Hello there.

This week's Community Engagement Challenge is an interesting one; Ruleset Rumble. They want us to take a deep dive on some rulesets that we fear or is our favorite. I really enjoyed my Survival run, so I am putting a little twist into this challenge and look at it from the Survival mode perspective. I think the risk of losing playable cards if they die really make things interesting and puts more weight and importance in each battle.

Are you not entertained?

Out of all the rulesets, I think this is my favorite. Not being limited to Conscript Archons, and being able to mix Gladiator cards to regular summoners is very fun. Using Possibilus with Isgald is one of my go to teams in Brawls, and would easily translate into Survival. Sometimes I even use Conscript summoners to double down on the Gladiator cards' strength. I frequently use Gladiator cards in Survival so this is always a good ruleset for me.

Stampede

Speaking of Possibilus, Stampede is one of the rulesets I look forward to because I use Possibilus a lot. Before the modern rotation, one can expect to face Possibilus when this ruleset is included. It just makes Trample so much better, and together with Opportunity monsters, they can wipe a team in a second. In lower mana battles, I have won battles in a single round from a single monster's attack which is always cool to see.

Noxious Fumes

Noxious Fumes on the other hand is one of my most feared rulesets in Survival. I have limited teams that are competitive, and having some pieces die can make it a lot weaker. Unfortunately I burned a lot of my extra soulbound cards, so it's difficult to replace those that died. I've played a good amount of battles with Noxious Fumes and I almost always lose 1 or more monsters even on a very easy matchup. I am considering skipping/surrendering future battles that actually have this ruleset. There are limited number of monsters that have Immunity, so I try to use those when I can. I also rely on Quora in this ruleset because of its high HP and heal. Scavenger is another ability that I look for during this ruleset just to try to outlast my opponent. That makes cards like Endless Ape pretty good to use.

Even cards with Martyr that should be good in this ruleset doesn't make it any better. I think Martyr monsters are the biggest losers in Survival mode since to get the most of their ability, they need to die. I burned most of my martyr cards, so I am just suffering because of it. I learned my lesson and probably won't be burning any of my cards in the future.

Earthquake

Similar to Noxious Fumes, Earthquake is another ruleset I am afraid of in Survival. This one though is a little less troublesome than Poison since there are more ways to combat it. Shield reduces the damage to 1, Armor can block it, and there are more Flying monsters available. Like in Noxious Fumes, I think monsters with heal and scavenger are good too. In Survival, I prefer using the Dragon element and just go full Flying monsters. Night Reaper with its Wingbreak ability is just too good to pass up. I also partner it up with Halaran Huntress that has Flying and Snare to remove any Flying from my opponent's monsters.

The worst case scenario is having both Noxious Fumes and Earthquake active in the same battle. In survival, even though one player wins, I think both actually lose with how much monsters die in that battle. I would probably just take one for the both of us and toss a game.

Since it is near the end of the Season, I am running out of good cards to use in my Survival battles. Here are some battles with the rulesets:

Replay of battle

I wasn't sure what my opponent will go for based on their match history, so I just went with a safe team composition that I think can deal with a lot of different strategies. Pelacor Deceiver is a high HP cheap tank with Flying. Death Ranger with its high armor plus Void armor can be a good tank against magic attacks. Arachne Weaver is my all team healer, while Ravenhood Warden provides protection with Armor for any Sneak, Snipe, or Opportunity attacks. Whistling Damon is my primary win condition with its Bloodlust. I'm hoping it can get a lot of kills and stack speed and armor, making it difficult to kill with Astral Entity's Dodge. Chaos Battlemage is my insurance with its high damage and Pierce. It can hopefully take care of the rest once Damon gets placed in the first position with high stats and survivability.

Replay of battle

My strategy in this one is to just try and outlast my opponent. I threw in a bunch of fodder in the front, with my main tank Molten Ash Golem, slightly in the middle. Drybone Hobgoblin with its Immunity is behind it waiting for the time it can attack. To take advantage of its Immunity I had Firecaller with its Martyr next to it to buff it up once it dies to the poison. Finally, my main win condition is Tinderlock. With its Last Stand, and the Martyr buff, I am hoping to clear eventually win out against anything my opponent throws at me. Jacek's Pierce should deal with any armor, and I am hoping that the Scattershot can hit any Immunity, Triage, or Healing monsters at the back to soften them up further.

That is it for the rulesets I love and hate in Survival. There are some that are boring like Back to Basics but I don't dislike them. I feel like the ones that I am excited to see are the ones that work well with the teams that I use.

Don't hesitate to let me know what you think, and if you have suggestions for improvement. And as always, these are Not Financial Advice, and Do Your Own Research.

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