Good Tanker units?

[loreangelicus]

In my opinion, the best tank is a Phantom-ed Emerald Green Dragon for the following reasons:

1) Emerald Green Dragons in themselves are good combo units for other spells like Invisibility to take on tough battles with a single troop stack.

2) EGDs have high initiative and high speed, so no need to Teleport them to the middle of the enemy ranks, they could fly themselves in.

3) Level 3 Phantom costs 25 mana and generates close to 50% of the original EGD stack; when your Phantoms are coming out with 5+ troop counts (from an original stack of 10+) their mana blast radius ability could give you back 15+ mana, sometimes even greater than 25 mana, effectively giving you FREE Phantoms.

4) You can let Phantoms die, no need to Resurrect them or things like that, and still get a no-casualty battle.

5) They last 3 turns, and with a high life to leadership ratio plus good resistances including 50% fire resistance, they often last until the spell expires. But why stop at one Phantom when they pay for their existence mana-wise? Keep on casting Phantom-ed EGDs that deal damage and draw aggro.

Just my 2-cents.

*** update 10-10-2009***
Attached a screenshot wherein you could see the phantom-ed EGDs being swapped for the enemy's Royal Thorns; when the phantom used its mana area attack it basically damaged the surrounding enemies and regenerated +25 mana, the cost of summoning it.