Equalizer: Less Is More

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Greetings, battle mages!

In this week's Battle Mage Secrets we are gonna focus on the Equalizer ruleset in which the initial health of all monsters is equal to that of the monster on either team with the highest base health.

In my opinion, this is a really fun ruleset that will open a lot of interesting opportunities - let's take a look!


Entering The Arena

It comes as no surprise to any of you who have read my Splinterlands posts previously that I'm a big fan of Alric so again, I chose him to lead the troops into the battle. We are up against a summoner we might call our arch enemy - Kelya Frendul will make the opponent units faster and additionally provide them with +1 armor.

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Two rulesets were in play in this 29-mana battle:

RulesetsSplinterGlossaryMy Strategy
EqualizerOne of my favorite rulesets that allow low health units to be used in new positions such as tank units. It also makes think should I put in the one with a lot of health or do I trust that the opponent will do that.
Up To ElevenGives every unit the Amplify ability. Ver cool ruleset if you have monsters with Magic Reflect, Return Fire, or Thorns.

When saw the opponent line-up I immediately thought that I should've done the same - put my so-called "expandable" monster in front. We can see a very good video from the opponent of putting Chaos Agent in the tank position. Using the Dodge ability would probably frustrate many opponents who would count on melee or/and ranged attacks. Fortunately, I don't. Still, it can take time to get through that 11 health points only to battle another one with the same amount.

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Some other notes:

  • They also have a tank healer in their ranks which is a must in Equalizer battles.
  • Scavo Hireling is there to Repair the armor of the one unit that has taken the most damage. Clearly, they were expecting an opponent using other than magic.
  • Nerissa Tridawn could pose a threat of some kind and is wisely placed in the back.

There we have it! Now let's take a look at how we are gonna counter that:


My Team

So, now that everyone got plenty of health it's my and ALRIC STORMBRINGERs job to figure out how to reduce that.

Alric has a summoner buff that will add +1 attack strength to all the magic monsters. With that in mind, I have built a team with some pretty powerful magic units.

The old geezer, Alric, is kind of a mercenary which I'm renting for a week. Even though I'm trying to become somewhat self-sufficient and favor buying the cards I need, a level 3 Alric Stormbringer is currently way out of my reach.

And no. There isn't a substitute for him when it comes down to my water magic strategies.


DJINN OSHANNUS is a powerful magic monster that I just recently upgraded to level 2. I really haven't regretted that decision because his Phase ability has been a game-changer in so many battles. Oshannus has a base health of 11 so he will probably define the health of all the other units on the battlefield.

VENARI WAVESMITH was an obvious choice for me. Since all the monsters got plenty of health now it's time to add some armor in hopes of gaining that edge. Wavesmith will provide +2 armor to all my units using the Protect ability. Her base health is only 4 so she'll definitely benefit from the equalizer ruleset.


Now it's a great time a little rant! For over a month now I've been waiting for that one missing RIVERBOAT CAPTAIN to pop up from a daily or a season chest but no. If I would be so lucky in the future I would not only suffer from using low-level cards but also make this great unit a little bit faster too.

SPIRIT HOARDER is an excellent choice for an equalizer battle in my opinion. Now it is harder to drop using an Opportunity ability, meaning it will have more chances to use Triage to heal its companions - or itself.


CRUSTACEAN KING is here to heal Djinn Oshannus with its Tank Heal ability. A low-health healer is always a good choice when an equalizer is in play. I consider this crab a bit more important piece of the puzzle than the one next to it.

CREEPING OOZE is in the last spot and is ready to be sacrificed. Before that, it will Slow down the enemy which may come in handy since over own team isn't the fastest one. Low-mana, low-health monster whose life span is extended because of the equalizer ruleset.


The Battle

It's showtime! You can watch the battle here or/and continue reading the highlights.

ROUNDS 1 & 2

Equalizer ruleset battles are obviously longer than usual because of the high count of health everybody has. In the middle of the second round, we finally managed to take down the Chaos Agent. Hardy Stonefish who had taken some blast damage then took his place.

ROUNDS 3 & 4

Stonefish was killed in the third round and now it was two Djinn Oshannus head to head against each other. My advantage was not only Alrics +1 summoner buff but also the Phase ability that my opponent was missing.

ROUNDS 5 - 10

Tank healers kept on healing but bit by bit we managed to reduce the health of opponent Oshannus. In the sixth round he was done for and badly injured Scavo Hireling found himself in the tank spot.

From this point on, the battle seemed clear since we had much more units capable of doing damage. Eventually Nerissa Tridawn was facing my Oshannus and after missing an attack she was quickly swept away and the battle was over.


Conclusion

Well, this probably wasn't as interesting battle as I was hoping for but I did learn a thing or two. It got me thinking would it be a good idea to use sneak, opportunity, and snipe monsters in Equalizer battles? Actually, I was prepared for this by choosing Spirit Hoarder but unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to see his Triage in effect.

One other thing worth mentioning is again the fact of how good the Riverboat Captain is! Seems like he is fit for almost any battle with different rulesets. In this one, he kinda tendered the one monster who was next up to take the tank spot.

In conclusion, my strategy worked well but to be honest, I really wasn't tested that hard in this one.

Thank you for reading!


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DISCLAIMERS:

Thumbnail background image made with Canva
Other pictures are screenshots from Splinterlands



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