Sometimes a monster plays a very important role in a battle. Or the special ability that a monster has and that you select for a specific purpose can change the whole direction of your battle if it works. It can take you from a losing position to a winning position. Exactly this happened in today's battle.
I placed a monster with the Thorns ability in the backline position. My only intention was that this monster would waste just two of the enemys attacks. After that it would be eliminated and the battle would come in my favor.
I thought that the Thorns ability would return physical damage to any melee attacker. This would be very useful for me because monsters with Sneak and Opportunity abilities always target backline monsters. That is why I placed it in the last position and my plan worked exactly as I expected.
For two rounds it continuously absorbed two attacks but also returned four damage to the enemy units. This became a turning point for me.
In any battle understanding the ruleset should be the first priority. After understanding it monster selection and correct positioning are the second steps toward success. Finally the strategy you adopt is another important factor for success.
Today's 32 mana battle was very interesting. Both sides selected very good monsters and I selected my monsters and planned my strategy according to two special rulesets. First let us understand these two rulesets and then I will explain which monsters I selected and what strategy I followed.
Ruleset One: HEALED OUT
This is a ruleset in which all units including Archons lose all their abilities that restore health. For example if a unit has the Heal ability it becomes useless under this ruleset. Similarly if an Archon has the Heal ability it also becomes useless. Therefore healing will not help here.
According to this ruleset it is important to adopt a strategy where instead of giving preference to monsters with healing abilities you focus on monsters with high health and strong attacks. You should select these monsters and position them in the best way.
Ruleset Two: RISE OF THE EXEMPLARS
According to this ruleset you are only allowed to summon Exemplar monsters.
Exemplars are very powerful units that provide extra strength and abilities to your team during battle.
Keeping both these rulesets in mind let us see what strategy I planned and which monsters I selected.
MY STRATEGY AND MONSTERS SELECTION
I selected an Archon monster that provides plus one armor. This means that at the beginning of the battle all my units will receive an additional one armor. The reason I selected this Archon was to keep the Heal Out ruleset in mind.
For my frontline I selected a strong tank monster that also had very good melee attack power. This means it would continue attacking enemy units every round with plus two attack power while also continuously absorbing damage.
For the second position I again selected an even stronger tank monster. It was a double striker that could perform both magic and melee attacks in the same round.
Then I applied Aggressive Stance in the third position. This would allow the monster to continue delivering heavy strikes and dealing heavy damage to enemy units.
As I explained at the beginning of this post one of my monsters changed this losing battle into a victory. That monster was Spellmonger. Its Thorns ability helped me make very good progress in this battle. My strategy was that the damage returned to the enemy through Thorns would determine the real direction of this battle.
ON THE BATTLEFIELD
When I looked at the enemy units on the battlefield I was quite confused because the enemy's selection was also very strong. The good thing for me was that the enemy had more melee attackers. In other words the enemy had selected three melee attacker units and this worked in favor of my monster with the Thorns ability.
In Round One heavy strikes continued from both teams as soon as the battle started. When Round Two arrived one of my units was eliminated. However before being eliminated it had already dealt heavy damage to two enemy units and weakened them.
In Round Three one of the enemy units was also destroyed. In this way the battle became three versus three.
You can see in this screenshot that the whole direction of the battle changed in Round Four. Three of my monsters remained alive while the enemy had only one magic striker left alive.
In Round Five another one of my units was eliminated. At this point the battle became two versus one and I could clearly see my victory. At the end of Round Five I achieved a wonderful victory.
I would choose Spellmonger as my favorite monster in today's battle because its ability gave me a strong advantage and helped me gain control of the battle.
It would be great to see your answers in the comment section. What monster selection and strategy would you use under these kinds of rulesets and which monsters would you give preference to?
I can also remove all commas from this translation or suggest some engaging titles for your Splinterlands post.
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IMAGE TAKEN FROM SPLINTERLANDS AI
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