First, let's learn about the Equal Opportunity First, because this is a key point that massively improve the effectivity of my hidden gem strategy. So, on this Equal Opportunity ruleset, all monsters will given the opportunity ability. This mean all monsters can attack the lowest health enemies and they can do it on any position (except the tanker that always attack the front monster). This ruleset give the melee monsters opportunity to attack from any position which normally don't !

Armored Strike Ability

What is the armored strike ? Here is the description based on https://support.splinterlands.com/hc/en-us/articles/12821703483156-List-of-Splinterlands-Abilities-and-Debilitations.

If armored, gains a physical attack that deals damage equal to remaining armor.

So, this ability is giving a melee kind attack addition (work as physical), based on the armor of the monsters. The more armor it has, the more damage it gets ! But one things we need to notice is the damage is work as melee kind of attack, so the monster has to be on the first position or having ability to attack on another position !

Why Armored Strike is Hidden Gem and How Make it Even More Dangerous

Okay, now what is so special about armored strike ? why I called it as hidden gem ?
There is at least 2 reason why I think armored strike is very special ability and can be considered as a hidden gem :

#1. Armor that used for armored strike is basically a defensive stats, so you will get the benefit of defensive side and offensive side with the armor !
#2. Buff for armor which is protect ability is giving 2 points of armor not just 1 like inspire ! This mean you can gain more damage with the buff and doubled the dangerous effect compared to inspire.
#3. The protect is applied for all monsters, not just 1 kind of attack type buff ! This is another pros of the protect ability that support the armored strike (the other damage buff like inspire will only help the monsters with melee, not all monsters)
#4. Armor is resurrected. This mean you build for a tough monsters on the resurrected ruleset as well.
#5. Different kind of attack type means you can break the monsters armor before you can deal another damage with the monster's natural attack or eliminated 2 monsters if the armor and damage is high enough and they don't have armor or you have pierce !

How to Make The Armored Strike Even More Dangerous :

In my perspective, there are several way to max out this ability's potential :
#1. Use it on ruleset where melee monsters can attack from any position. This would make your armored strike monsters is flexible to be placed on safest position and also unlock their attacking potential since they can be place anywhere.
#2. Get as much of them as you can once they can attack from any position. This is to max out the buff we gave to them !
#3. Get the protect buff ! This is very essential for improve the armor for damage and for survive as well ! Your monsters will get tougher and more dangerous !
#4. Try getting void armor if possible ! Monsters with void armor will very tough not just for the physical but also for the magical monsters !
#5. Get pierce if possible as well, because it works as physical, you can hit into health point after the armor with pierce !

The Battle Example !

Okay, enough with the theory, now let's take a look at the battle replay to prove my theory is right. You can watch the full reply at https://splinterlands.com/battle/sm_wuVK3ZnnyKPCquwMsEHf, and I will also share it here.

Here is the battle ruleset and formation. For the ruelset, there is the amplify to boost the damage given with thorn, return fire, and magic reflect. Then there is weak magic which cause magic need to hit armor just like physical (this is another nice ruleset for the armored strike monsters cause they armor will work effectively for magic monsters as well), and the last ruleset is the equal opportunity to help the melee and armored strike to attack from any positions !

My lane up is contains 5 melee monsters plus one no damage but having armored strike and protect ability to boost all 3 monsters that will have the other armored strike (including the slade which is given the armored strike by the summoner). I have a taunt monsters so the buffer wouldn't get early eliminated.

Meanwhile, my enemy is having 3 magic damage (too bad because there is weak magic ruleset), plus he also have 3 pysical damager and 1 of them is reduce the magic damage with silent (too bad again because I don't use magicians like usual).

How the Battle Goes

My opponent got 1 ambush attack, but none is eliminated because it's not a massive damage especially with weak magic ruleset, just hit some armor of my tanker.

At 1st round, my enemy already lost half of his squad, this is because the armored strike works very effectively to eliminate the enemy. Especially the Commander Slade with the pierce and super high armor (He got 10 armor, which mean 10 additional damage, and with pierce !) This makes him easily eliminate any monsters with the armored strike ! My team still complete, and the high armor really help my squad because there is the weak magic ruleset.

The battle is done very early because at 2nd round I already win the battle. The reason is explained before, in short, the armored strike and protect works perfectly especially on the equal opportunity ruleset plus the weak magic ruleset !

Conclussion

Armored strike can be very effective on certain ruleset such as the equal opportunity plus the weak magic. The reason is because with armor you can gain both offensive side and defensive side plus the buff that gives 2 armor is simply doubled the other buff effect plus given to all monsters, unlike the inspire that only give 1 melee damage and applied for only melee monsters. With right combination, the armored strike can be super powerfull ability because you can be deadly and safely at the same time !

Final Words