Here's the ruleset for this week's battle
In the counterspell ruleset the easiest thing to do is generally to not use monsters with magic attacks to avoid damaging yourself with magic reflect damage.
The flipside of that is that magic attacks are less expected and may be more effective if your opponent plans for everything else with something like the shield ability. If you use a monster with a magic attack and the void ability then it generally won't take any reflected damage anyways.
The aimless ruleset means that you should expect mayhem from the backline. Monsters with magic and ranged attacks can hit anything, even stuff with camouflage. This is less likely to be an issue with this low mana cap. A lot of people will intentionally use melee attackers to ensure that they hit the sort of targets they want to prioritize.
Are you not entertained is one of the newest rulesets and one more incentive to participate in a guild. Cards from the Gladius set are generally overpowered and you can see a short list of my favorites here.
@jingo-submo/my-favorite-gladius-cards-to-play
The mana cap of 12 is also important to note here. 12 mana battles frequently come down to whoever has the single best monster available. Monsters that dominate battles are most commonly the sort of melee attackers that get used as tanks.
Here's the starting frame for this week's battle
Think about how this might play out before hitting play
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_86a09380a76a768db074b90c0bb237e9&ref=jingo-submo
Let's talk about my lineup
Summoner: Mylor Crowling
In the aimless ruleset some people will use melee attackers in order to anticipate the placement of their attacks better. I also talked about how those big tank type monsters that can dominate a battlefield by themselves are frequently melee attackers. Mylor provides a great response to melee attacks with thorns for everyone.
Tank: Hill Giant
3 mana for 6 health is a great rate. I expect this to soak up a couple of hits while my gladiator gets up and running.
1st position: Katrelba Gobson
I'm in trouble if my opponent uses Mylor. If they use one of the many other summoners available then I get 2 chances each turn to work up a bloodlust. Katrelba is so great.
2nd position: Fungus Fiend
This monster is here to soak up a hit in case my opponent goes after my backline with sneak or opportunity attacks. The likelihood for that sort of attack is higher with the aimless ruleset as you can see on both sides of the battlefield here. This works out beautifully with Mylor as my summoner.
3rd position (rear tank): Furious Chicken
Pretty impressive that I managed 4 monsters with just 12 mana. Ditto for everything I said about Fungus Fiend. This is here to soak up a hit and the thorns that my Chicken applied were critical for this battle.
Did we win?
Yes. I nailed it with my expectations about what this ruleset would bring from my opponent. Even with everything that went right, it felt like I got a little bit lucky to connect with both of Katrelba's hits on a faster Bertrol.
What will I try differently next time?
I'm not sure that I would change anything. A single BCX of Mylor is expensive enough that I don't expect to level it up for a while. Monsters with self healing also tend to fare well in these ultra low mana cap situations.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game. I hope the updated format that I'm using is helpful. Feel free to share any specific feedback in the comments.