Hello there, this is my entry to the new "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or know more about the challenge, click here. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the What Doesn't Kill You ruleset.
RULESET: What Doesn't Kill You
With the What Doesn't Kill You ruleset, all units gain the Enrage ability which multiplies their speed and melee attack by 1.5x rounded up.
The 'What Doesn't Kill You' ruleset is an interesting ruleset as it encourages us to use melee attackers and we can take advantage of this and use anti-melee units which can be a good strategy against this ruleset.
Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
This was a 40-mana battle and it only had the 'What Doesn't Kill You' ruleset which as we know gives 1.5 speed and melee attack multiplier to all our units.
All elements except 'Fire' and 'Water' were active during this battle. I wanted to go for an anti-melee setup so I used the Mylor Crowling as my summoner which gave the 'thorns' ability to all my units. So, I was prepared against melee attackers which my opponent is most likely going to use due to the ruleset.
I placed Chain Golem as my tank in the first position. As I was expecting heavy use of melee attackers, having a tank with a 'shield' ability is very useful. It deals 3 melee attack damage on its own and has good health and extra armour as well. So, it was a perfect candidate for me to be placed in the first position.
Next in my lineup was Magi of Chaos. It was a neutral unit and dealt 2 magic attack damage and cost 6 mana. It performed well though even after having 6 health and no extra abilities of its own. Having magic attackers is always good as they ignore the shield when attacking.
Next in the lineup was Goblin Psychic, another mage that dealt 2 magic attack damage and came with a very useful ability called 'tank heal'. Having a healing ability that can support your tank is very crucial in your lineup. It can change the fate of the game.
To make my lineup stronger I used the Queen Mycelia which gave extra 2 armour to all my units. Having extra armour is important, especially during a ruleset where players tend to use melee attackers. It only costs 4 mana so it wasn't expensive at all.
Next in my lineup was another cheap unit called, Halfing Alchemist. It costs only 2 mana but comes with a unique ability called 'Halving' which can reduce the target's attack by half. It gets extremely effective against powerful tanks that have good attacking strength.
Last but not least was Corneaulus, it was the only ranged attacker in my lineup so naturally, I placed it in the last position. It comes with a 'heal' ability and comes with a lot of health so defeating it won't be an easy task. Placing it in the end made my backline strong and I was confident that those 'sneaky' monsters will not be able to deal significant damage from the end of the lineup.
Now that my lineup is set let's talk about my strategy for this game.
My Strategy
What Doesn't Kill You ruleset gives an advantage to melee attackers as their attacking strength is increased by 1.5 times so players prefer using melee attackers and I decided to take advantage of this and went for ant-melee lineup where I used the Mylor Crowling summoner. That gave all the units 'thorns' ability which deals damage back to melee attackers.
I used a strong tank, Chain Golem which had the 'shield' ability that gave extra protection against melee attackers and not only that, I used the Queen Mycelia which gave 2 extra armour to all the friendly units. Having extra armour against melee attackers is always a good strategy.
I used units with healing abilities so my tank can stay there for longer and I also used a strong unit at the back of the lineup so my backline stays intact during the battle.
As you will see, this strategy worked in my favour and gave me an easy win in the end.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link
My opponent went with a similar strategy and used Mylor Crowling as well. But my focus was not on using melee attackers but on using mages and magic attack damage which ignores the armour and can take down the opponent's units quickly.
They used a strong tank, Grund at the front of the lineup and if that gets going it can be so deadly for my lineup. But by the end of the first round, both of our tanks got eliminated and it looked like a close battle at that point.
Their next unit in line, the Bramble Pixie received thorns damage while it tried to take down my Chain Golem in the last round and didn't last longer in round 2.
Their Golbin Theif got eliminated even before the Bramble Pixie as it had low health but was dealing a good amount of melee damage and having the 'thorns' ability made it pay a huge toll.
By the end of Round 3, it was not looking good for my opponent.
My opponent ran out of steam in the end as their attacking strength was way less than mine. It was just Doctor Blight left against 3 of my units and in round 5, I registered a good win. My anti-melee strategy worked well and gave me a good win.
Conclusion
What Doesn't Kill You ruleset is an interesting one as on one hand having melee attackers in your lineup will be advantageous but if you go all out with them then someone can take advantage and make an anti-melee lineup against it and can win easily just like I did in the above battle.
So, having a good mix of different attack types is a good strategy. Having tanks with abilities like 'shield' and 'flying' also helps if you are expecting heavy melee attackers. Also, units with 'Inspire' will increase your melee attack and 'demoralize' will decrease your opponent's melee attack. So, there can be many strategies in this ruleset and that's what makes this ruleset an interesting one.
But the most important thing is to not forget the fundamentals of the game, having a tough tank at the front is still a good strategy and if you can support it with some heal and other units, that is a good bonus.
Let me know what's your strategy with this ruleset.
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