Slow down. Take some time to stop and smell the flowers.

In Reverse Speed, your slowness will be rewarded. It's true. Slow becomes fast, and fast becomes dead... with a few exceptions. Okay, maybe a lot of exceptions. We're here to talk about the Reverse Speed Ruleset.

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Reverse Speed

Come forth ye turtles, snails and slugs! Reverse Speed is your time.

The TRAP - I feel it every time I face a Reverse Speed battle, so I know it must be something with which most players struggle. The trap is to put too much emphasis on the Speed. Many players completely ignore the Speed attribute in 90% of their battles, then when Reverse Speed comes up it is suddenly the most important thing in the world to them.

Speed is only as important as you make it. If you have built a team that is completely reliant on Speed to make the difference between winning and losing, then I'll spoil it for you: You're going to lose. I've played the Exploding Dwarf game enough to know that it's usually no better than a coinflip, and as strategic players, we want to use our strategy to give ourselves a slight advantage in the battle. In the example of the Exploding Dwarf, you must build your entire team to make certain that your Dwarf gets the first attack. This usually involves double-buffing you team's Speed by giving up valuable positions to speedsters.

I'm much more fond of a balanced approach to the Reverse Speed ruleset (and gameplay in general). Each card should be selected on an independent basis to maximize stats and position. I don't like for one card to be dependent upon others to "work correctly."

No, shut up Sloth. You look dead.

What is Speed all About?

In Splinterlands serves 2 basic purposes:

To Determine Turn Order - Normally, monsters with the highest Speed attack first in each round. Obviously in the Reverse Speed ruleset that is reversed, causing the slowest monsters to act first instead. Have you noticed how often monsters are taken out before they are able to pull off a single attack? It happens a lot, and it's all due to Speed.
To Determine Hit Chances - Most would say this is the more important function of Speed, but I'm not quite sure, as they seem equally crucial. Most of the time, when a monster with 1 Speed is (Melee or Range) attacking a monster with 6 Speed, they will miss. If you compound this with a miss-increasing ability like Dodge or Blind, it becomes nearly impossible for some Range and Melee attackers to land a hit against some monsters. This is the power of hit/miss chances. There is however one glaring weakness in relying on misses, which is that Magic never misses.

More Tips

Here are a few random tips for success in the Reverse Speed ruleset. Heed them. Or don't. It doesn't really matter to me one way or the other.

Use Magic Attacks

I suggest considering Magic attackers of every Speed in this ruleset, not just the slow ones. Magic attacks are always valuable and worth keeping alive, even if they only happen at the end of a turn. The Phantom of the Abyss for example is a 6 Speed monster with a powerful Magic attack; I almost always use him in Reverse Speed battles when I'm playing with blue.

Some magic attackers have Flying or Dodge, and others might be positively affected by your clever use of the Blind ability. You may be surprised to see that a Magic-attacking speedster can still be missed in a Reverse Speed battle. And that'll drive them crazy, especially if their Blasting with Yodin Zaku.

Look Differently

One thing that continues to fascinate me about Splinterlands is the traps a player can lead themselves into through sheer habit. I catch myself looking at the same cards every time, and using a rotation in battle that's probably only 20-30% of my total collection.

Reverse Speed is a great opportunity to examine the ways in which your team-building has gotten stale. It probably has a lot to do with where the cards are located on the screen and your eyes always being drawn to the same place. Use the filters, change the zoom of your display, do whatever it takes to keep it fresh so that you don't miss obviously good choices.

On the other side of that coin, you probably don't want a collection so big that you forget the majority of your cards. My advice to avoid this is to pace yourself when buying cards. Don't buy 5 new maxed cards at a time. Instead, buy 1 then spend a few hours battling with it. Learn which rulesets it likes and which ones it hates. Then, once it's been safely added to your player routine, move and on work toward another card.

Defense is Different

Think about Thorns. Usually when you play the thorned Spineback Turtle, you expect the Thorns to get some action. Why wouldn't they? The Turtle has 1 Speed. In a Reverse Speed battle, the Turtle will be missed more frequently, and by extension, its Thorns will be sad and useless.

Think about Shield. Shielded monsters are usually slow, which means that they will be missed more often in a Reverse Speed battle. Shielded monsters are also almost always Armored. So if you use Repair, your Shielded and Armored Reverse Speed tank can become surprisingly difficult to destroy.

Think about Retaliate. In this Ruleset, it's sometimes an excuse to use a fast monster where they seem to have no place. Where in a normal battle, a fast monster with Retaliate is often missed (and Retaliate wasted), in a Reverse Speed battle, a fast monster will always be hit. This means that Retaliate will be triggered almost certainly before the monster's deathblow.

Debuffs Galore

This is good advice for almost always, but in Reverse Speed it always works especially well for me. Debuff everything about the enemy's team except for Speed. Use Rust to reduce the Armor, Headwinds to kill the Range attacks, silence to squash the mages, and finally, Demoralize to weaken those pesky Melee attackers. If you can pull this off, you'll have all the time you need to win a Reverse Speed battle.

Some Cards I Like in Reverse Speed

If you have some favorites of your own, share them in the comments. There are a lot of cards out there!

Living Lava

1 Speed all the way to max level, but as deadly as can be. That's the Living Lava. Shield, Rust and Thorns. It was made for Reverse Speed. Use it.

Crustacean King

Another egg-to-seabed slowpoke, the Crustacean King is perfect for Reverse Speed. If you can, get it to level 6 (where it gains Protect).

Mushroom Seer

Medium Speed here, but the Mushroom Seer brings Silence, one of the most valuable abilities in the game. By reducing the Magic attack of every enemy monster, you can give your team time to do some serious damage.

Evangelist

I was trying to find a great Life card for Reverse Speed and the Evangelist screamed at me. With her native Snare ability, she can remove the Flying ability from an enemy victim. Plus, both Inspire and Rust are excellent abilities to take a lead in this Ruleset.

Bone Golem

The Bone Golem is infuriating to play against in this Ruleset, so it must be good. The thing keeps repairing itself; an unusual quality in a tank.

Gloridax Guardian

I love the Guardian. Not too slow, not too fast, and his axe is the hugest in the land. Shield and Protect are both on my list of essential abilities for the Reverse Speed ruleset, and he's got 'em.

Parasitic Growth

This thing is absolutely disgusting, but I find myself reaching for it as a Neutral Reverse Speed card over and over. I can tuck it away in the back of my team and by the time it reaches the front, it's usually gained 5 or 6 Health points that allow it to outlast whatever puny squishy the enemy had in their back line.

List of Rulesets

Previous Editions of the RuleSet Strategy Series

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Ruleset Strategy Series -#17 - Reverse Speed