Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Shades of Gray ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, only Neutral monsters may be used in the battle. This pretty much eliminates most of the monsters, and a big part of the team's success relies on the summoner.

In this ruleset, I usually expect an Obsidian with Moxian Rebel teams. It gives a lot of damage for low mana. Because of that, I like to use Immortalis or Thaddius Brood to counter their magic damage, while also decreasing their max HP. On top of that, I always add a Scavo Technomancer to try and blast kill the low HP backline that goes with it, like Scavo Hireling and Clockwork Aide.

Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. Going for Possibilus with Drybone Raider is an option. Using Jacek when there is no magic allowed can make the enemy miss a lot. If only ranged are available, using Ilthain is also good. So adjusting to the other rulesets is really important with such a small amount of monsters available.

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 ranked battle, and I had Weak Magic, Shades of Gray, and Earthquake Rulesets. A 45 mana battle is on the high amount, and Fire and Death are not available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each element so I will try to counter as much as I can. Because of Shades of Gray, there is very limited monsters available, so I will focus on the summoners instead. For the monsters, Gargoya Lion and Gargoya Devil are instant adds, with Marksrat between them to buff them both. Magic has less advantage because of armor being able to block it, so focusing on monster stats can be the best course of action.

The Weak Magic makes Kelya a no brainer for water. They get armor and increased speed. And when there is continuous damage like Earthquake, being able to kill the enemy team quickly is ideal. It isn't even bad to include clockwork aide with moxian rebel because of its high armor.

For Earth, Immortalis can work well in these rulesets. The shatter handles the armor, and the -1 HP to the enemy team helps kill them quicker with Earthquake. Drybone Raider is an option to take advantage of the Shatter, although it costs a lot of mana for low stats.

Life can make use of Sloan to deal more damage with their ranged monsters, but I think it is Franz that can be good if you have Tatiana Blayde. The armor gives a turn of protection, and Tatiana can refresh it with every kill.

For Dragon, Quix is fine, as well as Sthispa. But the ideal might be Lily because of the Triage. If it becomes a battle of attrition, the triage healing might prove to be the difference.

The Lineup

Card	Ability	Comments
	Increases the Speed of ally monsters by 1 and has Conscript	I am forced to use Helios even though I don't have Tatiana because it is a high level summoner. I favor the speed over the armor of Franz for my strategy.
	Shield	I think the Shield ability can but it a lot of time against the Earthquake and the opponent's attacks. I placed it in front because of the low HP.
	Protect	This is my main tank because of its high HP and protect.
	Flying, Void	My Flying tank. This is the reason why I needed to use Helios. At level 6, Gargoya Lion gets Void that can help me against Magic attacks.
	Martyr, Snare	The second reason for a high level summoner. The Snare at level 5 can help kill any Flying monster that my opponent has.
	Flying, Close Range	My main damage dealer. I'm hoping the 3 attack together with the Earthquake damage can help win me the battle.
	-	My main source of Damage. I am hoping it can get some good hits in and accumulate some stacks while in the backline.

For me, against the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go heavy on the Flying team. Apart from the Gargoya Lion and Devil, and the Marksrat, the other monsters are just there to hopefully buy time and let the Earthquake damage whittle the enemy down. If I have a higher level Kelya, I might have preferred that over Helios.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

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The Matchup

Apart from the Gargoya Devil, I am facing a max level team. I don't even know why they are still down at 2k rating with an almost max deck. They went with Kelya which is arguably the best summoner for the rulesets. Xenith Monk in front can deal with magic attacks, and its Heal can keep it alive through the Earthquake. Disintegrator takes care of the Melee attacks with its Demoralize, and can serve as a secondary tank. Gargoya Devil is their only Flying monster. Uraeus with Poison can deal with the backline. Spirit Hoarder with Triage can help keep the team healthy, while its Blind can deal with physical attacks. I think the Xenith Archer is just a good filler, and is a good sneak tank. With the level discrepancy, I am not too confident on my chances. The good thing is that they have low HP and not a lot of Flyers. If my tanks can buy enough time, the Earthquake can maybe help me win out.

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End of Round 1

As expected from my luck, Uraeus' first attack immediately poisoned my Xenith Archer. My Grimbardun took a lot of attacks and is still alive, so that's good. At this point, I'm more scared of Uraeus applying Poison to my Gargoya Devil.

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End of Round 2

My Xenith Archer died early because of the poison, but luckily Uraeus missed its attack on my Gargoya Devil. My Grimbardun died, but I think it soaked up a lot of damage already. We were able to lower the Xenith Monk's HP down to 2 so it should die to the Earthquake damage. With Arkemis having 8 HP, things are starting to look better.

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End of Round 3

Uraeus was able to hit my Gargoya Devil, and as usual, the first hit immediately applies poison. My Arkemis dying in just 1 round is a bit sad, but their team is also damaged. The Spirit Hoarder healing Uraeus meant that it will die next round. It looks like it will go down to if I can kill their Gargoya or not.

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End of Round 4

Marksrat dying gave my team extra stats and armor. The added armor on my Gargoy Devil would have been needed if Uraeus hit its attack, but it missed anyways. With all backline dying next round, it will be a battle between their Gargoya Devil and my Gargoya Lion. With 2 attack against my 5 HP and same speed, it looks like it will be my win.

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End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised that I won against a max level deck. But looking back on it, it seems my opponent didn't maximize their use of the available mana. They only used 30 out of the maximum 45. I guess their other neutral cards were lower level. I guess this shows that always going for the max level monsters isn't a sure win. I was a bit familiar that there aren't a lot of natural Flying monsters in Neutral, so my strategy of just outlasting them worked out in the end.

The Result

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Conclusion

In my battles, 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 opted to use a max level team instead of maximizing their mana usage. I maximized my mana, with my main strategy of outlasting my opponent. It seems my plan countered theirs, and I was able to get away with the win.