Strategy Corner #39 - Taking Sides Ruleset - Forget about neutrals.

We still have at least a month to see new cards from Rebellion. That would be nice to have the option to get some sneak peek at least (and I'm not talking about just art). We have to be patient.
The last Strategy Article was about the ruleset which in my opinion gives so much more depth to the battles. Today we have Taking Sides, which rather limits our choices, maybe not drastically but still I guess it's just nothing special. Let's check the definition.

Description:

No neutral units may be used.

Firstly, the description of the ruleset in the game is not perfect, sometimes you get just general information which does not give you all the information you need. The best way to read the full description as above from the game documentation at least once. You can check all here.

I seriously encourage you guys to check this site, even more advanced players could find something interesting there.

Simple and straightforward, we lost access to any neutral units, so basically, it changed a little some of the strategies that rely on those cards. Now we can just ignore them, so no more Doctor Blight, Spirit Hoarder etc. I don't think we can discuss any specific strategy that could be use here, so let's jump to the battle:

Today's battle is a silver-level tournament battle. Maybe not exactly even fight, but I wanted to present some setup that I play more often than before.

Fire Splinter is definitely not my favorite. Recently I noticed that I play it more often, mostly because of soulbound summoner Eternan Brune. That armor debuff in some circumstances is just too good to ignore. Additionally, with the Conscript ability he provides we can use another great card: Chimney Wallstop - armor repair is just so good here. Forgotten One is strong, even better with no magic allowed.
On the opponent's side, we got another fire line-up with a different approach, more sneak units, and taunt. Unfortunately opponent's summoner is just 3rd level so that could be much easier for us.

Round 2, we lost our cannon fodder unit, fortunately opponent didn't get any blood lust buff. We managed to almost kill the taunter but with no luck with retaliate, we couldn't finish anything.

Round 3, that was a crazy turn. We killed the taunt unit and got redemption damage to every unit. With so high damage my team was able to kill another few units and even retaliation was useful that turn. Both gladiator units get buff, but definitely, our is more dangerous now.

Round 3 - final blow - even the last stand is not enough for our team. we still got so much damage on the battlefield, so let's analyze that team :).

As I mentioned, the fight wasn't completely fair, because the opponent used only 3rd level of summoner with a lower level of the monsters. It's interesting that both of us used the same summoner. Eternan Brune is quite a solid choice for the non-magic ruleset, where the armor limitation is crucial things. And of course, you need to remember about very powerful gladiator cards. If you have more chance to limit the armor to 0, all those heavy damage dealers, usually with physical damage, from Fire Splinter are just too powerful. Of course, that is armor repair, but we can discuss specific units in the Core Team section below.

ETERNAN BRUNE you know I was very skeptical with all those soulbound summoners with Conscript ability. I thought they were just too mana expensive. Practice showed something different, gaining access to gladiator units is very powerful, and Eternan Brune could be a very good choice in most cases where you expect a heavy armor team. It shines brighter in some rulesets, but I like it more and more and definitely, it gives more chances to play fire splinter than before.

CHIMNEY WALLSTOP I recently got the max silver level of that card, and it becomes one of my favorite from the fire gladiator cards. For higher level battles that card is amazing, so high damage, and still quite good defense stats, but what makes that card really strong is armor repair. Usually fire team is not so armor-heavy, but with some addition of card with Protect ability and a good tank armor repair is very handy. Of course, we will be much more happy about Chimney, when he gets 1-2 more points of speed, but usually, you cannot have everything. (expect the Quora Towershead:( - wen nerf ? :D )

COUNTESS SINASH, I have mixed feelings about this card, but in some cases it could be quite efficient. The best thing is definitely the Swiftness ability. Some fire units, like chimney for example, are quite slow, so any additional speed buff is essential. Another unit that I usually use with Countess is Supply Runner, but for today's battle, we couldn't use it because of the Taking Sides Ruleset. Overall Countess Sinash is quite solid, opportunity could be tricky sometimes, but with that speed buff and camouflage the card is worth playing.

One thing I need to write, yes I know, I promise some stream with prediction game. I published so many blog prediction battles with no resolution. It's all my fault. Recently I've been again in some travel mode, and it's not easy to find time for anything else. But I promise you that for sure we will have a stream this week, so check my twitter for any information.
Today's ruleset wasn't very exciting, so we need to wait for another week, and of course, another month to finally see the new cards from Rebellion set.
What is your expectation, guys ?

I hope you like this kind of report, battle, and strategy presentation. More strategy analysis, discussion, and prediction games you can find on my Wednesday Twitch Channel stream. There will be schedule soon :)

If you have any comments, please do not hesitate. Do you think I could improve anything just tell me :)

If you wish to try out Splinterlands you can use my reference link.

Thumbnails and other pictures borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Cooltext

We continue our game from the previous week, today new battle, new card to win :).

I come up with some ideas, I hope you will like them and participate. Every week I will publish one battle, and your goal is to point out the first victim of the battle and who will be the winner. This game is exactly the same as my prediction game which I run on my Wednesday Splinterlands.tv stream. I know that not everyone can attend the stream, so I hope you will still have fun in that way. More about the rules can be read here.

Among all participants who get the correct answer, I will randomly (probably on my Wednesday stream) choose one winner.

The prize of the blog prediction game for the lucky winner will be the epic card:

Here we got the battle:

Game instruction:
Try to point out which monster will die first on the battlefield and who wins the battle

• t - top player
• b - bottom player
• number - order counting from the first position

Examples:
t2b = monster on the second position of top player dies first, the bottom player wins
b6t = monster on the sixth position of bottom player dies first, the top player wins
t3t = monster on the third position of top player dies first, the top player wins

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