JWA: Legendary, Rare & Common Advantage Tournament

Huge shout out to our Discord member Prominence who wrote this article! 

Hello Explorers! This weekend we have the chance to show off some of our arena-ready dinos with an advantage tournament that allows Legendary creatures! Unlike the last guide I wrote for the Nasutceratops advantage tournament, I would like to use this guide to touch on which creatures will be a big threat from arena-ready teams, how to counter them, and what our locales offer us in terms of DNA required to fuse legendary hybrids. With all that said, let's get started by breaking down the Patch 1.13 Tier List and which legendaries are the scariest opponents and the strongest allies.

For this article we are going to focus on creatures that are Apex or higher according to the 1.13 Tier List. There are so many legendary creatures to choose from and we couldn't highlight ALL of them so this is the breakdown of all the Apex and Higher Legendary creatures. 

Both high and low tyrant tier contain creatures that are eligible for use in this tournament. Entelemoth was the undisputed star of last week's tournament, but many people have yet to level their moth outside of skill tourneys. I don’t expect Entelemoth to be anywhere near as common this tournament as last weekend but watch out for people investing their mammoth from this week’s hybrid pursuit into moth now that Mammolania has been nerfed.

Indoraptor gen 2 is both a major threat and has been around long enough for arena teams to have level 30, 30 boosted (“30/30 creatures”) raptors. The upper ranks of this tournament will be filled with teams containing 30/30 Indo2, and the leaderboard will be filled with them. It will be important to know how you plan to handle them.

Mammotherium, Phorusaura, Monostegotops, and Tryostronix are all also heavily used in the arena. It’s guaranteed that you will bump into a few of them on your way up to first place. Be ready to distract and stun Therium, shield and armor Phorus, be stun immune to Monotops’ swap in stunning strike and have a creature fast enough to deal with Tryos.

Honorable mention goes to Carnotarkus. While not heavily used in arena, being able to highly boost its HP in advantage tournaments make the rending counter something to be feared.

Access to global creatures from any local provides us with access to a few legendaries worth considering simply by running our Giga scents.

This week the Woolly Mammoth is our hybrid pursuit, allowing us to pull a handful from Giga scents. If you can afford the investment, Entelomoth and Mammotherium are among the strongest contenders in this tournament. They both pack a huge punch and will be useful in just about every matchup you face.

Indominus Rex

Indom hits hard and has enough HP to hit back a couple times. This creature also has access to cloak and immunity to avoid distractions and stuns. The only downside is that Indominus is an ingredient in the super hybrid Erlidominus and Indoraptor, so you’ll have to trade some levels of them to over-level Indominus. However, if you do, Indominus would make a strong opponent against high HP tanks and stunners like Gigaspikosaurus and Monostegotops. Just watch out for that random Alankylosaurus that snuck into the tournament using their swap in invincibility.

Boost Recommendation: Damage focused

Allosinosaurus and Utahsinoraptor

Both of these creatures are readily available globally as well. Fusing Sinoceratops with either Allosaurus or Utahraptor will provide you with a powerful wall breaker in

Allosinosaurus or a speedy damage dealer in Utahsinoraptor. Both possess the priority move Instant Charge to lay down a stun for some extra damage and survivability against non-immune creatures. Unfortunately, both creatures also possess unique super hybrids, so you’ll have to decide if an under-leveled Thoradolosaur or Utarinex are worth performing in legendary advantage tournaments.

Boost Recommendation: Split Damage/Health

Gigaspikosaurus and Stegodeus

Both readily available heavily armored tanks ready to handle any raptor that looks at them funny. Both are made from a combination of three global and daily dinos and are easily farmed by anyone. Unfortunately, daily dinos aren’t pulled from giga scents, so hopefully you have loads of Stegosaurus saved up from pre-lockdown.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Health

Bajatonodon

Special shoutout to my boi Bajatonodon. Yes, I’m biased, no I’m not ashamed to admit it. Bajatonodon rocks a massive health stat, Bellow and Superior Vulnerability for speed control, Devastation to lay the smackdown, and Regen and Run combined with Swap in Heal to recover 75% of that massive health pool after she takes out your raptors. She’s even immune to damage over time so her massive health can’t be taken in chunks by lethal wound. The only downside is a low base attack and requiring a park spawn ingredient in Bajadasaurus. She and I will be waiting for you at the top of the leaderboard

