You are farther along than I am, so I'm not sure if this will work in Gold, but one of my most successful comps is a stunner, Kymar, and two nukers (preferably one with DEC DEF).  I use Astralon, Kymar,  Sicia, and Drexthar.  Drex is my biggest nuker, but I just pulled Pythion, Yakarl, Dark Kael, BEK, Fu Shan, and Psylar (none of which I've really assessed for Arena yet)

I was thinking of putting Ukko in a stun set, although not 100% sure if it's an efficient use of resources. 

Duchess, Candraphon, Pythion, Harima, Rotos, Ukko, Kymar, UDK, Leo, Mithrala stand out here as the champs I want to be using a lot. Krisk, Staltus and Elva seem up there too. I think with gearing you could make some pretty annoying defensive comps, as well. With regards to Ukko: stun or provoke (great if you use him in Hydra) set is pretty darn good.

At the risk of triggering the Great Stone Skin Debate, how is your Stone Skin? Same question goes for Bolster, Swift Parry, Immu/Untouchable, Savage/Lethal/Instinct, too.

Without thinking about this too much, I can absolutely guarantee you that your philosophy for both teams 2 and 3 is wrong. No team should have two nukers.

Couldn't disagree more in the current top end of the game. This has completely changed from the previous couple years, especially in the top of Raid. 

It is quite common to see Harima and a second nuker to back her up. And even more common to see a nuker slotted in as the fourth champ on a bomb team, such as a Leo and Gauis on the same team. Teams like Pythion, Mithrala, Harima, Mortu are quite formidable actually, or perhaps a Pythion, Ursuga, Georgid, plus something like a Taras.

Personally I am very keen on his Team 2. You'll see more and more like it, built incredibly well, if you continue to push up in Tag.

Perhaps. For now, I think I'll have to agree to disagree. None of my teams run two nukers, and I feel I'm pretty rarely ever in a fight where I think either side would have done better had they had two.

That may work where you've been playing, but keep pushing up to higher tiers and better competition and I think you'll feel differently... or just lose a great deal cause stoneskin, damage mitigation and the amount of time your debuffers spend as sheep is at an all time high

I've been meaning to ask since I have been daring you to come find my teams, did you push up to G2 Tag this week?

Quinn is correct on this one. Look at Plat reset on Sunday/Monday - which I think does have a good parallel to high level Tag - and you'll see a good chunk of double nuker/DPS teams. Some combination of Rotos/Taras/Mortu/Harima/insert nuker are common.

The higher you're going to push, the less you're going to be able to rely on strips/debuffs due to Sheep, the more you're going to want the double nukers to push through the aforementioned Stone Skin/damage mitigation.

Yep, and well into the green for g3. We'll see how the weekend looks :)

Awesome! :)

Need to check it. I am not a big Stone Skin fan as a concept. Plus I use most of these champs elsewhere (like Doom Tower or Hydra), so a 2 turn effect is not really a priority. I do use it for stat bonuses, if the pieces are decent. 

Big fan of Instinct (Rotos, Staltus), I have some Savage (Harima, Candraphon). My Lethal should be on Leo, although I don't use him as much yet. I have some ok Swift Parry pieces, need to see if I can scrounge up Arena-worthy set. Not rich in Immunity/Untouchable.

The philosophy is not to have 2 nukers, it's to have nukers that have other utility. With Harima's damage mitigation as well as edge over Demonspawn, I'd have her on the team even without nuking. The fact that she increases her own defense, decreases opponent's defense and also provokes are good bonuses, as well. 

Staltus is immune to decrease defense and weaken, so that helps him survive and hit harder. Ragash boosts his own defense, as well as boosting the team and veiling an ally. They have utility in helping themselves (and/or their team) last longer. 

I have pure attack-based damage dealers....not the uber-meta, but great nukers nonetheless (Trunda, Konstantin, Leo, Cupidus...albeit with no Venus), but lately, they seem like sitting ducks, having a hard time getting to their turn. With comps I'm facing, it seems that outlasting the opponent is the name of the game, so I'm focusing on nukers with defensive utility (damage mitigation, crowd control etc.) 

Tested out both yours and DT's points (double nuker and Duchess-Pythion duo) against the toughest team (well, highest TP team) I could find. Took me two tries, but it worked. Bringing Rotos to a UDK fight may not be the best idea, but he's my best single target nuker and he and Harima parner up well when going against UDK - she takes care of UDK while keeping Rotos alive through damage mitigation....once UDK is gone, it's a Smurf show. 

Duchess-Pythion with Harima's help helped me outlast the Stoneskins (Nekhret, Duchess, and UDK), then it was a matter of building up Harima's defense and Rotos' HP while Duchess and Pythion revive them. Once they built up momentum, they started going to town. 

Love Rotos with Harima partnership, and Duchess-Pythion combo plays well together, too. Once my Elva is in a better shape, I think she'll be a good partner for Pythion, too. 

i