CHALLENGE RULES
RULESET: Armored Up
All units get a +2 armor buff at the beginning of the game.
Use Void Armor to ensure that magic attacks strike armor first.
Use Shatter or Piercing to destroy your opponent's armor more effectively.
Ruleset and lineup
The ruleset of the battle is as follows:
Back to Basic - Monsters lose all abilities.
Taking Sides - Neutral Monsters may not be used in battles.
Armored Up - All Monsters have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.
Mana Cap of 31.
Available Splinters- Fire, Water, Earth, Life and Death
My Team:
Summoner: Immortalis (-1 to Health, Void and Shatter abilities for all monsters)
1. Terraceous Grunt - Melee Damage Dealer
2. Fungus Fiend - Melee Damage Dealer
3. Mycelic Slipspawn - Magic Damage Dealer
4. Regal Peryton - Magic Damage Dealer
5. Djinn Biljka - Magic Damage Dealer
6. Acid Shooter - Ranged Damage Dealer
Strategy:
There really isn't much room for strategy in a Back to Basic ruleset. I had a hard time choosing Immortalis or Obsidian as a Summoner because of the rather low available mana in this match. I went with Immortalis because of the Shatter ability so that my ranged monsters maybe go directly for the hitpoints too.
Position 1 - Terraceous Grunt:
Decent damage and hitpoints for a monster that costs 6 mana and since abilities don't matter here it was an easy choice.
Position 2 - Fungus Fiend:
Just placed as a meatshield to protect the damage dealers for 1 or 2 hits in the back because I ran out of mana.
Position 3 - Mycelic Slipspawn:
A big amount of magic damage and an even bigger amount of health. The second part is the reason this monster is in position 3 to keep the ones with lower health out of harms reach for as long as possible
Position 4 - Regal Peryton:
Same amount of magic damage as the Slipspawn but lower health puts the Regal Peryton in the fourth position.
Position 5 - Djinn Biljka:
Nice damage but really low health, the only reason Biljka is not in the last position is that at least magic attacks can be used in the front.
Position 6 - Acid Shooter:
I ended up with only one Ranged monster because of the low mana ruleset, of course I placed it in the back to get as many attacks in as possible.
Round 1:
I was surprised to see Ilthain and two ranged monsters in my opponents team, I expected either an Immortalis mirror match or an Obsidian. I was quite confident I would win at this point already because of the Armored up ruleset and me only using one ranged monster. In the first round I take down the Pelacor Conjurer and bring the Blinding Reflector to the brink of death. My Grunt is barely hanging in there though.
Round 2:
The fastest Monster of the match my Regal Peryton starts of this round by taking out the Blinding Reflector. Then the opponent team manages to take down both my Grunt and Fungus fiend before the rest of my team puts down Djinn Renova.
Round 3:
With the first Ranged monster forced to the front position this match is now basically 4 vs 2 in my favour damage wise and at the end of the round the Aria Bandit is dead and the Portal Spinner - the second ranged monster forced to the front.
Round 4:
The Time mage attacking alone is not enough to even take down my Mycelic Slipspawn.
Result:
I really didn't expect my opponent to go for mainly ranged and anti ranged in this match. Ranged might be a decent idea for the Back to Basic Ruleset, but Back to Basic combined with Armored up practically screams "use magic" in my opinion. In an Immortalis mirror match more ranged damage would have probably been effective, so maybe my opponent tried to counter that possibility.
The full battle can also be watched here
Thanks for reading and happy battling!
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