This week's Battle Mage Secrets challenge features the Equal Opportunity ruleset! Equal Opportunity gives every monster the Opportunity ability, meaning that they will attack the monster with the lowest amount of health. Equal Opportunity is actually one of the rulesets that I enjoy seeing in my battles, since it tends to make more monsters playable rather than eliminating or nerfing some of your options. (and for anyone saying that they are the same thing - I know, I know, but this way feels much better!)
Equal Opportunity has a whole host of monsters that can benefit from its effects. Melee monsters in general are happy to see the Opportunity ability, since it allows them to attack from any part of the lineup. There are also interesting interactions with monsters with Taunt, and monsters which happen to have low health and high armor. These monsters don't directly benefit from the Equal Opportunity ruleset, but they do give you some defensive options to try and attract enemy attacks.
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
First up: the ruleset. This is an interesting selection of rules, because we have the fairly lenient Equal Opportunity rule paired with a high restrictive one in Going the Distance. Every monster will get Opportunity, but we will only be able to select ranged monsters for this battle! Oh, and we also have What Doesn't Kill You, which gives every monster the Enrage ability.
Looking at the Going the Distance ruleset and the relatively high mana cap for this battle, Lir Deepswimmer seems like a strong choice for this battle. Lir has a set of summoner abilities which are tailor made for battles with plenty of ranged damage. Not only does Lir give all of your monsters 2 bonus armor to fend off any arrows, he also grants your whole team Return Fire and makes the enemy team Blinded. This makes any ranged attacks a nightmare for the opposing team - they have a lower chance to hit with their attacks, and if they do manage to land a hit they will have to go through your monster's armor first, as well as be taking Return Fire damage back.
There is plenty of mana to work with for this battle so we'll start off with a couple of splurges. Wave Brood is an outstanding monster in Equal Opportunity battles. While a 13 health monster would usually be the last target in Equal Opportunity, Wave Brood's Taunt means that it will be first in the line of fire, shielding the rest of my team from enemy attacks. Rune Crafter is a solid ranged attacker, packing a bit of armor and a respectable 2 attack. Importantly, it also has the Fury ability. That means that if my opponent has brought any monsters with Taunt to the fight then we'll be able to get some bonus damage.
The middle of my lineup held a pair of solid "vanilla" ranged attacksrs. Kulu Swimhunter and Supply Runner both have a respectable amount of speed and ranged damage. Thanks to Lir, they will also be packing some armor and Return Fire, both of which will come in handy when or if they come into the line of fire.
We'll finish off the team with some monsters that are great options in ranged battles. Swamp Spitter is great in this fight, since Lir is giving all of our monsters armor. This means that Swamp Spitter is just as good as a regular healer, and can also pitch in some ranged damage. Speaking of ranged damage, Axemaster is the hardest hitter on the team. With Double Strike he can do twice as much damage as any other monster in my lineup.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am not sure what to think. My team has a very nice advantage in the summoner ability category, with Return Fire looking set to play a huge role in the battle. On the other hand, I am at a serious level disadvantage and those additional levels on the opposing team means that their monsters have a lot of additional stats, as well as some very helpful abilities.
The battle starts off slowly due to both sides having some additional armor provided by our summoners, but by the start of round 3 both of our front line Wave Broods have been knocked out of the fight. I also noticed an unfortunate interaction - with Return Fire damaging the enemy team, this also means that they are gaining some additional stats from Enrage.
With Repair on both sides, not to mention my opponent bringing along a monster with Triage, this battle drags on quite a bit. But by round 6 it is looking as though the tables are tilting in my favor - my team is slowly making its way through the enemy lineup. And while my monsters have also suffered a few losses, the bulk of my team's firepower is still intact.
This battle was a long one - it actually ended up going all the way until round 13! But by the beginning of round 10 the outcome was decided. As you can see here, the only enemy monster remaining was their Swamp Spitter. And while it could still repair its armor, it was unable to attack from the first position. With my team still pushing out 3 attacks per turn it was just a matter of time until I got the win. And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My strategy for this battle worked out perfectly - my choice of summoner and summoner abilities gave my monsters enough of an edge that they were able to overcome a severe level deficit and win the day. This particular battle showcased many of the monsters that really shine in Equal Opportunity battles. Even though the ruleset eliminated many of the obvious winners in Equal Opportunity, I was still able to select several defensive standouts that are excellent in Equal Opportunity fights. Fitting enough of those into your teams at the right time can certainly tilt the odds in your favor!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
So Nice We'll Do It Twice - Battling with Equalizer! - A Splinterlands battle analysis, featuring Equalizer!
Splinterlands Economics: Causation - A look at causation, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Splinterlands Economics: Ceteris Paribus - An introduction to the concept of Ceteris Paribus, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
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All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.