FLY HIGH OR DIE (BATTLE MAGE SECRETS - Earthquake)

Rulesets in ranked battles are made to make the game more exciting and challenging as you always need to change the strategies. The big advantage of rulesets is that we explore and create new battle formations to defeat our opponents and make the game more difficult to counter our strategies.

This week we have to fight through battles with Earthquake ruleset to participate in this week's contest set by Splinterlands Team.

EARTHQUAKE

Earthquake ruleset is one of the lethal rulesets in Splinterlands, it hurts all non-flying monsters with 2 damage in each round, but does nothing to any monster having Flying ability.

You can use monsters with Snare ability to remove their Flying ability and make them vulnerable to Earthquake damage as they become non-flying units. Summoners that apply Flying ability to friendly units can also be used against the Earthquake ruleset.

Additional Ruleset: Up Close and Personal

When this ruleset comes into effect in any battle, a player cannot use any other unit except melee monsters, which means the battle is restricted to using melee units only.

BATTLE LINEUP

My team consists of 5 members including a summoner, I used Dragon Summoner, 2 Dragon units, 1 Life unit, and 1 neutral unit.

Party members from each side are given below:

LORDSHAH'S CARDS	OPPONENT'S CARDS
Lily Shieldpaw (Summoner)	General Sloan (Summoner)
Djinn Chwala	Living Lava
Uriel The Purifier	Disintegrator
Agor Longtail	Gargoya Lion
Disintegrator	Tenyii Striker
-	Antoid Platoon
-	Uraeus

STRATEGY

It was a 47-mana battle with 'Earthquake' and 'Up Close and Personal' rulesets. The mana is enough to use some high Flying cards and I had to add only melee monsters.

I used a Dragon summoner who could heal, add +1 health, and prevent the backline from attacks. As both teams were using melee attackers, it was best to use a tank with 'Thorns' so that it could decimate melee units with 2 different damages. I also reduced enemy melee damage by using a monster with 'Demoralize. A taunt monster with Flying ability and dual attack is an added advantage in the battle.

Summoner and Monsters in Action

Lily Shieldpaw is a versatile legendary card of the Dragon faction, it has 3 amazing abilities i.e. +1 Health, Camouflage, and Triage. My goal was to protect non-flying/ground monsters with Triage after taking damage from Earthquake. With Camouflage, my units in the backline would not get attacked unless they reach 1st position. So, using Lily is a good choice if you want your backline monsters healed after any type of damage.

Djinn Chwala stood as a tank in 1st position and he delivered Thorn's damage to enemy monsters when attacked by them other than his melee damage.

Uriel The Purifier took 2nd position and he used Flying ability to remain undamaged from the Earthquake effect, he would fight right after Djinn Chwala dies. Uriel cannot attack every round but rather charges his attack and does 3x damage once fully charged after skipping one round.

Agor Longtail was the key player in this battle, he is a dual attack monster and can do magic and melee damage, but I kept him in 3rd position to divert attacks of enemy stealth monsters, so he can dodge their attacks using Flying ability and make them lose health from Earthquake overtime.

Disintegrator was placed in the last position and his only job is to reduce the melee damage of enemy units because of "Up Close and Personal" ruleset. It is always better to reduce the melee damage with Demoralize when you are facing a lot of melee monsters.

BATTLE VIDEO

When there is melee mayhem you can only expect gore and roars nothing less nothing more just pure face-to-face clash of monsters. Watch this heavily loaded battle with Legendary and Epic monsters on YouTube.

^{YouTube Video}

This battle is viewable in Splinterlands with added features such as pause and view card stats, click on the battle link to visit the Splinterlands website.

BATTLE COMMENTARY

7 rounds of blood, violence, and earthquake literally test the mettle of all the powerful melee units. The only way to survive is to be strong and fly.

Round 1
Summoners are preparing to strengthen their units, Tarsa adds +1 Health and + Attack to her units, and Lily Shieldpaw hides her units with camouflage and also adds +1 to their health.

Both Disintegrator units apply Demoralize debuff to reduce 1 point from melee attacks.

No one dies in this round except Living Lava slightly gets some injuries from Thorns of Djinn Chwala.

Round 2
Earthquake ruptures the bodies of non-flying units making them vulnerable to dying more easily.

"You Lava, want some sharpest needles you ever pricked with, come attack me." says Djinn Chwala in a challenging tone.

As Living Lava attacks, razer sharp Thorns pass through his vest leaving him ooze lava and dry out into a rocky shape.

Round 3
Chwala laughs in pride "Haha, only fools will attack me."

Enemy Disintegrator has no choice but to hit Chwala and the outcome is a dead monster ripped and torn by the thorns of Djinn.

Round 4
Earthquake trembles all monsters on the ground, but this time it devours 2 monsters from each party, they are Djinn Chwala and Uraeus, both consumed by the cracks created by the earthquake.

Round 5
Once again heavy shivering occurs and this time it swallows Tenyii Striker into the void.

Round 6
Uriel The Purifier has fully charged his attack, he leaps upward and lunges with a super speed toward Gargoya Lion, pierces his angelic longsword into his chest, and rises his arm up holding the Gargoya on his sword.

"May this death purify your corpse and soul, and you raise again on our side." roars Uriel in a high tone.

Round 7
"Who does pick such little crap for battle, damn you." Agor Longtail shouts in anger and exhales a fiery breath toward Antoid Platoon, all tiny insects are cremated and their ashes are flying in the air.

STRATEGY OUTCOME ANALYSIS

It is one of my memorable battles because I discovered a new strategy this time using Lily Shieldpaw. I rarely use this summoner but this time she impressed me to use it more often from now on.

Lily's Triage is really a lifesaver ability, it keeps healing the most damaged unit after each round. Disintegrator remained alive because of this ability and it helped me reduce the damage of enemy units until the end.

Agor Longtail with his dual attack, Taunt, and Flying abilities did a wonderful job. He could not use his melee attack but he ruined enemy hit chances by evading them and attacking from behind with his magic damage.

I think the strategy was quite impressive as it helped me win the battle with 1 loss which was obvious due to the Earthquake ruleset.

Next time, I'll use Brighton Bloom to avoid Earthquake damage, Brighton Bloom is a unique summoner that gives your units wings, I mean Flying ability.

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Do you like this battle strategy, if yes do me a favor, try this strategy in your battles, and inform me about your feedback in the comment section or contact me via my Twitter.

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