This week’s battle challenge focuses on the Earthquake Ruleset.

Ruleset Details

The Earthquake ruleset affects all non-flying monsters in the game by inflicting two damage at the end of each round. Monsters with armor will first have the damage applied to the armor before being imposed on the monster's health. The ruleset requires the player to select monster cards that can survive many rounds of damage. The evident approach to avoid Earthquake damage is by using flying monsters, which are immune to it. Summoners like Brighton Bloom that provide the Flying ability can also give all monsters the ability to fly. Another effective strategy is to use monsters with high HP and armor, as these stats will aid in survivability. The downside with the ruleset is that monster cards without the flying ability or with low HP may not pass the second round.

Battle - Full Battle Replay

Battle Details

• Mana cap: 17

• Rulesets(s): Earthquake, Target Practice

Lineup Details

• Thaddius Brood (Summoner): -1 health and magic damage to all enemy monsters.

• Ever-Hungry Skull: low mana-cap DPS tank.

• Riftwing: passive support tank.

• Spirit Hoarder + Carrion Shade: providing buffs to the backline and support magic/melee damage.

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

Do you want to know what makes a ruleset more challenging? Lower mana caps which reduces the player's selection pool of monsters. For example – you can't play The Kraken as it requires 12 mana cap and seriously limits you in terms of other monsters you can add to low mana cap battles. Also, the low mana cap monsters generally don't tend to have a lot of health or armor, which adds another layer of complexity in combination with the Earthquake ruleset. Therefore for this battle, I opted to have flying monsters to evade Earthquake ruleset damage and some form of backline damage (magic). My opposition had similar ideas but also went for a DPS-heavy backline in Uraeus and Silent Sha-VI. The RNG gods were smiling upon me in this battle as a couple of misses and sometimes forgotten but oh-so-powerful, Ever-Hungry Skull hard hits completely obliterated the opposition line-up - a satisfying victory.

Do you like the Earthquake ruleset? Why or why not?

While I always enjoy rulesets that add a layer of strategy, I get players' frustrations, especially those with not extensive collections, and therefore are hamstrung in battle and pushed into a particular corner. I don't have Brighton Bloom summoner; consequently, it removes that default option and requires careful selection. Also, many of my older Flying cards don't hit hard enough. I always feel that I am going into Earthquake ruleset battles under-powered. Nonetheless, I enjoy the Earthquake ruleset as it requires an extra layer of strategy due to my collection limitations.

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