Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Reverse Speed Ruleset.
About the Ruleset
Reverse Speed
The Reverse Speed ruleset states that "Monsters with the lowest attack speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks". This means that the using slower monsters than your opponent will give you an advantage.
Battle Ruleset(s)
Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.
Reverse Speed: Monsters with the lowest attack speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks
Only the Fire, Water and Life Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 19
Format: Modern
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
Summoner: Obsidian - This increase the Magic attack of my deck by 1.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pelacor Conjurer | While it is fairly slow here, since its speed is 4, it has the Flying and Magic Reflect ability, which can still provide some dodges, and magic reflection damage. |
| 2 | Vulguine | With the Born again ruleset, it provides a good build up of its health since there will be more deaths in this ruleset. |
| 3 | Celestial Harpy | It's low mana cost and has the Flying and Opportunity ability, helping to target the lower health monsters first. |
| 4 | Stitch Leech | It is low cost and has a decent amount of damage, and has the Sneak ability for backline attacks. |
| 5 | Ureaus | Another lost cost monster used for the backline attack. |
| 6 | Venari Marksrat | It has the Martyr ability and will come in handy to increase Ureaus's stats if the opponent employs a backline attack. |
Strategy
The ruleset here meant that (1) all monsters will get resurrected once, and (2) the slowest monster is now the fastest.
Amongst the three available Splinters of Fire, Water and Life, the Fire and Water Splinters have more monsters that are slower. For the Fire Splinter, the slower ones tend to have higher mana cost. Given that the mana cap here is only 19. I opted for the Life Splinter. My strategy was to use the Pelacor Conjurer as the main tank to dodge and reflect some damage, and utilise Vulguine as a strong secondary tank with its Scavenger ability in this ruleset. I also relied on a backline attack to take the opponent out.
The opponent opted for a series of low level minions to fend off the front attacks and rely on the Riverboat Captain and Musa Saline for the main offence. As my main line of attack is through the backline, his strategy was weak against mine. Basically, my Vulguine held the line against the opponent's attacks while Stitch Leech, Uraeus and Celestial Harpy took out the opponent's strongest cards from the backline. My Venari Marksrat would have been better utilised had I placed it in position 2 though.
Thoughts on the Reverse Speed Ruleset
I think Reverse Speed is also a fun ruleset, as it makes the monsters which are usually the slowest are now the fastest. This also raises a problem as the monsters tend to become faster as you level them up. The best possible strategy is to use slow Magic monsters that bypass the shields in their attacks. The Earth Splinter has a number of such monsters, but it's unfortunate that it's not available for this battle.