Boost Recommendation: Focus Health

Indoraptor Gen 2

Local 1 offers you access to the highly coveted Echo. This sub-ingredient of Indoraptor Gen 2 is often many explorer’s bottleneck with Blue appearing in so many sanctuaries and themed incubators. Indo2 will serve you amazingly well as an endgame arena dino as well as an easy ticket to the top of this tournament. Cautious Strike is so good that some explorers refuse to use indo2 because it feels like cheating. Build it, abuse it, see you at the top.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Damage

Monostegotops

Local 1 also offers a shortcut to Monostegotops . Stegoceratops spawns as an epic hybrid in L1, and with Monolophosaurus as our daily reward dino right now, you should have a fair bit of resources to level her. Monostegotops has a powerful swap in stunning strike ability, two impacts, dig in, and a whole host of status effects. She’s an amazing team player even if she’s a little underleveled, so give her careful consideration in your preparation for this tournament.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Damage

Possible Team

Indo2 running as a utility knife murdering every dino in her path, and Monostegotops covering her back make a great pair. Supplementing the team with chompers like Indominus Rex and Allosinosaurus as well as tanks like Gigaspikosaurus and Stegodeus will build you a well-rounded team. Adding another speedster like Utahsinoraptor will help take some of the load off Indo2, and Mammotherium or Entelemoth will beat down anyone who hasn’t succumbed to your impenetrable team.

L2 is a little sparse for building legendaries of what we can find from our homes. Most of our specialties here rely on access to another locale or having a stockpile already.

Tryostronix

Tryos is our local cuisine though, and boy is she a good one. Postimetrodon spawns as an epic hybrid and combining with the global infestation of Baryonix creates the powerful revenge sweeper Tryos. Tryos specializes in coming in against a weakened dino, finishing it off with ferocious strike, and then dealing 3 times her base damage to the follow-up with her defense shattering rampage. Tryos is also completely immune, and rocks 124 base speed which is very high for a chomper. She will be outsped by speedsters, without a huge speed boost investment, but it's worth considering for this powerhouse.

Boost Recommendation: Split Speed / Damage

Tragodistis

This is another creature worth looking at. L2 offers her sub-ingredient Euoplocephalus to fuse with the global Amargasaurus to create Amargocephalus. Amargocephalus then fuses with the L4 common Parasauralophus to create Tragod. Parasaur shows up in a few themed incubators and was pulled recently by the nest protector and hadrosaur themed scents. If you haven’t been to L4 in a while you may still have a stockpile of para for using on this speed tank. 124 base speed puts her on par with Tryos, with Superior Vulnerability to maintain speed control and make up for her low base attack. Stunning strike and long invincibility paired with being immune to vulnerability and a minor counterattack make Tragod a versatile tool in your arsenal.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Health

Dracoceratops

Dracoceratops is made from Local 2 and 3 commons and has a powerful swap in move Swap in Savagery. Whether level 16 or level 30 Dracoceratops comes in and deals 40% of the opponent’s health minus armor, shields, and dodge. Dracorat used to be an extremely powerful and prominent creature on many teams, so expect to see many of them this weekend as well.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Health

Possible Team

Combining the revenge chomper Tryostronix with the speed tank Tragodistis covers a lot of your bases except for a decent lead. May I suggest Bajatonodon? High health and speed control with the ability to Regen and Run from bad matchups, especially into Monostegotops, makes for a great lead. Indominus Rex will be your main chomper until Tryos can come in for a revenge kill, Gigaspikosaurus or Stegodeus could round out Tragod and Baja as tanks, Utahsinoraptor could be the main speedster while Mammotherium helps finish off your opponent.

Local 3 has 2 easily accessible legendary hybrids that are both very powerful, especially in a tournament without uniques.

Phorusaura 

Phorusaura is one of two creatures in the game with the amazingly powerful Instant Rampage ability, which allows her to deal 2x damage on turn one with priority. Being able to immediately swap out with Rampage and Run allows Phorus to come back later for another priority rampage. Phorus is also made of local 3’s Maiasaura and the common exclusive Phorusrhacos that everyone has loads of.

