Hello, Splinterfam!
As you might know, the new season has just started and as always, I'm struggling to fight my back to Silver I of the Wild format. I've noticed it usually takes about 2-4 days to climb back up because by then most of the Gold League players have reached their league positions by then. Towards the end of the season, the battles should be more fun as I'm going to be head-to-head against real players instead of some quite strong bots.
In this week's Battle Mage Secrets I'm going share a Noxious Fumes battle in which I managed to make some pretty good choices. Noxious Fumes -ruleset means that all the monsters start the battle causing damage each round to every monster. However, there are some exceptions such as Immunity ability
Unfortunately, I don't currently have any cards with immunity so I had to come up with different strategies - let's call the first one, plan A. It involves my favourite summoner, ALRIC STORMBRINGER and his buff to boost all magic monsters with +1.
In my opinion, the use of magic is an excellent way to go with Fumes battles since it ignores armour (as does the fumes) and therefore makes my enemies perish before my own troops.
One other thing to consider in battles like this is the unit's health - the more hit points, the better. DJINN OSHANNUS here for example qualifies easily for the job having plenty of that(11).
Oshannus on level 2 is also a great monster defensively. Even though magic attacks always land on their target, Oshannus is able to dodge them using . Also, if they do manage to hit him, the damage will be cut in half by his
Djinn Oshannus is also pretty fast(5) which could become an important factor since my objective is to take down the opponent squad as fast as possible.
RIVER NYMPH is a very important piece of the puzzle. Her role in this battle is to work as a support unit for Djinn Oshannus.
Even though she has quite low health(3) and won't probably survive the fumes, her gift of Cleanse ability will make the tank before him immune to noxious fumes.
River Nymph is also pretty fast(3) and with Alric's boost, I am hopeful she will also deliver offensively and I can perhaps take advantage.
The next two monsters I chose mainly because of the magic firepower they offer but also because the choices were limited since Even Stevens ruleset was in play.
SEA GENIE wouldn't be one of my top picks since it has quite a high mana cost. Still, his +2 magic attack with the boost will actually be a pretty good addition to this battle.
ICE PIXIE is another monster who is here merely to fill the spot. Just like the Genie, she has the ability which is of course no help in the Fumes battle.
These two would be my top choices in the earthquake ruleset battle but found their way here cos of the lack of options.
Riverboat Captain is an okay choice in my opinion because his ability will also hurt the adjacent monsters of the target unit - once their hit points get low enough, the fumes will do the rest.
Now if all else fails, my plan B would be the famous GELATINOUS CUBE and its Scavenger ability. If the opponent shouldn't have monsters with Immunity, I'm pretty sure the Cube would be the last monster standing since its health keeps increasing with the high body count. Because of its high health points, Gelatinous Cube is also excellent in the last spot against opponent
Entering The Arena
Seems like my opponent also chose the Splinter and by looking at their units, they have decided to count on the speed of their monsters - to make it quick before the effects of poison will kick in.
- There are only four monsters on their squad but some of the units seem to be quite nasty ones. Just like me, they also have Djinn Oshannus but on a lower level so he doesn't have the Phase ability.
Diemonshark is always dangerous with its trample ability
- So is the Deeplurker who will be targeting my weaker units with opportunity
has lots of health(12) so on paper it would be a good choice for a Noxious Fumes battle but then again, hit points should come down when my monsters are forced to attack it because of the taunt ability
All in all an interesting setup! Now let's take a look at how it went down.
The Battle
You can watch the whole battle or/and continue reading my battle report below.
After a couple of attacks, the Deeplurker took out my weakest unit, the Ice Pixie. That was a loss indeed but we also managed to hurt the Wavebrood reducing its health hit points to 4 before the first fumes.
The fumes kicked in and once the poison was applied, all the units on both teams were still standing. That didn't last long as my Djinn Oshannus(who had been cleansed, btw) landed a massive magic attack on Diemonshark putting it out for good. The retaliation was immediate - Deeplurker found its next victim in River Nymph and she too was out.
Before the round ended, the Riverboat Captain defeated Wavebrood while also hurting Deeplurker with the Blast ability.
ROUND 3 & 4
Since quite a few monsters had died, the Gelatinous Cube was looking happy with 12 hit points. The third round fumes the killed Sea Genie, Riverboat Captain, and Deeplurker leaving the two to fight it out under the watchful eye of the cube.
It was pretty obvious that the one who needed to go was the opponent's Oshannus having no Phase and hadn't been cleansed.
I'm very pleased to see how my Plan A played out with the use of the ability. It doesn't matter if the monster with Cleanse dies as long as it gets a chance to use it even for once. Just like in this battle, the tank then gets to enjoy it throughout the whole battle - assuming he will stay alive.
As for Plan B, it's always good to have one and from this battle, I learned that I could've won against an even stronger opponent with this tactic. To counter this strategy is of course to use monsters with immunity ability. If they should get past my tank, the lonely cube wouldn't have a chance against The Forgotten One for example.
Thank you for reading!
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