Shield War!

Prologue

Armored Strike has become quite the thing in current modern - but it seems to be completely focused on Life and Water splinter, with only two exceptions.

All Conclave Arcana cards with this ability are Water. Except for the Mudbinder, which does not show here - seems to be a bug, gotta report that later. That is a little bit weird, honestly. But it does makes sense, as that combination of splinters with Elias Max Pruitt as summoner is mighty strong.

And there is another reason - Protect. That ability, too, is focused on Water and Life splinter:

Besides Sevaya, all cards with protect are either from Life or from Water splinter. With the Nimbledook Explorer and the Skychonk having both at once. A dangerous combination!

Rulesets

As a melee attack, Armored Strike loves the following rulesets:

With opportunity, it doesn't matter where the monsters sit - they can always use their Armor Strike. The same goes for:

And:

Being able to attack from anywhere is the key ingredient for an armor strike team. Keep that in mind!

Also useful:

Nobody complains about a +2 damage booster...

Somewhat useful is also this ruleset, but more passively:

Revive with 100% armor, so even if the armor was formerly destroyed, the monster gets it back - and with that, it's ability for strong attacks.

What to avoid:

Usually the ones that reduce your armor my returning attack.

As a Melee Attack, Armored Strike triggers both Corrosive Ward as well as Briar Patch.

The good news - Reflection Shield works against both of those. Which make Commander Slate so incredibly useful.

Another one to avoid is this one:

Yes, you're monsters last longer - but they use a substantial amount of attack power. A lot of times it's better to lose some health (e. g. when you have heal) than to lose the armor attack.

That's also my Mantaroth is so powerful - even though it lost it's armor, it can still repair it at the beginning of it's active phase, and then use it to attack. And blast damage. Oh, Mantaroth is just a beast.

An Example

A Modern ranked match. Every melee monster (including armored strike) gets Sneak attack. Also, revive is in place - and slowest is the fastest.

I go for super high armor monsters. Including the cat, which gets its armored strike from EMP, I have a base of 16 armored strike damage - plus the +2 from the Fighter and the +1 from EMP for each monster, so 25 armored strike damage.

With that much armor power, it doesn't really matter that my monsters get demoralized. The power of my team is the armor, not the regular attack.

The Silvershield Fighter in the front is one of my favorite tanks. Especially with Revive. Thanks to its "Protect" boost, and the piercing, Sifu kills the Skink with 1 (!) attack. And that was just the armor. It gets revived, but the melee damage is enough to take the Skink out completely. But the Skink has Shield! Yeah, sure, but Sifu has True & Relentless Strike. Doesn't miss, doesn't care about shield. Bye, Skink.

The Fighter gets killed but revived in the second round, and Sifu claims its second victim - finished off by the opportunistic Shieldmaiden this time. There's not the slightest chance left for the enemy to win.

Conclusion

Armored Strike decides games. Not only with the GOAT, Commander Slate in combination with EMP, but also in low-speed games and other constellations. The focus on Life and Water is a little weird, but it just combines too nicely with EMP to complain. And, now, imagine - the Nimbledook Scout between Rage and Palesworn. Four powerful attacks in one card, maybe even before the game really starts if Akane is used.

Do you use Armored Strike? Which is your favorite combo for it?

Former posts:

Calculating Land part 1 - How to get your ROI
Calculating Land part 2 - Are pools worth it?
Calculating Land part 3 - Organic Growth
Land Plot Efficiency for non-whales
Card-Production-Coefficient - Combining LPE and ROI
Renting for Land - at what cost?
Risks to my strategy
What do refined resources cost?
Real cost of Wagons
Calculating Totem and Title boosts
Calculating Plot Rarity Boost
Setting up a Rare Stone Plot

My perfect plot - Conclusion of my calculations

Land Plot Calculator

Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed it at least as much as I enjoyed writing :-D If you have any comments or feedback - please let me know! And don't forget to leave your own posts for me to curate. Thank you very much!

If you don't play the game yet, you can use my referral: Click here for referral :-)

Dividers by Saydie - Click here. Always grateful for those!