Prevailing Against Unfavorable Rulesets

Hello there! @saydie here, playing Splinterlands everyday!

One of the things that gives depth to the Strategic gameplay of Splinterlands is the rulesets, the modifiers that change the conditions of each battle. This includes factors such as Deck restrictions, Element restrictions, and Card restrictions, which limit each player's options on what cards they play and what strategy they can employ. Sometimes, it gives bonuses that could strengthen or debilitations that weaken both players' teams. And sometimes, it gives problematic rulesets that you should be more worried about than your opponent.

So, for this week's Community Engagement Challenge, I will be sharing with everyone one of the strategies that I used when Counterspell and Briar Patch were the active modifiers, which are some of those problematic rulesets that I'm talking about.

Ruleset Rumble

As of date, Splinterlands has a total of 54 rulesets and when playing different battle modes, the number of modifiers active may vary depending on what league the players are playing at. For example, in Bronze league has a 75% chance to have 1 modifier, while in Gold league and above, the chance to get the max of 3 modifiers is 75%, so it does not mean that they will not get higher or lower modifiers. So, as a Diamond/ Champion Player, it's not unusual to get 3 rulesets, but for the battle that I'm about to share with you, there were only two active rulesets. However, these rulesets are among the problematic ones, because what it does is to inflict damage to your unit. Anyways, here are the active rulesets.

Counterspell

This is a ruleset that gives all units the Magic Reflect ability. While gaining an additional ability was nice, it also means that it will be difficult for both players to use magic units, since every time they deal damage, 50% of their attack will return to them, so as much as possible, players usually avoid using magic units when this was an active ruleset.

Briar Patch

Briar Patch.png

Meanwhile, Briar Patch is a ruleset that gives the Thorns ability on all units. Just like the first ruleset, the ability that was given becomes both a blessing and a curse, because when a melee unit hits its target, it will receive 2 damage.

Other Modifiers

For other modifiers, we were given with 53 Mana Cap with all elements aside from Fire available, so it gives more freedom on which element/s I can use and the option of using cards with higher mana cost.

My Lineup

Given that the active rulesets were Counterspell and Briar Patch, which make the use of both melee and magic units disadvantageous, it is preferable to use a range-heavy team, so the lineup from my previous post can also be effective in this battle, but that would be boring so I tried to make some tweak by using a different Archon and replacing some of the units then came up with the following lineup.

Archon: Eternal Tofu

Although the Thorns from Eternal Tofu will become redundant with this ruleset, the reason that I use this Archon is because, among the abilities that it can give during the tactics stage, it has the Triage and Scavenger abilities of which can be used to sustain the reflected damage I can received by using either a melee or magic units within my lineup. I also tried the alternative tactic of giving the Divine Shield ability, and it also works given the same condition.

Units

In this lineup, you can see similar cards from my previous post, with the exception of Grimbardun Smith, which I use as my main tank due to its Shield and Void ability that can reduce damage by half as well as it has the Repair ability to restore its armor. I also use Venka the Vile, despite it being a melee unit in order to give my team a heavy damage dealer, and with the Triage and Scavenger abilities given to it, the chances for it to survive despite getting thorns damage will increase.

Battle Showcase

Here, I have two battles to show you, the first one being a ranked battle by which I used Triage and Scavenger to Venka the Vile while the other one was a practice match where I gave it the Divine Protection along with Grimbardun Smith and Lucehein Demon.

Ranked Battle: Triage and Scavenger

Because I gave the Triage and Scavenger to Venka the Vile, it was able to sustain the damage that it receives every time it hits the target, with the support of Triage from my other units. As a result, not only was it able to beat many of my opponents' cards, it was also able to gain additional health for each time that a monster was defeated.

Practice Match: Corrosive Ward & Divine Shield

On the other hand, giving the Divine Shield and Corrosive Ward to Venka the Vile did not turn out that well because it got defeated in the third round. However, since the opponent team have some cards that will get damage by Counterspell and Briar Patch, my team, composed mainly of range unit was able to inflict enough damage to them, until they were defeated.

Closing

The different ruleset combinations heavily affect the way we use our cards, but as long as we play our cards right, we can prevail even when battling on disadvantageous rulesets and conquer the battlefield.

Thank you and see you on the next post!

Conclave Arcana Free Assets

This were assets that I edited using Adobe Photoshop and more of this assets were available in this post for anyone who likes to use them.

Zyrx The Emberglace.png

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