BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! Back to Basics!

[Image source]

Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly battle challenge for Battle Mage Secrets. The challenge this week is the Back to Basics Ruleset.

About the Ruleset

Back to Basics

The Back to Basic ruleset states that "Monsters lose all abilities", and it means just that. It also means that Melee monsters that not very useful beyond the first position, unless it's meant to be a secondary tank in the second position.

---

Battle Ruleset(s)

Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.

Close Range: Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battle
Lost Magic: Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles
Back to Basics: Monsters lose all abilities
Only the Fire and Water Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 32
Format: Modern

---

Cards & Line Up

The Summoner vs

Summoner: Kelya Frendul - This increases the Speed and Shield of my whole 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	Diemonshark	I used it first position as it has a good amount of shield, and with no magic monsters that can be used, it can take a fair amount of damage.
2	Chaos Agent	I was out of mana and this was a good zero mana card to use.
3	Angelic Mandarin	It's here as it has a decent amount of health.
4	Tide Biter	I'll have to admit that I placed this card here by mistake. It should have been a ranged monster!
5	Kulu Swimhunter	It's here as one of the 2 main ranged damage dealers.
6	Coastal Nymph	It's in the last position with the most ranged damage in this deck.

---

Strategy

The rulesets here meant that:

• No skills in this battle and all attacks will be targeted at the first monster
• No magic monsters can be used
• Ranged monsters can attack in the first position, which is a saving grace in this ruleset.

With only 2 splinters to choose from, I decided that the Water Splinter was better as Kelya Frendul gave me additional speed and shields which is more useful in these 3 rulesets.

Given these 3 combinations, the best strategy is the use a tank with high health and shield, and fill the rest of the deck with ranged monsters. And that's basically what I did in this battle, with the exception of the noob mistake of using the Tide Biter in position 4.

Luckily for me, the opponent made more mistakes than me. Either that or it was a bot that used a default deck combination. So thankfully, I wasn't punished for my mistake and won this battle easily.

Thoughts on the Back to Basic Ruleset

As the Back to Basic ruleset removes abilities from all the monsters, it puts you and the opponent on almost equal footing. A good strategy to use here is a high health melee or magic monster in the first position followed by magic monsters in the rest of the deck. Ranged monsters are good too in the rest of the deck but they have the disadvantage of not being able to attack in position 1.

---

Battle

Watch the battle here