Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Noxious Fumes Ruleset.
About the Ruleset
Noxious Fumes
The Noxious Fumes ruleset states that "All Monsters start the battle Poisoned". This means that all the monsters will take 2 poison damage every round until they die.
Battle Ruleset(s)
Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.
Noxious Fumes: All Monsters start the battle Poisoned
Only the Water, Earth and Life Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 36
Format: Modern
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
Summoner: Obsidian - This increase the Magic attack of my deck by 1.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regal Peryton | It is the main tank as it is high speed, and has the Flying ability, which is useful in dodging some melee or ranged damage. |
| 2 | Mycelic Slipspawn | It has 11 health and the Taunt and Forcefield ability, and can hopefully last a few rounds, especially if the opponent has some big hitters. |
| 3 | Queen Mycelia | This is used here as it has the Protect ability, allowing more damage to be taken from physical attacks. |
| 4 | Spirit Hoarder | It has the Triage and Dispel ability, and is here to provide the heals and provide some mitigation against any stats build up from the Bloodlust ability. |
| 5 | Goblin Psychic | This is used here for its Tank Heal and Affliction ability, allowing Regal Peryton to last long and to prevent the opponents from getting their heals. |
| 6 | Djinn Biljka | It's low mana cost, has good damage and will be the last to be attacked due to its Camouflage ability. |
Strategy
The ruleset here meant that (1) all monsters will start off with the same health, based on the monster with the highest health, (2) There will be 2 Poison damage dealt to every monster each round.
With the Equalizer, as all monsters start with the same health, abilities like Opportunity will tend to target the monster in position 1, and may not be as useful as it usually is. And with the poison damage each round, I opted for a high health magic Earth Splinter deck with heals, with a fairly decent overall damage output. The main monster to be targeted in my deck first would be the Mycelic Slipspawn and supported by heals from the Spirit Hoarder, and shields from Queen Mycelia to offset some physical damage.
The opponent opted for a mix of magic and ranged attacks, using the Life Splinter, with some really nasty abilities. The main weakness in this deck is that the attacks are split between the first position and the next ranged/magic monster, and making it slower to take out the monsters with the high health in this battle. As such, I was able to kill off the monsters faster with the concentrated attacks on the first position.
Thoughts on the Noxious Fumes Ruleset
I think Noxious Fumes is a rather fun ruleset, as it makes the battle more dynamic and a little unpredictable. Abilities that can counteract this ruleset are the Cleanse ability, which can remove the poison from the first monster, Immune ability, where the monster won't be poisoned, and the Resurrect ability. Monsters who get resurrected are no longer poisoned, even though they are vulnerability with only one health. These are some nice abilities can you can consider the next time you encounter this ruleset.