Ruleset strategy.gif

Introduction

This week deep dive is armored up. Simple rule set that gives a lot of nice strategies and counter strategies.
In the beginning I only tried to counter it playing with magic. Now there are more viable options. Lets explore those strategies

Ruleset

As stated the ruleset is simple. All monsters get a +2 armor buff at the beginning of the game.

Official ruleset information from splinterlands: List-of-In-Game-Rulesets

Strategies / Abilities Synergies

This rule set synergies very well with monsters that have the void armor ability. In this case magic also need to get to the extra armor before hitting the health of the monster.
If combined with monsters that have protection it is another boost.

A somewhat less obvious synergy is with the resurrect . When a monster dies it gets again the two shields when resurrected.

I tend to also like monsters with poison in this case. While some monster have many shields with this rule set when poison lands it will drain there health each round.

Next up is rust is also bit of a counter in this case. it will take down the gained shields.
And then there is shatter shot when a monster is hit with this all shield are lost.
especially with, which I do not own 😌, , here everybody gets shattershot

Cripple has also benefits because even though the monster got shield it takes down 1 health or with double strike even two health.

Repair again another useful abilities to get some shields back

Last but not least monsters that have piercing have slight advantage as well. This mainly mend to not waist any attack points. when your enemy has 2 shield and you hit him with 3 attack point including piercing the enemy monster will lose the shields and still do one damage to their health.

I was a bit amazed while writing this that there so many options to boost or counter the effect of this rule set.

Select

First of all I like to play the summoner grandmaster rathe with this rule set. In this case all monster will have void armor.
Monsters like Deeplurker and Uraeus poison to get around the shield so those are also often in my team selection

Preferred teams

Really depended on other factors like:

Other rule sets
Mana cap
What you opponent is often playing
What cards and level do you own/rent

Here are some setups that I like to play. Viewed with the levels and stats that I own.

Summoner	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

I like this team setup the void armor of Grandmaster Rathe. sometime at taking along the Truthspeaker for more armor, this one I only got on level 1 so in gold not that useful

Summoner	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

When your opponent has no void armor protection the magic attacks will directly drain their health.

Summoner	#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

An poison play and some protection in the back and the resurrect to gain the extra 2 shields once more.

Avoid

This chapter remains empty. I have been thinking what I will avoid and there comes nothing in my mind. Even after a few days, I cannot come up with teams or monsters that I would not play. So if you have any suggestion which monster you would avoid with this rule set. I would love to learn also, so leave a comment with your suggestion.

Example battles

Click on the image to re-watch the battle

I Lose this battle, in this battle you can see that the resurrect heals the monster and also gains again 2 shields.

This battle show how you can avoid the shields by using magic attack especially Ever-Hungry Skull

The poison play as mentioned above, to pass by the shields.

Previous ruleset strategy posts

This is the first of a series. Below you will reference to other ruleset strategy / analysis posts.

Ruleset	Post
Briar patch	Ruleset post: Briar patch
Standard	Ruleset post: Standard
Aim True	Ruleset post: True aim
Aimless	Ruleset post: Aimless
Up to Eleven	Ruleset post: Up to eleven
Armored Up	This post