Splinterlands battle mage secrets | Back to Basics!

Just before the end of the season we are all waiting for the rewards. Okay, some are waiting not only for the rewards...

So I'm using this time to do this week's Battle Mage Secrets Challenge!

If you are interested in Brawls and the Gladius cards, check out my little series on the Gladius set. Click here for parts one and two.

Description: Monsters lose all abilities.
Summoner effects are still active (IE: Yodin Zaku).

Back to Basics is one of the rule sets that greatly affects the game. It is even turned almost upside down.
Many cards that are used as absolute key cards are suddenly not so good in this ruleset, or even unusable.
When the monsters lose all their abilities, the summoners become even more important.
This also means that Summoners are easier or better to counter.

In terms of the monsters, the damage type is more important. Let's take a closer look at the 3 types of damage:

Melee damage
Often the tank is a melee fighter. To attack from a different position, the card needs an ability like Reach, Sneak or Opportunity. So if we have no other such rule and no Summoner with the corresponding ability, then the melee fighter is significantly weakened in Back to Basics and some cards are no longer well playable.

Ranged damage
Ranged fighters can only attack from the back positions, except with the rule or ability Closerange. So while these are an option , as with melee fighters they are limited. There is also the Armor factor.

Magic damage
Mages attack from all positions and Armor does not interest them. Again, there is one exception to this, Void Armor. But this type of damage is clearly the strongest in Back to Basics.

But there are other factors: hit points and armor. In Back to Basics, all cards with a high number of hit points are strong. Armor is nice, but not essential. Most of the time, we're going to run into a lot of magic damage in this rule anyway, and unless you're playing Grandmaster Rathe, Armor is rather subsidiary.

A word about the summoners, in this rule especially the legendary summoners with multiple abilities are strong like of course Yodin, Lama and Kitty. But also the new CL Summoner have their justification here. Immortalis for example is a counter for Grandmaster Rathe and good against magic damage in general etc.

You can see there are a lot of things to consider here, let's take a look at my fight!

My match had the following setup:

Lineup

Summoner

Okay Back to Basics, Opportunity for everyone and Earthquake. My choice is Kelya. This way I get Armor and Speed. Both are very useful.

---

Tank

Since it was a Brawl, I was able to use the Gladius cards. I decided to use Alva as the tank. Bloodlust is omitted here, but the card is still useful.

---

Position 2

Sethropod is almost unbeatable in the cost-benefit ratio, 6 hit points and 6 armor for only 3 mana is terrific. 2 damage is also okay.

---

Position 3

The stonefish is really only a sacrifice in this match. But because of the Armor he can sometimes even survive 2 hits and that helps me already. With only 23 mana you have to watch to get the board full. Such cards are a big help.

---

Position 4

5 damage and 4 speed, the Lurker hits like a truck. for 6 mana one of the best Common cards in the whole Chaos Legion set!

---

Position 5

another low mana card with good stats. Especially the speed is important. With Equal Opportunity and Back to Basics it is important to be the first to hit.

---

Position 6

Another pawn sacrifice follows at position 6. The Chaos Agent has only one task: take one or two hits and die... that's life!

The Battle

I get to deal with Quix in a water setup. My opponent has a few magic cards on the field. However, he mixes the damage types a bit too much. Also, there are 2 level 1 cards on a Gold level Fray.... Strange setup :)

---

As mentioned, the magic monsters in Back to Basics are always strong, and this is no exception. Both of my victim cards were already eliminated in turn 1. The Earthquake isn't quite as devastating thanks to my cards' Armor Points.
Things don't look quite so good for my opponent.

---

Slowly, the earthquake and the magic damage is also affecting my team. The board is getting emptier and emptier. But thanks to the many small cards and the concentrated melee damage, I will be able to win the match!

---

With round four the fight is finally over and I record a victory, GG!

---

Summary

Back to basics offers some special features. Magic damage is preferred and of course cards with many hit points.
However, the focus on magic damage can be adjusted depending on available splinters and additional rules. Sometimes you have to think out of the box!
What should be avoided in any case is to mix the damage types too much.

I hope you liked my contribution, see you soon on the battlefield!

---

The fight in full length is available here!

New to Splinterlands? Register with my affiliate link!

translation with deepl.com
Pictures: Splinterlands.com & Pixabay

^{@captainloken}