vs Obsidian

https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_33f91b8852fffe6183dc1d627112a9ad?ref=mavis-muggletum

Compared to Obsidian, Lorkus is more flexible as I can mix melee and magic while Obsidian is forced on magic only lineup.

While it was not obvious in this battle, there's a potential for a full melee team with Lorkus as its core. It's not as effective as a magic-based one but both Fire and Death elements have strong melee units like Cursed Windeku, Silent Sha-vi and Tenyii Striker. Both elements also have units that have inspire and can increase this damage more like Tusk the Wide and Ravenhood Warden.

I wanted to try out Grum Flameblade as well with Lorkus but I decided not to do it because of one fatal flaw - Life Leech does not work when hitting armor and melee units hits armor before health delaying the application of Life Leech.

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Battle 3: Slow and Steady

https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_66d0cb402675e0e874677dd6cdb65c0e?ref=mavis-muggletum

Since I am not allowed to use Death Element in this battle, I used the power of Fire Element instead. I didn't know that Fire has a decent number of good magic units like Immolation and Djinn Apprentice.

By having the two highest damage units gaining Life Leech, my enemies had a hard time breaking my defenses despite their high damage. Both Immolation and Djinn Apprentice gains 3 health per attack and Immolation's Shield served as a good anti-Sneak strategy against Tenyii Striker.

As I slowly break the frontline, my success on this lineup increased.

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Battle 4: The Last Battle

https://next.splinterlands.com/battle/sl_cf90c977242a3dace7ddd206aed030af?ref=mavis-muggletum

This was my last battle. Without Lorkus, I definitely lost this one. My Magi Necrosi will be overpowered by Goblin Psychic's Tank Heal and Affliction.

The extra few health from Life Leech helped him survive which got me the win for this game.

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SUMMARY

Wrapping up the season with a rating of 1920 in Gold III, this Lorkus and Usut combo has really carried me through some tough matches. The synergy between Lorkus’ summoner tactics advantage and summoner abilities and Usut’s overall potential is just too good. I’m happy with how well they’ve worked together and it’s clear this team has solid potential to climb even higher.

That said, there’s still room to improve and tweak the strategy as I plan to continue grinding toward Diamond towards the end of the month. School's gonna be in break so I have time to focus on climbing the ranked ladder before I need to focus again on my other life. I think with a bit more refining and testing against different lineups, I can push this idea to a greater potential. The key is making sure Usut stays alive long enough to really take advantage of Lorkus's Life Leech and Usut's Heal ability.

I’m definitely excited for what’s to come and feeling pretty confident that this duo can help me break through to Diamond. With a little more time, some more battles under my belt and continuing to learn how to optimize the team based on these two, I know it’s possible to reach that Diamond before the half of next month. It’s all about keeping up with the grind and staying sharp for the next season.

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Disclaimer

Other photos and images that I used in this post can be found in these websites below:

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About the Author

<sup>Hi! I’m Mavis, a Splinterlands fanatic and total Harry Potter fanatic (seriously, I can recite spells on demand! 🤓 ).

Besides being a gamer and wizard at heart, I’m also a self-taught coder. I'm happy that I was able to apply the recent knowledge I gained when making posts in Hive. (Thanks friend!)

If you consider playing Splinterlands, support me by using my referral link.</sup>

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