Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Noxious Fumes ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, all monsters are poisoned at the start of the battle. Of course, monsters with the Immunity ability are not affected by this ruleset. Since the ruleset only applies the poison debuff at the start of the battle, abilities that remove poison still work; like Cleanse, Rebirth, and Resurrect.

In this ruleset, I expect to use and face teams that have martyr cards. The poison makes it so that the martyr monsters die early and give their martyr buff to the team quicker. Of course, the usual monsters that have cleanse, and tank heal are very useful to keep the tank monsters healthy. Adding immunity monsters at the back can also serve as the backup win condition. Since a lot of monsters are going to die after a while, adding monsters with Scavenger can be good since they can survive for a long time.

I believe that being flexible in battle is the ideal strategy. Check the opponent's history, check what they are most likely to use, and counter it. But always pick teams that can also counter different strategies. Without further ado, let's get into the battle.

The Ruleset

This was a tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with Born Again, Noxious Fumes, and Fire and Regret Rulesets. A 54 mana battle is on the high amount and only Earth is not available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each element so I will try to counter as much as I can.

The ideal team for fire can be a Grum and Forgotten One with martyr monsters beside them. A problem with the team is that it can lack damage. Maybe adding some Protect monsters like Arkemis can provide some additional survivability.

For Water, I am thinking a Possibilus team with a glass cannon setup. Monsters like Coastal Sentry in the second position to deal a lot of damage, and maybe a martyr monster next to it to further increase the damage. The idea is to deal a lot of damage with high HP before the poison hurts the team too much.

Life has a lot of options available because they have a lot of heal in their team. They also have Evelyn Auvera that has Immunity and partner it with a Weapons Training monster that can deal a lot of damage without taking poison damage.

For Death, they can lean into the poison damage with Thaddius that lowers the HP, and Will o Wisp with Weaken. Adding Riftwing that has scavenger can make it hard to kill with and combining them with a weapons training monster can make them deal damage as well.

Dragon has a lot of high cost monsters that can take advantage of the mana available. Putting Chwala in the front can be a good tank against any melee teams setups, and using Chaos Dragon can bring the backline that much closer to dying from the poison.

The Lineup

For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with the flexible Life team. Drybone can deal a lot of damage in the first position, while Iziar's taunt can help split the opponent's damage. Having Void can also help it survive against magic attacks. Arkemis serves as the secondary tank, while also providing protect to give additional survivability. Finally, I have Kharafax, Aves, and Evelyn in the middle as my main damage team. Kharafax with Scavenger should survive for a long time because of the Born Again ruleset, while Evelyn's immunity should make it deal consistent damage without worry. My biggest weakness would probably be the Death team, since I have a lot of magic monsters, but I think it deals low damage for mana available, so it shouldn't be that popular.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

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The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a Possibilus team that is also flexible. They didn't go full glass canon like I imagined; since they added a cleanse and high magic attack with high HP in the backline. The Xenith Monk in the back is an interesting choice since it can be a good sneak tank, can survive because of its heal, and can attack in the second position because of Possibilus. I'm happy that I am able to split their damage, since Coastal Sentry is going to hurt.

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End of Round 1

My strategy seems to be working. Splitting their damage helped keep my team relatively healthy even with their high damage. Their Arkemis missing on my Drybone was clutch, meaning it can still tank a bit more damage. Their River Nymph and Monk are currently being useless right now, which is good for me. My Arkemis is just waiting in the back for when Drybone dies.

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End of Round 2

I was able to kill the Arkemis and ended round 2 with all my team still alive. Coastal Sentry is still alive, but with just 1 HP, it shouldn't pose much resistance at this point. The opponent is quickly losing their monsters, and their last 2 monsters are still useless at this point.

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End of Round 3

My first casualty being Iziar is a bit surprising. I was expecting Drybone to die earlier, but I'm not really complaining. Kulu being down to just 1HP is really nice for me, and Nerissa will be the only legitimate threat left. This is looking like a win.

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End of Round 4

Their River Nymph was finally able to do something, and it killed my Drybone. My Kharafax finally got a Bloodlust stack, and my Arkemis was able to finally attack. With Nerissa being too slow, and my Kharafax at 12 HP, this battle is over.

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End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised at how effective my strategy was. Drybone dealt a lot of damage and survived for a long time, Iziar was able to soak up a lot of damage as well. My trio of master and students were able to deal consistent damage and was able to get me the win. Both of us not using martyr monsters is weird especially with these rulesets where all three are good for them, but I think that has a lot to do with the high mana available, and focusing on damage is more ideal.

The Result

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Conclusion

In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, my opponent went for a semi glass cannon that I unknowingly countered. By splitting their damage, I was able to keep my team alive longer, while also being able to focus my attacks on a single target. This eventually led to their monsters dying quicker than mine, and me ending up with the win.