Hello there.
Today I'll share my battle under the Briar Patch ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With the Briar Patch ruleset, all monsters gain the Thorns ability. Thorns deal 2 physical damage to Melee attackers. Shield can reduce this damage to 1. Reflection Shield negates the Thorns damage. Amplify increases the Thorns damage by 1.
In this ruleset, I usually avoid Melee monsters, unless they have Heal. Most players use Range and Magic attacks. I have also seen players use Melee monsters with Reflection Shield since it ignores the Thorns damage.
Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. If Melee is the only one available, I'll probably include a lot of Shield monsters, add a Demoralize, and monsters with a lot of armor.
I believe that being flexible in battle is the ideal strategy. Check the opponent's history, check what they are most likely to use, and counter it. But always pick teams that can also counter different strategies.
Without further ado, let's get into the battle.
The Ruleset
This was a Silver battle with Even Stevens, and Briar Patch Rulesets. A 22 mana battle is on the low to normal amount. I can think of different strategies for each summoner so I will try to counter as much as I can.
The ideal team for Fire is a Range team. They have Molten Ash Golem, Scavo Firebolt, and Spark Pixies. The Antoid Platoon is also an option, since it has Shield. For Death, I think a Magic team is ideal. Venari Bonesmith and Revealer are good options, and they can still attack in the first position. Venari Spellsmith is also a Magic monster that can be added. They do lack the damage compared to the Fire team above, so it can be a tossup.
The Lineup
| Card | Ability | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Decreases the HP and Magic damage of enemy monsters by 1 | I want to lower my opponent's HP, as well as decrease their magic damage in case they have some with more than 1 damage. | |
| Flying, Scavenger | I don't want to use Melee monsters due to the Briar Patch, so Riftwing is the best tank for my Death team. | |
| Life Leech | My secondary tank. I'm hoping my Riftwing can buy enough time for my Bonesmith to accumulate enough HP before it gets into the first position | |
| Stun | My second magic damage dealer. I want the stun in case I encounter an opponent using Life Leech as well. | |
| Protect | In case my opponent goes with a Range team, I want the Protect to buy me some time and take some hits. | |
| - | I only had 2 mana left, so I opted with the Xenith Archer who can deal damage at the backline |
For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with a flexible Death team. I prepared for both Magic and Range damage, while also avoiding Melee monsters. Death and Fire are not my strong elements so I only have level 1 cards, but I'm hoping I can still win.
The Battle
The Matchup
My opponent decided to go with a Fire team which I find interesting. They had a Molten Ash Golem in the first position, but had a Xenith Monk on the second position. They also had their Fire Pixies positioned before the Venari Spellsmith. I think this might be a bot, but the placements are not optimized.
End of Round 1
The Protect blocked the first attack of the Spark Pixies, but I won't be expecting a miss from there, since the Spark Pixies is faster than my Riftwing. I managed to stun the Molten Ash Golem, so hopefully this buys time for me to kill it. It still has 6 HP, while my Riftwing only has 4.
End of Round 2
Their Molten Ash Golem missed its attack on my Riftwing, and it survived with 1HP. I don't really think it matters since the Spark Pixies will still hit the Bonesmith armor next round if it died. The Spark Pixies will kill my Riftwing and the Bonesmith armor will be dispelled by the Spellsmith anyways. So either scenario will still have the same outcome.
End of Round 3
At this point, I'm thinking, the bot might be a genius. They placed the Xenith Monk in the second position to buy time for their team to kill/damage the opponent's monsters for it to survive for a long time. All their monsters are faster than my Bonesmith, so it will die next turn. I need to stun the Xenith Monk or I'm going to lose.
End of Round 4
My Revealer came out clutch and stunned the Xenith Monk on its first attack. I was doing mental simulations and I should win with this stun. If I didn't stun, it will be very bad for me, and I will have to rely on my Ravenhood to hit the Spark Pixies on the next turn or I lose. But with the stun, it is smooth sailing.
End of Round 5
Funnily enough, my Ravenhood still hit the Spark Pixies on its attack. So even if I didn't stun last turn, I still would have won. By this point, the Venari Spellsmith cannot kill all of my monsters, so it is my win.
End of the Battle
I will have to say that I was surprised that the battle was close. Looking at it from the start it seemed my opponent misplaced their team. I think I was still a bit favored with the way they positioned, but their higher level cards really made it difficult for me.
The Result
Conclusion
It seems my opponent lost some of their CP and went back down to Bronze, even with 1k+ rating. This is also something that I hate with the ranked matching, I am 1500, and they are 1000, but we got matched with each other. For this battle, we both played flexible teams. I would have liked to see what would have happened if they placed their Xenith Monk in the first position. If there's anything to get from this battle, it's the power that comes with higher level cards. Even though there was position mistakes, the higher level of their cards almost clutched it out for them.