Lexi is a daring, talented and quick Elemental Ranger from the Tales of Aria set. She has been travelling the lands of Aria as a wayfarer to learn the mysteries of the land, especially in the static charged, icy environment of Volthaven is where she spent most time.
Lexi grew up in Volthaven, a village that drifted slowly as it navigated the treacherous skies of Enion. Her childhood was spent in wide-eyed wonder, under the soft embrace of the Aurora, as she marvelled at the majestic sights that lay beyond her windows. As she grew, she fell in love with the sense of freedom found in the environment all around her, and resolved to explore its beauty and secrets by becoming the greatest Wayfarer in all of Rathe!
Eventually, Lexi found herself being able to channel the energies of Lightning and Ice at whim, giving her bow and arrows a unique edge in combat. Lightning allows her to shock charge her arrows and fire them off at lightning speed, while Ice fused arrows produce devastatingly taxing effects on her targets.
Having access to the lightning element gives Lexi a unique ability to shock charge her arrows. Arrows like Buzz Bolt and Frazzle not only amplify the damage output of all the attacks on the combat chain, but also can give them a pure damage “zap” on hit. The majestic lightning fuse arrow – Light it Up – can disrupt the defending hero’s equipment for a turn, while sending waves of electricity through their whole armor, dealing damage at the same time. The best thing is, the damage is amplified exponentially, meaning if you attack a hero with a fused Frazzle then a Buzz Bolt fused, it will deal one more damage from the Frazzle and then the “zap” from Buzz Bolt will be amplified as well, dealing two damage. Now, if you also manage to shoot out a fused Light it Up, the arrow would deal an extra damage from Frazzle on the hit, zap for two thanks to Buzz Bolt and then zap again thanks to Light it Up fused ability. This is no easy feat, but the exponential damage potential of Lexi as a hero is hard to beat.
Lightning cards themselves synergize well with the fused arrows. Cards like Electrify and Lightning Surge are great at fusing arrows and being arsenaled. They can then be played out of the Arsenal for added effects. Electrify is especially useful, because the damage it provides scales with Frazzle. Other lightning attacks, like Shock Striker and Heaven’s Claws, work well with Lexi’s hero ability. You can turn them face up from the Arsenal, grant them go again and play them out.
Looking on the Ice side, in true Ranger fashion, Lexi’s arrows can severely cripple her targets to do anything following a hit with the Ice fused arrows. Arrows like Chilling Icevein, Blizzard Bolt and Frost Lock are great at forcing cards from the opponent’s hand, creating Frostbites or flat out stopping them from playing their cards on the following turn. These pair up nicely with cards like Electrify or Mark of Lightning, as the on-damage effects will trigger again.
Ice cards like Weave Ice, Ice Quake, Polar Blast and Winter’s Bite are great to play out of the Arsenal after being used to fuse as an arrow the turn before. Lexi’s hero ability adds disruption in the form of a Frostbite each time you use it alongside Ice cards. It’s a great way to stop your opponent from playing pesky defense reactions. Weave Ice and Polar Blast are especially nice in getting these disruptive arrows to connect.
While building pure Ice or pure Lightning Lexi decks is the easiest way to guarantee fusing arrows and grants consistency, the two elements synergize so well with each other, it’s worthwhile trying out a blend of the two once you become confident with each element.
Both of the dual fuse cards Lexi currently has access to, Flashfreeze and Ice Storm, offer extremely powerful abilities, but are quite hard to pull off. Using cards like Weave Lightning to give your Ice arrows go again is an interesting way to take a useful feature of Lightning and utilize it in an Ice-heavy deck. There are lots of possibilities of mixing and matching different arrows with attacks of element cards for unique effects. One of my favorite ways of playing Lexi is running an Ice-heavy deck with Voltaire to guarantee going wide with many attacks, maximizing detrimental Ice on-damage effects and using cards like Lightning Press and Lightning Surge to get damage through.
Having access to two different Elemental bows, a heap of different element and arrow combinations gives a huge range of possibilities on how to build a Lexi deck. By far the best thing about playing Lexi is seeing the flavor of loading a bow, fusing your arrow then shooting it reflected in the mechanics. This Ranger is quite advanced in terms of complexity, so I would only advise you to try her out if you’ve played an Elemental hero already or have played a different Ranger. But once you pick up Lexi, it’s hard to put her down as the deck is undeniably fun to play.
