Surviving the fumes

Noxious fumes is one of the new rulesets that was added to Splinterlands. When this ruleset is active, every monster starts the game under poisoned condition; which means each monster experiences -2 health at the end of each round.

It is probably the most difficult ruleset in the game so far and can present a very difficult mental task, especially if it is combined with another unfavourable ruleset.

Baseline

When this particular rule is active, my top priority is survival, rather than combat effectiveness. I try to have a balance in the team but ultimately, I'm concerned with non battling monsters that are more suited for marathon battles.

The Cube

Despite the rule set being so complex, I've noticed that the bottom line for this ruleset is ensuring your cube is available. If I didn't know better, I could swear that this ruleset was intentionally created to give the cube extra advantage.

In normal battle condition, the cube is the best way to survive battles with the fumes active. The scavenging ability means it is always on hand to suck up some extra health from monsters that will certainly be dropping all over the place due to poisoning.

Things get even better when your Cube is at level 6 and above, because this is when it manifests the self healing ability. So throwing in self healing and the scavenging ability, you have a monster that is ready to run through any length of battle without bother. You don't have to worry about fatigue in round 20 because, well, self healing.

Usage

In Noxious fumes battle, I usually keep the cube in one of the penultimate positions. That is, either penultimate in front or at the back of the line up.

In low mana cap battles, I place it at the front because I'm pretty certain that no monster will offer any serious damage to it. However, in High mana cap battles where the opponent has room to fill the team with heavy hitters, I try to keep it at the back because most monsters will be dead or almost dead, thus giving it more health in the process and allowing it to survive longer.

Remember, it is all about surviving the battle, when the fume is blowing, so you have to tweak things to ensure you survive the longest. Throw in as many monsters with self healing ability.

Caveat

The only time that this doesn't play out in the way expected is when healing is turned off in the battle. Now in that circumstance, my tactics is to hit hard and fast. I also like to include monsters like screeching vulture and the parasite that have scavenge and opportunity ability.

The new rule adds a new dimension to the game. It is nice to see some changes in the game that add to the thrill.