Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Little League Ruleset.
About the Ruleset
Little League
The Little League ruleset states that "Only Monsters & Monsters that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles". This means that monsters used in the battle will generally not have high stats with some exceptions.
Battle Ruleset(s)
Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.
Equal Opportunity: All Monsters have the Opportunity ability
Little League: Only Monsters & Monsters that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles
Only the Earth and Death Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 26
Format: Brawl, Bronze Battle
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
Summoner: Thaddius Brood - This reduces the Magic attack and Health of the opponent’s deck by 1.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  | |
| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Riftwing | It is the main tank, has a good amount of health and given the ruleset, unlikely to be targeted first. |
| 2 | Venari Marksrat | It's here to take the first hit, and to boost the stats of the adjacent monsters with its Martyr ability. |
| 3 | Trapp Halloway | It's one of the more powerful Gladius monster costing 4 mana or less and has 4 melee attack. It also has the Weaken ability that reduces the health of the opponent's deck. |
| 4 | Ravenhood Warden | It's the here to provide the additional Shield with its Protect ability. It has the same amount of health as Venari Marksrat and it's placed in a position behind Venari Marksrat so it won't be targeted first |
| 5 | Revealer | It's here to provide some Stuns, to hamper the opponent attacks. |
| 6 | Dark Astronomer | It's only of the monsters costing 4 mana or less that has 2 attack. It's likely to be the third targeted monster given it's health. |
Strategy
The ruleset here meant that (1) Ranged monsters will take reflected damage, (2) Monsters with the lowest health will get targeted first, and (3) We are limited to monsters costing less than or equal to 4 mana.
Given that we could only choose from the Death and Earth splinter, I opted for the Death Splinter as it is the counter for the Earth Splinter, which puts the Earth Splinter at a disadvantage. With the Equal Opportunity ruleset, you can fairly accurately decide on the order of your monsters being attacked. As such, I planned my deck such that the Venari Marksrat would get targeted first, giving my cards (mainly Trapp Halloway) an early boost. I also threw in Ravenhood Warden to provide the Shield for the whole deck, to prevent the opponent from getting an early boost, if he uses Trapp Halloway as well.
The opponent used the Death Splinter as well. Crypt Beetle as the tank and first card to be attacked was a fairly good choice, as many cards with 4 mana or less has only 1 attack. Fortunately, I had a magic attack card in my deck and I made quick work of it. The rest went down pretty quickly after that.
I was glad that the attack order was what I predicted, and I got the win as a result.
Thoughts on the Little League Ruleset
As the Little League ruleset restricts the usable cards to those with 4 mana or less, the strategies that can be employed are less than then usual. I usually like to use the Earth Splinter for Little League if the Death Splinter is not in play, as I can make use of shields and the magic attacks to take the opponent down fairly quickly.