This week's Battle Mage Secrets challenge features the Armored Up ruleset! Unfortunately, Armored Up battles seemed to be in short supply this week, so the battle that I will be sharing will be less than ideal - but it DOES include Armored Up. This will be a "learning experience" battle - I'll take a look at the battle, how it turned out, and where improvements could be made.
Armored Up is what I would consider a "soft" ruleset because it doesn't explicitly rule out any monster or summoner choices, but it does encourage the use of particular types of strategies. This type of rule is nice because it doesn't set any hard restrictions on your team, while making certain monsters more dynamic and/or interesting than they would be otherwise.
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
Here are the rules for our battle. We have a somewhat low mana cap of 18 and 4 splinters to choose from. As you may expect from the subject of this week's challenge, we also have the Armored Up ruleset which grants all monsters 2 bonus armor. We also have Lost Magic and Back to Basics, which will eliminate any magic attackers and remove any monster abilities.
Thanks to Lost Magic, we know that the only attackers in this battle will be melee or ranged monsters. I decided to go with Mylor Crowling, since Thorns is great against enemy melee monsters and there is a very good chance that my opponent will be using at least a couple of those. Any melee attackers on the other side of the battlefield will have a rough time in this fight - every time they attack they will be taking counterdamage, eating through that bonus armor and their hit points that much more quickly
I led off my lineup with Mycelic Infantry. Mycelic Infantry is a great tank, especially when you know that the other team won't be using any magic attackers. With 3 attack and a very solid 3 armor and 8 health, Mycelic Infantry is one of the bulkier monsters you can choose to hold the front line.
Looking at my second monster, you may begin to see what my mistake in this battle was. My selection for the second spot was Scavo Hireling. Scavo Hireling is great in Armored Up because thanks to the ruleset, you know that every monster will have armor and therefore be able to get Repaired. Pair that with Mylor's Thorns and you can massive potential for Thorns dama...wait, what's that? There's also Back to Basics in this battle? Yes, that's right - I got so focused on Armored Up and taking advantage of Repair that I forgot about Back to Basics. You should always Read the Full Question on a test, and you should always Read the Full Ruleset in a Splinterlands battle!
I finished off my lineup with Acid Shooter and Mycelic Morphoid. Acid Shooter is a great choice here, offering a point of ranged damage for just 2 mana. Mycelic Morphoid was a much worse selection - as mentioned previously, I had forgotten about Back to Basics, and positioned it there to shield against potential Sneak attackers.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I feel okay about my chances...at least until I see the rulesets. Then I feel awful. Not only is my team at a serious level disadvantage, but my opponent also brought more ranged damage than me, and was clearly paying more attention to the rulesets than I was. We'll have to see how this plays out.
Over the course of the first two rounds, the enemy team's superior ranged damage begins to take its toll. My monsters are able to take down the opposing Crypt Beetle, but Mycelic Infantry takes heavy damage and is on its last legs - if only Back to Basics hadn't been in effect, that Shield along with Scavo Hireling's Repair would have been very useful!
One more round and things are looking grim. Mycelic Infantry and Scavo Hireling are both eliminated, and Acid Shooter is stuck in the first position and unable to attack - this battle looks as though it be nearing the finish.
By the start of round 5 this fight was all but over. My poor Mycelic Morphoid stands along against a whole array of enemy monsters. A couple of quick attacks and my team is wiped off of the battlefield. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
This battle underscores the importance of paying attention to the rulsets - ALL of the rulesets. Getting distracted by a small portion of the rules and trying to do "cool stuff" can easily result in a silly loss if another rule that is relevant to your team selection is overlooked or forgotten. While I selected a team of monsters for this battle which would be very powerful in Armored Up under normal conditions, my strategy backfired when I forgot to take Back to Basics in to account. As I mentioned in the title - don't do this at home! Always read all of the rules, and don't forget them as you are crafting your battle strategy!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
Yer Not a Wizard, Harry - Battling with Wands Out! - A battle analysis, featuring Wands Out!
Splinterlands Economics: Causation - A look at causation, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Splinterlands Economics: Ceteris Paribus - An introduction to the concept of Ceteris Paribus, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.