This week's Battle Mage Challenge is about the Odd Ones Out rule.
Splinterlands tells us the following about the Odd Ones Out rule:
Only units with odd mana costs may be used.
Summoners are not affected by this rule.
So this is one of the very straightforward rules. We can only use odd mana cost monsters. This also means no free monsters such as the chicken and the fiends.
Odd Ones Out does not remove particularly many Sneak monsters. In fact, relative the number of Sneak monsters compared to the total number of monsters available is higher than normal, so they are very likely to appear, at least at low/medium mana matches. Most Martyr monsters are also odd mana (the only exception being Vruz), so this is also something to keep in mind.
Incompatible Rules
Odd Ones Out is obviously incompatible with Even Stevens (there would be no monsters left to play with both rules). It is also incompatible with Little League.
Excluded cards:
The mana costs of the monsters in Splinterlands are distributed as following:
| Odd mana cost | Even Mana Cost |
|---|---|
| 250 | 240 |
Split by splinter and format we find the following:
| Odd Mana Wild | Even Mana Wild | Odd Mana Modern | Even Mana Modern | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fire | 38 | 38 | 28 | 29 |
| Water | 39 | 37 | 30 | 27 |
| Earth | 38 | 37 | 28 | 29 |
| Life | 42 | 34 | 31 | 27 |
| Death | 39 | 39 | 32 | 27 |
| Dragon | 22 | 19 | 16 | 12 |
| Neutral | 32 | 36 | 21 | 24 |
Apart from Life, the splinters are pretty balanced in terms of mana cost distribution between even and odd costs. This might indicate that Life is particularly good for Odd Ones Out matches.
My Battle : Odd Ones Out battle
My battle had the following configuration. Modern Champion league, 60 Mana. Rules Up to Eleven and Odd Ones Out. All colors except black were available.
A high mana match with most splinters available. Notably, Dragon can be picked, which is generally a very strong choice for high mana matches. The Up to Eleven rule is not particularly relevant, since high mana monsters generally are not that vurnerable against reflect damage, and there is no clear preference for attack type here. One could argue that magic damage is slightly favored at high mana, but high mana magic reflect monsters in modern matches are limited to the death splinter, which is not available here.
My lineup
My lineup was a classic Jacek build. A dodge frontline/tank, followed by a fast second position tank (this time I had Fineas Rage rented, but usually he could be replaced by a Radiated Brute.). The rest of the lineup was selected to give the highest damage output I could with my remaining cards.
Opponent's lineup
My Opponent went for a double martyr Void Dragon setup, and with Kitty on top to create a frontline that should be very tough to take down. The backline is a high damage setup, but split among different attack targets. The Ancient Redwood is a bit wasted because Kitty already gives True Strike to her units. I'd rather replace the Redwood by an Uloth Dhampir (same damage and health, but Stun and Triage instead of Reflection Shield )
Battle progress and Result
I got counterpicked here, and my strategy is dysfunctional against the True Strike provided by Byzantine Kitty. The only upside is that Jacek provides the same speed as Kitty, so I might be able to get a few hits in before my units starts taking damage. The battle has a relatively high randon factor due to the combination of the two Martyr units and my Scattershot from Jacek. If I dont hit the Martyr units early, I think the battle goes in my favor.
The battle starts by Fineas killing the Fungus Flinger, giving a Martyr stack to the Void Dragon. Annoyingly, the Dragon Jumper hits the stun on my Coeurl Lurker, so it doesn't get the chance to hit the Void Dragon. The remaining units do their attacks, but at the end my Gargoya Devil of course hits the Venari Marksrat and triggers the second Martyr.
Now the speed advantage is on his side. The Void Dragon strikes, followed by the Dragon Jumper. Retaliate from Fineas triggers, but misses due to the Flying ability. Now I'm in trouble. The Djinn Inferni hits and stuns the Void Dragon, and Tenyii Striker does slightly more damage to it, but not enough to finish it off. The Lava Launcher kills the Redwood.
Next round, the Dragon Jumper immediately kills Djinn Inferni, and Tenyii Striker misses the Void Dragon. Lava Launcher kills the Dragon Jumper, but loses all its armor from the Sand Worm attack.
Now, I stand no chance. The Sand Worm finishes the Lava Launcher, and Tenyii Striker is left with a hopeless task.
In the end this match did not go my way. According to Splintertools however, I had 50% winrate for this match, and indeed the random effects were not in my favor this time. So congratulations to Uthere for winning. Ill get them next time :)
Alternative lineups
Quix the Devious (Fire)
Immortalis
Grandmaster Rathe
Byzantine Kitty
Yodin Zaku
I hope you found this post interesting. If you did, you might also enjoy my other content.
Battle mage challenges
Battle Mage Challenge: Noxious Fumes
Battle Mage Challenge: Melee Mayhem
Battle Mage Challenge: Lost Magic
Battle Mage Challenge: Lost Legendaries
Battle Mage Challenge: Little League
Battle Mage Challenge: Keep Your Distance
Battle Mage Challenge: Holy Protection
Battle Mage Challenge: Healed Out
Battle Mage Challenge: Going the Distance
Battle Mage Challenge: Ferocity
Battle Mage Challenge: Fog of War
Battle Mage Challenge: Fire & Regret
Battle Mage Challenge: Explosive weaponry
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Best of luck in Splinterlands!
Kalkulus