Can you defeat a set composed almost entirely of gold foil cards with just regular foil monsters? Absolutely. Superior strategy can still triumph over better cards, to a certain extent, of course. Earlier today, I faced a team led by Lux Vega with monsters leveled up to the cap – call it a Diamond League deck, if you will. I was no match and lost badly. However, if you set monsters to take advantage of mutual synergy, you can dominate the battlefield, even when your opponent seems to be the clear favorite at first glance. This Healed Out battle serves as a perfect example.
Most of my strategies don't typically involve healers, except for when I play with the Life Splinter. So, the ruleset didn’t affect my decision-making much. I decided to draft a variation of what I dub My Ultimate Earth Set. Usually, I play it with Terraceous Hulk in the second position, but this time I didn't have enough mana for it.
Anyway, out of the two suitable summoners for this set, Helios Matriarch is the better option. Their speed buff/debuff has the same effect, but Helios Matriarch also allows you to draft Dragon monsters, which may come in handy.
Terraceous Grunt isn't a universal tank, but with the speed buffs, he's quite a solid option against melee and ranged monsters. He would have been less effective if I had faced an Obsidian-led magic pack, but fortunately, that wasn't the case.
Due to insufficient mana, I ended up placing Fungus Flinger in the second position. I hoped this Martyr could block some snipe attacks and buff the surrounding two power cards upon its demise.
Katrelba Gobson is by far my favorite Gladiator. Once he gets the speed and melee buffs, he turns into a killing machine. And if he manages to cut some throats sneakily, the Bloodlust ability makes him almost invincible.
Many people may consider Thane Newsong a rather useless card, but the way I play it makes it lethal for its mana price. It deals 3 ranged damage per turn directly and 3 melee damage throughout the buff it casts on its allies. What a bargain for 5 mana points!
Monsters with Weapons Training are extremely useful, and Ava the Undaunted is among the best of them. The +3 melee damage buff is hard to match.
Clockwork Aide is a great rear monster. Unless you're facing magic Sneakers, Clockwork Aide can block several Sneak or Opportunity attacks. It also speeds up your own monsters, and when buffed by Ava, it can even deal quite significant damage.
The Battle
What could have looked like my clear defeat, or at least a long battle, actually turned into a 4-round short massacre in which my casualties were only the two monsters intended to die – my tank and the Martyr. The battle unfolded as expected, with Terraceous Grunt evading several strikes while my offensive monsters eliminated the opponent’s tank.
My opponent did not make any major mistakes. If I were them, I’d likely have played a similar deck. However, the only synergy effect in their favor was the summoner's armor buff combined with Scavo Hireling’s Repair. My monsters worked together better, as my lineup description demonstrates. Katrelba Gobson eliminated the two ranged monsters in the rear before they could cause any real harm, and Clockwork Aide lured Deeplurker into wasting one attack. Thanks to the +2 speed buff, my monsters were as fast as the Water set, and that was quite sufficient this time.