Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge! Equalizer!

[Source]

Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Equalizer Ruleset.

About the Ruleset

Equalizer

The Equalizer ruleset states that "The initial Health of all the Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base health". You can place high attack, low health monsters in your deck to make good use of this ruleset.

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Battle Ruleset(s)

Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.

Equalizer: The initial Health of all the Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base health
Mana Cap: 26
Available Splinters: Water, Death and Dragon
Format: Modern

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Cards & Line Up

The Summoner vs

Summoner: Thaddius Brood - This decreases the Magic attack and health of the opponent's deck by 1.

The Line Up

Position 1	Position 2	Position 3	Position 4	Position 5	Position 6

vs

Position 1	Position 2	Position 3	Position 4	Position 5	Position 6

[Card image source]

Position	Name	Description
1	Ahna-Chei Botanist	It has the Return Fire ability, which will hopefully reflect some damage should the opponent use ranged monsters.
2	Riftwing	It has the Flying, Scavenger and Backfire ability, which makes it great here as the secondary tank.
3	Venari Bonesmith	It has the Poison and Life Leech ability, which allows it to grow its health after every attack and poison the opponent.
4	Revealer	It has the Stun ability, and it's here to disrupt the opponent's attacks.
5	Ravenhood Warden	This placed here as it has the Protect ability, which will give all my units 2 additional shield.
6	Clockwise Aide	It has the Swiftness ability, which will allow my units to attack faster. It also has a huge shield, which can fend off a quite a number of backline attacks.

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Strategy

The ruleset here meant that (1) All the monsters will start with the same amount of health, barring any abilities from the summoners.

I opted to use the Death Splinter which Thaddius Brood as the summoner as it will reduce the health of the opponent by 1, giving me an advantage from the start (I hoped). It also reduces any magic damage should the opponent use magic monsters. I placed monsters like Riftwing and Venari Bonesmith which can grow their health in front, to allow the frontline to last longer. I also placed Clockwork Aide as the last card, as it will have a total of 10 shields and minimally 6 health based on my deck. Plenty of shields and health to fend off backline attacks for a few rounds.

The opponent opted to use Possibilus the Wise as his summoner, which gave all his monsters 2 additional health and the Reach ability. This sort of negated the reduction of 1 health from Thaddius Brood, plus giving him a slight advantage. However, he used a mix of frontline and backline attacks, diversifying where the attacks landed, and Clockwork Aide was really effective at tanking the backline attacks in this battle. This allowed me a relatively easy win, in spite of the fact that my Anna-Chei Botanist was taken out quite fast.

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Thoughts on the Equalizer Ruleset

The Equalizer ruleset is a fun ruleset, as low cost, low health cards with high attacks or shields here become very effective. Monsters like Dumacke Orc and Clockwork Aide really play to the advantage here with their high shields to allow them to last longer with this ruleset.

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Battle

Watch the battle here