Solgard the Martyr

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**Incant:** Gain **Shard 1.**

**Solgard the Martyr** is the Exiled Champion  of the Stygian Guard .

Their Starter Card is Forgone Power.

## Lore

*For the First time, I've spoken with these dream beings! Solgard, the priest of the Stygian's Titan, spoke of a mass Exodus of martyrs. Martyrs who gave up their souls for the sake of Heaven and Hell. But why does no one living know of this great sacrifice? These answers only create more questions...*

### Battle Quotes

* *Aqath be praised!*
* *Your imprisonment of Aqath was cruel and something I had hoped to be avoided. But now I see that it was necessary...*
* *The exiles did not all suffer the same fate as Talos.*
* *The Exodus must have driven Aqath mad...*
* *The Titan was not always Nameless...*
* *Names are of the utmost importance. Keep yours close.*
* *Our blessed Titan seems to have suffered a horrible fate. I'll see the favor returned in full.*
* *However, the Pyre seems to hold a familiar soul...*
* *I am proud to see that the Stygian Guard have kept the peace in my absence.*
* *For Aqath!*
* *The Sea has not forgotten me!*
* *My mind has not rotted!*
* *Your soul is mine!*
* *Does the Sea still sing like it once did?*

## Upgrades

**Action:** Deal 3 damage per **Shard** to the front enemy unit.

**Action:** Deal 5 damage per **Shard** to the front enemy unit.

 Coldchannel

**Revenge:** Apply **Frostbite 1** per **Shard** to enemy units.

**Revenge:** Apply **Frostbite 1** per **Shard** to enemy units.

 Titanchannel

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 4 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 10 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 15 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

## Strategy

Solgard gains one stack of  **Shard** per  **Incant**, and these **Shards** power up the rest of his abilities. Thus, Solgard is at his best in a deck that can play many spells in a single turn, and encourages the player to lean into the **Incant** lines that **Stygian Guard** provides. Most of his paths are vulnerable in the early game due to their low  and ramp-up time, but also due to how it will take time to set up a good **Incant** deck. However, once you are able to get past the initial hurdles, he becomes a very effective cleanup and boss killer unit.

To aid in this strategy, Solgard does come with 3-5 copies of Forgone Power which, with their 0 cost, make casting multiple spells per turn easier. However, this is a double-edged sword; as you add more impactful cards to the deck, Forgone Power and other random discarding cards such as Drain may be drawn in multiples, forcing them to discard each other and slowing down your **Incants**. Thus, going into the mid- and late-game, excess copies of Forgone Power should be a removal priority; one or two copies is typically the sweetspot, though if you heavily rely on a particular discarding card such as the aforementioned Drain or Frenzied Swarm, you may want to remove them all.

You should continue to seek easily-cast spells and card draw to accompany any strategies centering around Solgard. Conversely, be wary of adding too many Unit cards to your deck, as drafting these will cause you to draw fewer spells, making your first cycle through the deck weaker. You will likely want at least one Herzal's Compound.

Founding Seal is incredibly useful to any upgrade path of Solgard, because it doubles Shard production, making **Direchannel** and **Coldchannel** twice as deadly and making activating **Titanchannel** half as difficult.

### Direchannel

**Direchannel**, although a somewhat straightforward path, is the worst of Solgard's paths by far (especially in The Last Divinity DLC). It is even considered by high-level winstreak players to be among the worst Champion paths in the entire game. This is partially due to his pitiful stats, having a paltry 0 and 40 at Level 3, but mostly comes as a result of how his scaling damage works in this path. **Action** triggers will only ever occur once, meaning that even if you manage to **Incant** Solgard up to a critical mass of **Shards**, he will only ever dish out one hit with his ability, which cannot be enhanced by typical force multipliers such as  **Multistrike** or  **Trample**.

This results in Solgard being completely useless against dense waves of enemies, not only requiring him to be played in the backline for him to even survive, but also necessitating extremely strong backline reach in the deck in a way that no other backline unit in the game demands. **Stygian Guard** has no shortage of excellent backline units to compete with **Direchannel** that, while they will not deal as much damage as quickly per **Incant**, can be upgraded through Merchants or other cards to gain the aforementioned force multipliers that **Direchannel** will never be able to benefit from. These include units such as Siren of the Sea, Nameless Siren, Eel Gorgon, or even Coldcaelia and Icy Cilophyte if supported by a secondary clan that can scale their , which all completely outclass **Direchannel** in terms of consistency, late-game ceiling, and overall reliability.

Worse yet, **Titanchannel** nearly entirely outclasses this path, as it requires fewer **Incants** to unlock to a baseline level of strength that **Direchannel** needs to catch up to:

* **Direchannel I** requires 15 **Shards** to match the 45 of **Titanchannel I**, which only requires 4.
* **Direchannel II** requires 18 **Shards** to match the 90 of **Titanchannel II**, which requires 10.
* **Direchannel III** requires 30 **Shards** to match the 210 of **Titanchannel III**, which requires 15.

If **Direchannel** must be used, choose a strong defensive unit to place in front of it such as Guard of the Unnamed or Guardian Stone (or any sturdy unit with a  Runestone), so that enemies will not be able to dent Solgard's low HP stat. A self-infused Titan Sentry upgraded with  Immortalstone can shred backline units on lower floors for **Direchannel** Solgard to clean up top, or even serve as a frontline in a pinch. Look for powerful floor-clearing spells such as Icestorm (or for cross-clan spells, Inferno, Glimmer, or Ancient Resonance), and look to place damage upgrades into them as well.

