Hey guys! This week's Battle Mage Secret is about the ruleset Equal Opportunity. I know a lot of us are already familiar with this since it was one of the oldest ruleset in Splinterlands. If you are a newbie or just started playing Splinterlands, you can check out the details below. We will cover almost all of the topic related to this ruleset. If you are already a seasoned veteran, then let me know in the comments if you learn something new, or best if you can impart us something that is not covered in this blog.
Let's start with the basic description of Equal Opportunity ruleset and Opportunity ability based from Splinterlands documentation:
Ruleset:
Equal Opportunity: All monsters have the Opportunity ability.
Ability:
Opportunity: Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health.
In short, all monsters will gain a new ability to prioritized attacking monsters with the lowest health for an easy kill. Without the Equal Opportunity ruleset, the Opportunity ability is one of the best ability a monster can have since it will always target the lowest health monsters, eliminating it from the battle field.
It may look easy to understand, but there are some informations that are not provided in this description. These are the questions I have when first encounter this ruleset. Let us try to clarify it with clear explanations and samples, if available.
Question: What happens if there are multiple targets with the same health and their health is the lowest among the enemy monsters.
- Ans: If there are multiple monsters with the same lowest health, the closest monster to the frontline will be given the priority in terms of being a target. Let's say you have a monster with an Opportunity ability and your opponent's line-up has 3 monsters with the same health (1 HP). Your monster will target the one closest to the frontline, or the tank position.
Question: What happens if my monsters has one of the following attack modifiers like Sneak, Reach, Snipe or Scattershot in the Equal Opportunity ruleset? Which ability will override or trigger, is it the Opportunity ability?
- Ans: Each attack modifier or attack type will have a different response to the Equal Opportunity ruleset. I will discuss it one by one for a much easier explanation.
Sneak: A monster with Sneak ability combine with the Opportunity ability from the ruleset. The Sneak ability from the monster will override the effects of the Opportunity ability. This means that it will still target the monsters at the back, regardless if there are monsters with the lowest HP in front.
This is a sample battle from my guildmate 
Snipe: A monster with Snipe ability combine with the Opportunity ability from the ruleset. Similar to the Sneak ability, the Snipe ability will also override the effect of the Opportunity ability. Let's briefly define what is the effect of Snipe ability. A monster with Snipe ability will prioritize targeting monsters with no-attack, magic attack or ranged attack closest to the frontline. Take note that even though the frontline monster is a no-attack, magic attack or even ranged attack type, it will ignore this and will still focus on the monsters at the back of the frontline, starting from 2nd position to the last position. Melee attack type monster will also be ignored by the Snipe targetting system. Now, what will happen if all enemies are melee attack type? It will now target the monster at the first position (front line) as the last resort.
In this clip, we can see that Sea Stalker with Snipe ability attacked Diemonshark which has 8 HP. Diemonshark has the highest HP on the enemy line-up so it is clear that the Opportunity ability was not triggered.
Scattershot: A monster with Scattershot ability combine with the Opportunity ability from the ruleset. Similar with Snipe and Sneak ability, Scattershot will also override the effect of Opportunity ability. A monster with Scattershot ability will target random monster, ignoring even the Taunt ability and Camouflage ability. Taunt and Camouflage are the two abilities you can use to counter the attack prioritization effect of Opportunity ability. Using the monster with Scattershot ability is somehow a double-edge strategy. Your monster will not benefit from the Equal Opportunity ruleset but at the same time, it can disrupt your opponent's strategy to counter the Opportunity ability.
Unfortunately, I do not have a clip to shown as sample but I am sure this is what happens when Scattershot is being used during the Equal Opportunity ruleset.
Just to give additional information, Scattershot only works with magic and ranged monsters. Melee type monsters does not benefit from the Scattershot ability. This is altso the reason why there are no melee monsters with Scattershot ability, but since Scattershot ability can be obtained by using a Summoner like
Reach: A monster with Reach ability combine with the Opportunity ability from the ruleset. As opposed to the Sneak, Snipe and Scattershot abilities, the Reach ability effect will be affected. For a basic explanation, a melee monster with a Reach ability can attack even from the second position. Usually melee monsters (without the attack ability like Sneak or Opportunity) can only attack when they are on the first position. Now with the Equal Opportunity ruleset, even though the monster has the Reach ability, it will prioritize the monster with the lowest health due to the effect of Opportunity ability. Reach is not really a great ability so I agree with Opportunity ability overriding the Reach ability effect.
