I've been waiting to feature the Armored Up rule set eversince the new Battlemage Secrets Weekly Challenge was implemented. As a Life splinter inclined player, stacking up armor is one of the main strategies I utilize. This article will mainly focus on the modern card collection as it is the game mode I am most familiar with.

Armored Up is a rule set that gives 2 armor to all monsters on the battlefield. Since this buff is equally beneficial to both players, we have to think of strategies to tip the scale more into our favor than on our opponent.

Summoners

When choosing summoners, Chanseus the Great is a good card to consider since you will gain a permanent Repair skill activated each turn. This is especially handy for heavily armored tanks like Legionnaire Alvar. He also has Triage to support backline monsters and of course the Resurrect ability that brings back a fallen monster to life with full armor.

But in most cases, I often favor Grandmaster Rathe over Chanseus. Many opponents will try to circumvent Armored Up's armor buff by using several magic monsters as magic ignores armor and damages health directly. This is why giving all of your monsters the Void Armor ability is very advantageous. Having at least one point of armor remaining can block any amount of incoming damage before it breaks. The additional armor buff from Rathe is also a nice addition.

Monsters

For frontline tank monsters, I usually select those who already have Void Armor. The additional two armor points will help when sustaining enemy attacks. They also tend to have a high armor by default. But when using Grandmaster Rathe, Uriel the Purifier is my go-to monster card since choosing a Void Armor monster is redundant and does not provide any additional benefit.

Another tactic to consider is denying the enemy monsters of the armor boost. Monsters that have Rust like Sporcerer and Noa the Just can weaken all enemy armor. But if you want to precisely obliterate the armor of a single monster, especially tanks, you can select cards with Shatter like Flamesmith and War Pegasus.

Deleting armor through splash damage is also effective in some situations. Monsters with Explosion such as Fire Elemental and Riverboat Captain are great for this task. In a similar vein, having Double Strike can also quickly remove enemy armor. But as an advice, both abilities, Double Strike and Explosion are only effective if your monster attacks first. They are usually designed with weak defenses so attacking first is crucial. Having additional sources of speed buffs should also be considered.

Battle

For my shared battle, it's a 46-mana gold league match between Grandmaster Rathe and Sthispa. The rule sets are Odd Ones Out, Healed Out, and of course, Armored Up. You can check the full battle here.

As I mentioned above, a common preference among players when the Armored Up rule set comes up is to go heavy on Magic capable monsters. My opponent selected Sthispa in order to utilize Agor Longtail as tank. Agor is a behemoth with both melee and magic attacks. It also has a very high health and armor while having Void Armor, Flying, and Taunt. As far as tank monster ranking goes, Agor Longtail is top tier.

For my lineup, I focused on buffing up my main monster, Uriel the Purifier. I placed Venari Marksrat infront expecting it to activate the Martyr ability twice due to Adelade Brightwing's Resurrect. I also have War Pegasus for its Shatter since Uriel is a very slow attacker with its Recharge ability. I need to make sure that the adjacent monster has no armor whenever Uriel is ready to attack. I also have two Repair monsters on standby.

Venari Marksrat has successfully activated two instances of Martyr, giving Uriel two stat points on melee, speed, armor, and health. War Pegasus has also successfully destroyed Agor Longtail's armor, leaving it vulnerable to Uriel's charged attack.

Uriel successfully hits Algor with a lethal 15 melee damage. The opponent's secondary tank, Mycelic Slipspawn, was also easily dispatched through a sustained barrage of magic and ranged attacks. The enemy monsters were also unable to penetrate through Uriel's health due to its high armor and two Repair support units, Adelade Brightwing and Scavo Hireling.

With both tanks out of the way, my monsters swept the battlefield of the remaining enemy units. Djinn Renova delivers the final blow on Djinn Biljka, ending the match at round seven.

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Thank you for reading and see you in the battlefield!

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