1) Back-To-Basics: monsters lose all abilities
2) Earthquake: non-flying monsters take 2 melee-damage at the end of each round
3) Reverse Speed: monsters with the lowest Speed, attack first, and have the highest chance of evading attacks
The opposing teams strategy was to protect 2 high-Health monsters towards the rear of the team to outlast the Earthquake damage(Ruleset) which will hit everyone on the battlefield once per turn. They also have 2 monsters who will be hitting for significant magical damage (which damages HP directly) for several turns.
My strategy was to use the Fire Summoner Yodin, stacking high damage output, while sacrificing long-term survivability. My hope was to quickly subdue the enemy before our team would succumb to the inevitable Earthquake's effect - death.
By the end of the 1st Round, the future doesn't look very bright for our team. Despite our monsters dealing a significant amount of damage (including blast damage), their strongest (and highest HP) monsters are still at full power and in safe positions
Our last hope is Cornealus in the back position outlasting everyone else - but that seems more like a desperate dream than a real chance.
So close... but so far... if we had landed one additional shot we may very well have pulled off the victory, however because our last monster is Ranged it can't attack from the first position once it gets there; this spells certain doom as their remaining 2 monsters fire their winning shots before the Earthquake damage catches up with them.
It was a narrow win for the enemy, with one simple change in my team lineup that could have changed the outcome significantly... but a win, is a win. This is a good lesson showing that playing the powerful "meta" cards, doesn't always ensure victory.
