RULESET: Equalizer
Description: All units start with the same health, based on the highest health on either team.
Buffs and debuffs are done afterward - this impacts base health.
This is a rule I still haven't really got myself accustomed to and still have to find out the best strategy and combination of monsters to win a battle. Let's see if we managed to find a good combination in this one.
The Strategy
In a battle with the Equalizer rule, one of the basic things one needs to achieve is to fill all slots even with the lowest mana monster. Since this is the Gold League, the rulesets gets more complicated compared to lower level leagues.
Since there's a ferocity rule also active, we need to avoid monsters with the taunt ability because it will easily be defeated for the double damage it receives. Since it also has the Broken Arrows rule, we need not consider damages from range monsters. As such, we only need to consider damages from magic or melee.
Looking at the active elements, it's still a tough decision because with 32 mana battle, there are a lot of possible combinations one can come up with. As well as a lot of different combinations the opponent can come up with.
In battles like this, one of the important things to consider is the battle history of your opponent because it will give you an idea of which possible summoner and monsters he or she is most likely to use. Fortunately, I remembered to consider it in this battle and saw that the opponent used Archmage Arius a lot in his or her previous battles, as such, it gave a hint that the opponent could use magic attacks.
The Summoner
With the assumption that we will be facing magic attacks over melee attacks, one approach we can take is to debuff all magic attacks so that almost, if not all, magic damage will become void. As such, we choose a summoner with the void ability which reduces all magic attacks our monsters will receive. Such summoner is Immortalis.
1st Slot - Legendary Shielded Tank Arianthus
As I was browsing through this monster's stats, one of its abilities that I missed is its magic reflect at level 2. And although it already has the void ability inherent to it, its shield ability helps in reducing melee attacks.
2nd Slot - Magic Silencer Mushroom Seer
Again, our strategy for this battle is to reduce the opponent's monsters's magic damage to 1 so that its becomes obsolete against monsters with void ability. The ability to reduce magic damage is Silence which Mushroom Seer has. Although I'm really haven't mastered the correct or appropriate positioning of the monsters, I opted to put him on second slot.
3rd Slot - Second Magic Silencer Elven Mystic
This is our second monster with the silence ability. Having two monsters with the silence ability usually is enough to reduce most monsters's magic damage to 1.
4th Slot - Protective Monster Queen Mycelia
Another legendary monster powerful at level 2. Having its amplify ability at Legendary Level 2 is something welcome when one of your monsters has the magic reflect ability.
To protect monsters from melee attack, Queen Mycelia's protect ability helps in that aspect.
5th Slot - Tank Healer Wood Nymph
Upon checking this card's stats. I only realized now that it's a common monster. For factors that we may have failed to consider, and given that it's a battle with the equalizer rule, monster tank heal can move winning in your favor (as long as the opponent doesn't use the affliction ability).
6th Slot - Sneaky Magic Monster Goblin Sorcerer
A common monster with sneak magic helps in putting down tank healer monsters at the back. Given that this battle also has the ferocity rule, opponent won't likely use a monster with taunt.
This completes our lineup.
The Battle
Looking at the opponent's summoner, he used one of the most expensive summoners - Archmage Arius - which adds +1 damage to melee, range, and magic attacks, plus a heavy dragon melee hitter - Chromatic Dragon.
After buffs and debuffs applied:
By having two monsters with the silence ability, we were able to counter the opponent's summoner +1 magic damage as well as reduce Gold Dragon's magic attack to 2.
End of Round 1
Two abilities I failed to consider were Chromatic Dragon's enrage and piercing abilities. In the first round, Arianthus's 2 armor helped protect it from getting the full damage, however due to Chromatic Dragon's piercing ability, it also dealt a 3 damage to Arianthus's health. Chromatic Dragon's 8 melee damage at tank is something we need to look out for.
Let's see how Round 2 goes.
End of Round 2
Since Chromatic Dragon didn't have the void ability, it received all magic damages our monsters dealt to it and we were able to down it in round 2.
At round 2, two Arianthuses face each other at tank. Since the opponent's is at level 2, it has the magic reflect ability. Choosing Immortalis as summoner very much helped in counter the damage that magic reflect does.
Let's see how Round 3 goes.
End of Round 3
Since Arthius has the void ability, all 1 magic attacks were nullified. As such, the attacks that mattered in this round were magic attacks that has at least 2 damage. Mushroom Seer and Goblin Sorcerer have that.
An ability that proved useful for this battle is Wood Nymph's tank heal ability. So even though Gold Dragon has 2 magic damage, these damages were healed by Wood Nymph. Again, having tank heal for battles with equalizer is something one should always consider.
End of Round 4
Until Arianthus is at tank, nothing much has changed since the magic attack that mattered was Mushroom Seer's 2 magic damage. Sneakily, Goblin Sorcerer has also been doing some damage to the monster at the back.
End of Round 5
Goblin Sorcerer was finally able to take down chicken at the rear while doing only 1 damage to Arthius at tank. This pattern will continue for a couple more rounds.
End of Round 6
Another ability of the opponent I failed to consider was Gold Dragon's heal ability. Although we were able to do 2 sneak magic damage to it, it's heal ability voided these damages. As such, attacks that mattered now are attacks at the tank.
Fast Forward to end of Round 10
At the end of round 10, we were finally able to reduce the opponent's monster's health at tank to 1. Even though this will take another couple of rounds, our strategy somehow deemed effective for this battle.
End of Round 12
We were finally able to take down the opponent's Arthius at tank and have dealt significant damage to Prismatic Energy. Even though it had the magic reflect ability, the void ability our monsters received from the summoner played a crucial role in this battle.
End of Round 13
The opponent now only has Gold Dragon with heal at tank. Looking at the total magic damage our lineup has, this will only take a couple of rounds before we defeat the opponent's tank.
Fast Forward to Round 15
We were finally able to take down the opponent's last monster at round 15. Our lineup was intact until the last round.
Battle Result
We get a nice +22 boost to ranking and 0.227 SPS to our SPS HODL stash!
