Hello guys! For this week's Battle Mage Secret is about the ruleset Even Stevens. This is one of the ruleset in which we do not focus on countering or maximing the effect it has on the battle field. Even Stevens limits our card selection by only allowing monters with mana capacity that are of even numbers. Although it is a bit simple, it does not mean that you do not have to think hard and just select any cards that are possible. Since both of you will be limited to even mana monsters, you must get ready to outsmart your opponent.
Let's start with the basic description of Even Stevens ruleset and why is it important to be familiarize with your cards or much better with all the cards in Splinterlands.
Ruleset:
Even Stevens: Only Monsters with even Mana cost may be used in battles.
Mana Cost and Mana Capacity:
Let's first describe what is Mana cost and Mana Capacity (or Mana Cap for short) in Splinterlands.
- "The Mana Cap is the amount of mana alloted for each battle. Mana caps can range from between 12 and 99 mana" - from Splinterlands documentation
- "Mana cost is the "price" per individual card to be able to summon it in battle. The mana cost of a card is the stat located in the upper left corner. Mana Costs can vary from 0 to 15. The more powerful the card, the higher the Mana Cost." - from Splinterlands documentation
Basically in every Splinterlands battle, you need to select the monsters with the best synergy, in terms of stats and abilities, that are available and that will fit in the mana capacity restriction for each battle. Since the higher mana monsters are powerful than lower mana monsters, you need to balance out for your monsters to fit the mana cap. Take note that there you can only deploy upto 7 cards in total each match (1 slot for Summoner and 6 slots for Monsters). Whether to use all the slot available or only few will depend on your strategy.
So the next question is, how does the ruleset EVEN STEVENS impact it?
Since EVEN STEVENS only allows monsters with even mana cost to be deployed on the field, our selection of cards will be limited. The usual deck combination which we normally used may not be available. Further more, there are other rulesets that can be combined with EVEN STEVENS that can make the filtered card collection be reduced to even fewer cards. Not only that, we also need to take card of the abilities of these monsters so we could check whether or not they have synergies in the field.
Although a lot of us players normally decide which one to use during ranked battles, it might be good to have atleat a ready made list of monsters we can deploy per Splinters, per mana capacity, and per ruleset combinations.
Feature Battle
Let's now move on to the featured battle so we can give more emphasis on why knowing or familiaring with your cards and the available cards in Splinterlands give you advantage.
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_272f363ee60ed62b639637067fed4e94&ref=jpleron
| Ruleset | |
|---|---|
| Even Stevens | Only Monsters with even Mana costs may be used in battles |
| Up Close & Personal | Only Monsters with Melee attack may be used in battles |
| Mana Cap | 13 |
| Allowed Splinters | Fire, Earth, Death, Dragon |
Aside from the Even Stevens, we also have the Up Close & Personal ruleset which further limits the cards we can use in the battle. Then we are also limited to deploy only few cards since the Mana Cap is only 13. Having a Summoner with 4 mana cost will only gives us 9 mana left. And of course, since we cannot deploy monsters with odd mana cost, the only combination will be to use either a 8, 6+2, 4+4, 4+2+2, 2+2+2+2. Luckily we have 0 mana monsters so we can deploy it as an extra monsters.
Another thing to note is that since only melee monsters can be used, it will be better to used monsters with abilities that can counter melee attacks.
