Hello Splinterlands Community!

Welcome to another Splinterlands Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge. For this challenge, we are going to discuss the back to basics ruleset where all monsters lose their abilities.

For those who are new to my post, I usually post information about Silver and Gold Modern league as I usually play within these league.

🔤 Ruleset: Back to Basics

Card	Description
Back to Basics	Monsters lose all abilities

With the Back to Basics ruleset, all monster lose their abilities.

So what does this means?

All existing abilities in the game that the monsters have does not apply in the match. It means that only summoners buff can be able to grant abilities as long as silence summoner ruleset is not in place.

WIth this ruleset, a battle mage will always think first which summoner will provide a buff that will give a big advantage on this round. They will also consider the raw stats of the monsters chosen as well as the type of attack.

Consideration

In my perspective, I usually check the following for considering my line-up.

1. A summoner that provides impacts for magic and range units
2. 1 melee monster that have a high damage and a high health. The mana cost depends on the mana capacity of the match
3. Magic and range monsters with decent basic stats to provide damage in the frontline. Usually all magic first then range but in some case the last position is a magic unit.
4. I usually arrange the position based on health and attack. The higher health go first to absorb damage while high attack in the later position to deal massive damage.

When it comes in choosing the summoner, it can be a summoner that can debuff or boost range and magic units. It can also be a summoner which have a reflect against range and magic damage. It can also be a summoner which grants the monsters extra defense against magic or a summoner that can provide heavy damage.

🔤 Cards

Suggested Cards

In my opinion, these summoners provide a boost for the Back to Basic ruleset:

Card	Opinion
Yodin Zaku	Yodin Zaku provides a boost attack to the range unit which are usually use for the back to basic ruleset. The blast effect provides extra damage to deal the adjacent monsters as there are no reflection shield present as no summoner yet can provide this boost.
Possibilus the Wise	Possibilus the Wise provides the trample ability to the melee monsters as well as allows the second melee monster in front to attack because of the reach. This card also enhance the health of the monsters which is an option as well.
Bortus	Bortus reduce the magic damage of all magic units.
Obsidian	Obsidian provides extra boost for the magic monsters which are usually chosen for the back to basics ruleset.
Immortalis	Immortalis on the other hand provide two benefits, for magic attack it will reduce the damage deal while the shatter ability will come in handy when dealing armored opponent which destroyed upon hit opening the target to the range attack.
Fernheart	Fernheart allows range monsters to attack in the frontline making them more powerful in the back to basics and not only magic monsters.
Ilthain	By providing return fire ability, Ilthain is deadly against range monsters which are common in the back to basics ruleset.
General Sloan	General Sloan just like Yodin provides extra boost in the attack of all range units.
Owster Rotwell	Owster Rotwell is the equivalent of Ilthain for magic units. This card provides magic reflect against magic units.
Thaddius Brood	Thaddius Brood on the other hand is the opposite of Obsidian which reduce magic and the same with Bortus in the water splinter.
Contessa L'ament	Contessa L'ament is the counterpart of General Sloan which reduce the range monsters attack. This card is not often use because we have Quix from the dragon splinter for an additional of 1 mana cost.
Mimosa Nightshade	Mimosa Nightshade is the upgraded version of Contessa L'ament as this card is not only against range unit but also against magic unit because of the void ability.
Quix the Devious	Quix the Devious is now the often summoner use which reduce range monsters attack and slowing them further for a chance to miss the attack.
Sthispa	Sthispa is a summoner that against magic monsters which provides Phase ability. However, this phase ability is depends on the speed difference between the attacking and defending monsters which is calculated the same hit/miss calculation for a melee and range monsters.

With above cards, the monsters chosen for line-up are being boosted by the summoners buffs.

In choosing the monsters, those monsters with double kind of attack are a good choice such as Runemancer Florre as this card deals damage twice every round. Those with high speed and high attack are as well a good choice monsters.

