Fire and Regret is a simple ruleset to understand. The best advice is simple: don't use ranged damage. The Return Fire ability is automatically applied to all monsters meaning that ranged damage is returned to sender.
When you combine this ruleset with others, it can make selecting a line up a fairly challenging process if you have a limited card selection.
Fire and Regret:
"When hit with a Ranged attack, Monsters with Return Fire will return reduced damage back to their attacker.
Damage returned is equal to damage of attacker divided by 2, rounded up." - Splintercards
Little League:
Only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles.
"Monsters and summoners of 4 Mana or less will be the only ones available in this ruleset. Try increasing your defense by using summoners that give +1 armor or +1 health.
Use monsters with at least 2 magic damage and 2 ranged damage. Using Mylor as summoner in this ruleset helps a lot." - Splintercards
The Line ups:
Obsidian
Obsidian offers an additional magic attack buff which will be very helpful as I look to maximise magical damage in my lineup. Having this card at 3rd level allows me to level up my Legendary cards to second level which typically offers a good benefit to their use.
Fungus Fiend
I had this card left over and wanted to add a little more filler to my front line. Typically I would use this card at the back of my lineup but decided, I'd rather have more "meat" at the front to allow my magic space to really get firing. The main benefit of the Fungus Fiend is its 0 cost with regard to mana. It does have 1 attack and speed combined with 2 health making it useful. I do believe every player who can afford to have a Fiend in their Modern Lineup should have one for exactly this purpose.
Hill Giant
I really like the beefiness of the Hill Giant. For 3 mana it offers 7 health and at third level it provides 2 melee damage which is excellent. Slow as it is, this card is here to provide some protection to my lineup and keep the enemy swatted away like flies.
Spirit Hoarder
As a cheap 3 mana card, the Spirit Hoarder is excellent for utility should my opponent utilise sneak and begin to damage my backline. With the Triage ability I have a pretty decent backline heal and in Little League rulesets, I gain a good magic attack bolstered by Obsidian. For 3 mana, 3 health and 1 speed, I cannot complain.
Queen Mycelia
The star of the defensive show for me. Queen Mycelia offers 4 health, 1 speed and 1 magic attack (increased to 2) whilst also offering physical armour to allies. One of my favourite cards to use and great value at 4 mana in a Little League ruleset. Long Live The Queen!
Djinn Biljka
As a cheap reward set Legendary, I highly recommend everyone to level up their Djinn Biljka to second level where it gains additional magic damage. Hidden due to Camoflague, Djinn Biljka lies somewhere deep in the backline launching nasty magical attacks from afar. Boosted to 3 magic damage, this entire lineup is built around this 3 mana and now 3 magic attack magician.
Opposing Lineup:
Mother Khala
Due to this card being level 1, this will limit my opponent's line up. This will be most noticeable in two places which I will make clear as we go. For this ruleset, increasing health is not a bad way to go, I do think however that the opponent's best bet would be to increase damage as much as possible as it can be at a premium if you aren't carefully with card selections. Overall, this is not the choice I'd make but with General Sloan an unwise selection, this would be a decent Modern alternative.
Xenith Monk
At second level, Xenith Monk gains a self-heal which makes them an excellent Neutral choice card for Little League rulesets as they can be quite hardy. I personally enjoy this card in a ruleset such as this so I have to say this is a good choice if I were to take this card as a standalone. With seven health it has a good amount of health for a 4 mana card and while its 3 speed and 1 attack is not the best, it makes a for a decent tank. - would be better at second level though!
Stitch Leech
Unfortunately due to the opponent's Summoner Level, they are missing out on some rather useful additional damage which could make a big difference in Little League rulesets. I think for the ruleset, this is a fantastic card choice and is a really good card to have in Gold Foil. (I have one in Gold Foil also for my Life deck) 4 health is boosted due to Mother Khala and 2 melee damage is great but the 1 speed may let this card down. Overall a good selection for the ruleset and at 3 mana, leaves room for other tougher decisions to be made.
Celestial Harpy
A great selection for Little League due to its great value. Opportunity and Flying make for a great selection especially when combined with a speed of 3 or more. While it is not the hardest hitter in the lineup, at 2 mana it offers a very real and different kind of threat to a line up. A good Life deck selection, especially when ranged attacks are unwise.
Truth Speaker
This is a great card and at 3 mana it allows a lineup to have a strengthened armour increase by 2. What this card does lack is an attack and this highlights part of the problem in a Little League lineup. When you compared this Rare card with that of Queen Mycelia, a Legendary Chaos card, the difference is stark. While she costs more, Queen Mycelia has a base attack and offers the same ability for one mana more. A good selection but unfortunately for my opponent, I am not going physical so this card will make little difference at this stage.
Herbalist
I think this card selection is not the wisest due to the ruleset of Fire & Regret. The Herbalist has 2 health and a 1 speed with a ranged attack of 1. Due to the Truth Speaker, this card will survive a bit longer with an additional 2 armour.
Pre Battle Thoughts:
I think it is quite often easy to forget that some players do not have a Legendary Mycelia or Fungus Fiend to use in every match. When I first started out playing Splinterlands I was in a restricted finance position and had a fortunate delegation helping me out, allowing me to build from very little. What helped me other than posting battle blogs and social media challenges was building my deck out first and having a wider base of cards to call upon at first level. Once I had covered all bases, I began to level my cards up and focus on one splinter at a time. While for me this was a 16 month long process, for other players it will potentially be quicker.
With that being said, I think my opponent has attempted a viable melee strategy but will not offer enough melee damage to break through my lineup as a result of the armour offered by Queen Mycelia.
The Battle:
Round 1:
Round 2:
Round 3:
Conclusion
Overall I think the battle shows that the right cards at the right times can really propel you toward victory. In this battle, Queen Mycelia and Djinn Biljka helped due to the Little League.
Whilst Fire and Regret is a good ruleset, it is easy to avoid the damage if you have enough breadth in your collection. As a new player I struggled with having enough cards to provide good alternatives and whilst my collection is not massive nor is it a particularly strong one, levelling up cards provides a wide array of benefits and is worth doing should you be playing for the longer term.
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Splinterlands Fire divider by freeztag
All card, icons, Splinter images and stats courtesy of Splinterlands
Ability and Ruleset blurbs taken from Splintercards
Splinter Element Icons taken from Splinterlands
I have reformatted them into PNG files which you are welcome to use here
