Clivia Tharn –

An Imperial 6-drop who gives creatures in her lane Guard, and summons two 1/1 Recruits at the end of your turn

Clivia Tharn is the Empress Regent of the Empire of Cyrodiil. Clivia is the child of Grand Chancellor Abnur Tharn, the Imperial overlord of Nibenbay and the head of the Elder Council, and his 7th wife Pulasia, and his 16th daughter overall. She married Leovic of the Longhouse Emperors. When Leovic was overthrown and killed in a rebellion led by Varen Aquilarios, the usurper married Clivia to underpin his rule. When Varen mysteriously disappeared during the Soulburst, Clivia was quickly declared Empress Regent of the Empire. Mannimarco, who orchestrated the Soulburst became the strong power behind the Ruby Throne, turning Clivia to worship the Daedra Molag Bal. Clivia is one of the key characters during this time period. How did Sparkypants recreate this villain in The Elder Scrolls Legends?

Clivia Tharn bears the colors of the Empire – Willpower, Agility and Endurance. For 6 magicka, you get a 4/4 Imperial that has a very unique ability: Other friendly creatures in her lane get guard; and at the end of your turn, you summon a 1/1 Recruit in each lane. Effectively, this gives you stats of 6/6 at the end of your turn, with an upside of summoning another two neutral Imperial 1/1 Recruits in each lane at the end of your next turn.

Clivia Tharn During Opening

During opening, Clivia can usually only enter the game on turn 5 or 6. If your game plan involves an aggro strategy, Clivia will be at the top end of your deck’s curve. She basically locks down one lane with guards and helps to replenish a token in each lane per turn. To leverage her ability, you should ideally have three creatures in her lane. You might consider trading away one of the guards created to make room for the 1/1 token. Having stats of 6/6 spread across three bodies and two lanes provides you with a lot of flexibility and reasonable value. If she survives, she keeps putting out more tokens, which is an additional bonus.

Clivia Tharn at Parity

At parity, players have exhausted their hands and rely on their top deck. You can either have a rather crowded board or an almost empty board during this stage of the game. This difference matters a lot for Clivia.

With one or two creatures in one lane, she can effectually convert them to guards which increases the likelihood of you gaining lane control. By generating additional tokens, she can help a little in fighting for the board, even more so if you have Divine Fervor in play or have other means of buffing your Imperial recruits.

Clivia Tharn When Wining

When you are winning the game, Clivia adds an additional 4/4 in stats to your assault, and potentially another two 1/1’s. Be mindful of the timing when you play her though. She give all creatures in her lane guard, which might sometimes not be what you want.

For one, if you have a Haafingar Marauder hidden behind a Hive Defender, Clivia would expose the now guarded Marauder to direct attacks from your opponent.

The second scenario to be aware of is when you have 4 creatures in a lane and one that can either trade or go face. In this case, it might be beneficial to trade and get the 1/1 back at the end of your turn to avoid items being equipped to it. Ultimately, Clivia is not the best card when winning, as she does not have reach, but stats of 6/6 spread across multiple bodies is also not really bad.

Clivia Tharn When Loosing

When you need a turnaround, Clivia can provide additional guards, especially if you happen to get creatures into a lane before playing her. As a minimum, you have at least one token guard in her lane. This will likely have an impact to reduce the damage that your opponent can deal. Additionally, the stats of 6/6 spread across three bodies can also help in breaking your opponent’s dominant position.

Quadrant Theory Summary

Clivia provides good utility across all quadrants. However, some of the effects are a bit situational and rely on the presence of additional creatures on the board when you play her. To get very good value from her, she will require a carefully crafted deck that comes with synergy and can summon multiple creatures at once.

Quadrant Opening Parity Winning Losing Rating 3.5 4.5 4 4

Rating Scale: 1 – Very Weak. 2- Weak. 3- OK. 4- Strong. 5- Very Strong.





Clivia Tharn Synergies

Decks Going Wide

As a faction in Legends, the Empire of Cyrodiil relies on having creatures in both lanes. As we have seen, Clivia is a great example of this – with a few creatures in a lane, she will be a great defensive tool to protect your life points. There are already a few cards from earlier expansion that can help in establishing a wide board that has multiple creatures in both lanes or helps to fill a single lane quickly.

Summoning creatures in both lanes

Scouting Patrol

Imperial Lackey

Kagouti Fabricant

Fortress Guard

Legate Rikke

Camoran Scout Leader

Telvanni Oathman

Jarl Balgruuf

Here are a few examples of cards that summon creatures in both lanes – the list is non-exhaustive:

Vvardvark Experiments : Summons a 0/1 Vvardvark in each lane.

: Summons a 0/1 Vvardvark in each lane. Scouting Patrol: Summons a 1/1 Imperial Grunt in each lane.

Summons a 1/1 Imperial Grunt in each lane. Imperial Lackey : Summons a 1/1 in each lane, when his Last Gasp is triggered.

: Summons a 1/1 in each lane, when his Last Gasp is triggered. Kagouti Fabricant: Summons a copy of the 3/3 Fabricant to the other lane, if you have a neutral creature in play. Note, the 1/1 Recruits introduced with Alliance War are all neutral cards.

