Hello there.

This week's Social Media Challenge wants us to share a battle that we liked. We can also show a battle that has strategies and combinations. I decided to highlight a battle that is both something that I liked, and features combos and strategies.

The battle I chose is a Bronze Wild Tournament battle. In Wild battles, all cards can be used, so there is a lot of things to consider. Summoners and monsters as far back as Alpha and Beta can be faced in battle. Usually, it is best to use a flexible team that can win against a lot of different strategies.

Without further ado, let's get into the battle.

The Ruleset

For this battle, the rulesets are Aim True, Armored Up, and Equalizer. A 37 mana battle is slightly on the high amount. Only Fire, Water, Death, and Dragon elements are available, and I can think of a lot of different strategies for each so I will try to counter as much as I can.

The ideal team for Fire is Yodin with a bunch of Magic monsters. The blast can lower the backline's HP, and using magic can ignore the additional Armor. For Water, Bortus can actually be a good counter to the magic teams that can come up. Alric can deal a lot of damage. Possibilus is also an option when going with a Melee team. Oshannus is nice, but having 10 HP can backfire because of Equalizer. Death has a lot of good summoners to choose from. Thaddius counters the magic teams, Mimosa is good against both Magic and Ranged, while also stopping the healing which is popular in Equalizer. Astral Entity with a Void Armor monster front can be interesting. For Dragon, Delwyn is a good option, Kitty doesn't have too much of an edge because of Aim True. Lily with a taunt monster at the back can be good as well.

The Lineup

I didn't have a strong magic team, and I didn't want to get countered with Death that has a lot of anti magic teams. So I went with a Possibilus team that has a lot of support. I'm hoping my opponent uses some high HP monsters to push my monsters' HP higher so I can take advantage of my Tank Heal. I'm hoping the Shield ability of Dumacke Orc can give it enough survivability for my Coastal Sentry to safely attack from the second position.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

---

The Matchup

My opponent decided to go with a Tarsa team that had a lot of ranged attacks. I don't know if they meant to use Yodin, or if they didn't have it, but I was very thankful to not face a Yodin. They actually have a really fast team, but luckily there is the Aim True ruleset to keep me in the game.

My opponent used a lot of popular strategies. Exploding Rats in front to take advantage of the Equalizer and its high speed. Creeping Ooze and Clockwork Aide to really ramp up the speed difference. Dalthin Ironhood with the Weapons Training to make the Ooze and Clockwork, both not having any attack, gain range attack and be even more useful. The Ash Mirage can be a counter to Yodin teams.

I on the other hand opted with a more straightforward approach. Dumacke Orc with the Shield ability is a very good tank against physical attacks. Coastal Sentry together with Possibilus' Reach is safer in the second position and can deal a lot of damage. Scavo Hireling and Swamp Spitter can repair a lot of damaged armor. Merdaali can heal and take advantage of the Equalizer ruleset.

---

End of Round 1

The state of the battle at the end of Round 1 really shows the power of Shield against physical attacks. Since their attacks are only 2 [with the exception of Exploding Rats and Lava Launcher], they are only dealing 1 damage to Dumacke. With my double repair and heal support, Dumacke is still very healthy.

---

End of Round 2

From the end of Round 2, with my Dumacke's stats unchanged, I pretty much figured that the battle is over. They didn't have enough damage to go through my Shield. My Coastal Sentry on the other hand is dealing a lot of damage.

---

End of Round 3

By the end of round 3 I was thinking how the battle would have went if the opponent used Yodin instead. Would my team still come out on top? I remember that there is a simulation tool available, so I breezed through the rest of the battle.

---

End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised that this battle was such a stomp. I really liked this battle since I had a flawless victory, with no visible damage seen across my team. This reminds me that sometimes, keeping a team and strategy simple is best. My opponent had a lot of abilities like Slow, Swiftness, Headwind, and Blast, but at the end of it, sustain teams with a good front line tank can easily beat it.

Since I was curious about the Yodin matchup, I checked how the battle would play out if the opponent used Yodin in a simulation. https://xbot.app/battlevision offers this, and this was the result:

Since their original team used 36 mana, I replaced the Summoner with Yodin, and used a 2 mana monster instead. It shows that my team has a 100 percent chance of winning. I wasn't convinced with this overwhelming result, so I tried a little test to see if Weapons training works:

Well it looks like it isn't working for the tool yet. I guess I won't know the result yet. I have raised it to the Dev, and will probably update this post once it is fixed. If I am being honest though, if the opponent's team used Yodin, I think I would lose. The Weapons Training on Ooze and Clockwork saved a lot of mana. They have 9 total attack among the three, with just 12 mana cost. Add to that 2 blast damage each, then it becomes too much.

Update January 22, 2024

The battlevision tool was fixed, and Weapons Training should be working now. I ran the Yodin matchup again, and it was an overwhelming defeat for my team:

Welp. Yodin is one of the best summoners for a reason. Back to the drawing board on how to beat it.

The Result

---

Conclusion

In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, my opponent used a weird team composition. They used Tarsa with a lot of range monsters. In the end, the battle turned out to be a stomp, and it showed that simple is sometimes better.