HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to yet another week of the "new" iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges 😜.

For any old Hivers/Splinterland players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.

In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets, the dice has been rolled and all units who are evenly numbered need to beware! It's the day for the oddities and uneven things to shine!

No matter! I present to you the ruleset — ODD ONES OUT 🎲🎲🎲

The game's description of ODD ONES OUT is as follows: "Only Monsters with odd mana costs may be used in battle."

Well then, I guess it is pretty straight forward. All you even casting cost units are unavailable and hopefully, you have a balanced deck to field a good lineup even with these restrictions! 😜

I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 1 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with ODD ONES OUT. Introducing the unit, ISGALD VORST.

Some people of ΛZMΛRÉ have been battle-hardened by the most brutal land in the known world, the Frozen Hell ice shelf of the north. The clan Vorst is the largest ice clan that has inhabited this frozen world, and a young lady named Isgald is their champion. Through years of enduring bitter cold every day and night, her skin has taken on an eerily beautiful shade of blue. Several other members of the Vorst clan have similar complexions, but because Isgald is one of the only Vorst clanspeople who has traveled outside of ΛZMΛRÉ, she has become known as the blue princess. She is in fact not a princess at all; residents of ΛZMΛRÉ recognize the power of no government nor royalty.
The small statured blue princess is a fierce fighter who requires minimal armor and weaponry to go up against foes that are much larger than her. Some say that her skin, in addition to being blue from the cold, is also hard like ice and difficult to penetrate with any blade. Isgald carries a short sabre that has been handed down through a long line of women in the Vorst clan and a small but indestructible shield said to have been crafted by the hands of the Frost Giant himself.

From Splinterlands Lore on ISGALD VORST

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ISGALD VORST is a Common card released during the Gladius expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 2 ⚔️ ATTACK⚔️ and 3 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 3 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 4 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the BLOODLUST & OPPORTUNITY ability. It's summoning cost is 5 🧪MANA🧪.

As a unit itself, ISGALD VORST might look lacklustre. In fact, none of it's raw stats show any particular strengths. If that were all to it, most players would probably skip this unit especially at a cost of 5 mana. However, what is often overlooked is the ability — OPPORTUNITY AND BLOODLUST. What this does is allow the unit to pick out the weakest targets and if it lands the killing blow, all it's stats are increased too! This quickly turns it into an unstoppable monster with a few lucky hits.

This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱

⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset ODD ONES OUT was in effect. My opponent used the Rewards edition Summoner Eternan Brune from the FIRE splinter as his main pick, while I used the Rewards edition Summoner Pembrook Nymph from the WATER splinter. 🔥 VS 🌊

At first glance, it would seem like I was at a distinct disadvantage.

• My opponent was using a Summoner which was 1 level higher than I was!

• His units were similarly higher levelled than mine.

• This gave his entire team a huge advantage in terms of DPS.

• To exacerbate matters, his summoner also removed my armour buffs, making my units even more of a target for his melee based attacks.

I was honestly expecting this to be a really bad matchup for me 😜🤣. This was a team who had an innate advantage in this ruleset. His team had one purpose only and that was to overwhelm my team with sheer damage. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.

I would say that the ruleset ODD ONES OUT was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.

This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

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LINK TO MY FIGHT

👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

1st CARD SLOT

The Lemell Refeguee is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats. His high health stats and armour will also allow him to have much longer staying power on the battlefield. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.

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2nd CARD SLOT

The Water Caller occupies this slot. It's main role here to attempt to disable it's target via it's STUN ability. It will also be the backup tank if the main tank falls.

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3rd CARD SLOT

The Venari Wavesmith occupies this slot. It's role is to buff the team's armour with it's PROTECT ability.

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4th CARD SLOT

Isgald Vorst occupies this slot. Safely protected in the middle, it's role is to assassinate the weakest units on the opponent's team via it's OPPORTUNITY ability.

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5th CARD SLOT

Uraeus occupies this slot. It's role is to take out the opponent's backline via it's SNEAK ability.

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6th CARD SLOT

Pelacor Bandit occupies this slot. It's role, similar to the unit before it, is to take out the opponent's backline via it's SNEAK ability too.

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I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉

⚔️🛡️Battle Action Report🛡️⚔️

As you can see, both of us fielded very different units in our matchup. My opponent went for a mixture of melee, ranged and magic units, while I was only using melee units with some magic units for support. 😱

🔥FIRE🔥 VS 🌊WATER🌊

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My opponent used the Living Lava as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his great defensive stats and SHIELD ability, this is a unit which will protect it's entire team until it falls.

Fineas Rage occupied his 2nd slot and was another great choice. It's REACH ability allowed it to attack, while it's high health stats made for a great backup tank too!

The Tenyii Striker occupied his 3rd slot, and it's role was to take out my backline with it's SNEAK ability.

The Djinn Apprentice and Sarius following that were his Magic and Ranged DPS. While the very last unit, the Radiated Scorcher, was most likely a sacrificial unit to protect his own backline too.

All in all, I would say that the opponent picked a really strong team.

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My choice of the Main Tank was the Lemell Refugee who is perfect for this task. He has really high defensive stats in order to take extra hits to ensure that all the other units are protected. It's VOID ARMOR ability also allowed it to take hits from Magic units. This allows it to last longer on the battlefield.

The Water Caller and Venari Wavesmith followed next. Although they were both Magic units, their main role was to support the team with their STUN and PROTECT ability.

My next 3 units, Isgald Vorst, Uraeus, and the Pelacor Bandit were my "Assassins" who could target vulnerable units with their OPPORTUNITY and SNEAK abilities.

As you can see here, I was counting on my "Assassins" to take out the opponent while the other units held the front.

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The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a mid ranged mana game with 35 mana as the limit. The rulesets were LOST LEGENDARIES & ODD ONES OUT.

• The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks. I seemed to have started brightly, drawing first blood when I took out his backline's Radiated Scorcher. However, my main tank and last unit were both down to 1 HP each.

• The start of Round 2 was a blood bath for both sides. The opponent took out my own main tank and last unit, while I too took out his ranged and magic DPS-ers.

• While it looked like the opponent had the advantage, the key point was that my Isgald Vorst had landed a killing blow and BLOODLUST was making it stronger.

• Round 3 saw both our front units taken out. But once again, Isgald Vorst landed yet another killing blow.

• Round 4 saw me take a dominant position as Isgald Vorst landed his 3rd killing blow in a row. He was now a triple BLOODLUSTED unit who had doubled in strength!

• It was all over for the opponent now as I eventually mopped up his entire army. 💀💀💀

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the ODD ONES OUT ruleset to give me a slight advantage. Individually, on their own, my units would face a huge disadvantage against an enemy which had the level advantage. However, thanks to the killing blows activating my BLOODLUST abilities from Isgald Vorst, I was able to turn the tide of battle! The opponent simply could not handle all that at all.

Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

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I definitely can appreciate the ruleset ODD ONES OUT and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those rulesets which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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