Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Taking Sides ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With the Taking Sides ruleset, all neutral units can't be used. Lux Vega, who is a neutral summoner, as well as the neutral monsters are not available.

In this ruleset, some of my strategies are not available. The Marksrat Martyr is not available, as well as the Spirit Hoarder's Triage, and the Scavo Hireling's Repair. Melee teams get a slight boost, because the Disintegrator's Demoralize is also not available.

Of course, the ones above are just guidelines. Since we can have up to 3 rulesets in a battle, these can change quickly. If a Taunt monster is available, I'll probably include one in the back to at least spread the opponent's damage.

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 Kryptogamers tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with Briar Patch, Born Again, and Taking Sides Rulesets. A 39 mana battle is on the higher amount. Legendary cards are not available [Tournament rules] and only Fire, Water, Earth, and Dragon are available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each element so I will try to counter as much as I can.

The ideal team for Fire is a Range team. Melee would have been possible even with Briar Patch, but the Born Again ruleset is going to make it a longer fight and taking too much thorns damage is dangerous. For Water, a Magic team is a good option. Nerissa can deal a lot of damage, and the Kelya Armor can provide extra survivability upon reviving. For Earth, a Magic team is expected. There is little risk for Sneak/Opportunity attacks, and Life Range is not available to counter. For Dragon, Sthispa can be an option together with Runic Skyclaw and Naga Assassin who have high speed.

Gladiator cards are always viable, and refreshing their armor with a kill can easily deal with the Briar patch. Additionally, Fire and Earth have Martyr cards still available, which will be powerful with the Born Again ruleset.

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.
	Scavenger	My filler, front line tank. I have a taunt monster at the back, so I hope it can get some Scavenger stacks before it dies so it can buy time for Quora.
	Martyr	I want to buff my Quora, so I am putting my Martyr before it. It should give 2 stacks to Quora because of the Born Again ruleset.
	Bloodlust, Heal	My all around unit. I am relying on Quora for my damage and tanking.
	Life Leech	In case I encounter a similar lineup and we can't kill each other's monsters, I am hoping the Scattershot can tilt it to my favor.
	Tank Heal	I am expecting some Magic damage for the opponent. I need the Tank Heal to supplement Quora's heal and keep it alive for a long time.
	Taunt	My primary tank. I want to split the opponent's damage and buy time for my team to deal some damage.

For me, between the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with a Quora team. The Born Again and Martyr combo is really strong for Quora, and the opponents reviving will also give Quora more stacks. My biggest concern is a Magic team that focuses their attacks on a single target. But once Quora gets going, it is difficult to kill it.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

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The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a mixed Fernheart team which I did not consider. I was initially confused on why they went with Fernheart, but I guess they wanted to maximize the monster levels. A level 2 Epic summoner can use up to a level 3 Rare monster in Bronze. They have focused damage, and the Stun is going to be a problem for my Quora. The good thing is they have the Fungus Flinger in front. Once my Quora goes to the first position, it will have two Bloodlust stacks waiting for it.

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End of Round 1

My Slipspawn is tanking a lot of damage and buying time. I am hoping to kill the opponent's Slipspawn before Quora goes to the front. They have a higher damage output, but I'm hoping my healing can outlast them.

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End of Round 2

The level 3 Slipspawn showed its advantage. Even with my Helios speed buff, the level 3 Slipspawn still had the same speed as my Slipspawn, and attacked first, killing my Slipspawn. My Kra'ar was able to take some attacks, but also died quickly. The good thing is that we were able to kill the opponent's Slipspawn once, so it is vulnerable to my Quora.

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End of Round 3

My Quora got 3 stacks of martyr/bloodlust before it went to the front. It is currently the fastest monster in the battlefield, and should get 2 quick bloodlust stacks from the Fungus Flinger. By that point, my Quora should be unkillable.

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End of Round 4

When the battle started, I was concerned that the Uloth Dhampir stun will be a problem for my Quora. But looking at the state of the battle now, there is little chance it can hit Quora with a 7 speed difference. Its best chance was this round, but Quora will just kill the Peryton next round and get another stack.

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End of Round 5

Just to prove me wrong, The Uloth Dhampir was able to hit my Quora despite a 9 speed difference, or 90 percent miss chance, and even applied Stun. Unfortunately, my Quora has 18 HP, and my Goblin is still alive. It can heal all of their damage even if they target Quora and apply stun every turn. My Madcap Magus is also still alive to whittle away the backline in the worst case scenario. This battle is over.

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End of the Battle

I will have to say that the battle played out how I expected it to. The Born Again ruleset is perfect for Martyr monsters, and is also very good for Gladiator monsters since they can get a lot of stacks. They had a good team, and they played around the Briar Patch well. But in the end, Quora was just too powerful, and got too many stacks.

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 didn't expect. I think they had a good team, but I had the better one.