Boost Recommendation: Focus Damage

Ardontosaurus

Ardontosaurus is made of two local 3 spawns (Argentinosaurus and Secodontosaurus), is completely immune, has definite strike, speed control in decelerating impact, defense shattering rampage, and instant invincibility to survive a big hit. The main issue with Ardontosaurus is that she’s an ingredient in the powerful unique Ardentismaxima. Many people won’t be willing to over level Ardonto unless they’re done with Max, but Ardonto handles Indoraptor 2 very well in skill tourneys. So, it is very worth powering up for legendary tourneys.

Boost Recommendation: Split Health / Damage

Possible Team

Phorusaura will be a powerful speedster on your team, with both instant rampage and rampage and run pulling weight in tournaments and arena alike. If you live in L3, powering up Phorusaura will help you every day of the month, and especially so in legendary advantage tourneys. Ardontosaurus is a high health immune tank that can maintain speed control over raptors and hit through evasion and the cloak of Indominus with definite strike. Utahsinoraptor or even Alloraptor will supplement Phorus with speed, Gigaspikosaurus or Stegodeus will supplement Ardonto as a tank, which leaves us with 4 slots for chompers and utility dinos. Indominus Rex and Allosinosaurus could fill the chomper role on your team, and Monostegotops and Spinotasuchus could fill your utility roles. Spinotasuchus is available from Spinotahraptor found in L3 and Kaprosuchus the global spawn. It has swap in wound, lethal wound, and critical impact to deal some damage over time and a burst of damage. Remember, Indoraptor gen 2 can no longer cleanse with cautious strike, and has been more susceptible to bleed since then.

Local 4 has access to the epic Woolly Rhino, the epic hybrid Gorgosuchus, and the common Parasauralophus to use as ingredients in powerful legendaries.

Keratoporcus

Keratoporcus is created from Woolly Rhino and the global Archaeotherium. Porcus has access to a very powerful selection of moves in decelerating strike for speed control, lethal wound for damage over time, definite rampage to smash through armor, shields, and dodge, and finally the powerful mutual fury to boost your damage output and speed. Keratoporcus is very strong against Indoraptor gen 2 who will be a major threat this tournament.

Boost Recommendation: Split Damage / Speed

Megalosuchus

Megalosuchus requires access to L1 for Megalosaurus, but Megalosaurus appears in strike towers like Pinning Strikes so you may have some sitting around unused. Megalosuchus isn’t considered especially strong, but if you have the resources to level it high then its armor piercing counter, ferocious strike, definite strike, and defense shattering impact could make short work of tanks like Gigaspikosaurus.

Boost Recommendation: Split Health / Damage

Paramoloch and Tragodistis

Paramoloch and Tragodistis are both made from the common Parasauralophus. Paramoloch requires the incubator exclusive Stygimoloch, but with a high base speed and two different stunning moves including instant charge makes Paramoloch extremely annoying if you’re not immune to stuns. Tragodistis was mentioned above in L2 specialties, but the short version is that she has high armor and speed with a versatile move set.

Boost Recommendation: Split Health / Speed

Possible Team

Keratoporcus, Megalosuchus, Paramoloch, and Tragodistis are all versatile creatures with varied move sets. They don’t fit neatly into roles as speedsters or chompers, so let’s round out the team with creatures that fit better into these roles. Indominus Rex and Allosinosaurus fit neater into the chompers role and will help Porcus and Megalosuchus handle big tanks like Gigaspikosaurus. Utahsinoraptor and Spinotasuchus are both fast creatures with decent damage output that can help deal with chompers and put some damage out quickly.

Advantage tournaments can be fun opportunities to show off our creatures. The inclusion of legendary hybrids in this tournament gives many players the ability to bring in creatures from their arena team, which both allows us to bring creatures we already have powered up, but also allows our opponents to bring their 30/30 Indoraptor gen 2 to frustrate us. We can use the resources available to us in our locales to boost up some legendary creatures that will help us hold our own. This tournament also allows rare creatures, so if you read my article for the Nasutoceratops tourney two weeks ago, you may have over-leveled rares like Ornithomimus to bring to this tournament as well.

At the end of the day it's about having fun. I look forward to battling all you fine explorers this weekend. Good luck and have fun.

-Prominence