Hello there.

This week has been pretty slow for the game, info wise. There weren't any big announcements or updates, although the whole crypto scene has taken quite a beating. BTC went below 60k, and the alt tokens followed this downward movement. Hive, SPS, and DEC have all gone lower. The silver lining is that they are now cheaper to purchase. I have been converting my HBD to Hive, and I am still continuing to accumulate SPS. I also noticed that SPS per win in Modern feels higher since I am getting more than 1 SPS per win in Silver 2.

A lot of the max level players seems to have gone to higher leagues, so games feel much better and closer now. There is still the occasional 1500 max level team, but that is now very rare. I have been enjoying my games more, with the better matchups and higher SPS rewards so I'll share one fun battle I had. I'll also give my thoughts on the strategies, and provide input on why I used a monster or placement.

The Ruleset

This was a tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with Odd Ones Out, Healed Out, and Corrosive Fog Rulesets. A 37 mana battle is on the normal amount, and only Water, Earth, and Death are available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each so I will try to counter as much as I can.

The ideal team for water is a Possibilus team. I have a common strategy/combo for odd mana that makes use of Noa and Kulu Mastermind. I usually add Merdaali Guardian, but since there's no healing, it's out. The scavo hireling is also not as good because of the corrosive fog and will be a dangerous target for opportunity.

The ideal team for Earth can be Immortalis with Mycelic Slipspawn to split the damage. Adding martyr monsters can boost the damage, and putting Regal Peryton in the middle can make it hard to hit from non magic attacks.

Death is a bit tricky since Windeku is not available. Thaddius is the biggest reason for going Death though, and Dhampir Stalker and Soul Strangler are pretty good monsters too. For the tank, Pelacor Deceiver can be good.

The Lineup

For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with the Possibilus team. There aren't a lot of strong magic monsters available in Earth. If they go Immortalis, they will lack damage against this team. This also counters the Thaddius team and can wreak havoc in the backline. I know there is corrosive fog, but there is a lot of possibilities for Sneak monsters so I decided to add Venari Wavesmith. Since there is no healing, the Repair from Swamp Spitter is the next best thing. There is corrosive fog, but it only takes 1 armor off every turn, so together with the Protect, I should be able to repair for a few turns. Chaos Agent is just a filler, while Cruel Sethropod is a good tank in the first position.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

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The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with an Immortalis team similar to what I had in mind. The shatter would be good against my armor, but I am hoping that their lack of damage can give me enough time to kill their monsters and trigger my Trample. My Wavesmith is a bit useless in the attack department, so I'm hoping my other monsters can step up. Kulu Mastermind and Noa are my biggest damage dealer.

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End of Round 1

Having Noa go to the first position this early is bad. I'm just hoping it can evade a lot of the physical attacks. I on the other hand have a bad record against Flying abilities, so I'm hoping this is one of the battles where I don't miss as much.

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End of Round 2

I was able to kill their Slipspawn before it attacked, but things are still very close. My Noa was able to evade both the Pelacor and the Fungus' attack, which can make it survive into the next round. Apart from the front monsters, both teams' backline are healthy, so this battle is still up in the air.

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End of Round 3

Regal Peryton killed Noa just before it can attack. It would have been really nice to have had 1 more HP there. Kulu was able to kill the Pelacor and trampled the Fungus. Peryton got the martyr stack and is now at 2 magic attack, and a very high 7 speed. This is the strategy I was talking about earlier. I just hope my team can kill it, and then it should be smooth sailing from there.

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End of Round 4

Now that was a painful round. All my physical attacks missed on the Regal Peryton. From my understanding, the Flying doesn't stack on top of the speed difference. So technically it should be 30-50 percent chance to miss on the speed difference, and a 25 percent chance from the flying. Those aren't impossible odds, but it can be difficult. I need to hit them next turn, or else I will lose.

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End of Round 5

My Kulu Mastermind was able to hit its attack, the Swamp Spitter missed its attack, and my Chaos Agent was able to clutch it out and hit its attack as well. It had the lowest chance of hitting, but I was lucky that it did. With just the Vampiric Blossom that can't attack, and the Morphoid left, this battle is finally over.

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End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised that I won that battle. After the end of round 4 where I missed all my attacks, I was pretty much convinced that I will lose. As unlikely as it was, Chaos Agent was able to clutch it out and got me the win. I was very curious on how lucky I was that battle that I went and checked it on the battlevision.

I was very surprised to find out that I had a 92 percent chance to win. It sure didn't feel that way. I guess I was so close to the 8 percent with how badly my Kulu missed its attacks. I am still happy with the win, even after finding out how favored I was.

The Result

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Conclusion

I never expected my filler card to be the one to win me the game. Sure Kulu and Noa were able to deal a lot of damage, but it all would have been for naught if the Chaos Agent missed its attack. Chaos Agent is usually just my Opportunity bait, but to see it be more useful than that is always nice.