Disadvantage Cards

Basically, the disadvantage cards for the back to basic ruleset are the melee monster card as you cannot use them especially those with sneak, opportunity and reach. You will be able to use them only in the frontline.

🔤 Battle Strategy

Battle

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Back to Basics, Silenced Summoners, Earthquake
Mana Cap: 39
Playable Splinters: Fire, Earth, Life, Death and Dragon

Team Composition

With the back to basics ruleset with Earthquake and silence summoners. The battle is purely a raw power from the monsters. Quix the Devious in order to use 2 elements dragon + chosen element which provides a vast set of monsters to be use in the battlefield as the effect of summoners are not included. The next choice is the attack power and health if these can survive the earthquake damage.

• Summoner: Quix the Devious is chosen since choosing a dragon summoner provide a dragon and a chosen element to be use. In this ruleset, silent summoner is in effect thus the effect of the summoner won't impact the battle.
• 1st Position: Venari Knifer is chosen in the first position due to its high speed, decent attack and mana cost of only 6. This card may attack first securing its damage contribution.
• 2nd Position: Regal Peryton in the next position which provides magic damage. This card can attack in the primary position if Knifer is defeated and with the high speed, it may avoid some physical attack. This card also have a high health for a mana cost of 5.
• 3rd Position: A mana cost of 2 with 4 health and 2 range attack. Naga Assassin do have a high speed which mostly land its hit. With 4 health, this card can survive until the end of round 2.
• 4th Position: Iza the Fang is another range monster at a cost of 4 mana. This card also have a high speed which deals a 2 range damage. This card can also survive until the end of round 2.
• 5th Position: Vampiric Blosson deals a pretty significant 3 range damage for a cost of 5 mana. This card also have a high health which may survive the earthquake.
• 6th Position: Runemancer Florre is the MVP of the team because of the 2 attack it have, 1 range and 1 magic. This card deals 2 damage per round and can survive the earthquake until the latter round due to high health. Florre is also one of the monster without any ability thus not affected by the back to basics.

Battle Analysis

Looking at the opponent's lineup, besides the level gap, here are my insight:

1. Hill Giant is a monster with 5 health that may be easily defeated in the early round and won't utilize it's attack due to 2 speed. It may be defeated before it can be able to attack.
2. Arkemis is in the 2nd position and won't contribute in the battle until such time that Hill Giant is defeated. This card may just absorb earthquake damage.
3. There is a huge gap in the attack power. The total backline damage is only 7 from the opponent while 13 damage can be inflicted in my line-up.
4. The opponent choose Quix but do not use any dragon monster.

Round 1 to Round 2

• Hill Giant has been defeated easily while Venari Knifer lands its attack before it was defeated.
• Arkemis the Bear is heavily wounded and the high health it have does not have much of a use as this card will be defeated early in the next round.
• The remaining monster from my team will survive the earthquake and will continue to attack the target.

Round 2 to 3

• Arkemis and Mycelic Slipspawn has been defeated due to the earthquake and massive attack while Regal Peryton absorbs the attack and defeated as well.
• The next earthquake will eliminate Naga Assassin and Iza the Fanged and reduced the health of Peryton and Magi of Chaos into 2.
• Runemancer Florre health is very high thus no chance of being defeated in this match. She will also defeat the two remaining monsters for her two attack while Vampiric Blossom may not be able to attack but can survive the attack from Regal Peryton.

BATTLE LINK

🔤 Closing Remarks

Back to basics ruleset removes the ability dependent strategy and put the match up into the card raw power with the basic melee in the frontline with magic and range in the backline.

Having a good summoner can improve the lineup as in the back to basics, a 100% sure that there are range and magic monsters. With this assumption, choosing a summoner suitable to counter these magic and range card gives a good advantage even the battle is not yet started.

Which strategy do you use for the Back to Basics? What are your favorite monsters and summoner?

Thank you for reading! See you in the next Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!

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