Find out the best Strategies to be used on Matches with the Ruleset "Noxious Fumes"!

"Noxious Fumes" Ruleset

All monsters start the game poisoned and will take 2 damage each turn.

OK, let's be honest here: Noxious Fumes is probably the most hated Ruleset on the game. I haven't encountered a single player that enjoys playing on Noxious Fumes, as it's a very challenging ruleset that slowly kills all your Monsters at the same time, thus, destroying all the common, newbie strategies (like playing Low-Helath Ranged/Magic Monsters on the backline to keep them protected).

On Noxious Fumes matches, all Monsters start the battle Poisoned. This means that they'll keep receiving 2 damage each turn, unless they got Cleansed.

Cleanse is an ability that "Removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team", including the Poison given by the Noxious Fumes.

But fear not!

In this post, we'll take a look at some strategies in order to win the game, keeping your team alive and well.

As you can imagine, the main objective in a match with the Noxious Fumes Ruleset is to survive. The Ruleset itself will do the killing for you, so if you can just keep your team alive longer than your opponent does, you'll end up winning the game.

Basic Strategy #1: High Health

This strategy is the most obvious one: you need Monsters with High Health. Monsters with 1 or 2 Health will die on the first round; Monsters with 3 or 4 will die on the second round.

You NEED High Health Monsters in order to keep yourself in the game after a few turns. The more Health they have, the more rounds they can keep alive while taking the Poison Damage.

Here are some suggestions of High Health Monsters that are currently affordable on the market:

• 8 Health: Pelacor Deceiver, Pelacor Mercenary, Flying Squid, Elven Defender

• 9 Health: Molten Ash Golem, Undead Rexx, Warrior of Peace, Djinn Chwala

• 10 Health: Charlok Minotaur, Nectar Queen, Nightmare, Mycelic Slipspawn

• 12 Health: Tusk the Wide

Forget the common strategy of playing weak Monsters on your backline: on regular games, these Monsters are protected from attacks; but on Noxious Fumes, they'll die simply because of the Poison.

Also, don't forget that Poison ignores Armor! So High-Armor, Low-Health Monsters aren't a good idea either.

Summoners that give extra Health are also interesting, as they can add a bit of survivability to all your Monsters. Tarsa, for example, gives +1 Health.

Similarly, Summoners that debuff the opponent's Health are also very strong, as they make the whole enemy team easier to die to the Poison: Thaddius Brood gives -1 Health to them.

Basic Strategy #2: Scavenger Ability

A Monster with the Scavenger ability gains 1 Health each time a Monster dies on the battlefield.

As the Noxious Fumes itself ends up killing lots of Monsters, one can be sure that the Scavenger will trigger several times during a Match, giving lots of extra Health to the Monster.

Scavenger is a VERY powerful ability on Noxious Fumes matches, as these Monsters will end up with HUGE Healthpools and being able to survive several rounds of Poison Damage.

Riftwing is a great card to be played, as he costs only 4 Mana, has 5 Health and the Scavenger ability. Likewise, the Gelatinous Cube is another good alternative, with 8 Health.

Basic Strategy #3: Health Regeneration: Heal, Heal Tank and Triage Abilities

These are the three abilities on the game that can regenerate the Health of your Monsters:

Heal: restores 1/3 of the Monster Max Health.
Tank Heal: restores 1/3 of the 1st Position Monster Max Health.
Triage: restores 1/3 of the Backline Monster that has taken more damage.

Considering that your Monsters will be constantly losing Health due the Poison, all Health Regeneration is welcome.

Triage is a kinda-weird mechanic that I personally dislike. I've already played some matches using the Spirit Hoarder, but I wasn't able to create a sustainable strategy to use this ability on Noxious Fumes matches.

In the other hand, Heal is very straight-foward to be used, and also incredibly effective. Sea Monster is a strong Monster to be played, as he has a large Healthpool and can also heal himself. Kron the Undying is another great option, but, well, he's OP in almost any ruleset!

Tank Heal is more tricky. Monster with this ability, like the Venari Crystalsmith, are usually weak, have low Health/Armor, and cost a lot of Mana. Thus, they'll get themselves killed by the Poison, and won't bring much advantage to your team.

Basic Strategy #4: Immunity Ability

Immunity is the Ability that makes a Monster immune to all negative status effects, including, obviously, the Poison from Noxious Fumes.

In other words: Immunity allows your Monster to simply ignore the mechanics from the Ruleset.

Forgotten One is the most popular Monster with Immunity, and is currently very affordable, costing less than 3 USD. He has 8 Health, 4 Armor and 4 Melee Damage, making him an ideal Monster on Noxious Fumes: he's able to sustain a lot of the incoming damage, he ignores the Poison, and can deal a huge amount of damage on the enemy.

Almo Cambio is a great card, too. This Legendary Monster has 12 Health, and is able to stay alive while the rest of the Monsters die because of the Poison.

Advanced Strategy #1 - Cleanse: Good or Bad?

As I said before, Cleanse is an ability that "Removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team". Thus, a Cleanse can remove the Poison from the Noxious Fumes ruleset, allowing your tank to avoid the 2 damage/turn Poison.

Sounds great, doesn't it?

Well, I personally dislike Cleanse on Noxious Fumes matches. The reason is simple, and very similar to the Tank Heal ability: Monsters with Cleanse are usually very fragile by themselves, and end up dying too quickly to the Poison.

Scavo Chemist, for example, only has 3 Health. So you'll end up spending Mana to play a Monster that'll die in 1 or 2 rounds, and just Cleanse your main Tank.

Your Main Tank, in the other hand, are usually under heavy fire from the enemy and will end up dying soon anyway.

But I do see the advantage on using Cleanse on some matches, especially when you can play a really strong, frontline tank that can be kept alive by other means (like Heal or Heal Tank).

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