Hello there.
Today I'll share my battle under the What Doesn't Kill You ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With the What Doesn't Kill You ruleset, all monsters have the Enrage ability. Enrage increases the Melee attack and Speed of monsters by 1.5x [rounded up] when they are damaged and below their max HP. While only Melee monsters get the attack increase, all monsters can get the speed increase.
It is good to note the second part of how enrage works. Healing the monsters to full HP removes the enrage. Cripple can lower their max HP, so even if they are damaged, it is possible that they don't enrage because their HP is not below the max HP. A monster with 1 attack, and cripple, will lower the HP of their target by 1 with the damage, but also lower their max HP by 1 because of cripple. Because the attacked monster has equal current HP and max HP, they don't enrage. Inspire and Demoralize can increase or decrease the amount of Melee attack multiplied once enraged. The same is true for Swiftness and Slow with regards to Speed multiplied.
In this ruleset, I expect a lot of melee monsters, or monsters with high Speed to be used, or both. Monsters like Grund, Coastal Sentry, Quora, Oshannus, and Regal Peryton are very popular because of their stats. Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. If Taunt is available, I'll probably include one to try and split my opponent's damage. Heals are still good to try and sustain my tank, but Repair can also be a good addition since we're expecting a lot of Melee attacks.
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 tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with What Doesn't Kill You, Unprotected, and Heavy Hitters Rulesets. A 39 mana battle is on the higher amount. Fire, Water, Earth, and Dragon are available, and I can think of a lot of different strategies for each so I will try to counter as much as I can. Since this is a Kryptogamers tournament, only the Chaos Legion set is allowed, and no Legendary cards may be used.
The ideal team for Fire is Tarsa with a lot of Melee monsters. Skargore is redundant with the ruleset. Adding stun monsters like Septic Slime and Technowizologist are good to use the Heavy Hitters ruleset. For Water, Kelya is weaker, but still good for the additional speed. Diemonshark is also weaker because it loses its high armor, so Flying Squid can be an option. Water Caller can be good to use for the Stun. For Earth, Obsidian and Magic attack's advantage are lessened because of Unprotected. Regal Peryton is really good because of its high speed. Uloth is a bit too high mana to be used. Grund is also really good in this ruleset since it has double strike.
For Dragon, Sthispa is not that powerful when everyone has Enrage. The legendary monsters can't be used. If anything, I think Helios is the better option. The increase in speed is good, and using Gladiator cards are game changing. The bloodlust stacks would also escalate the amount of speed and damage [melee] they have.
The Lineup
| Card | Ability | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Increases the Speed of ally monsters by 1 and has Conscript | Gladiator cards are really strong so I want to use them. I also want to increase my Speed to hopefully attack first, and it also works well with Enrage. | |
| Dodge | A cheap 10HP tank, with Dodge. I just want it to buy time for my backline. | |
| Inspire | My secondary tank. Its main purpose is to Inspire my team and increase their Melee damage. | |
| Bloodlust, Sneak, Double Strike | My main damage dealer. I want Katrelba to gain a lot of stacks before going to the front line. | |
| Sneak, Double Strike | My Second damage dealer. I am expecting it to clean up any enemy that Katrelba wasn't able to kill. | |
| Sneak | My first attacker. I want Vruz to lower the last monster's HP so it can easily be killed by Katrelba who is attacking next. | |
| Taunt | I want to spread the targeting of my opponent's attacks. I especially don't want them activating the Heavy Hitters with their Stun. With this, I hope I can buy enough time for my Sneak attacks to eliminate the backline. |
For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with a Katrelba team. There are a lot of strong front tanks available, as well as heals. The backline is usually vulnerable, and opponent's rarely prepare against a full sneak attack.
The Battle
The Matchup
My opponent decided to go with a Quora team. I actually considered this team because it is really strong. Quora with stacks is a very difficult opponent to kill. But that's also why I went with Katrelba. Putting Quora in the front is risky, so many put it on the second position. But back there, it is difficult to deal a lot of damage and get kills. In theory, my Katrelba team should be able to kill the backline before Quora goes to the front and gets a stack. Uloth being 9 HP is going to buy them a bit of time though.
End of Round 1
It's a shame Katrelba wasn't able to deal the killing blow on Uloth, but at least it died, and Quora didn't get a stack. Naga Assassin being the next target is a problem. 2 of my sneak monsters only have 2 attacks. They won't be able to kill, and with 6 speed, it can increase its speed to 9 and will be difficult to hit. I need Katrelba to be the one to kill it, for it to be a one shot, as well as give Katrelba a bloodlust stack.
End of Round 2
It's good that things went according to how I wanted it. Vruz missed, and Katrelba was able to get the kill. Quora still hasn't gotten any stacks, and that's the way I like it to stay. For the next round, it will be a tossup on whether Vruz or Katrelba attacks first. I want Katrelba to do so to get another stack.
End of Round 3
Unfortunately Vruz attacked first and got the kill. My other units were able to damage Quora, but things are looking close. My Thane has low HP and Katrelba will be going to the front with just 4 HP.
End of Round 4
Katrelba missed its second attack on the Grunt. Without Thane my Vruz and Dhampir are just tickling Quora and are not really dealing damage anymore. They're hitting for 3, while Quora is healing for 3. This is looking like a loss for me.
End of Round 5
I initially thought that Katrelba missing its second attack on the Grunt was bad and cost me the battle, but looking at it now, that might have won me the game. With Enrage, Quora was faster than my regular Katrelba. It would have attacked first, and if it was in front, would have killed my Katrelba. Because of the miss, it was only able to deal 2 damage, my Katrelba enraged, and then killed the Grunt. With 9 speed, Katrelba will attack first and kill Quora.
End of the Battle
I will have to say that I was surprised the battle was that close. I guess my Katrelba wasn't able to get a lot of kills to start snowballing. I still had a 3 speed advantage against Quora if my Katrelba was able to kill the Grunt immediately, but that would have been riskier. In the end, my strategy of going for the backline first worked, and Quora died without getting a stack.
The Result
Conclusion
In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, my opponent used a team composition that I was ready for. I think they had a good team, and I just countered it.