As you can see in the clip, Relenor Cleaver with the Reach ability attacked Pelacor Deceiver with 3 health at the top instead of attacking opponent's Deimonshark.
You maybe wondering why does Splinterlands dev team design it to be that Opportunity from the ruleset will somehow be override by those abiltities. I am thinking that if they will allow Equal Opportunity to override the effects of other abilities like Sneak, Snipe and/or Scattershot, then the players can easily make adjustments to counter the Opportunity effect. So the Sneak, Snipe and Scattershot ability will give a surprise effect since they cannot be predicted easily. One thing you need to remember is that when playing on higher league, you should not used line-ups that can be predicted easily. Especially since the bot's algorithm will most likely used the lineup with the highest win rate, which is very predictable and can be easily countered if you have the right cards. I am not saying for you to create your line-up to be unpredicted always, but rather have a little adjustment to gain the edge in the battles.
Countering the Equal Opportunity ruleset
In this section, we will now discuss on how we can counter the Opportunity ability. Below are some of the strategies you can employ for countering the Opportunity ability brought by the Equal Opportunity ruleset.
- Stealth mode - We can utilize cards with the Camouflage ability to make our monsters less vulnerable to Opportunity attacks. Camouflage ability allows our monsters to avoid being targeted by opponents with Opportunity ability and other abilities aside from Scattershot. This is a direct counter to Opportunity ability. Since only few monsters have the Camouflage ability.
- Taunting: We can deploy monsters with the Taunt ability to force our opponent's monster to target the monster with the Taunt ability. We can use it to divert the attention from our other vulnerable units with low health. By directing the Opportunity attacks towards our tougher monsters, we can protect our low health monsters. Of course, using Taunt ability alone is not enough since if all your opponent's monster focus fire on this monster, there is a high chance that it will be eliminated easily. So we should also focus on support abilities like Tank Heal ability to heal monsters at the front, or Triage ability to heal the monsters at the backline. If you have Lily Shieldpaw as the summoner, you can use a backline monster with Taunt ability then placed it at the back. Monsters like Mycelic Slipspawn and Wave Brood from Chaos edition is a good example for backline and frontline Taunt, while you can use Shieldbearer for frontline Taunt. Using melee type monster with Taunt placed at the backline is somehow not a good option since they cannot attack but still a better strategy to counter the Opportuinity ability than doing nothing at all.
- Debuffs: This is a general counter measures that is not only applicable to Equal Opportunity ruleset. Debuffs like Demoralize ability for reducing melee damage, Silence ability for reducing magic damage, and Headwinds ability for reducing range damage. Halving is also a great ability but only 2 monsters have this ability and also not easy to trigger the effects since you need to hit the monster for its attack damage to be reduce to half.
- Buffs: Aside from debuffs abilities, we can also utilize cards that offer protective abilities such as Shield(to reduce damage from melee and ranged attack) or Void (to reduce the damage from magic attack type).
We can also use Strengthen ability to increase the max health of our monsters by 1 HP.
Protect is also another ability we can employ to give our monsters additional 2 armor. This additional armor can prevent our monsters from fatality attacks and may give additional turn for our monster to attack.
- Durability : The last thing we can think of is using monsters with high health or armor stats to give us some time to survive the barrage of attacks from the opposing monsters. With higher durability, our monsters can withstand the damage inflicted by enemy monters with Opportunity ability.
- Positioning : Well this is a basic strategy that are applicable to all rulesets. The reason why I included this in the counter section is that to minimize the impact of Opportunity combined with Trample ability. Trample ability will trigger when the target monster died from the attack, allowing the monster to attack again the monster on the back of the killed monster. If you place your monster with the lowest HP at the back, even if it trigger the Trample effect, there is no one at the back to be targetted again.
