This week's Splinterlands Hive posts have gone to both extremes for me. It went from the last one where a new favorite rule set was introduced (article link here) to this topic of my most hated rule set, the Back to Basics.

The reason why I hate this rule set so much is because it strips down all my strategies to the bare minimum. It's like having two naked cavemen duking it out with bare hands. That being said, having Back to Basics still requires a lot of planning and carefully placed units.

Back to Basics' rule set description is pretty straightforward. Monsters lose all abilities. Every single card you own are converted to vanilla monsters and they battle each other with the basic attacks. But as the description hints at, the summoners' abilities are still in effect which leads to interesting summoner strategies.

My strategy for this rule set, again, mostly prioritizes speed. Because like high noon duels in a Western movie, the first one to draw and shoot a pistol, granted it hits, wins the match. Now, as for the bullets, I prefer to use magic attacks since the enemy monsters would be vulnerable to it. Because all innate abilities are disabled, enemy monsters will have no magic resistance such as Void or Void Armor, unless the opponent has anticipated this strategy and uses summoners like Mimosa Nightshade and Immortalis.

Yodin Zaku is also a good option for his Explosion ability and the additional buff to ranged attacks. This can quickly decimate enemy forces by damaging the front and secondary monsters simultaneously. The drawback to this, however, is when the opponent brings out monsters with high default armor. Another disadvantage is when the tank dies and ranged monsters start to occupy the frontlines. Ranged attack types are usually glass cannons that offer low defensive attributes especially on low mana rule sets.

If you're going for a magic type approach, Valnamor is a great summoner to use. Since magic ignores armor, the additional damage buff will surely allow for one or two enemy kills each round when attacks are focused on the front position. The additional speed is also a gamechanger since like ranged monsters, magic wielders are also very weak defensively and cannot afford to be the last ones to attack.

Shared Battle

This shared battle is a 27-mana silver league match with Back to Basics and Counterspell rule sets. You can check the full battle here.

Since it is a Counterspell rule set which gives all monsters the reflect magic ability, the opponent anticipated that I will use ranged cards since magic attacks will be penalized. He even used Contessa L'ament to reduce ranged attacks.

But because I expected melee to be limited to only one card, which is the tank, I took a gamble and used Ilthaine as my summoner. With this, I have the ability to reflect both magic and ranged attacks. I even used magic type monsters as I am confident that my monsters can kill enemy units faster than when magic reflect damage becomes lethal.

The enemy's Harklaw is taken down at the start of round two. All of my magic type monsters took reflect damage but none of them were lethal so far. I did not expect the enemy to reserve three more melee monsters in the lineup. Hopefully, the Return Fire ability is enough to kill the enemy's two ranged monsters before Pelacor Conjurer dies.

The enemy's two melee monsters, Cursed Slimeball and Carrion Shade were blasted out by magic damage. Meanwhile, Pelacor Conjurer's Return Fire ability manages to kill Soul Strangler and even inflicts two damage points to Dhampir Stalker before he finally succumbs. I am still left with an undamaged Stitch Leech and three magic type monsters while the enemy is down to a Xenith Monk and a heavily injured Dhampir Stalker.

Djinn Renova and Time Mage were both taken out by return damage, but not before causing grave injuries to Xenith Monk and Dhampir Stalker. My Stitch Leech finally delivers the killing blow and the match is over at round four.

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Thank you for reading and see you in the battlefield!

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