The battle challenge ruleset this week is Rise of the Commons. In this ruleset, only common and rare monsters may be used. However, summoners are exempt.
The battle I chose to showcase is a 50 mana brawl battle with the Fog of War, Unprotected, and Rise of the Commons rulesets. Fire, Earth, Life and Dragon were the splinters available to play.
Here is a link to the battle:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_KNhhLuXIUQwxhuQPZcIk&ref=ninjamike
I chose the Life splinter because it has a lot of common and rare cards that I like to play. Since this is a Fog of War ruleset I cannot be attacked from the rear. So I put three high attack ranged monsters at the end of my lineup. I started my lineup with two Melee tanks and then a magic attack monster. My hope is that the first three monsters can last a long time to give my ranged monsters in the back plenty of rounds to attack. Because of course once they fall into first position they can no longer attack.
Start of Battle / Round 1
My opponent used a level one summoner though it is a Kitty one of the best ones in the game. They used mostly Earth splinter magic attack monsters with a Taunt monster in second position. So my backfield attacks will begin with that monster.
Round 2
During the first round, I reduced the health of my opponents taunt monster to two. Meanwhile my first tank is still at health seven.
Round 3
During the second round, I defeated my opponents taunt monster as well as first position tank. However I also lost my first tank.
Round 4
In the third round, my gladiator monster gained bloodlust and is up to 4 magic attack.
Round 5
After the fourth round, victory is certain for me.
Because of a couple of misses it took me until the sixth round until I was able to declare victory.
Overall my strategy worked for this match. Though going up against a level one summoner no matter how powerful is definitely a major advantage. If my opponent had played a level 3 Kitty this battle would have been really close and it is possible I would have lost. I still like my strategy for the match which was creating a buffer up front for my ranged cards. I was also able to make good use of one of the best gladiator cards in the game.
Rise of the Commons does not sound like the most exciting ruleset. However, it provides me a break from trying to fill out my lineup with the most beasty high powered cards. Instead I am forced to focus on strategy and making use of the abilities that the cards provide. For example, most of the healing and shield repair monsters in the game are common or rare. Same thing with sneak and opportunity monsters.
In this ruleset, it can be difficult to make use of all your mana in high mana matches. Because many of the highest mana cards in the game are epic or legendary. In this battle for example I used only 42 of the available 50 mana. But making use of all your mana is less of an issue in smaller mana matches in the Rise of the Commons ruleset.
