Hello, there! 
@saydie here, playing Splinterlands everyday!
After looking into the list of game modifiers that have been removed from the ruleset circulation in battles, I found out that there are at least 10 modifiers that I no longer see not only within my battles, but even in other players' matches. I highly doubt that it was just all coincidence, given that I have been looking for the rulesets for quite a few days. And as I said, I find a way to verify whether a modifier is still in use or not by looking at them in Custom Challenges. Because when making a Custom Challenge, you can choose which rulesets will be active in the battle.
And after searching for the Thick Skinned ruleset, it did not show up as a ruleset option, which led me to conclude that it was no longer part of the ruleset circulation.
Thick Skinned
Including the recently added game modifier, Splinterlands now has a total of 82 Game Modifiers. This is if we include all the seasonal rulesets as well as all the inactive ones. As you all know, game modifiers are a vital part of the game, as it changes the conditions that could affect the result of every battle. Depending on which rulesets are at play can dramatically influence what cards players will use, as they have to adapt their tactics on the fly so that they can win the battle. So, it is not an exaggeration to say that the Game Modifiers can sometimes pose more of a threat than your opponent.
And along my search for these rulesets, I found out that not a single time did I have a battle where Thick Skinned ruleset was available, whether it was on Modern, Survival, Brawls, or even on Tournaments.
Thick Skinned
All units have the Shield ability.
*Shield is an ability that reduces melee and ranged damage by 50%, or if the opponent has 1 attack, it will reduce the damage to 0.
Shield has been one of the staple abilities that Tank units usually possess, as it reduces damage from both melee and ranged attacks by half, though it does not protect the unit from magic attacks. At the same time, it also halves damage that was reflected by Return Fire and negates any damage done by Redemption or Resurgence
Because of that, most players' strategy would be to use magic units to hit the opponent with magic attacks. But then, you can easily counter the opponent with Magic Reflect along with Amplify to return their magic attack. Another strategy was to use Void to reduce the opponent's magic attack along with Silence. But if you think the opponent will still persist in using melee or ranged units, you can also further reduce their damage by using units with Demoralize, which reduces melee attack, and Headwinds that reduces ranged attacks.
Those were the typical strategies when a unit has the Shield ability, but when it comes to modern cards, the way that you can counter cards with Shield is by using units with Relentless Strike that inflicts "True Damage", meaning the target will receive all the damage, even when they have Shield ability, plus an additional +1 damage to the card. The same thing goes if the opponent has Void, so long as the attack fits the ability that it was supposed to be reduced.
Right now, there are about 16 units with the Relentless Strike ability, 11 of which have either melee or ranged attacks, and I'll bet that it will just grow more with Battle of Praetoria coming soon, so I guess it will hurt more if a ruleset that gives Shield ability continues to be among the rulesets available in battles, cause it will just make them more vulnerable to units with such abilities.
Another way is to remove the unit's Shield ability through Expose, but there were fewer cards with this ability, given how powerful they can be.
Closing
So, between removing this ruleset or not, I am on the side that Thick Skinned should be removed from the ruleset circulation. Since units with Shield were already a staple ability among cards, it was not really necessary to have a ruleset like this.
Thank you, and see you on the next post!
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