Hey Splinterheads, I hope you are all having a great Splinterday!
The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge is a wonderful and effective way to get to know rulesets better and improve your gameplay. Not only do you study and analyse rulesets and example battles closely, you also get to read and see what other Splinterheads are thinking and doing with their little darlings on the battlefield.
With many battles now being comprised of 3 rulesets, it is important to know your rulesets well, how they relate to other rulesets and what corresponding cards work well to either exploit the ruleset or defend against it. We have also seen a number of new rulesets coming into the game lately and a bunch of new monsters have received new abilities.
The game is becoming more and more technical, leaving you with ever decreasing chances of winning battles with sheer brute force and overkill strategies. All these reasons and the clear challenge that players (and bots unfortunately) are getting „smarter“ all the time underscore the need to know rulesets very well. The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge helps and motivates us players further to do just that.
Today's ruleset in focus is Fire and Regret.
Description:
All units receive the Return Fire ability at the start of the battle.
Enemy units that attack with ranged attacks receive damage back.
Damage returned is equal to damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up.
Ranged units with the Reflection Shield ability do not take damage from reflected magic attacks.
The Amplify ability increases damage.
When working with the Fire and Regret ruleset, it is obvious that the best strategy is to use no range attackers. It is then also advisable to nerf your opponent’s meelee and magic attack capabilities, either through summoners, like Zintar Mortalis or Bortus, or monters with Demoralize, like Disintegrator, Molten Ogre or Octopider (L3) and other little darlings with Silence, like Goblin Spychic (L7) or Phantom Soldier (L3).
On the other hand, as the ruleset explains, the return damage done by Fire and Regret is half that of the monster’s attack strength rounded up. This means, that when you use range attackers with 2 damage, the return damage is 1. When the monster is question has high health and probably also has some shield, the return damage will remain minimal. Furthermore, when your range attacker is attacked, it returns fire and chips away at the enemy monster’s health every time it is hit. Of course, the optimal thing to do in this ruleset ist to bring Cornealus with Heal where Return Fire becomes insignificant, but once moving to the first position, he is a sitting duck. And then there is Wave Brood, who can turn this ruleset on its head, as we will see in the battle I have chosen to study.
I personally prefer taking some return fire damage into account, when using this ruleset, rather than leaving my range attackers on the bench for fear of sacrificing them too soon in battle. I guess, I am saying that I consider this ruleset a little overrated…
The battle I have chosen to look at closely today has the Fire and Regret and Healed Out rulesets with a mana cap of 42. The available splinters are Fire, Water, Earth and Death.
Here is the team I put together:
KELYA FRENDUL, even after the release of all remaining CL legendary summoners, remains the best Chaos Legion summoner in my mind. His +1 speed and +1 shield are still unbeatable, especially because he synergizes so well with a majority of all the water deck monsters. With market prices in the basement, it is time to level him up!
DIEMONSHARK, needing no introduction, is my standard frontline tank when launching a water war. His superior stats will give any battle a good start. In this high mana cap battle, he is a good investment and will hold the fort for quite some time. With a total of 5 speed and 7 shield, he will attack early and defend firmly.
TIDE BITER has very good stats at very low mana cost, saving lots of mana to invest in the rest of the lineup. At 5 speed he will also strike early and defend himself well for a round or two. I really like him as a Reach monster, as previously the Wave Runner had his job and didn’t do so well in the past and cost more mana. I am glad to have an upgrade there for the second position.
My boy DEEP LURKER, who needs even less introduction and regularly collects the Hero Of The Day Prize, comes in at number 3. With his awesome stats, he will pick off the weakest enemy monsters one by one until there is noone left to fight. At very affordable 6 mana cost, he is a standard pick in any water team. With 3 meelee attackers chosen so far, I have my bases covered for the ruleset and can concentrate on completing the team with more strategic gameplay.
PELACOR BANDIT takes fourth spot. His job is to terrorize the enemy backline. With 6 speed he will attack second after Oshannus and is likely to survive until the third round. With such speed plus Flying he is hard to hit and will also not be affected by the ruleset.
Here come Sir OSHANNUS. He is in fifth position to intervene and turn the battle around, in case the frontline and midfield collapses. His great speed with which he spits magic at the enemy main tank is unbeatable. He is also not affected by Fire and Regret and will be difficult to wear down, let alone defeat.
And here is my strategic play for the Fire and Regret ruleset: WAVE BROOD. I don’t mind him getting return fire after attacking and at 12 health he can take several hits while returning fire himself. Being a Taunt monster, he also protects the main team for a round or two while wearing down any enemy range attackers who think they are smarter than him.
ROUND 1
The battle beginns with OSHANNUS firing and Axemaster firing twice at WAVE BROOD and collecting 2 return fire. PELACOR BANDIT then further weakens Axemaster, the two Diemons lash out at each other and Kulu Swimhunter collects return fire.
ROUND 2
Round 2 starts in the same fashion and WAVE BROOD is defeated. I was hoping he would survive a little longer, yet the damage to Axemaster is done. Axemaster fires twice at an unimpressed DIEMONSHARK and suffers his death by return fire. In the meantime the enemy Diemonshark has been reduced to 1 health and Kulu Swimhunter suffers his second return hit to leave him with 2 health. DEEP LURKER dusts Diemonshark, bringing the enemy Oshannus to the front.
ROUND 3
The third round is 5 to 4. Oshannus wears down quickly and Kulu has to leave at the hands of PELACOR BANDIT. DEEP LURKER then toasts Feasting Seeweed, breaking the enemy team down to 2.
ROUND 4
DIEMONSHARK does well to survive into the fourth round before taking his leave. The damage is done. The next three rounds see the enemy decimated to leave only the enemy Lurker left standing at the beginning of the 7th round with 3 health against 3 formidable fighters. Game over!
HERO OF THE DAY
The Fire and Regret ruleset can be easily managed by not using range attacks, yet it is no guarantee for a win. I find it not so detrimental to use range attackers for this ruleset, but not the way my opponent did by fielding 2 of them, one with double strike. That is asking for trouble. But when your range attacker has a strategic purpose, like WAVE BROOD, controlling enemy fire and dishing out return fire before dying, it is a different matter and can lead you to victory. This is not an isolated incident. I use WAVE BROOD a lot with Fire and Regret and here is another battle with the same strategy and the same outcome to illustrate my point:
See you around Splinterheads!
all images belong to
