So in a defense consisting of Ariel (+5), Marjana (+3), Evelyn (+4), Joon (+3), and Thoth (+2) who would make the more effective tank, Ariel or Marjana?
Ariel: Higher defense, slower mana would benefit from the more central position, but being in the center may lead to heroes to her left firing their specials before she can remove negative status effects.
Marjana: Significantly more HP but lower defense, brings more pain for hitting her (charging her special) without taking her out.
Toth Ariel Eve Marja Joon
A tough call but based on my experience raiding in diamond, Ariel tank is better than Marjana.
Sure, Marjana will fire at least once, but my healer can take care of it without any problem.
While Ariel in the middle will heal and mana charge the whole team, which is a big + points.
Of course stacking or mono is another story but on the bad board, Ariel is more of a pain.
Stats might favor eve, but she doesn’t raise concerns whenever I see her on defense unless the is another green hero along with her such as lianna or even elk.
If eve fires, your heroes get a little slap but no fatal blow.
Marj is a pain being a rogue, I’ve seen her dodge several times. She has decent defense and her dot is pretty nasty too.
I’d go with
Eve Ariel marj Toth joon
If I see Evelyn as a tank, I can easily defeat her with Sumitomo and Colen because their attack stats are pretty good. Throw in Namahage and she can easily be defeated in 3 to 5 tiles. Honestly Ariel would be more of a concern as a tank to me as I only have +20 or near +20 3 star greens. Even though she can be a tile dump, if she has the proper flanks then she can be feared as a tank. That is just my two cents in the bucket.
I’d go with Ariel tank too. Even if the opponent manages to kill her quickly, at least she bought some time for the others to charge and you wouldn’t lose firepower.
If she shoots at least once, you get everyone healed and with improved mana generation
Ariel seconded from first hand experience, I run the following def team:
I have tried versions with almost all other heroes in the above lineup as tank, the defense performs by far the best with Ariel in center position. But in the end it is a matter of trying different setups and see which works best with your heroes.
This is my current defense team. Before I had Alice to 4/80 I had Triton in there but the alignment for the others was the same - Marjana at tank. Went from 1600ish cups to currently 2147. I do not raid, I only participate in the raid tournaments. Marjana is pretty legit as a tank imo
You are right that Marjana is a serviceable tank, in your setup she is the logical choice (side note, I would consider switching for example alice with evelyn so the two greens are not next to each other).
Considering Anaea`s choices I believe however that Ariel is the better tank, e.g. Evelyn-Marjana-Ariel-Thoth-Joon could work / but I would also try switching Ariel with Marjana, run both for several days and see where the defense team has higher win percentage.
Been using Marjana for a while, so I think I’ve got some idea of the level at which that arrangement can hold so I’m going to go ahead and give Ariel a try and see how she works out.
Thoth at tank, flanked by Ariel 
Place the other 3 however you want
He is holding me at 2500 cup over night
I’ll keep that in mind and maybe give it a try after a few days of Ariel at tank.
