In the spirit of the new weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenges, I would like to take a look at a Splinterlands battle with a particular focus on a ruleset. Our ruleset today is one that is one that you may enjoy if you are playing on a budget, or if you like it when some of those commoner cards get their chance to shine. Today, we will be looking at a battle with the Rise of the Commons ruleset!
In battles with Rise of the Commons, you aren't allowed to bring any epic or legendary monsters into battle. Contrary to the name, you ARE allowed to use your rares. Do note that legendary summoners are still allowed. There aren't really whole categories of cards that are winners or losers in Rise of the Commons battles, aside from the legendary and epic monsters which are unable to be used. Instead, you tend to see a battle with a slightly lower power level, with fewer of the big splashy monsters since those are often the higher rarity cards.
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. Of course, we have the Rise of the Commons ruleset, which means that we can only select monsters with a common or rare rarity. To go along with it we also have What Doesn't Kill You, which will give all monsters Enrage. There are 4 splinters to choose from, and a relatively low mana cap of just 15.
When it comes to low mana battles with Rise of the Commons, I enjoy using the fire splinter. Fire has a lot of monsters that can give you a good bang for your buck, and that is exactly what we want when the available mana is limited. Tarsa is a great summoner in this situation because her buffs to melee damage and health are particularly relevant - many of the cheaper fire splinter monsters are melee monsters!
I started my team with my tank and secondary tank. Antoid Platoon is a great budget tank, combining a relatively high bulk with the Shield ability. Magic damage can easily ruin Antoid Platoon's day, but my hope was that with such a low mana cap my opponent would not be bringing any magic damage into battle. Radiated Scorcher was up next - he isn't a particularly good tank, but he only costs a single point of mana and could serve as a buffer for my monsters in the back.
Tenyii Striker was the single most expensive card on my team, and was the monster I was hoping would be the key to victory. With 3 attack and 3 speed as well as Sneak, Tenyii Striker is an excellent melee monster who can attack the enemy's back line. My hope was that Antoid Platoon would be able to hold the front while Tenyii Striker carved up all of the weaker monsters at the back of my opponent's team.
I was just about out of mana at this point - 15 is not a lot to work with! I finished off my lineup with Chaos Agent. 1 mana doesn't get you much, but a monster with 3 health and speed, along with dodge, would serve as a small buffer for my Tenyii Striker and hopefully allow it to outrace the enemy monsters.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am cautiously optimistic - my opponent has brought some decent monsters into battle, but I appear to have a small advantage. On the front lines my Antoid Platoon most likely isn't going to win against Flying Squid singlehandedly, but it should stall for a good amount of time and be able to dish out some heavy damage before falling. On the back lines we both have a sneak attacker and a buffer monster. Both sides are somewhat comparable, but I have a heaver hitter in Tenyii Striker, and both of my monsters at the back have Dodge. It could come down to RNG, but I think I have a small advantage.
Over the first couple of rounds, plenty of attacks get exchanged. Unfortunately, my Chaos Agent is unable to get and Dodges off. As predicted, Antoid Platoon is slowly losing the battle at the front, but has also done heavy damage to Flying Squid. This is going to be a close one!
It came down to the wire, but Tenyii Striker was able to finish off the Flying Squid and the battle turned into a duel - Tenyii Striker against Pelacor Bandit. Tenyii Striker's higher attack meant that it only had to land a hit once, and as soon as round 5 begun it did exactly that, knocking out the Bandit and closing out the victory. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
This battle was a close one, but in the end my strategy was enough to get me the win. In this battle of the common and rare monsters, my Enraged Tenyii Striker was able to mow through the enemy monsters and win the race. As you can see from battles such as these, you may often see closer and more exciting games with slightly less powerful monsters in play. Epics and Legendaries can often snowball and result in very lopsided battles, but in Rise of the Commons everyone has to play more fair!
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:
Living on the Edge - Battling with Lost Legendaries! - A Splinterlands battle analysis, featuring Lost Legendaries!
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.