| Melee Counters | |
|---|---|
 | THORNS: When hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker. This is a perfect counter to melee monsters since you deal damage to enemies each time they hit your monster. Although it is only limited to 2 damage, this is still huge advantage |
 | RETALIATE: When hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker. This is also a great counter for melee monsters since you gain an extra chance to attack when being hit by a melee attack. Aside from that, the damage you can deal will depend on your monster's stat. Let's say your monster has 5 melee damage, and your opponent has 3 melee damage, then you can deal even more damage in return. The only downside of this ability is that it has 50% chance to be triggered. Still a great percentage. |
 | SHIELD: Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks. This is not a counter for melee monsters but rather a defensive strategy since you reduce the damage you received from melee or ranged attacks by half. To be exact, it is computed as the damage divided by 2, then rounded up to whole integer (except for 0.5 since it will be rounded down to zero instead of round up) |
 | DEMORALIZE: Reduces the Melee attack of all enemy Monsters. Same as the Shield ability, this is also more of a debuff strategy to reduce the melee damage of the opposing monsters. Combined |
My Opponents Line-ip:
| Summoner | |
|---|---|
 | Quix the Devious is a Dragon splinter summoner which has the ability to reduce the speed and ranged damage of opposing monsters. The speed reduction is a good debuff but the ranged damage reduction does not help in this scenario all monsters will definitely have melee based attacks. The main reason why my opponent used this Summoner was to gained access to Dragon monsters, particularly Djinn Chwala. |
 | Fungus Fiend is an Earth monster with zero mana cost. One of the advantage of selecting a Dragon summoner is that aside from the Dragon monsters being able to be used, you can also select additional Splinter to combine with Dragon. In this scenario, my opponent selects the Earth splinter as the second splinter to combined with Dragon. I believe this monster was used as a decoy to absorbed initial attacks from the enemy monsters. |
 | Djinn Chwala is a Dragon monster which exhibits an extraordinary stats and abilities. It has 3 Melee damage, 2 speed, 6 armor, and 10 HP. On top of that, it has Thorns ability which we know is a great counter for melee monsters. |
My Own Line-ip:
| Summoner | |
|---|---|
 | Thaddius Brood is a Death splinter summoner which has the ability to reduce the max health and magic damage of opposing monsters. The reduction in max health is a good debuff but the magic damage reduction does not help in this scenario, with the same reason I mentioned above sine all monsters will definitely have melee based attacks. The main reason why I choose this Summoner was to gained access to Death monsters, particularly Cursed Windeku. |
 | Cursed Windeku is a Death monster which also has almost similar stats and abilities compare with Djinn Chwala. Cursed Windeku has 3 Melee damage, 3 speed, and 10 HP. It also has the Thorns ability which we know is a great counter for melee monsters. Even though it does not have armor to protect from melee damage, it has the Heal ability which can regenerate its health during its turn. This is the main reason why I chose Cursed Windeku, the Thorns and Heal ability is a great combo to survive the battlefield |
 | Corpse Fiend is a Death monster with zero mana cost. Similar with my opponent, I also use this zero monster as more of a decoy or foddler to absorb attacks, particularly the attacks from monsters with Sneak or Opporunity ability. |
 | Venator Kinjo is a Neutral monster which has the multiple abilities even though it has only 2 mana cost. It is a great support card. It has the Slow ability which can reduce the speed of opposing monsters and at the same time, it has the Reflection Shield ability which can nullify the return damage cause by the Thorns. Somehow, it will not received any damage when attacking monsters with Thorns ability. |
Conclusion: I was able to win the match with the help of the health regeneration from the Heal ability of Cursed Windeku. Cursed Windeku can heal upto 3 HP per round, enough to regen the damage from Djinn Chwala. Although in every round, Cursed Windeku receives a total of 5 HP damage (3 damage from enemy and 2 damage from Thorns). On the other side, Djinn Chwala also suffers the same fate as it receives a total of 5 damage per round (3 from Cursed Windeku's attacks and 2 from returned damage cause by Thorns). Djinn Chwala's armor doesn't last long enough to protect it from Windeku's attack.
What Ifs:
In this section, I will be sharing the What Ifs moment during the ranked battle. I used the tool https://splintertools.io/ to review my previous matches and checked whether I can use other cards to increase my chances.
Let's start with What if I used a Fire Splinter instead of the Death. What will be the outcome of the match?
Using the Fire Splinter with Tarsa, Septic Slime and Scorch Fiend gave us around 80% winrate. This line-up focuses on Stunning the enemy monster while regaining health thru Heal.
The Earth splinter with Obsidian, Mycelic Infantry and Fungus Fiend onyl has around 64% winrate. A bit lower than the Fire one. This line-up focuses on reducing the damage from the enemy monster with the help of Shield ability.
And lastly, to show what is the winrate with the line-up I chose. A 100% winrate is what we always wanted.
If you want to know more about the Splinterlands game, you can visit the website at https://splinterlands.com?ref=jpleron
Splinterlands is a digital, collectible card game built on blockchain technology. It is similar in concept to games like Magic the Gathering and Hearthstone where you build up a collection of cards, which all have various different stats and abilities, and use them to battle other players in skill-based matches. By using blockchain technology, players can buy, sell, and trade their digital assets freely just as if they were physical cards, and all transactions are recorded publicly and immutably.
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References:
- card images are owned by Splinterlands.io