Differences between Direchannel damage and attack damage are:

* If Solgard has both, **Direchannel** damage happens first.
* Direchannel damage ignores  **Stealth**.
* Solgard inflicts **Direchannel** damage even when he is **phased**.

### Coldchannel

The **Coldchannel** upgrade path is incredibly high-risk, high-reward, as it gives you a strong late-game at the expense of early-game weakness, provided you can keep Solgard alive. The **Revenge** ability of **Coldchannel** applies 1  **Frostbite** (2 at Level 3) per **Shard** generated. If Solgard is on the first floor, this trigger will often end up dealing at least as much damage per **Shard** to all enemies as the **Direchannel** path does to just the front enemy by the time those enemies reach the Pyre. Even on a middle or top floor setup, the amount of **Frostbite** generated is usually still sufficient to kill low- and mid-health units in the back while your carry unit in the back pummels the tanks in the front. If Solgard is alive into **Relentless**, he can often shred the boss with **Frostbite** alone.

The biggest weakness of **Coldchannel** is its survivability — Solgard has to be in the front to be able to take advantage of this ability, meaning that he will be taking a large number of hits every turn. This is especially true early in the game when Solgard only has 15. Stygian Guard notoriously has few ways to scale the raw stats of its units outside of infusions and Merchant upgrades, meaning that you usually rely on defensive starting cards from your allied clan, or a particularly strong **Herzal's Hoard** in Ring 1, to be able to fully lean into it. Consequently, it doesn't always make sense to take **Coldchannel** if offered the choice between it and **Titanchannel**. However, given those cross-clan synergies, this path can be game-winning, stacking so much **Frostbite** per turn that even the toughest endgame waves are immaterial to him. Cards that give  **Armor** and  **Regen** (from **Hellhorned** and **Awoken** respectively), or units that can buff Solgard's low , such as Awoken Hollow or Keeper of Echoes, are premium when running this path. Be on the lookout for Guardian Stone as well, which is one of the few ways that **Stygian** can provide **Armor** to Solgard.

It's important to reiterate that **Coldchannel** only gains more **Frostbite** per **Shard** at Level 3. Thus, if you have an **Incant** line that only requires the 1 **Frostbite** to kill backline enemies, consider pivoting into **Titanchannel** to bulk up Solgard's . **Coldchannel I**/**Titanchannel II** is often optimal, though **Coldchannel II**/**Titanchannel I** is also acceptable if you don't think you can get 10 **Incants** before enemies walk up to your floor.

### Titanchannel

**Titanchannel** is generally the most consistent of all Solgard paths, patching up his weaknesses in the early-game while still maintaining a strong presence into the mid- and late-game if you can support his activation requirements. With a mammoth stat line of 45 → 90 → 210 /, **Titanchannel** is one of the strongest frontline tanks in the game capable of carrying entire **Relentless** phases throughout almost every ring, that also incidentally softens up enemy frontline tanks for your backline to clean up.

The main challenge of **Titanchannel** is playing around his  **Phased** start — if you are incapable of activating him in time and you rely on him to assist in your wave clearing, you may be allowing dangerous enemies to walk freely to the Pyre. Additionally, while **Phased**, Solgard takes up 2 on the floor without doing anything, which drastically decreases the potential strength of the floor. The **Incant** strategies that Solgard fits well into are generally able to meet his activation requirements without much issue, although the 15 **Shards** required at Level 3 may be challenging even for the most spam-heavy decks. Setting up on top floor on higher Covenant Ranks (which is recommended as it allows you the most time to activate him before the enemy waves get to your floor) can turn his **Phased** into an advantage, as it allows him to absorb  **Emberdrain** which would otherwise slow your floor down. In the early-game, it can even often be worth it to play spells onto his "empty" floor just to free Solgard, as once **Phased** is gone, you've essentially won the combat (given proper play and backline management).

Both **Coldchannel** and **Titanchannel** overall fit well into, and encourage, a one-floor **Incant** setup where you have several units behind Solgard, amassing strength while also building up the necessary **Shards** to activate him. This especially goes for **Titanchannel**, which has enough health out of the gate to easily tank even the most threatening enemy waves. For example, two copies of Siren of the Sea and/or Nameless Siren with  Frenzystone behind **Titanchannel** Solgard is a "textbook" confident winning line into almost every challenge in the game, and given some survivability in the backline (such as with a  Runestone), can even defeat The Last Divinity with proper play. You will thus often want to solve  in some way, by either overstacking the floors with cross-clan cards such as Hidden Passage, taking a Light of Seraph after one of the major bosses, or hunting for Railforger's Hammer or a  Minor Refraction in Concealed Caverns events.

That being said, **Titanchannel** does not fit well into most strategies involving units from the allied clan, which may prefer to be buffed in other ways rather than with pure **Incants**, and will not provide as much value as **Coldchannel** will as a "throw-away" unit. In those instances, you can still use **Titanchannel** as a strong early-game carry that allows you to take aggressive paths and Trials in order to power up, and safely discard Solgard later on another floor once your main strategy is assembled.

## History

*See: Version History*

As with all other exiled Champions, Solgard the Martyr was added with the Friends and Foes Update.

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 4 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 9 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
 Titanchannel (1.2.6)

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 4 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 12 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

**Phased.**
If **Solgard** has 15 stacks of **Shard**, remove **Phased.**

 1.2.6
 1.3.0