BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! - Back to Basics Ruleset

Hi Guys! In this post we are exploring on another Splinterlands ruleset. The ruleset we are focusing on this time round is "Back to Basic".

In a "Back to Basic" ruleset, all monsters lost their abilities. Doesn't matter if your monsters are level 1 or level 10, all monster abilities are not available. Note though your summoner abilities are still usable!

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Lets take a look at a Modern ranked match with "Back to Basic" as one of the ruleset. The battle restrictions are:
Back to Basic plus Weak Magic with a max mana limit of 30. Water, Earth and Life Splinters are allowed in this battle. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_9b1f175fdeb66111022531822b593eaa&ref=genming

TEAM SETUP:

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Possibilus	6	Summoner	Since I don't have the Life summoner, Grandmaster Rathe, the choice I am left with is Water and Earth. And since this match has Weak Magic as one of its ruleset, I decide to go with Water. Between Kelya and Possibilus, I go for Possibilus because it is my highest level summoner and also its +2 Health, Reach and Trample abilities could be critical in this match. Kelya is not a bad choice as well with +1 to Armor and Speed.
Legionnaire Alvar	9	1st	My first tank favorite tank whenever I played Possibilus. It has a very high armor and with Weak Magic, the armor can blocked all types of attack including magic.
Cruel Sethropod	3	2nd	Due to me spending 9 mana on Alvar, I am left with little to spend on the rest of the lineup. I used 3 mana to go for Cruel Sethropod because it has good armor. Armor is extremely important in this match due to the Weak Magic ruleset. In normal circumstances, this position would usually be filled by a unit with Double Strike but the "Back to Basic" ruleset makes Double Strike useless.
Hardy Stonefish	1	3rd	A very cheap cannon fodder with armor. Enemy will need to hit it twice to kill it due to it having armor.
Chaos Agent	1	4th	Another cheap cannon fodder. Unfortunately it doesn't have any armor so would die in a single hit.
Noa the Just	5	5th	I was tore between using this unit or an attacking unit at this position. In the end I went with Noa because I was thinking it has a high speed and high armor would definitely help in this match. I also thought that its Rust ability would remove off armors from the opponent lineup. Yes somehow halfway through my planning I forgotten about the Back to Basic ruleset.
Venari Wavesmith	5	6th	Good magic attack with Protect ability to add armor. You can see that during the last 2 position I have totally forgotten about the Back to Basic ruleset.
Total Mana:	30

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Battle Lineup:

My opponent went with a Earth lineup using Obsidian. Obsidian is not a bad line as the lineup could have a lot of firepower. Important thing though is to provide enough cover at the front for the lineup. Without good tanks, Earth units tend to die fast due to low health. Judging from the opponent lineup, the attack and defense looks quite balanced.

End of Round 1:

After the end of round 1 my 9 mana main tank is almost dead while the opponent 3 mana tank is still standing. The DPS of my opponent lineup is too strong whereas mine is too little. This is a battle between offense vs defense and it seems I am losing at this point.

End of Round 2:

Both me and my opponent lost our main tank and move on to the 2nd tank. Again my opponent offensive power is way above mine. I am only staying alive due to the fact I chose units with armor. By the end of round 2, the offensive power of my opponent is 11 damage per round which is more than double mine (5 damage).

End of Round 3:

Things took a turn in this round when my 3 mana Cruel Sethropod killed off my opponent 2nd tank and because of Trample, went on to hit and kill off the next enemy unit, Djinn Biljka. With that my opponent total damage drop to 7 magic damage per round. It is still more than doubled mine which stand at 3 at the moment but suddenly the match looks interesting. I still have a big tank in Noa the Just and it might just has enough defense to hold the fort.

End of Round 4:

Now the moment of truth. 7 magic damage against 2 magic damage but I have I have more than doubled the opponent armor and health points. And I am faster so the opponent going to lose 2 magic damage even before being able to attack.

End of Round 5:

This is going to be really close. Opponent has more than doubled my attack while I have doubled the opponent health points. Each of us left with 2 units.

End of Round 6:

I think I am going to lose. I can't kill off the enemy Goblin Psychic next round while my Noa is going to die.

End of Round 7:

Oops... the opponent Khmer Princess hit first instead of Goblin Psychic and that means my Noa endured 2 hits instead of 1. Now I am winning for sure!

End of Round 8:

With the Goblin Psychic killed, I basically won the match now as I am faster and also have higher remaining health points than my opponent. Actually even if my opponent Goblin Psychic strike first in the previous round, I would have still won due to my faster speed.

KEY STRATEGY
My strategy was to use make use of high armor units to defend and attack. In a Back to Basic ruleset, abilities are not important as only your basic attack is useful. Grandmaster Rathe would be a great summoner to use if you have one.

SUMMARY
Armor and health points are extremely important in Back to Basic battle. Most of the time people like to use magic attack in this ruleset because magic attack will bypass armor. In rare cases where Weak Magic is also one of the ruleset then armor becomes very important.

To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.

My guild, The Guild of Kingshaven, is also looking for new members. For added incentive to joining us, our guild leader will also be assigning Runi to any new member that can actively participate in brawl battles and give donation to our guild buildings. Runi is extremely powerful and is the only unit that has the Rebirth ability.
Our guild link is https://splinterlands.com/?p=guild&id=07ab9325eea386c3570db41f53fd991e78806485&tab=