This is a year old blog about Trample and Opportunity but still applicable. You can read it as well if you like. @jpleron/splinterlands-or-how-to-counter-opportunity--trample--stampede-combination
- Sacrifice: Martyr is one of the latest abilities added recently on Splinterlands. When a monster with Martyr ability dies, it gives additional (+1 in all) stats to adjacent monsters. The reason why I put this on is that normally monsters with Martyr has lower health compare to other monsters. And the fact that you want your monster with Martyr ability to die first can be accomplished if your opponent monsters has the Opportunity ability.
Another ability that belongs to this category is the Redemption. When a Monster with Redemption ability dies, it will deal 1 melee damage to all enemy monsters. This is one of the best strategy to utilize with this ruleset.
Utilizing the Equal Opportunity ruleset
There are several abilities that synergize well with the Opportunity ability. In this part, I will now focus on how can we utilize the Opportunity ability and make it more dangerous.
- Trample : Trample allows a monster to do an extra attack when it killed the initial target. With Opportunity ability, a monster with Trample ability will target monster with the lowest health, allowing for a great chance to trigger the Trample effect. And if you have the Stampede plus Equal Opportunity ruleset in effect, then expect a massacre from monsters with Trample ability. Aside from Monsters having Trample ability, there is a Summoner Possibilus the Wise that can give all monsters the Trample ability.
By the way, Trample only works with melee attack type. Be sure to use it wisely.
- Debuffs: This is a different kind of debuff to what we discuss earlier. On this one, we will focus on reducing the stats of our opposing monsters.
Rust reduces the armors of enemy monsters by 2. Reducing the armor to zero will leave the monsters vulnerable to melee or range attacks.
Weaken reduces the health or enemy monsters by 1. This does not require further explanation.
- Speedsters: Having a higher speed enables our monster to attack first. Combine with the Equal Opportunity ruleset, having the highest speed is the key to deliver a killing blows to opponent monsters with lowest health. Since all your monsters will focus their attack on one monster, this will give a higher chance to eliminate monster one by one, removing their chance to attack or just use their abilities.
Swiftness increases your monsters speed by one, while the Slow ability reduces the speed of enemy monsters by one.
- Piercing: Piercing allows your excess damage after hitting the armor to pierce thru with the health. This reduces the effect of having an armor to survive from high damage attacks.
Featured Battle
Moving on to the most important part of the blog is the featured battle. Of course, this entry will not be valid without this featured battle.
First battle is from the tournament entry.
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sm_iWfB6OJdvlxJpS7Vs595
In this battle, I used Exploding Rats since it has the highest speed making it attack first. Also it has the Blast ability which deals extra damage to the monsters adjacent to the target monster. The Exploding Rats also have Redemption ability on higher level but this is not applicable at the current league.
On this round, we can see that both of us uses monsters with Martyr ability to increase the stats of the monster we want to prioritize or funnel, which in turn is also the same Xenith Monk
One thing to notice also is that my opponent uses Clockwork Aide. This monster has only 1 health but has a high armor perfect to counter melee or range attackers. This is one of the reason why I also used a magic type monster since magic attack deals direct damage to health ignoring the armor (aside from Void armor).
Second battle is from the ranked battle.
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_d8d69d4a7954ca8da794fd1e126d527b
In this battle, aside from the Equal Opportunity ruleset, we also have the Lost Legendaries which limits the monsters to Common, Rare and Epic only. And Wands Out ruleset which limits the monster selection to monsters with magic damage only.
In this match, my opponent utilize the Camouflage ability to hide his Magi Necrosi. The problem with this is Magi Necrosi has the Snipe ability so instead of targeting my Life Sapper with only 1 health, it attacked my Venari_Bonesmith which has 3 health. Allowing my Life Sapper to survive and even dealt damage and stack health with the use of Life Leech ability.
On my side, I utilized the Life Leech ability to regenerate some health after dealing damage to enemy monsters. This made me survive longer since I do not have healing abilities.
Another thing to note was both of us uses Thaddius Brood as our summoner to reduce the health and magic damage as part of our debuff strategy.
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