Greetings fellow battle mages!
In this week Splinterlands BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge I am going to take a look at the Armored Up -ruleset and what kind of monsters and summoners I prefer when both teams are armored up.
The ruleset provides +2 armor for every monster and there should be many winning tactics and variations. Let's take a look at a couple of my ideas!
Usually when I'm pretty sure I'm gonna face an opponent that uses melee or/and ranged -units I add Venari Wavesmith to my team. This monster will provide +2 armor for the whole team using the Protect ability.
The thing with Wavesmith is that it is rather expensive costing 5 mana so if it didn't have the ability, I would probably save some space and choose a more mana-friendly magic monster instead.
In Armored Up ruleset battles I often leave Wavesmith on the bench and fill the 5 mana cap with two monsters - usually with Ice Pixie(2 mana) and a tank healer, Merdaali Guardian(3 mana).
My magic team will then ignore the opponent's armor and victory should be in the pocket. At least that's the plan.
If the Water splinter should be unavailable or I have a different focus, I sometimes use these two summoners to make life harder for my enemy while still being armored up myself.
Both Wizard Of Eastwood and Eternan Brune will take away the 2 armor points and if the opponent is counting on the ruleset provided amount they'll quickly find themselves quite naked.
This would be a great time for an aggressive melee or ranged offensive. For example, Double Striking Grund or a monster with Trample are good choices in my opinion.
In this week's example, we seem to have a lovely 99-mana Armored Up battle and I think I'm going to try something a bit different.
All splinters except Earth are in use but it looks like my opponent seems to favor the Fire splinter with already armored-up units. There's no need to bang my head against the wall, let them do it. I'll go with an all-magic team!
I swear, one day I'm going to upgrade ALRIC STORMBRINGER to level two so I'll be able to use higher-level monsters without reduced stats with this great summoner.
Costing only 3 mana, Alric has only one buff but in my opinion, that's more than enough. He will boost the attack of magic monsters such as my tank unit, DJINN OSHANNUS here.
As the ruleset provides +2 armor and a very healthy(10) Oshannus also has the Void ability, I would say this guy well protected against all sorts of threats. Besides that, Oshannus is also very fast(5) so there's a good chance he will dodge an attack or two.
The next two in line are also very powerful magic units.
NERISSA TRIDAWN has a base magic attack of 3 and with Alrics buff she can do some serious damage ignoring armors and shields. With a health of 9, she can also absorb possible Blast shrapnels or work as a substitute tank if something bad should happen to Oshannus.
RIVERBOAT CAPTAIN was the main character in my previous post and really has been a go-to guy ever since. His Blast ability is really awesome! Armored or not, those standing next to his target will also suffer their fair share.
Since this is a 99-mana battle it let me get creative and really think this through and the next two monsters I chose will form the backbone of my strategy.
The first one is SWAMP SPITTER, a monster looking like a former Turtles member gone rogue. This Soulbound ranged unit is quite costly but has an excellent ability - Repair. This means he will be restoring some of the armor of the unit whose armor has taken the most damage.
So, if there aren't any debuffs my whole team will have armor and I prefer things to stay that way. Swamp Spitter will be there to help make that happen.
If one of my monsters should die despite Swamp Spitters' efforts, I have a cunning plan for that scenario too...
Death is not the end. There is some nice synergy between Swamp Spitter and RIVER HELLONDALE.
This Legendary water magic monster will Resurrect the first friendly unit who is defeated. Because of the ruleset, that monster is born again with the armor but will unfortunately have only one health point.
In the best scenario, the born-again monster will be able to stop the first attack with armor, and hopefully, before the second one, our Swamp Spitter will restore it back!
Such a great duo working for the best of the whole team.
And last but not least I have a COASTAL NYMPH as the last position monster with 2 + 2 armor to counter those Sneak attacks.
As I suspected, my opponent chose the Fire splinter with an emphasis on well-armored melee units.
Their tank is TUSK THE WIDE with Void ability so my magic will deal reduced damage to him.
Kinda like a secondary tank, there seems to be LIVING LAVA in the second spot.
DISINTEGRATOR won't pose a major threat with its Demoralize ability since I don't have any melee units in my team.
SAND WORM whose melee attack is buffed to 6 could on the other hand be very lethal if one of my monsters should lose the armor.
Just like Sand Worm, TENYII STRIKER also has a Sneak ability making them target the Coastal Nymph in the last spot.
Well protected LAVA LAUNCHER will be able to operate in the first spot thanks to Close Range.
All but one monster have a boosted melee attack provided by their summoner - TARSA. In addition to that, she will also increase their health by one.
This is it! Interesting to see how my repair/resurrect -strategy will work with the Armored Up -ruleset.
You can watch the battle below or by clicking this link or/and continue to read the highlights.
ROUND 1
Nice start! Our attacks reduced the health of their tank unit to 3 while my tank, Oshannus, lost his armor, got it repaired by Swamp Spitter, and lost it again. Coastal Nymphs armor was gone too because of the heavy Sneak fire.
ROUND 2
We quickly got rid of Tusk The Wide and Coastal Nymph got her armor repaired to make her prepared for the next onslaught. Both she and Oshannus managed to dodge a couple of dangerous attacks at the end of the round.
ROUND 3
Living Lava, their secondary tank was now gone too and soon it was Disintegrators turn to turn to dust. At this point, both Oshannus and Coastal Nymph were without armor and Swamp Spitter made a judgment call to repair Nymph's armor.
This proved to be lethal to Oshannus as a dangerous Sand Worm made its attack. Now it was River Hellondale's time to step up. He resurrected Oshannus who was more than pleased to come back with fresh armor.
ROUND 4 & 5
Payback time. The first thing the awakened Oshannus did was to destroy the Worm. His armor was then crushed by Lava Launcher leaving him with only one health point.
Tenyii Striker was now in the tank spot but he didn't have time to perform as he was defeated by two magic strikes.
Again Swamp Spitter favored the Coastal Nymph and once again repaired her armor. Fortunately, Oshannus was faster as the final round began and Lava Launcher was in pieces.
I think this was a pretty successful experiment with the Armored Up ruleset. Mostly magic team with repair(and resurrect) works well if you are sure you are up against a melee team that is well-armored. The outcome could've been completely different if they had chosen a magic team as well.
As for the Resurrect ability, I prefer to use it in Armored Up instead of a tank healer because it kinda gives the monster a chance to survive two attacks since the guy is resurrected with armor. Again, this of course only applies when facing a melee/ranged team.
There you have it! I'd be interested to hear your opinions so please, drop them in the comments section.
Thank you for reading!
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