Welcome to another Battle Mage Challenge, this time featuring the Equalizer rule, so let’s get to it.
Equalizer
This rule is one of my favorites, since it raises the Health Points of every single Monster in the field to equalize the Health of the Monster with the max amount.
There is no strategy to follow when it comes to this rule, because it doesn’t affect you negatively or limit you in any other way; what you need to know, in my opinion, is what are your possibilities.
My favorite thing, in this rule, is to use cards I wouldn’t usually use, even if they have nice abilities, because of their very low Health. So, that is the great thing about this rule; to some cards it means a slight improvement, but to some other it means a great amplification of their abilities.
Instead of writing a strategy to follow, I’m going to make a list of those cards that greatly benefits from this rule:
From the Soulbound Reward set, the Dumacke Orc. A big liability under normal circumstances, but with Equalizer it becomes a relentless weapon against Melee attacks.
From the same set, the Madcap Magus. Tough to build up his Health under normal circumstances, but with Equalizer it could have a great head start and amass a great deal of HP, which could make it an impossible barrier to go through. Similar principle applies to the Vampire, especially at higher levels.
From the Reward Chaos set, the Exploding Rats. Insane Speed and good deal of attack power, alongside with a Blast. Similar principle applies to the Exploding Dwarf, from the Beta Reward edition.
From the same set, the Ever-Hungry Skull. Rather useless under normal circumstances, but at a higher level, alongside with Equalizer it becomes an insane tank that costs only five points of Mana.
Spark Pixies from the Untamed set. It’s a very evasive card, but a single blow can take it down. With Equalizer, you prevent that from happening. The Fallen Specter, Legendary card from the Beta Reward set, is another Monster that shares that similarity.
Self-Healing back line Monsters, such as the Water and Earth Elementals, from the Beta Edition. More HP, more healing, higher obstacle for your opponent.
Any other Monster that costs zero, one, or two points of Mana. They are usually quite weak, however their value skyrockets with the Equalizer rule, since you can create wall after wall to protect the key cards in your team, without spending significant points of Mana.
If those low Mana Monsters have any particular trait even better. A great example would be the two Mana Monsters from the brand-new Rebellion Edition, for example the Nimbledook Scout.
Since all of your Monsters are going to be equalized in Health, Monsters with Triage are even a greater asset to have in your team, so make sure you use one of them.
Very short Mana battle from the Silver Modern Format. Not many options here, so I decided to use that witty new tactic, which uses the Weapons Training ability.
The card that uses Weapons Training is Magical, so I chose Obsidian as my Summoner.
As a first barrier, I picked the Mycelic Morphoid, which costs one point of Mana and, most important it has Thorns, so it’s a great tank in this ruleset.
In second position, the Lurking Puffer. No real use by itself, but it costs just two points of Mana and is functional to my strategy, since it doesn’t have an attack.
In third position, the Moxian Rebel, which is the key card here. It’s Weapons Training effect give an attack to adjacent units without an attack. The great thing is that it is a Neutral Monsters, so it could be used any time. Definitely one of the must-have cards from the Rebellion Edition.
Fourth, the Chaos Agent who doesn’t have an attack either, so it benefits from the Moxian Rebel skill.
At last, a Mana free card, the Fungus Fiend to protect the back line.
The battle was a total success, since my opponent didn’t know this trick, otherwise he would’ve attempted it. I wouldn’t say his lineup was bad, since he protected his back line much better than I, probably expecting Sneak Monsters, and considering those tend to have low Mana, is understandable.
Higher amount of Mana here and with the Noxious Fumes rule, which poison all Monsters. Since Fire and Earth Splinters were the only ones available, I decided that Earth would give me more defensive options.
As a Summoner, Obsidian to boost my Magic attacks.
I expected to be attacked with Magic by my opponent, and a Monster that is protected against that is Djinn Biljka at level two, since it has Void. As you can see, this another Monster that greatly benefits from the Equalizer rule.
Then, Venator Kinjo to replace the Djinn if it falls. Another card that greatly increases its value plus it has Immunity, which allows him not to suffer negative status effects, not just Poison, but also Affliction.
Then, a Healer, the Goblin Psychic.
I expected my opponent to use Quora Towershead, so I placed the Spirit Hoarder for both his Triage and Dispel abilities, in the fourth position.
The Blackmoor Nymph is not a card that I’m used to, but since I rented her to Brawl I used it here, because of her Immunity ability. It’s a good thing she uses Magic, so she also benefits from Obsidian’s buff.
At last, the Mycelic Slipspawn setting the Health of all Monsters in the field and using it’s Taunt to draw attention away from my other cards.
This was a painful loss, because even though I had two Healers and two cards with Immunity, my opponent was able to take down my entire team. He used a Gladius as I expected, but it wasn’t Quora, it was Katrelba Gobson, which is one of the deadliest Sneak attackers in the game.
I certainly didn’t expect Katrelba in a Poison rule, at least not over Quora, which my opponent had at level two (I checked his deck). At level two, Quora gets one extra Health point, which allows her to heal by four points. Why he didn’t use her? It’s a mystery to me, but it worked out great for him. Ironically, I don’t think he would’ve beat me, if he would’ve used Quora.
