Find out the best Strategies to be used on Matches with the Ruleset "Back to Basics"!

"Back to Basics" Ruleset

Monsters lose all abilities.

Back to Basics is probably the simplest Ruleset of Splinterlands: all Monster abilities are null and void, and that's it. Nonetheless, there are several strategies and tricks that can be used on these matches in order to raise your win rate and bring you many victories.

The main characteristic of Back to Basics matches is the Predictability. On a Standard Match, you can't really know exactly what your opponent's strategy will be: we TRY to imagine what the enemy will play using the available information (available Splinters, Match history, etc.), but there are obvious limitations to that.

In the other hand, we know exactly how the enemy team will play out in Back to Basics, as both players have a huge limiting factor in their gameplay, which is the total lack of abilities on the Monsters.

This allows you to know exactly how the enemy will act. For example: all the damage will be focused on your main tank, as there won't be abilities like Sneak, Opportunity and Snipe that allow attacks directly to your backline. You also know that the enemy won't be able to counter your own attacks with Void (Magic Damage) or Shield (Melee/Ranged Damage), as these abilities are also null.

One could say that Back to Basics matches aren't exciting, and I would have to agree with that. As I already said in older posts, I like Splinterlands due the interaction between abilities and how one can mix them in order to build powerful combos.

But one can embrace the simplicity of this Ruleset and enjoy the simpler things in life, am I right?

Basic Strategy #1: High Health Tanks

Due the total lack of abilities that allow the enemy to attack your backline, his only option will be to deal all the damage to your frontline Tank.

And due the total lack of defensive abilities that you can have on your Tank (like Void and Shield), there isn't much to do besides playing a High Health Monster, that can withstand the raw incoming damage from the enemy Ranged/Magic Monsters.

If you think that the enemy will focus on Ranged Monsters (for example, if he's going to be playing with the Life Splinter), you can try to also focus on Monsters with High Armor. But becareful: if the enemy ends up playing several Magic Monsters, you'll be sitting ducks!

My favourite card is, obviously, The Kraken, with the largest Healthpool of the game: 14! Djinn Muirat is also a good alternative, with 7 Health and 4 Armor.

Considering only the current free-to-play cards, I would recommend the Mycelic Infantry (3 Armor, 7 Health), Shieldbearer (4 Armor, 9 Health)

Basic Strategy #2: Glass Cannon Monsters

Similarly to what I've talked in my last post about the Fog of War Ruleset, in Back to Basics your backline is also way safer than on a standard match, and even safer than on Fog of War due the lack of the Opportunity ability.

That means that you can be ULTRA GREEDY with Glass Cannon Monsters: the Fragile but Heavily-Offensive Monsters. In simpler terms: Glass Cannon are the ones with low Health and low Armor, but high Attacks.

There are lots of Monsters that, due the extra protection from Back to Basics, are great to be played: Fire Elemental, Spark Pixies, Sea Genie, Pirate Archer, Ice Pixie, Venari Seedsmith, Soul Strangler...

Also, if you're going to play several Glass Cannons from the same type (Ranged or Magic), you can improve even more their firepower by combo'ing them with a Summoner that buffs their attack. For example: the Water Splinter has lots of fragile-but-powerful Magic Monsters: put them together with Alric Stormbringer to make them punch even harder!

Basic Strategy #3: Summoner Abilities

Take a look at the wording of the Ruleset: Monsters lose all abilities.

MONSTERS

This means that Summoner Abilities are still valid and works normally, as in a Standard game.

Due the total lack of other abilities on the match, this means that the Summoner abilities are now way, WAY stronger! After all: there's no competition! 😝

For example: Brighton Bloom gives Flying to all your Monsters. In a regular match, the enemy can have his own Monsters with Flying (or Snare) to counter them; but on Back to Basics, your Flying Monsters will just rolfstomp the enemy!

Similarly, Mylor Crowling gives Thorns to all your Monsters, and Yodin Zaku gives the allmighty Blast to them!

Advanced Strategy #1: Peaceful Monsters

This Strategy is related to the "Basic Strategy #1: High Health Tanks".

Peaceful Monsters are those cards that have no Attack. To compensate the lack of firepower, they usually have great defensive capabilities and have high Health, making them great tank and really cheap in terms of Mana.

Some of the recommended Peaceful Monsters are: Almo Cambio (12 Health), Warrior of Peace (9 Health), Baakjira (11 Health) and Peaceful Giant (8 Health).

The thing is: these cards have an intrinsic High Risk, which is that you're spending Mana and not receiving any advantage in terms of attack. If the enemy plays some shenanigans that forces you to have enough attack power or lose the game (like a Healing ability on his Summoner), having a neutral, non-attacking Monster in your team can mean that you literally can't win the game as you won't be dealing enough damage to surpass the Healing.

So you have to use this strategy with caution: do you have a lot of firepower that's able to bypass Healing? If that's the case, go for the Peaceful Monsters. If not, it's better to stay playing regular Tanks that have some offensive power.

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Thanks for reading this post, and until next time!

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