Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Counterspell ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, all monsters get the Magic Reflect ability. With this, monsters that attack with Magic attacks receive some magic damage back. The reflected damage is equal to the damage done, divided by two, rounded up. So if a monster dealt 3 damage, 2 damage is returned to it. The amplify ability increases the reflected damage by 1. Reflection shield negates the reflected damage. Since the returned damage is also magic, regular armor can't block it, and Void is effective against it. Do note that the reflected damage does not trigger the Magic Reflect ability, so there will be no ping pong of damage.

In this ruleset, the first thing that comes to my mind is, "No Obsidian". Magic is not always out of the equation since Immortalis exists, but Range and Melee are going to be the usual monsters used. Because of this, the other rulesets will help determine the teams to expect. Protect, Shield, and Repair are safe abilities to use. Return Fire is an option to try and counter the usual backline setups.

I made this meme in https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

The Counterspell ruleset can sometimes make it feel like you're playing rock paper scissors, and your opponent declared he will use Scissors. Do you use Ilthain to counter the common Range teams? Or maybe go Melee Sneak/Opportunity teams to demolish the backline. Or maybe take them by surprise and use Immortalis.

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, so it was a Bronze battle with Counterspell, and Born Again Rulesets. A 50 mana battle is on the high amount, and Fire, Water, Life, and Dragon elements 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 Fire is a Gladiator team that makes use of martyr monsters. Gladiator cards with their Bloodlust can take advantage of the Born Again ruleset, and can ramp up their stacking.

Water can do Kelya, with a martyr in front, then Oshannus next to it. Oshannus with its Void and very high speed after the stacks can counter a lot of teams. Adding Opportunity and Snipe can help decrease the opponent's backline.

For Life, a similar strategy with Ilthain and Iziar is a powerful option. Adding support monsters to keep Iziar safe can beat a lot of teams, but it can be weak to Melee teams.

Dragon has Helios and Sthispa, and can use Chwala and Runic Skyclaw as front and back tanks respectively.

The Lineup

For me, against the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with a Gladiator team. Since Legendary summoners are not available, I am not expecting Immortalis. This makes speed a very important stat because people won't be using a lot of Magic attacks. But that is why I used Grum; it can survive against the Iziar and Oshannus teams, and take advantage of any martyr cards in the first position. To double down on my front to back strategy, I included Chimney Wallstop to be on cleanup duty. I added Iidri Fyre at the back to help deal with the range and sneak/opportunity attacks. Its redemption also works well with the Born Again. I have Scavo Hireling to repair Grum's armor. I placed it after Wallstop since I don't have other armored monsters apart from the three. If there are Snipe monsters, I want them to kill Scavo first. Finally, I have the Martyr and Tinderlock. If everything works out right, the Martyr stack will both go on Tinderlock and Wallstop.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

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The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a mixed melee and ranged team. They had a similar idea of using a Void Armor monster in front to deal with Oshannus and Iziar lineups. They have good front damage with Flying Squid, but they decided to target the backline as well with Deeplurker and Sea Stalker. With the split damage, I'm hoping my Grum and Wallstop can get some stacks.

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End of Round 1

I was able to split their damage, but it still feels like I am losing even though mine was focused on their front monster. My Iidri is close to dying and I was only able to take out Alvar's armor. There is still Born Again, but I am not looking forward to a revived Alvar with all that armor.

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End of Round 2

So both Iidri and Alvar died and revived, but Grum was able to get a Bloodlust stack. The Redemption did a pretty good job removing the Kelya armor. It dealing 6 damage gives me more effective damage. I said effective damage because a single armor can block two or more points of physical damage. Without that, my attacks can go straight to their HP.

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End of Round 3

Marksrat getting the killing blow there instead of my two Bloodlust monsters is a bit of a shame, but I'll take the kill regardless. My placement of Scavo seems to be correct, since it is setting up my Marksrat to give its Martyr stacks to both Wallstop and Tinderlock.

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End of Round 4

The double Redemption proc showed its effect again. Because the Swamp Spitter had 2 armor missing, it repaired its armor first, before the Flying Squid's. This enabled my Wallstop to get the kill. With my Bloodlust monsters starting to stack up, this is looking better for me.

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End of Round 5

My Grum finally died, but I think it already bought a lot of time. Wallstop is faster than all of them, so there is no risk of it missing any attacks. Because of the Swamp Spitter's Repair, I need to have two monsters alive to be able to deal damage.

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End of Round 6 - 8

With the Marksrat dead, I suddenly found myself in the back foot. The Sea Stalker is targeting my Tinderlock, but the Deeplurker is still healthy. If either one of my monsters die twice, I can no longer go past the armor repair.

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End of Round 9

In the end, Tinderlock was able to deal the finishing blow on the Deeplurker and pushed the Sea Stalker in front. There were a few misses on my Wallstop, but it wouldn't have mattered since it will revive with tons of armor, and still attack first on the next round. At this point, Swamp Spitter can't protect the Sea Stalker from my two attackers. This battle is over.

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End of the Battle

I will have to say that I really enjoyed that. I think the battle was very close throughout. Even my final win condition of Tinderlock wasn't a sure win because of their Repair. Even though I split their attacks while I was focusing front to back, the battle was still very close.

The Result

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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 wasn't ready for. I think they had a really strong team, it was a close battle, but I came out with the win in the end.