Can You win Counterspell Rulesets with Magic?

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(Edited)

By returning your opponent's damage back at them you are gaining yourself additional damage which all goes toward reducing armour or reducing health of an opponent. In some cases going with the ruleset pays off very heavily. In others there are examples where you can really trump the tactic of an opponent by doing the unpredictable.

In this battle challenge focused on Counterspell, my opponent uses a magic strategy which really caught me by surprise. The question is, can my lineup come out victorious?

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Ruleset

Counterspell:

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"When hit with Magic damage, does reduced Magic damage back to the attacker
Deals damage equivalent to the attacker's damage divided by 2, rounded up. The damage is reflected even if the attacker does not hit."
- Splintercards

Rise of The Commons:

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"Only Common and Rare Monsters may be used in battles.
Make a balanced team. Focus your attacks on a specific opponent's monster."
- Splintercards

Odd Ones Out:

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"Only Monsters with odd Mana costs may be used in battles.
There are no special tricks for this ruleset, but having an idea of mana points of a few monsters helps in predicting what your opponent can and cannot use."
- Splintercards

Splinter Choices & Mana:

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Melee and Fire is the direction I will be taking here as there are a number of good combinations I have in mind to include some odd mana cards to expand the options available. Even though I own most Chaos cards now I do still find Odd Ones Out a tricky ruleset to utilise at times.

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Lineups:

Tarsa

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With Magic Reflect and a lack of Life deck, using Tarsa for the additional melee damage felt like the correct move. This would allow me to increase my melee damage and focus in on that by synergising with some strong good value melee attackers.

Scavo Hireling

Scavo Hireling_lv3_gold.png

This was a mistake on my part as I did not mean to place Scavo Hireling in first position. My initial intention was to use Living Lava at the front and place the Hireling in second place. But due to my misclick on the mobile browser this occurred. My intention here was to help slow down the damage coming through my tank using Repair. Tarsa's +1 to health would aid Scavo Hireling who has relatively low health of 2.

Living Lava

Living Lava_lv1.png

As already mentioned Living Lava was meant to be my first position tank and I had hoped it would soak up all the physical damage I envisioned my opponent utilising. The Shield ability is excellent as it reduces damage by half and I combined the Living Lava with my next card in the lineup to slow that melee damage even further. At 7 mana, this is a good value Rare. As a mostly Chaos deck this is an example of a card which I have not levelled to Silver / Gold level due to what was the initial prohibitive cost. But with the plan to move Untamed into Wild, I have begun phasing cards such as these out and this is an example of one I have kept due to its utility.

Disintegrator

Disintegrator_lv3_gold.png

I love to combine this card with the Shield ability of Living Lava and Antoid Platoon in particular. This combination massively nerfs incoming melee damage makes the Living Lava highly resistant. With 6 health and 3 armour, Disintegrator is pretty good at third level and is one of my more frequently used Commons. For 7 mana I'd say this card is very effective for its cost and despite its slow speed and low melee damage, it is well worth collecting if you haven't got one levelled already.

Djinn Apprentice

Djinn Apprentice_lv2.png

I went against the grain a little here by selecting a magic card. I did choose Djinn Apprentice to help take down enemies a little faster. Whilst every time it attacks, it would receive some damage I knew that this card could help my team take down a Living Lava and Disintegrator combo should something awkward come up in the battle. For 5 mana 2 magic damage and 3 speed with 4 health is pretty decent value so I didn't envisage this to be too great of a risk.

Serpentine Spy

Serpentine Spy_lv1.png

This is another example of an Untamed collection card which I use occasionally. It is a highly effective card and combined with Tarsa it becomes that bit more powerful, especially given that it will have a total of 3 melee and 2 health. Yes, it is fragile and will need to be protected but it's Opportunity ability allows it to sneak in there and focus on the weakest of the bunch. I am very happy with this selection even if it is under-levelled compared to the rest of the lineup.

Tenyii Striker

Tenyii Striker_lv2_gold.png

I selected this card to synergise with Tarsa. Its ability to strike from anywhere in the lineup due to the Sneak ability is very useful. So with 3 melee and 7 health this card is pretty strong. This was a must buy for me in Gold Foil due to the number of times I use it alongside Tarsa. So if you haven't got this in Gold Foil, I'd highly recommend it. I feel very confident in this card selection.

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Opposing Lineup

Obsidian

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To me, Obsidian is a really odd choice of summoner to use. Magic Reflect is a tough ruleset to win using magic in general. Had my opponent gone with Immortalis then magic may have made sense to me. But those cards that naturally deal 2 damage will now deal 3 directly to my cards health but the other side of that sword is the reflect damage will now be increased further to 2 damage. This is a big gamble by the opponent. There is also the possibility that they misread the ruleset, we have all done it before...

Hill Giant

Hill Giant_lv1.png

A good selection as a tank. Getting this card to level 3 would be particularly good though as it would unlock greater health and even additional damage which would make it a really effective tank.

Bramble Pixie

Bramble Pixie_lv1.png
A good choice of card here with the Reach ability which will allow my opponent to reach over from second position to double up on my tank. A good selection of card with good melee attack and health, especially for a level 1 Common.

Venari Scout

Venari Scout_lv1.png

Very similar to my selection of the Serpentine Spy. A strong card at the right times and I think this is the right time to play it. Only 1 melee attack so it may get stuck against the Shield ability of the Living Lava but otherwise a good choice. Serpentine Spy will need to be aware, the Venari Scout will be coming...

Regal Peryton

Regal Peryton_lv1.png

This card makes sense if the purpose is to tease and irritate a melee lineup. With Flying and 5 speed this card is evasive and pretty tricky to hit. A good selection from that perspective but Reflection damage will catch up to it pretty quickly.

Centauri Mage

Centauri Mage_lv1.png

Reflecting ranged damage is a good strategy especially in a Counterspell situation but unfortunately for my opponent, this was not the route I chose. Based on the ruleset, I do not expect this card to survive for too long. A great card to own and use otherwise but unfortunately in my opinion this is not the best selection to fit this battle.

Mycellic Slipspawn

Mycelic Slipspawn_lv1.png

I understand the need for a Taunt to draw the focus of the melee monsters and this is a good value card of the mana cost. With a base magic attack of 2, this card will have significant damage reflected back at it so I am not sure this was the wisest selection here. Alternative options for Earth monsters could have been Goblin Tower to utilise the Blast ability. With Armour a Goblin Tower would be protected from Sneak in the early stages and it would be able to damage more than the first position.

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Pre Battle Thoughts:

I do think the opponent may be dealing with a limited selection of cards and this may be presenting a Magic only strategy as the most viable option. The cards presented in their lineup are strong individually and ones I'd pick very frequently but this is not the ruleset to play to their strengths. Regardless of this, I am looking forward to the battle playing out.

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Battle Link here:

Round 1:

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Round 2:

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Round 3:

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Post Battle Thoughts:

Overall, I think the opponent used a bold Magic strategy that did not pay off. There was a big limitation with the Odd Ones Out ruleset so they may have been playing with a limited selection.

Personally I am glad my error of using the Scavo Hireling in the wrong position didn't have too much of an impact on the outcome. Overall though this was a pretty solid victory and I was glad of having the Djinn Apprentice against the Regal Peryton in the final round. Without whom, I may not have hit for another round or two!

With regard to the opponent and moving forward, I would suggest my opponent look into Neutral cards as they offer a really good alternative in the Odd Ones Out ruleset especially for Commons and Rares.

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Ability and Ruleset blurbs taken from Splintercards

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