BATTLE MAGE SECRETS : EARTHQUAKE RULESET

Earthquake ruleset is a parallel ruleset to Noxious Fumes. Both ruleset have potential to cause 2 (two) absolute damage (unaffected by Void or Shield) to all cards each round. But there are 2 (two) main differences between them. Earthquake damage are of ranged or melee, meaning the damage will hit the armor prior the health; meanwhile Noxious Fumes will damage the health directly. Earthquake basically deals damage consistently each round, with the exception for cards with Flying will not be affected; meanwhile Noxious Fumes basically apply Poison at the start of the battle, which means cards with Immunity won't be affected, and having Cleanse will remove the poison effect for the rest of the battle. So cards possessing Flying ability will gained the most advantage in this ruleset. But this isn't always the case, as there are other pro and cons of Earthquake rulest.

I made a great mistake in this battle. I should understood that Protect and any armor buff will bring no benefit in this battle. Meanwhile I choose to bring Trutspeaker for its Protect which goes wasted. Gargoya Lion also lost its 2 armor. These bring so much handicapped to my formation. I decided to bring full Flying cards mainly because this is a 24 mana cap battle. There's not enough and armor to stretch the battle into long round. Pelacor Conjurer in the 2nd row as bridge before the opponent able to reached 3rd row. Celestial Harpy in the 3rd row should bring decent damage output. I also bring War Pegasus for its damage output. Unfortunately War Pegasus is the only ranged cards, which means the only one to benefit from General Sloan's buff. On the other side, my opponent start with Pelacor Conjurer, followed up by Gargoya Devil. Gargoya never been my favorite choices, by reason of it minimum health for 7 mana cost. Djinn Renova followed next, which should empower the formation with Strengthen. And lastly Venari Crystalsmith with its Heal. Although this seemed a solid formation, my opponent didn't reserve Flying cards on the back row. This will render him vulnerable on the long run. So we will find out the final outcome soon, is it my stronger formation with level 4 summoner, but with all the handicaps? Or will Djinn Renova and Venari Crystalsmith blitz fast enough before they perished by Earthquake?

The 1st round started with War Pegasus landing shot to Pelacor Conjurer. But this soon countered with Gargoya, Djinn, and Venari all landing hit on Gargoya Lion, ending its life. As reminder, one benefit of having Flying cards is if this card attack other Flying card, it will pass through the additional evasion of from the Flying ability.

War Pegasus performed very well by landing another shot to end Pelacor Conjurer for good. But the threat are not yet finished, as Gargoya and Djinn have enough firepower to end my Pelacor Conjurer. Celestial Harpy have to step-up as the last `Tanker` to barricade War Pegasus. Luckily Celestial Harpy managed to survive against Venari Crystalsmith with only 1 health left.

Entering Round 3, the Earthquake damage started to take toll as Djinn Renova left with 2 health and Venari Crystalsmith left with 1 health left. War Pegasus shows its heroic act to end Gargoya Devil for good. And then Celestial Harpy met its fate by Djinn Renova. By this point, my formation no longer able to attack with War Pegasus standing in the front-row. But the good news, the Earthquake still affect my opponent formation but not mine.

At the start of Round 5, the end of the battle started to become clear. With Venari Crystalsmith destroyed by Earthquake damage, Djinn stand with 2 health remaining. Although its still able to cast spell against War Pegasus, the magic damage is not substantial enough catch up with the incoming damage from Earthquake. The battle ended up the next round with War Pegasus come as survivor.

There's 2 (two) very important tactics in the Earthquake ruleset. First, you can't expect to have full selection of Flying cards; so instead of deploying a full Flying cards formation, its better to put a sufficient balance between maximizing mana cap and bringing some Flying cards. The opponent put a great strategy by bringing Djinn Renova to boost the entire formation health, while having Venari Crystalsmith with its Heal. I bring too much Flying cards, but without sufficient firepower. Second, always bring the most powerful Flying cards in the back-row (but not the last-row). And then let Earthquake do all the dirty work, and allow that Flying card to perform the last dance. But this only works if we expect opponent didn't deploy an entire formation with Flying cards.