Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Broken Arrows ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With the Broken Arrows ruleset, all monsters with Ragned attacks cannot be used. This includes monsters that have two types of attacks like War Chaang [Has Melee and Ranged].

In this ruleset, I usually look at my opponent's tendency and adjust my lineups from there. Additionally, if Earth is available, and it is a high mana battle, I expect my opponent to use a lot of Magic damage. On the other hand, if it is a low mana battle, then I would expect some Melee sneak and opportunity teams.

Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. For summoners, I would probably lean towards Mylor or Immortalis for Earth to counter 1 set of damage, and add supporting monsters like Disintegrator to lower their damage.

I believe that being flexible in battle is the ideal strategy. Check the opponent's history, identify 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, so it was a Novice battle with Rise of the Commons, Broken Arrows, and Earthquake Rulesets. A 31 mana battle is about the normal amount. There isn't a lot of strategies available since only Death and Dragon are usable.

The ideal team is to just use a lot of Flying monsters. Since Range monsters are not available, Ravenhood with protect can't be used. Magic monsters can get a few hits in, but they will eventually die since they can't sustain the Earthquake damage.

The Lineup

Card	Ability	Comments
	Increases the Speed of ally monsters by 1 and has Conscript	Gladiator cards are really strong so I want to use them. I also want to increase my Speed to hopefully attack first.
	-	I want my non Flying units to be in front, and this was just a filler card.
	Bloodlust	I'm taking a risk by going with this. He has high HP, and I'm hoping he can kill a few monsters to get Bloodlust stacks.
	Flying	I want to put in some Flying monsters so they can be safe from the Earthquake.
	Life Leech	I am going for the Life Leech and the Bonesmith will just deal 2 damage before dying.
	Flying, Scavenger	I plan to outlast my opponent with the Scavenger ability.
	Flying	With the high Armor, I want to defend my Riftwing against possible Sneaks my opponent might use.

Because of the lack of choices from both the available elements, as well as the available monsters, I was pretty much automatic in putting in my teams. I'm hoping I can outlast my opponent and win.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

---

The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a Death team full of Flying monsters, and a Cabalist. The moment I saw their team, my heart sank. I overcomplicated my team and thought of different scenarios when I shouldn't have. A favorite phrase from my professor came to mind: KISS, Keep It Simple Stupid. I already know I lost before the battle even started.

---

End of Round 1

I was unable to really damage the opponent's Riftwing since the Scavenger recovered the damage from the death of my Carrion Shade. Now I'm just hoping my Gladiator can get some stacks.

---

End of Round 2

My Gladiator was able to hit and the Riftwing now only has 2 HP. But the Earthquake damage is going to come in next round and bring its HP back up to 3. This is really not looking good.

---

End of Round 3

My Gladiator was again able to hit the Riftwing, but with only 3 HP left, it might be too little too late to rely on it getting stacks and surviving. My opponent still has 3 Melee monsters available to attack, while I only have 2 left, with the other one at the last position.

---

End of Round 4

My Gladiator was clutch all the way since it never missed an attack against the Riftwing, and eventually killed it and got a stack. Unfortunately it will die next round to the Earthquake damage.

---

End of Round 5

At this point, my loss is pretty much set in stone. I am 1 Speed faster than my opponent, but they have 3 attackers vs my 2. My Riftwing is pretty much useless at this point. My supposed win condition has become an afterthought.

---

End of Round 6-11

Incredibly, the opponent's Pelacor Deceiver missed a lot of its attacks against my Pelacor Deceiver. There was only 1 Speed difference between them, and the amount of misses was unreal. I think all of my miss luck in other games just went into this game. I'm starting to get my hopes up. If a 1 Speed difference gets this much miss, maybe a 2 Speed difference will be the same or even better against the Ever Hungry Skull.

---

End of Round 12-14

The opponent's Ever Hungry Skull only missed once, and was able to kill my Pelacor Deceiver. Against my Riftwing, I am still hoping it misses, and maybe I can win this in Fatigue.

---

End of Round 15-20

I did manage to reach Round 21 where Fatigue will happen. But my Riftwing only has 1 HP left, and their Gargoya Lion has 6 HP. My Ever Hungry Skull is still at the back, and will also die to Fatigue damage.

---

End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised that that battle was even close. Looking at it from the start it seems like I shouldn't have a chance since we have similar monsters and I only have 1 Speed advantage. It turns out that 1 Speed was already plenty. If I had my Ever Hungry Skull in front of my Riftwing, it would have bought enough time to get to Fatigue, and with my Riftwing at 13 HP [After both Ever Hungry Skulls die], I would have probably won the battle.

The Result

---

Conclusion

I don't usually post about my losses, and in fact, this is the first one. I learned a lot in this battle especially about the importance of Speed. Even 1 Speed difference can already make a lot of impact.

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, there wasn't much choices to make, which I think led to me being complacent. I should have realized that there probably wasn't going to be any Sneak attackers, and I should have placed my Ever Hungry Skull in front of the Riftwing.