Summons a copy of the 3/3 Fabricant to the other lane, if you have a neutral creature in play. Note, the 1/1 Recruits introduced with Alliance War are all neutral cards. Fortress Guard: This guard from Isle of Madness summons a 2/2 Colovian Guard in the other lane if you discard a card.

This guard from Isle of Madness summons a 2/2 Colovian Guard in the other lane if you discard a card. Legate Rikke: Summons a 1/1 Imperial Grunt in the other lane, when you summon an Imperial.

Summons a 1/1 Imperial Grunt in the other lane, when you summon an Imperial. Camoran Scout Leader: Summons a 2/2 Wood Elf with charge in each lane, with a wounded creature.

Summons a 2/2 Wood Elf with charge in each lane, with a wounded creature. Telvanni Oathman: Summons a 1/1 Risen Dead in each lane, if you have an Endurance card in play.

Summons a 1/1 Risen Dead in each lane, if you have an Endurance card in play. Jarl Balgruuf: Summons a creature in each lane and can win you the game with his alternate win condition.

Filling a single lane

Crassius’ Favor

Imperial Reinforcements

Prophet of Bonus

Giant Chicken

Here are a few examples of cards that aim to fill a single lane. This can be the lane to play Clivia into:

Crassius’ Favor: Summons two Imperial Grunts to a lane. With Plot, you can also gain health for each creature in that lane, when you played a card beforehand.

Summons two Imperial Grunts to a lane. With Plot, you can also gain health for each creature in that lane, when you played a card beforehand. Prophet of Bones: When exalted, he summons a lane full of 1/1 Risen Dead with guard (in this case, Clivia does not really add much value, as the Risen Dead already have guard).

When exalted, he summons a lane full of 1/1 Risen Dead with guard (in this case, Clivia does not really add much value, as the Risen Dead already have guard). Imperial Reinforcements: Summons 4 Imperial Grunts in a lane.

Lydia and Dual-Lane Guards

Lydia

Midnight Sweep

Golden Saint

To protect your tokensLydia, Golden Saint and Midnight Sweep can provide interesting ways to establish guards in both lanes.

Transitus Shrine, Disciple of Namira and Necormancer’s Amulet



Conjurer’s Spirit

Aundae Clan Sorcerer

Disciple of Namira

Transitus Shrine also supports the Empire strategy of keeping both lanes occupied. The support reduces the cost of your cards by 1 which makes it easier to play cards. Together with Disciple of Namira and Thieves Guild Fence this can create an impressive card draw engine that allows you to cycle through your deck pretty fast. You can add Necromancer’s Amulet and Aundae Clan Sorcerer to the equation for a fantastic way to heal as your tokens get killed, generating Blood Magic Spells every turn. Note that Conjurer’s Spirit and Necromancer’s Amulet also provide a neat synergy. However in a 75 card deck, this might be a bit too inconsistent to rely upon.

Token Buffs

Fifth Legion Trainer

Hidden Trail

Training Grounds

Divine Fervor

Since Clivia summons 1/1 tokens, you might want to use some of the common ways of buffing them up. Divine Fervor and Fifth Legion Trainer are the MVPs in this category, with Training Grounds being a new addition that works nicely for tribal Imperial decks, and (least favored) Hidden Trail that converts the field lane into a shadow lane as well. Divine Fervor would also be an option to move Clivia outside Lightning Bolt range, so not running that support in a deck with Clivia seems borderline criminal… 😉

Shadow Shifting Clivia Tharn

Shadow Shift

Bewildering Speed

Dune Smuggler

Clivia’s ability is different to that of Queen Barenziah. It is more like an “aura” similar to Doomcrag Warrior. In other words, the effect that gives other creatures in her lane Guard, moves with Clivia as she switches between lanes.

Oftentimes your aggro opponent tries to beat you through stacking their creatures in a single lane. Clivia Tharn is an effective way of slowing down your opponent, eventually forcing them to switch their attack to the non-guarded lane. In a dual-lane Empire token deck, an effective strategy is to move Clivia Tharn between lanes, using Shadow Shift or other Move-mechanics. This tactic can be your opponent’s nightmare and effectively win you the race against an aggressive opponent.

Clivia in Control Decks

If you run Clivia in a control deck, you might want to consider using Journey to Sovngarde as one of your win conditions. Your deck will require a strong card draw engine to find Journey and the tokens once you have played Journey. Clivia also works nicely after you have played Tullius’ Conscription. In this scenario, you can convert all 2-cost creatures in one lane into guards, and keep summoning more tokens, while Clivia is hiding behind her guards.

Summary

Clivia Tharn will likely become a staple card for Empire of Cyrodiil decks. As a unique legendary, she will be difficult to find in a 75 card deck, but if you get her to hand, she will be very versatile and support your dual-lane strategy very well. Dual-lane decks will be an exciting new thing to experiment with, once the Alliance War expansion releases in less than 10 days.

Hopefully, these uses and synergies helped to spark some deck ideas. If you are excited about another idea on how to use Clivia, please leave a comment below. Finally, to get notified as we publish more articles, please subscribe to the blog or follow us on Twitter.

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