HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to week 46 of the new iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges (at least, if I haven't miscounted so far, yet. 😜).

For any old Hivers/Splinterland players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.

In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets, odd numbers are out of fashion and only even numbers are accepted. 2s 4s 6s 8s 10s, you get the idea? 😉

No matter! I present to you the ruleset — EVEN STEVENS 2️⃣4️⃣6️⃣

The game's description of EVEN STEVENS is as follows: "Only units with even mana costs may be used. This rule does not apply to summoners."

This is an interesting ruleset which effectively removes half the available cards entirely from the game, that is assuming that the number of even and odd cards are somewhat equal (because I have not actually checked their total numbers 😅).

In a way, it forces everyone to have a good variety of cards, down to the bare details of their casting cost. My best solution for preparing for such a ruleset would be to have as many even casting cost cards as you do for the odd ones.

I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 2 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with EVEN STEVENS. Introducing the WOOD NYMPH, & GOBLIN PSYCHIC.

A peculiar new bud appeared at the tips of the highest branches of the Elder Tree. The animals living in the tree watched as the strange buds grew, and in a matter of days, burst open. From each bud zoomed forth a tiny sprite. These Wood Nymphs quickly scattered around Anumun in a frenzy of mischief.

From Splinterlands Lore on WOOD NYMPH

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The Wood Nymph is a Common card released during the REWARD expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️Magic ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 2 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TANK HEAL ability. It's summoning cost is 4 🧪MANA🧪.

The Magi Tower is where Goblins go to learn how to use psychic abilities. It isn't just a gift Goblins can learn, but due to the proximity of Gobson, Goblins tend to show up more frequently. The Magi who calls the tower home, enjoys teaching the art of using one's mind to move objects and read thoughts. Goblin Psychics use their abilities to perform work in Gobson or become adventurers and practice to become a full fledged Summoner.

From Splinterlands Lore on GOBLIN PSYCHIC

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The Goblin Psychic is a Common card released during the CHAOS LEGION expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 2 ⚔️Magic ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 3 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TANK HEAL ability. It's summoning cost is 6 🧪MANA🧪.

It might seem odd that I would pick these 2 cards which if you noticed are all Healers.

At first glance, all 2 of these cards are very frail units who will probably die in one hit. However, what is often overlooked is their abilities to influence one particular stat in the game — HEALTH! Their TANK HEAL abilities serve one purpose and one purpose only. That being, to keep the Tank alive.

This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱

⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset EVEN STEVENS was in effect. My opponent used the Untamed edition Summoner Scarred Llama Mage from the EARTH splinter as his main pick, while I used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Obsidian from the EARTH splinter too. 🌱 VS 🌱

At first glance, it would seem like I was at a distinct disadvantage.

• This was a low mana battle with only a limited lineup one could field, and thus, a team would not be prepared to counter anything thrown at them.

• My opponent was using one of the most power summoners in the game! The Scarred Llama Mage!

• If that wasn't enough, my opponent had the infamous Llama Kron combo as the basis for his whole team. 😭

• I don't even know if him ALSO using the Flesh Golem, which forms the basis for another "Llama = I Win" combo makes things any worse than it already is.

I was honestly expecting this to be a really bad matchup for me 😜🤣. This was a team who had an innate advantage in this ruleset. Kron had natural healing and would get immensely stronger once he was the only one left standing thanks to the Llama. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.

I would say that the ruleset EVEN STEVENS was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.

This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

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LINK TO MY FIGHT

👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

1st CARD SLOT

The Mycelic Infantry is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats. His high health stats and the SHIELD ability will also allow him to have much longer staying power on the battlefield. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.

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2nd CARD SLOT

The Goblin Psychic occupies this slot. It's main role here to be a Healer for the main tank with it's TANK HEAL ability.

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3rd CARD SLOT

The Wood Nymph occupies the 4th slot here. Just like the unit before it, it's main role here to be a Healer for the main tank with it's TANK HEAL ability.

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4th CARD SLOT

The Fungus Fiend occupies the 4th slot here. It's main role here is actually just to draw any SNEAK or OPPORTUNITY attacks if needed to.

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5th CARD SLOT

The Failed Summoner occupies this slot. Just like the unit before it, it's main role here is actually just to draw any SNEAK or OPPORTUNITY attacks if needed to.

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6th CARD SLOT

NONE

I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉

⚔️🛡️Battle Action Report🛡️⚔️

As you can see, both of us fielded very different units in our matchup. Even though we both used the same Earth Splinter, our unit selection was as different as the night and day. 😱

🌱EARTH🌱 VS 🌱EARTH🌱

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My opponent used the Flesh Golem as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his HEAL allowing him to heal himself, this is a self sustaining unit capable of holding the front line.

The Furious Chicke occupied his 2nd slot. This unit is a zero mana "free unit" whose job is probably to draw SNIPE or OPPORTUNITY attacks. It would likely also be the backup tank after his main tank fell.

In his 3rd and final slot was Kron the Undying. This is one of the most fearsome units in the game when combined with the Scarred Llama. I learnt very early on in my Splinterlands experience about the ridiculousness of this unbeatable combo whenever I inexplicably faced this team matchup every so often. How anyone with these pair of cards even end up in the lower leagues is beyond my understanding. 😅

All in all, I would say that the opponent picked a really strong team.

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The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a low mana game with 24 mana as the limit. The rulesets were EVEN STEVENS & REVERSE SPEED.

• The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks. Both tanks were mainly unscathed thanks to the heals, but my opponent's army ended up worse for the wear thanks to the greater firepower from my larger number of units. 🤣

• The start of round 2 saw the opponent's Flesh Golem fall in battle as his heal just could not keep up with the damage taken.

• The 3rd round similarly saw his Furious Chicken "1 hit tank" fall too.

• The battle was still far from over as this meant it was just his Llama Kron combo in play now, thus activating the infamous last stand combo.

• However, even though his overpowered Kron now dealt a massive 5 damage each turn and healed up to 6 health, my double healers still managed to keep my tank alive.

• This coupled with myself just managing to deal more damage than the Llama/Kron combo could heal meant that I would eventually win the DPS race.

• It was all over for the opponent now as I eventually mopped up his remaining units. 💀💀💀

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the EVEN STEVENS ruleset to give me a slight advantage. Individually, on their own, my units would all be too frail to even stand up to the opponent's Llama/Kron combo. However it ended up being the entire reason for my win! By capitalizing on the ruleset, my double healers with the tank became just as tanky as the opponent's strongest unit! The opponent simply could not handle all that at all.

Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

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I definitely can appreciate the ruleset EVEN STEVENS and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those rulesets which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.

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