New Battle Ruleset, Same Old Quora!

Hiya #Splinterlands community, I hope you enjoy my #BattlefieldBreakdown this week! It only took me about 30 battles in Modern ranked until I knew which battle I had to feature. Of course, why not take a look at the new battlefield rule "No Pain, No Gain" which gives all units painforge.

Painforge

Since Quora has immunity, she is immune to the poison or burning triggers of painforge. But damage inflicted by teammates from reckless or electrified would activate painforge's "martyr" trigger, giving a bonus to any units' stats in this "no pain, no gain" ruleset, Quora included! By the way, how many rulesets even have punctuation in them like this one? just asking...

Well, "Are you not entertained?" is another because, of course, why not include the ? in the actual ruleset name? But for me, excitement grows in battle rulesets like Evens Stevens, when only half your units are available for battle. It really makes you think about the synergies you have left in your collection with only the even units available, and strategy is amplified! In the shark-infested waters of Champion Ranked, these decks run deep with options, and Hive account@instamental is no slouch; he's a leaderboard threat every single season!

Lineup

I can't get enough of slotting Quora in that 2 slot and pairing it with the Triage & Scavenge tactic from Tofu. Growing Quora's health as she continues to heal with immunity is great, and with triage, you can count on her to heal another unit, too! The next question is finding the right tank.

But before I could answer that question, I had to find my options for Reckless and ElecItrified, to see how I could grow Quora's stats. That search left me with one option: the deadly neutral rare, 5-range turtle, Halfshell Seer.

To further abuse painforge + reckless, I added the true striking neutral legend Bren Palesworn, to deal growing amounts of deadly sneak damage to my opponent's backline. I couldn't allow Quora to take quick, early damage from potential snipe attacks from Kelan Gaines, so including the 10-mana neutral taunt Ulund, Bellowmancer, was a must!

That left me with 8 mana left to use, so let's consider some of my best options for the remaining few slots. 8 is not enough to turn Grim Smith into an attacking option, so I didn't think it would slot into this lineup. Another 6 mana option, Croire, an earth epic from Rebellion, could give flank to Quora, but its defensive stats are very squishy and it wouldn't hold up to much of a beating.

Instead, I opted to split it for two 4-mana units, which made the rebirthing Sacrosanct Shanker an obvious choice for its durability as a tank for the low mana investment. Then in the back, I had a few choices that I boiled down to Quokka vs. Halaran Huntress. They both have 4 power melee attack, but the life unit has 3 speed and opportunity, while the life unit has 4 speed and charge. I opted for the faster Huntress to focus my remaining attack on the opponent's front unit.

I decided that if the opponent also played Tofu, I could still keep the melee attackers alive through Quora's triage. With my opponent on a fire and death Lorkus team, the backline melee attacker was left free rein to attack with impunity each round, making its presence felt.

The Battle

Hive account@instamental lined up with Lorkus and a potent magic attack anchored by Modern standout Kelan Gaines. He also brought the 1-2 punch of Grim Smith and Mox Rebel to give the stout neutral dwarf a steady magic attack. For their Gladiator, they chose the speedy common Krash Wanderford to pair the null attack with Mox Rebel for another cheap magic attacker with bloodlust.

Up front, Cavewise Wayfinder proved a bit squishy himself without his trusty giraffe sidekick providing shield. Arcane Skinwalker rounded out his lineup with his slew of support abilities, but really only boosted one unit with inspire and debuffed one unit with silence.

The first round played out well, with Halfshell Seer landing its range attack on the Wayfinder to boost the dual attacks of Quora and Bren. Later that round, there was a missed attack on Wayfinder that allowed Quora to land the killing blow, triggering bloodlust.

Quora went into Round 2 with 4 magic attack and 5 melee attack -- what a unit! Krash was no slouch with 5 magic attack and 9 speed himself. But crucially, Quora gets dispel at level 5. She soaked up both of the snipe attacks from Kelan Gaines and then burshed off her shoulders. When she landed her magic attack in Round 2, it sent Krash's attack crashing back down to just 3 power.

On the other hand, Halfshell Seer missed its attack in Round 2, so I didn't get to trigger painforge a second time. That being said, it was a dog to land the attack on Krash in the first place, with only a 35% chance to hit, facing -4 speed and dodge. With a second painforge trigger, it would have been a much easier battle, as Bren takes out Gaines after a beefy Round 2 sneak attack. But instead, Gaines survived the sneak attack on 1 health after taking 7 true strike damage to live another day.

Gaines did the business at the start of Round 3 to make sure Halfshell Seer didn't get another chance to try to trigger painforge. It gobbled up the range attacker with those two 4-power magic attacks. But Bren returned the favor, eliminating their most potent threat. From there, we cruised to victory, as Quora was far too large for them to take down with half a lineup.

Although painforge only triggered once, it proved to be a vital moment in the battle, allowing Quora to kill Wayfinder with her magic attack to trigger a second buff through bloodlust. No matter the rule or circumstance, Quora is nearly an auto-include when the Gladiator ruleset comes around. I hope you enjoyed the storytelling, GIFs, and strategy in my #communitychallenge this week from the #TopBattles of Modern Champion Ranked. Until next time...