Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!
I'm back to share another battle made secrets post featuring earthquake. This is one of the older rules sets that has been around for a while and while it has evolved over time, there are some new wrinkles and twists I like to play with it, especially to boost some cards that are otherwise not as potentially powerful. Let's dig in and see what we got
CHALLENGE RULES
RULESET: EARTHQUAKE
Description: All non-flying units take 2 physical damage at the end of every turn.
Snared units are considered non-flying. Since the damage given is physical, it can be reduced to 1 if the unit has the shield ability.
Reasons Why I like it
Originally when this rule set was first released, it was one of the more annoying ones. My lineups typically heavily favored dragons if possible since many of the cards have the fine ability, or even to use the seminar which granted everyone fine. Another common tactic was to employ a seminar or monster they gave everyone some armor which would help protect their health at the start to be drowned.
My new strategy, is to play as many Marta cards as I can, using their guaranteed deaths to boost the cards left behind. This allows you to play Marta cards in the middle of your lineup to boost as many cards as possible, and ensure they die but this start of Rome two versus needing to get lucky with your enemy using snipe
The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide
The Rule Sets
Watch the Match Here
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_6ZgryIuENHK8GRyOge7r&ref=senstless
MANA: 42
Ruleset: Earthquake: All non-flying monsters take 2 physical damage at the end of every turn.
Ruleset: Heavy Hitters: All monsters gain the Knock Out ability.
Ruleset: Fire & Regret: All monsters have return fire ability.
SPLINTERS: Fire, Earth, Dragon
Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts
- Rulesets
Bras are always tough when there's three rule sets. This time it's earthquake, heavy hitters, and fire and regret. The focus is going to be earthquake as it is a guaranteed damage taken to physical damage at the start of each round. Return fire will also make arrow cards what to us appealing, while getting a card with stun in your lineup choice. Given the splinters, I don't see too much of an impact for heavy hitters, or fire and regret since they'll be plenty of melee and magic cards. - Mana
42 mana is a great number to play with. It leaves you the option of as many big cars as he wants as long as they're supported by some small amount of cards. Anything less might start to be a struggle but 42 allows me to get just about any lineup I want - Splinters
Losing death is a little painful as death is typically very flying friendly, and there's also a couple of good cards in life that I can build a solid line up around. Either way I think this will be a dragon focused match.
Summoner Akane
I have been toying around with my new summoner and I like the ability to give two monsters the ambush ability. I think this will really be powerful given that I'm going to pick a couple of strong monsters to start with.First Position Quora Towershed
Great card overalls, in a strong first position card. When boosted with ambush it will get a double attack in the first round and increase the likelihood of triggering bloodlustSecond Position Venari Markscrat
Excited to have it here in second place, knowing it will die before the second round get started and will give a boost to both Quora and Chaos dragonThird Position Chaos Dragon
What's not to like about chaos dragon. High health flying magic speed and armor. Is a perfect card for this rule set plus it's about to get boostedFourth Position Fungus Flinger
Love getting my second Marta card in here. It will provide a second boost to chaos dragon and a boost to void dragon making it also faster and more powerfulFifth Position Void Dragon
Flying plus void, and hopefully boosted to two magic and 6-speed means it will be very difficult for most cards to hit.Sixth Position Halfling Alchemist
Unlikely to have too much of an impact, won't make it into the second round but has the opportunity to cut its lead monster of my enemies attack in half.
Opponent Lineup & Match Play
- Summoner Lobb Lowland
Interesting choice, looks like you're trying to stack Gladius cards and make a run at bloodlust - Palidon Rakk
One of my least used Gladius cards that I actually really like. It's just that most the times where I can use this card I could also use Quora or other cars that have slightly better stats - Fungus Flinger
Very good choice just like me, will die and give Katralba the boost - Katrelba Gobson
One of my favorite Gladius cards, that double sneak attack is cute perfect - Venari Marksrat
Looks like we both in the same approach, this will give a boost to both Katrelba and slip spawn - Mycelic Splipspawn
Not a bad idea to keep the focus away from the primary tank and focus all of the attacks towards the rear. Once it gets boosted it will have even a heavier magic damage - Disintegrator
This choice confuses me, unless they thought I might be going melee heavy and wanted to counter that. Clearly not many people are using heavy air attacks, but I would have thought it would have been smarter to try to counter magic
Round 0
As round one is getting started I am feeling pretty good about my chances. I really like my round zero attacks with the ambush that gives six damage to their tank card before we officially start the match. That leaves their tank down to six health before we even start.
Round 1
As we move into round one, I get very lucky again with chaos dragon randomly attacking the primary tank versus another card and really dwindling it's helpdown. This is quickly followed by Quora delivering The knockout blow and triggering bloodlust.
My opponent then gets a couple of turns and turns the table.Katrelbs takes out The halfling alchemist and gives a bloodlust boost. The round comes to an end and there's not too much change.
Round 2
While things look good at the start of round two, havoc is about to send as the physical damage is applied for earthquake. This will knock out several cards and start the motor boosts. We both lose Markscrat and after the boosts are all applied I quickly knock out fungus flinger followed by Katrelba.
Things really worked out for me as the bloodlust and murder boosts were able to boost the attack High enough to keep hitting cards only one time to secure the knockout.
As the round comes to an end I lose fungus flinger from return fire and while the game is already over and decided I do love the final boosts I get to chaos dragon and void dragon. Chaos dragon is up to five magic damage, while void dragon is up to, combine this with Quora who is sitting at 6 magic and five melee in my team is completely overpowered.
Round 3
It feels like most of the damage applied is actually from earthquake, after it runs through I am only left to face off against disintegrator and the magic attack is strong enough to do a one shot knockout.
Thoughts on Stragegy
I'm a huge fan of stacking Marta cards in the back of the lineup to boost cards that are strong but could always be stronger. The double boost to chaos dragon is a strategy I'll have to remember, and surrounding it with things like quora or void dragon really helps give them the initial boost to start the ball rolling. Giving void dragon additional speed and having flying mean to be much harder to hit for those pesky sneak attack lineups I seem to always face.
