Noxious Fumes ruleset and Poison ability are both able to apply poison conditions which will deal a gradual 2 damage each turn. The 2 damage is not something to be underestimated. Most of the mid-mana cards (cards with mana between 4 to 7 mana) would have 2 value as their basic damage. So having poison applied is similar to have additional hand dealing attack, and even more this attack isn't affected by the target evasion rate.
Noxious Fumes will apply poison effect to the entire formation. This looks very menacing. In just only 3 round, the total damage will mount up to 6 damage, which means most of the cards would reduced to ash. Even having Tanker with huge health, their position in the front-row will render them vulnerable from any direct attack. This effect might seemed difficult to handle, but some counter-measure could be taken:
- Cleanse and Immunity could neutralize the poison effect. Depend on the purpose, both abilities have different usage. Cleanse erase the poison effect in immediate effect, and it able to affect other cards than the owners. Meanwhile Immunity block the poison effect absolutely for the entire battle, but able to affect the owners only. Sadly Immunity owned mostly by Epic and Legendary cards, making it rather difficult to access.
- Blitz Attack using high speed cards could quickly dissipate enemies health before the health deteriorate by the poison effect.
But now, with the arrival of the new abilities, Martyr, the landscape for this effect have changed somehow. Some players pursue poison as a measure to quickly put demise on card possessing Martyr. Once its done, Martyr will be triggered and affect the adjacent cards, and this just turn the important cards become stronger.
WATCH BATTLE
So here we have 2 (two) battle, one victorious battle I love to have, and the other a lost battle I hate to experience.
FIRST BATTLE (https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ac90d536df9b9a6ca288e757ac7c69c4&ref=kid.miniatures)
The battle has 35 mana cap, with Up Close & Personal and Noxious Fumes ruleset, and only Death splinter are excluded from use.
Fire Splinter have Forgotten One as possessor of Immunity which quite easy to access. Forgotten One might cost some mana, but having 8 health, 4 armor, and 4 melee damage, this card are pretty much very independent as a card. My strategy is to keep Forgotten My main strategy is to keep Forgotten One covered, long enough until most of the cards perished by poison effect. It is important that Forgotten One have formidable parameter to make the last stand. Since I only have 22 mana left, I have to allocate around 4 to 5 mana for each cards.
I choose to Antoid Platoon for its Shield. Radiated Brute might be a wrong choice, since its have limited health, but I for it to deal some damage. And then Disintegrator should follow with its Demoralize. Tenyii Striker is a powerful Sneak attacker. So its a good choice for the back-row. And finally Radiated Scorcher as cannon fodder.
The 1st round doesn't show much action. Both cannon fodder are lost. But I'm bit worries since my opponent have 2 cards with Sneak attack. Both Grum and Antoid Platoon unshaken by incoming attacks,.
Entering 2nd round, the poison take effect, but every cards stood still with much of its health. I lost my Antoid Platoon by Grum, and Radiated Brute have to step up. The conditions just getting worst, since Grum deal the killing blow and activated its Bloodlust.
On Round 3, Uraeus choked by the poison. Opponent Tenyii missed its attack causing my Tenyii to survive another round. Grum just goes rampage by killing Radiated Brute and then activated its Bloodlust for the second time.
With the poison applied for the 3rd time, all cards care now left with only 1 health, except for Grum and Forgotten One. Grum and Radiated Brute bring down my Disintegrator. But lucky for me, its not Grum which make the final blow. With Disintegrator no longer alive, my Disintegrator able to deal full 3 damage into Grum, leaving it with only 3 health at the end of the round.
Entering Round 5, the compounding effect of poison started to become substantial. Radiated Brute and Tenyii Striker demise by the poison, and Grum left wiht 1 health remaining. Its only took a single blow for Forgotten One to finish the battle.
SECOND BATTLE (https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_1de5789286f516ef90384d8d8fef79fe&ref=kid.miniatures)
The battle has 39 mana cap, with Noxious Fumes and Armored Up ruleset, and only Fire, Life, Death, and Dragon splinter is able to be used.
I put similar formation as previously, except I bring Tusk The Wide and Ash Mirage just to minimize damage from magic and ranged attack. Additionally I bring Scavo Chemist which should remove poison from Tusk The Wide. My opponent also took a similar strategy, except that the Scavo Chemist is in the back-row. That's a good strategy since, Scavo is useless except for its Cleanse in the 1st round. And then we see Venari Marksrat which seemed deployed solely for its Martyr ability.
At Round 1, Tusk The Wide have to sustain serious 4 damage blow from both Radiated Brute and Living Lava. Headwinds bring minor effect, since only Lava Launcher affected. The formidable Shield of Living Lava really put some effort for Tusk The Wide and Ash Mirage.
At Round 2, Tusk The Wide finally lost by Radiated Brute. Tenyii missed its attack on Scavo CHemist. With the lost of Tusk The Wide, now only Ash Mirage have power to breach Living Lava armor.
The battle turn bad, since Venari Markstat finally fall down by poison effect. This bring Lava Launcher back to its full 3 ranged damage, including a 4 speed. The combined attack of Living Lava, Lava Launcher, and Radiated Brute put Molten Ash Golem into demise.
The battle turn the worst, since now Forgotten One now have to take the first row. All of the cards are already at 1 to 2 health, so the next round most of the cards will be killed by the poison. Unfortunately Forgotten One take a full damage from all the incoming attack and left with only 5 health remaining.
At Round 5, the fate seemed to be sealed for me. I only have Forgotten One with 5 health remaining, while opponent still got Forgotten One with full health and armor, and Living Lava stood still. Forgotten One strike down Living Lava only to face Forgotten One and brought down in single blow.