BATTLE MAGE SECRET Weekly Challenge! Equalizer

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Hello there, this is my entry to the new "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or know more about the challenge, click here. There are still a few days left to enter this challenge. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Equalizer ruleset.

RULESET: Equalizer

With the Equalizer ruleset, all units start with the same health, based on the highest health on either team.

Buffs and debuffs are done afterwards - this impacts base health.

The Equalizer ruleset is very simple and easy to understand as all monsters get the game health as the one with the highest health on any team. This automatically boosts the defensive capabilities of any monsters and one should focus more on the attacking potential of monsters when choosing their lineup.

When these rulesets come with a low mana cap then we can use very low mana-costing cards and should try to fill all the slots.

Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle. But first, let's focus on my lineup in detail.

My Lineup

This is my lineup for the battle

Position	Summoner/Monsters
Summoner	Keyla Frendul
Position 1	Djinn Oshannus
Position 2	Runemancer Kyle
Position 3	Venari Wavesmith
Position 4	Magi of Chaos
Position 5	River Hellondale

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This was a 41 mana cap battle and had 3 interesting rulesets:

• Equalizer - The initial health of all Monsters is equal to that of the monster on either team with the highest base health.

• Wands Out - Only monsters with Magic attacks may be used in battles.

• Equal Opportunity - All monsters have the Opportunity ability.

All elements were active except Dragon and Death. Wands out made it clear that my opponent has to use magic attack only so we both need to figure out a way to counter it.

I used the Keyla Frendul as my summoner. It gave +1 speed and +1 armour to all my monsters.

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I used the Djinn Oshannus as my tank. It costs 8 mana but comes with very useful 'Void' ability which was very useful during this battle as only mages were allowed. It dealt 2 magic damage as well and comes with good speed. Hence, this was a perfect choice for my tank.

Runemancer Kye was placed in the second position as it deals with heavy magic attacks and comes with two interesting abilities. Its 'flying' ability along with 5 armour on its own makes it a good unit to be used as a secondary tank. It also comes with a 'life leech' ability which helps it last much longer.

Next was the Venari Wavesmith. It also deals 2 magic damage and comes with a 'protect' ability which gives all the friendly monsters extra 2 armour. This is very useful but in my case as only mages were allowed it was useless. Nevertheless, its attacking strength is what made me put it in my lineup.

In the fourth position, I used the Magi of Chaos. This was the only neutral unit and I used it for its heavy magic damage of 3. However, it doesn't come with any abilities. This unit made all the difference in my battle.

Last but not least was River Hellondale. This is an interesting unit dealing with 2 magic damage and it comes with 2 interesting abilities: Ressurect and Inspire. The inspire ability was useless in this battle but 'resurrect' was useful. It costs 7 mana only.

Now that my lineup was set let's talk about my strategy for this game.

My Strategy

It was a 41 mana cap battle and I had a lot of mana to work with. Looking at the rulesets though, it was very restrictive as only mages were allowed during this battle. So, I went with Djinn Oshannus as my tank which can take heavy magic attacks easily due to its 'void' ability.

My opponent went with the same strategy. My goal was to not occupy all the slots but to increase my attack damage and try to eliminate my opponent's units as soon as possible. In the end, my Magi of Chaos was the differentiating factor in this battle

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

My opponent also used Djinn Oshannus and Runemancer Kye as their primary and secondary tanks respectively. We both had almost identical lineups but they used Riverboat Captain and its 'blast' ability while I went with better damage of Magi of Chaos.

It was a close battle that went on for 12 rounds. I was sure of the result only after round 8 when their Venari Wavesmith was left alone against my Magi of Chaos and River Hellondale. Otherwise, it was a neck-to-neck fight

Conclusion

Equalizer is an interesting ruleset which opens up a lot of strategies and it will force you to choose units with powerful attacks as the health is going to be equal.

Magic damage is a great way to deal with these high-health units. Getting some healing units or monsters that recharge their health be it with a 'life leech' ability or 'scavenger' ability is very useful during this ruleset.

This ruleset gives rise to some interesting compositions. Let me know in the comments whether you like this ruleset and what strategy you adopt during your battle.

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Note:

• Text dividers are from freeztag.
• The banner is from @splinterlands

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