Hello there.
Today I'll share my battle using Nerissa Tridawn. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding the monster. From my experience, I rarely use Nerissa in my Bronze/Silver battles. This is because I don't have her, and she usually has a higher rental cost than others. In spite of this, I still consider her a very strong card. She is a Water, Epic, Chaos Legion card. At 1 BCX, she is a 9 cost monster with 3 Magic damage, 2 Speed, 0 Armor, and 9 HP. The usual Water Summoners used in Bronze/Silver are Kelya Frendul and Bortus.
Kelya increases the Speed and Armor of all allies by 1. Bortus decreases all enemy monster's Magic attack by 1. With regards to their effect to Nerissa, Kelya gives more survivability by giving armor, and pushes the speed to 3 which is pretty good. Bortus doesn't really add anything to Nerissa, since he is mostly used to counter Magic teams.
Nerissa is one of two Epic monsters that have 3 Magic attack at 1 BCX, which makes it extremely useful in novice tournaments where Legendary cards are not allowed. She has high HP and Damage, and is a staple in high mana battles.
Being under a Water Summoner, she can be included in Magic teams, together with Alric Stormbringer. But she can just as easily work well in regular teams because of her high stats. What's also good is that she is only at 9 mana which puts her below the Giant Killer range.
Without further ado, let's get into the battle.
The Ruleset
This was a tournament battle, so it was a Novice battle with "Lost Legendaries" and "Fire and Regret" Rulesets. A 48 mana battle is on the higher end of the spectrum. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each summoner so I will try to counter as much as I can.
The ideal team for Water is a Melee heavy team. For Death, a combination of Melee Sneak with Magic Snipe is a possibility. For Dragon, most of their cards are Legendary so it can't be used, the only ones available are Whelp Herder and Runic Skyclaw. Using Ranged attacks is still a possibility, but since this is a high mana battle, the match can get longer and it might be disadvantageous to use them in the long run.
The Lineup
| Card | Ability | Comments |
|---|---|---|
 | Increases the Speed and Armor of ally monsters by 1 | Kelya gives armor to all my monsters which is very useful. |
 | Trample | I used Diemonshark due to the high HP and Armor. If it matches with Windeku, it should survive for a few turns. |
 | Reach | Flying Squid has high HP and speed, and Reach which is good in this high mana battle. |
 | - | Since no Legendary are allowed, Nerissa which is an epic and has high damage is the MVP of my team. |
 | Blast | I wanted to whittle away my opponent's HP so my Diemonshark can Trample. |
 | Tank Heal | I want to buy time for my Diemonshark and try to keep it healthy as long as possible |
 | Demoralize | In case my opponent goes for a Sha-Vi, I wanted to lower their Melee attack and protect the backline. |
With the cards I own and have rented, Water was the best choice. Death has a lot of strong Ranged monsters, but I can't use them. To protect my monsters from a lot of Melee attacks, I opted with this team. Hopefully the Merdaali Guardian can keep my Diemonshark alive from any Magic attacks.
The Battle
The Matchup
My opponent decided to go with a Water team which is similar to mine. The difference being they used Wave Brood and Coastal Nymph which are both Ranged monsters. Looking at this I am liking the position of the Wave Brood since it puts the Merdaali Guardian in Blast damage range. I am also regretting my positioning for Sneak attacks, since my Disintegrator will be idle for most of the battle.
End of Round 1
Their Coastal Nymph targeted my Merdaali Guardian on its first attack so that makes me nervous. I am splitting my damage between the Diemonshark and the Wave Brood which is bad. My Diemonshark is taking 1 damage per turn, while their Merdaali will die in two more turns. So far so good.
End of Round 2
The opponent's Diemonshark armor is finally down. Their Wave Brood and Merdaali are low and my Diemonshar is the only one that has taken damage. Their Coastal Nymph hit my Disintegrator which is huge since it is serving a purpose even while being idle. This is looking better and better.
End of Round 3
My Flying Squid missed its attack on the Diemonshark. The Wave Brood died, but it was before my Technomancer can kill their Merdaali Guardian. My Diemonshark is not looking too healthy right now. The only silver lining is that their Coastal Nymph is trolling and just hit my Nerissa.
End of Round 4
I killed both the Diemonshark and the Merdaali Guardian in the same round. A lot of my monsters are still healthy and my Merdaali is alive to heal the front monster damaged by Nerissa. This is starting to look like a win.
End of Round 5
The Coastal Nymph is dying this round as long as it hits its attack. The opponent's Flying Squid will die from my Flying Squid's attack, so my Nerissa can then start damaging the opponent's Nerissa. This should be a sure win now.
End of Round 6
Like rubbing salt into a wound, their Coastal Nymph attacked my idle Disintegrator, killing it while having done its job of decreasing Melee attacks and taking hits. With this board state, I win next round.
End of the Battle
Remember when I said above that using Range attacks might be disadvantageous in the long run? It's nice to be proven right. The scattershot attacks of the Coastal Nymph was pretty useless the whole game. Its only relevant hit was the damage to my Nerissa. The splitting of damage done by my opponent is good, and if he replaced the Coastal Nymph with a Deeplurker, he might have a better chance of winning.
The Result
Conclusion
In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, Nerissa was the MVP for dealing a lot of damage, but it was the Disintegrator taking a lot of hits, and the Technomancer dealing Blast damage that were the Dark Horses. It also didn't help that their Coastal Nymph decided to troll and didn't hit my Merdaali Guardian a second time.