Battle Mage Secrets for the Noxious Fumes Ruleset

Here's the ruleset for this week's battle

For the noxious fumes ruleset there are a few abilities that I like to use.

1. Immunity
   Monsters with immunity are immune to poison.

2. Cleanse
   Monsters with cleanse will remove poison from your tank.

3. Resurrect
   When a monster is resurrected it comes back without poison.

4. Heal
   Monsters with the heal ability will generally gain 2 health or more each turn which is the same damage that poison will deal to them.

There are other abilities which can come in handy for the noxious fumes ruleset, but these are my favorites. The fire and water splinters have multiple monsters that bring some combination of these abilities to the table starting at level 1. I usually lean towards the fire splinter when there's a low mana cap or the water splinter with a higher mana cap.

In the up close & personal ruleset only monsters with a melee attack are allowed. I like to use Mylor to inflict thorns damage on every one of my opponent's attacks. From there I like to build a team that can absorb and minimize my opponent's attacks.

My ideal lineup for this type of ruleset in the past has been Mylor as summoner, Mycelic infantry in the tank position for the shield ability. I follow that up with Disintegrator for the demoralize ability and I like to put stone golem or Dumacke Orc in the rear tank position to soak up sneak attacks with the shield ability.

Over the past couple of months the level of competition has picked up and with my copy of Mylor still languishing at level 1, these lineups have been less effective for me. I frequently lose to lineups that have some self healing monster in front that I can't seem to get past.

With the combination of these rulesets I went with a monster that has self healing as I've seen it successful in the up close & personal ruleset and I already know it's great for noxious fumes.

Here's the starting frame

No, the Mylor team is not mine this time. I would love to have a level 3 Mylor.

Think about how this might play out before clicking the link

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_90aeb8a9e0405b82495b7612c731c313&ref=jingo-submo

Let's talk about my lineup

Summoner: General Sloan

General sloan buffs all of my ranged attacks. I don't have any ranged attacks thanks to the up close & personal ruleset. I chose General Sloan because at level 3 I can pair Sloan with my level 2 Uriel for just 4 mana. I looked at using my level 3 Franz Ruffmane. The +1 armor and conscript abilities both have the potential to be great for this ruleset if not for the lowish mana cap. With Franz and Uriel I wouldn't have enough mana left over for a relevant gladiator.

It's also easy to think about the type of attacks you can't use in the up close & personal ruleset, but there are a few monsters with more than one type of attack. Something like War Chaang is allowed in this ruleset and would get the buff from General Sloan.

I don't have a copy of War Chaang yet and I don't think it would be the best option for this particular ruleset, but it would be an option.

Tank: Soul Fiend

Sould Fiend is here to soak up a hit while my opponent's monsters take poison damage.

1st position: Gargoya Scrapper

The void ability on Gargoya Scrapper has the potential to win a select handful of battles by itself, but doesn't matter much in this ruleset. Gargoya Scrapper is also just here to soak up a hit if needed while my opponent's monsters take poison damage.

2nd position: Xenith Monk

Xenith Monk has the heal ability which is enough to live through the poison, but will go down to an attack or 2 when the time is right.

3rd position (rear tank):

At level 2 Uriel gains the heal ability and heals more than enough to overcome the poison damage happening all over this battlefield. With Flying and 3 speed some melee attacks are bound to miss Uriel. With the recharge ability Uriel hits hard for 9 damage every other turn which is more than enough to make up for the possibility of taking thorns damage. I lost to Uriel in up close & personal rulesets too many times to count before I got my own level 2 copy and the heal ability makes all the difference.

Did we win?

Yes. This was a great battle and I came out on top.

What will I try differently next time?

I hinted at the possibility of using other types of attacks in the up close & personal ruleset so long as the monster also has a melee attack. Quora Towershead could be good for this ruleset particularly with the possibility of growing by taking down my opponent's fungus fiend and possibly additional monsters. Against this opponent's lineup I think that Quora would have won. If I had Quora face off with something like Uriel, Forgotten One or Harklaw in the tank position, it may not have gone so well. I think that I made the stronger choice here, but I'm not positive. I also considered putting one or 2 of my monsters behind Uriel in case of sneak attacks, but again I was satisfied with my lineup and happy with the outcome.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game. I hope the updated format that I'm using is helpful. Feel free to share any specific feedback in the comments.