HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to week 44 of the new iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges (at least, if I haven't miscounted so far, yet. 😜).
For any old Hivers/Splinterland players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.
In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets, Justice has come to the Lands of Splinterlands. Well, it isn't quite the Lady Justice holding her scales, but I think they're similar in a sense. 😉
No matter! I present to you the ruleset — EQUALIZER ⚖️⚖️⚖️
The game's description of EQUALIZER is as follows: "The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health."
It's not blind justice per se, but it does put all the small guys on an equal footing with the big boys doesn't it? In some cases, those small frail units might even become stronger than their larger counterparts, especially if combined with their unit abilities! 💪
I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 3 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with EQUALIZER. Introducing the SPIRIT HOARDER, WOOD NYMPH, & GOBLIN PSYCHIC.
What makes the Spirit Hoarder so utterly terrifying, though, is the indifference in which it stalks the land. The Spirit Hoarder cares not of the source of souls it takes, with both Praetorians and Chaos Legion having fallen victim to its obscene harvesting.
From Splinterlands Lore on SPIRIT HOARDER
The Spirit Hoarder is a Legendary card released during the CHAOS LEGION expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️MAGIC ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 3 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TRIAGE ability. It's summoning cost is 3 🧪MANA🧪.
A peculiar new bud appeared at the tips of the highest branches of the Elder Tree. The animals living in the tree watched as the strange buds grew, and in a matter of days, burst open. From each bud zoomed forth a tiny sprite. These Wood Nymphs quickly scattered around Anumun in a frenzy of mischief.
From Splinterlands Lore on WOOD NYMPH
The Wood Nymph is a Common card released during the REWARD expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️Magic ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 2 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TANK HEAL ability. It's summoning cost is 4 🧪MANA🧪.
The Magi Tower is where Goblins go to learn how to use psychic abilities. It isn't just a gift Goblins can learn, but due to the proximity of Gobson, Goblins tend to show up more frequently. The Magi who calls the tower home, enjoys teaching the art of using one's mind to move objects and read thoughts. Goblin Psychics use their abilities to perform work in Gobson or become adventurers and practice to become a full fledged Summoner.
From Splinterlands Lore on GOBLIN PSYCHIC
The Goblin Psychic is a Common card released during the CHAOS LEGION expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 2 ⚔️Magic ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 3 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TANK HEAL ability. It's summoning cost is 6 🧪MANA🧪.
It might seem odd that I would pick these 3 cards which if you noticed are all Healers.
At first glance, all 3 of these cards are very frail units who will probably die in one hit.
However, what is often overlooked is their abilities to influence one particular stat in the game — HEALTH!
Their TRIAGE AND TANK HEAL abilities serve one purpose and one purpose only. That being, to keep the entire team alive.
This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱
Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset EQUALIZER was in effect. My opponent used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Obsidian from the EARTH splinter as his main pick, while I used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Immortalis from the EARTH splinter too. 🌱 VS 🌱
At first glance, it would seem like I was at a distinct disadvantage.
This was a battle with the Noxious Fumes ruleset in play.
My opponent had the infamous Quora Towershead as his main tank. 😭
Quora is an even stronger version of Kron the Undying, with the added bonus of an extra melee attack and the BLOODLUST ability too! 😱
I was honestly expecting this to be a really bad matchup for me 😜🤣. This was a team who had an innate advantage in this ruleset. Quora had natural healing and would get stronger with every kill. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.
I would say that the ruleset EQAULIZER was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.
This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆
1st CARD SLOT
The Primatic Energy is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats. His high health stats and the MAGIC REFLECT ability will also allow him to have much longer staying power on the battlefield. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.
2nd CARD SLOT
Doct Blight takes up the second slot. He might not have great attack stats, but he does have the AFFLICTION and CAMOUFLAGE abilities. He will also take the place of the main tank as a sacrificial one hit backup tank.
3rd CARD SLOT
The Spirit Hoarder occupies this slot. It's main role here to be a Healer for the team with it's TRIAGE ability.
4th CARD SLOT
The Wood Nymphh occupies the 4th slot here. It's main role here to be a Healer for the main tank with it's TANK HEAL ability.
5th CARD SLOT
The Goblin Psychic occupies this slot. Just like the unit before it, it's main role here to be a Healer for the main tank with it's TANK HEAL ability.
6th CARD SLOT
The Mushroom Seer takes the last slot. This is an anti-magic unit with it's SILENCE ability reducing the damage of all enemy magic attacks.
I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉
As you can see, both of us fielded very similar units in our matchup. Thanks to the Wands Out ruleset, both of us were forced to field an "All Magic" team. 😱
🌱EARTH🌱 VS 🌱EARTH🌱
My opponent used Quora Towershead as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his HEAL allowing him to heal himself, this is a self sustaining unit capable of holding the front line. The BLOODLUST ability makes it even more dangerous as any killing blow it landed would make it even stronger.
The Mycelic Slipspawn occupied his 2nd slot. This unit is a really tough unit and has the TAUNT ability. It would likely also be the backup tank after his main tank fell.
In his 4th slot was the Goblin Psychic. I would assume that with it's TANK HEAL ability, it's sole purpose is to provide Quora with even more healing to make it last even longer.
His other slots contained more Magic DPS units.
All in all, I would say that the opponent picked a really strong team.
The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a high mana game with 57 mana as the limit. The rulesets were EQUALIZER, NOXIOUS FUMES, & WANDS OUT.
The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks. Both tanks were mainly unscathed thanks to the heals, but my opponent's army ended up worse for the wear after receiving damage in return thanks to my Prismatic Energy's reflection. 🤣
The start of round 2 saw everyone take 2 damage from poison and with this, the opponent's Mycelic Slipspawn fell.
That was about it for round 2 as both sides dealt damage to each other without managing to deal any killing blows.
The 3rd round saw some huge changes in the battlefield. His Quora and Magic of Chaos both fell to the sustained damage from my army. Having been dealt 3 rounds of poison damage, they simply could not withstand it anymore.
This was the beginning of the end as round 4 saw all his units fall by the wayside.
It was all over for the opponent now as I eventually mopped up his remaining units. 💀💀💀
Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the EQUALIZER ruleset to give me a slight advantage. In their original forms, my units would all be too frail to even stand up to the opponent's Quora. Not only that, their low HP would have provided Quora with free frags to activate BLOODLUST turning her into a monster. However it ended up being the entire reason for my win! By capitalizing on the ruleset, all my low health units became just as tanky as the opponent's strongest unit! The opponent simply could not handle all that ARMOR at all.
Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆
Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻
Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇
I definitely can appreciate the ruleset EARTHQUAKE and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those rulesets which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻
I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉
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