Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Back to Basics ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, all monsters lose their own abilities. Summoners can still grant their abilities to monsters.

In this ruleset, summoners are usually the biggest deciding factor. I remember Yodin being overpowered in this ruleset before the Modern rotation. After summoners, monsters with a good mix of stats are important. Magic with Obsidian is expected, and Immortalis is usually my go to counter.

Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. If Magic is not available, I'll probably use Ilthain with monsters that have high HP and armor. Kelya would also be good for both the Speed and Armor.

I believe that being flexible in battle is the ideal strategy. Check the opponent's history, check what they are most likely to use, and counter it. But always pick teams that can also counter different strategies.

Without further ado, let's get into the battle.

The Ruleset

This was a tournament battle, and it was a Gold battle with Holy Protection, Armored Up, and Back to Basics Rulesets. A 37 mana battle is on the high amount. Only Earth, Life, and Death are available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each so I will try to counter as much as I can.

The ideal team for Earth is Obsidian, because Magic is really strong in Back to Basics, and there is also Armored Up. Immortalis is also a viable option and can deal with Magic and the Armored Up ruleset. For Life, Rathe is really good because it can also make use of the extra armor. For Death, Thaddius can be a good counter to the Magic teams that are sure to come up. Death also has a good amount of Magic monsters of their own.

The Lineup

Card	Ability	Comments
	Decreases the HP of enemy monsters by 1 and grants Void and Shatter abilities to allies.	I expect a magic team for my opponent, I'm hoping the Void and Shatter are enough to deal with them.
	[Dodge]	For 6 mana, it has high HP and passable attack and speed. I just want to buy time for my backline.
	-	My second tank. It also has good stats for 3 mana.
	[Protect]	My filler card. I hope the 4 HP can buy a little time, and being legendary, it can attack earlier than others with the same speed.
	[Tank Heal]	One of my main magic damage dealers. It is slow, but I'm hoping it can deal a lot of damage.
	[Snipe]	My highest damage dealer. The Armored Up ruleset can be a problem, but the Shatter should hopefully help.
	-	My second magic damage dealer. It is faster than Goblin Psychic that is why I placed it at the last position.

For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with an Immortalis team. It is flexible enough to be able to deal with Magic teams, as well as counter Rathe and high armor monsters. I think I might have difficulty with a Thaddius team that uses range monsters.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a Death team that has a lot of Magic monsters. Looking at their attack, 3 magic damage is just the right amount to negate a lot of the Void's effectivity. I think the difference in level might be a problem.

End of Round 1

At this point the battle still feels close. But I can definitely feel the power of their attacks. They are able to deal 2 most of the time, while my attacks are only dealing 1 for the most part. Hunter Jarx needs to do a lot of heavy lifting.

End of Round 2

At the end of the two rounds, the battle still feels close, but once you start looking at the stats of the backline, that is where the discrepancy appears. Their backline has higher overall health, and I have 1 range monster that can't attack in the front position. This is not looking too good.

End of Round 3

I think this was the deciding round. Magi of Chaos had to kill the Wily Coyotian, and Jarx was forced to hit the Divine Shield and Armor on its attack. That is a total of 3 damage down the drain. At this point, it looks like my loss is inevitable.

End of Round 4

With three undamaged monsters and my Jarx heading into the front position. This battle is over. It didn't seem like the battle was close, and I wonder if a lot could have changed if I had higher leveled backline monsters.

End of the Battle

I had a hard time looking for a Back to Basics battle that I won in a tournament. I think I have some success with my Immortalis strategy in Modern Ranked. I join higher level tournaments to test out my strategy and see if it can work in other leagues. I don't expect to win, but it is a pleasant surprise when I do. For this battle, I think this team has potential, and there is a possibility that I could have won if I had Gold level monsters.

The Result

Conclusion

In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, my opponent used a team composition that I was ready for. There was a large level gap since I had Bronze level monsters facing off against Gold level cards. I think my team still did ok, given the circumstances, and I learned a lot from this battle.