Prelude
Hi all, good day to all of you. It's time again for Community Engagement Challenge. Today's challenge topic is to do a sharing on favourite strategies. And specifically today, I will be sharing on strategies when we play back to basic when cards no longer have abilities and just battle base on sheer stats.
Back To Basics Ruleset
When we battle in such a ruleset, it essentially strip all the abilities off our monster and that leaves us with pure stats. Only front melee card can attack, all other no longer have the ability to sneak or use opportunity, range attackers that used to have close range become sitting ducks when they land at the first position. Magic become an essential card that can hit regardless of its position. Additional armour becomes useful to fend off melee and range attacks. The faster the cards are, the higher chance of dodging melee/range. These were how we pushed ourselves back then before the Soul Bound Reward cards from the Rebellion set was not released. But as soon as they are released, back to basics rulesets where there is no abilities ended up becoming a good ruleset where these cards shine the most.
Are You Serious? Why Is This So?
If you have started accumulating Glint and pushing yourself to get some Soul Bound Reward cards from the Rebellion set, you would have noticed some card in there that have amazing stats but have a drawback ability pegged to it. And these are found in the epic rarity in some of the Soul Bound Reward cards.
So let's look at such cards and their drawback ability.
Kha'zi Conjurer
At only 2 mana, it has a whopping 4 damage and also at 3 speed. Such an amazing stats to have isn't it? But such good stats do come with a drawback ability, Incendiary.
Incendiary - At the beginning of round 2, apply burning. Burning has a 33% chance to spread to adjacent cards at the beginning of the next round. Burning units lose 2 health at the start of the turn.
And yes, on a normal match, this is a high risk high return kind of decision when you decide to include this card in your lineup.
Shock Trooper
Another 4 attack card and it is magic which gives it even much more value that Kha'zi Conjurer. The better it is, the bigger the draw back ability, Electrified.
Electrified - Deals 1 damage to each allied units at the start of round 2 and each round after.
This is like playing a card and forcing the whole lineup to get zapped after each round as an upkeep to play this high damage card. Compared to Kha'zi Conjurer, this is more painful to the team.
Halfling Refugee
Another card that packs so much value. For just 1 mana, this card has 2 attack and 6 health. What an amazing cheap tank. And as usual, it comes with a drawback ability, Weary.
Weary - At the beginning of round 1, card has 10% chance of being Exhausted with each turn with chance increasing by 10% each round till 80%. Exhausted units skip their turn and cannot retaliate.
Big stats but high chance of being a sitting duck. However, I still can use this as a meat shield just that I cannot utilize the good attack stats it has.
However, everything changes with Back to Basic! These cards will run you over with their pure stats and without all the negative drawback abilities hampering them.
So to demonstrate this and how the strategy runs, I will showcase a matchup with 2 of the above mentioned cards.
Demonstration Battle
Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_6047c94a145e531c09c0fa7515ea1eb9?ref=vaynard86
Ruleset: Back To Basics
Mana Limit: 28
Selection Analysis
Let me break this down my lineup selection by classifying the strategy.
Conventional: Kelya as summoner to give +1 armour and +1 speed to the whole lineup. Djinn Oshannus and Magi of Chaos, these 2 are the high stats magic attackers. Hardy Stonefish with that meat padding with the armour and health. And finally Kulu Swimhunter with decent stats on health and attack.
New with Rebellion Soul Bound Reward Cards: Halfling Refugee leads the charge as the tank and no longer being burdened by Weary. Shock Trooper hides in the backline in front of the last range attacker to deal serious damage to opponent with concerns of harming the lineup each turn with a zap.
My opponent generally had the same idea but not enough as compared to what I had in store for him. So let's get right on to the battle.
Round by Round Synopsis
Round 1, An exciting battle starts which my barrage landing hard on my opponent and Oshannus and Shock Trooper easily clear off opponent Halfling Refugee which after much barrage as well, my own Halfling Refugee was cleared. I was also able to clear off opponent's Hardy Stonefish.
Round 2, Because I already had a good headstart, my side continued as we took out opponent's Oshannus while my opponent only able to clear my Hardy Stonefish. The damage disparity continues as I continue to clear my opponent lineup.
Round 3, With the advantage in my hands and my magic attackers still very much in tact, the barrage continues and Magi of Chaos was taken out.
Round 4 and 5, Game more or less completed in the 4th round with 1 health left on a sitting duck range attacker which cannot attack. An overwhelming win over my opponent because I had the cards to do so.
Battle Summary:
With no drawback ability to bother me, the match just went on at quick pace with Shock Trooper doing loads of work and bring such huge damage to opponent's card as we clear them one by one. No end turn zap but raw 4 magic damage each turn, the inclusion of this card in the lineup alongside Halfling Refugee elevates the lineup and bring us the victory with ease. And this is where, cards with drawback abilities will become diamonds shining brightly when we play back to basics matchup.
Wrap Up
Thank you for following me through in this sharing where we saw how powerful these Rebellion Soul Bound Reward cards that have drawback abilities shine in such matches and give you the advantage you need. So in the future back to basics, do remember to include them.
See you on the battlefield and in my next post. Have a good weekend!
I am currently part of PIZZA, an active gaming and creative arts crypto community on the HIVE blockchain and part of PIZZA guild. Popular cryto games such as SPLINTERLANDS, RISING STAR and HASHKINGS are actively discussed in this community.
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Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!
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