My BATTLE MAGE SECRET Weekly Challenge! Even Stevens

---

Hello there, this is my entry to the latest "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or learn more about the challenge, click here. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Even Stevens ruleset.

RULESET: Even Stevens

With the Equal Stevens ruleset in action, only monsters with even mana costs may be used in battles.

This ruleset is simple and easy to understand as all the monsters with even mana costs will be active only so half the units are unavailable and we have to come up with a strategy with the remaining units. Nothing else changes fundamentally, all the other things remain the same so going back to fundamentals helps in this kind of ruleset.

Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle.

My Lineup

This is my lineup for the battle

Position	Summoner/Monsters
Summoner	Helios Matriarch
Position 1	Quora Towershead
Position 2	Fungus Fiend
Position 3	Goblin Psychic
Position 4	Queen Mycelia
Position 5	Doctor Blight

It was just a 30-mana cap battle and had only the 'Even Stevens' ruleset which as we already saw will allow the 'even mana' costs units to be used in this battle.

All the elements were active during this battle. I had 43 mana to work with so I could afford to use expensive units and likewise my opponent could too so I wanted to use a summoner which counters heavy attacking strength and for this, I went with the Helios Matriarch which allowed me to use a Gladiator unit in my lineup.

---

I used the Quora Towershead as my tank which costs 10 mana and deals 2 magic attacks and 2 melee attack damage. I was able to use this powerful gladiator unit in my lineup because of the summoner that I used. This comes with the 'bloodlust' ability and 'heal', both of these make it very powerful and last much longer.

Next in my lineup was Fungus Fiend which is a zero mana cost unit and doesn't come with any ability but it still had two health points of its own and can take one or two hits and slow down the enemy attack. I didn't expect much from it!

Goblin Psychic was the next monster that I placed in my lineup. It was another magic attacker who cost just 6 mana and had decent health. But I didn't use it just for those, I used it to utilize its 'tank heal' ability which supports my tank with the crucial heal.

In the fourth position, I placed the Queen Mycelia which just costs 4 mana and comes with a 'protect' ability which gives all the friend units an extra 2 armour and this adds a lot to the defensive strength of my lineup.

In the fifth and last position, I placed the Doctor Blight. It is yet another magic attacker which comes with two useful abilities: 'affliction' and 'camouflage'. So, it can't be attacked by those 'sneaky' units.

Now that my lineup was set, it was time for battle.

I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube.

My Strategy

Since this was a 30 mana battle with not a very restrictive lineup, I could use almost any strategy. I wanted to use the Quora Towershead and make my team around it. That's why I used this summoner which allows me to use a gladiator card.

Using more healers so my tank at the front won't be dying soon. I used Goblin Psychic for this job. It supported my tank well. Another unit which helped bump up the defensive strength was Queen Mycelia which gave an extra two armour to all the friendly units.

As you can see I focused on mages a lot which should bypass all the amrour if my opponent uses it and these attacks won't miss too.

This strategy, as you will see, worked in my favour and gave me a comfortable win at the end.

My opponent went with a mixed attack type utilizing melee, ranged and magic attackers eventually, maybe a bit more focused on the range attackers. But their lineup looked a bit weaker in both attacking and defensive areas.

Their Chaos Orc didn't last longer and got eliminated by the end of the first round.

The next round was no better for them, they failed to give any damage to my Quora Towershead (because of the heals) while they kept losing units right left and center.

---

The ranged attackers were placed in the middle of the lineup and they got exposed way too early in the battle and they had no chance at that point.

---

I registered quite an easy win at the end where all of my monsters were still standing until the end.

Conclusion

As you saw in the above battle, having attacking strength and ways to counter your opponent's aggression is important during the 'Even Steven' ruleset. But this is just one of the strategies, you can choose to implement a different strategy, it will all depend on what units you are comfortable with and how you want to play.

For me, I go back to the fundamentals of the gameplay like using a strong unit at the front of the lineup which is supported by one or two heal units and also having a unit which can increase the armour of the entire lineup. You won't get all this every time in your lineup but try to make it very simple. Sometimes simplicity and a clear strategy are the keys!

Let me know what are your strategies against this ruleset.

Thanks for reading...

---

---

Splinterlands is a popular NFT-based play2earn game. If you have not joined the game yet, you miss a lot of fun. You can join by using my referral link.

Note:

• Text dividers are from freeztag.
• Card images are from @splinterlands.

| SPLINTERLANDS.COM | SPLINTERSHARDS (SPS) | BLOG | DISCORD | TELEGRAM |