Hello there.
Today I'll share my battle under the Super Sneak ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, all melee monsters gain the Sneak ability. This affects monsters with two attack types, and both attacks will be on the last position monster. I do find it interesting that while Sneak is available to all attack types, this ruleset only affects melee monsters.
In this ruleset, I expect my opponent to use a lot of melee monsters, since they usually have higher stats than the others. With that in mind, I think abilities that can buff, debuff, or affect melee monsters are important. Abilities like Demoralize, Inspire, Thorns, and Protect are good options. One can even use Triage to try and heal some of the damage. One can even try to evade the damage altogether by using fast monsters and Flying/Dodge abilities in the last position.
I believe that being flexible in battle is the ideal strategy. Check the opponent's history, check what they are most likely to use, and counter it. But always pick teams that can also counter different strategies. Without further ado, let's get into the battle.
The Ruleset
This was a tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with Corrosive Fog, Super Sneak, and Armored Up Rulesets. A 50 mana battle is on the high amount, and only Water, Earth, and Life are available. I can think of a lot of different strategies for each so I will try to counter as much as I can.
For Water, a Kelya team is an option, with the additional speed making the team attack faster, while also possibly making the opponent's attack miss. The extra armor can buy more time against the corrosive fog, and makes the team retain an armor if the enemy uses a Rust ability. Oshannus in front can be good to counter slow or magic attacks. Disintegrator can be good to lower the enemy attack, then use a lot of magic monsters to ignore the extra armor. Some monsters like Nerissa Tridawn can be good.
For Earth, Immortalis is really good. Not only can it deal with the extra armor because of its shatter, but it can also counter magic teams that will be the norm because of the armored up. Regal Peryton at the back can quickly shatter the armor, while also being a good tank against sneaks because of its high speed. Because of the high mana, one can go hybrid damage with magic and Grund, or focus on either one.
For Life, it can be an uphill battle because Sloan's teams are hindered by the extra armor. The Super Sneak also makes the low HP range monsters easy targets. With the option of magic teams on the table, both front and back are not safe, and it can be a coinflip. A magic team with Iziar can be an option though, but they might be lacking on the summoner department.
The Lineup
For me, against the lineups I mentioned above, I'd rather go with a Quora team. It is difficult to predict whether my opponent will go with a magic front to back team, or a melee sneak team. So I just decided to try and work around both. I have Terraceous Grunt in front, and Lioceros at the back. Grund is my secondary front tank, with Disintegrator as my secondary sneak tank. Quora and Mycelia are in the middle where they can be safe. I still opted for Mycelia's armor, in case my opponent goes with a cheeky Noa team with Coastal Sentry. I think Obsidian will be my biggest problem, but since Immortalis is available, there is little chance of that.
The Battle
The Matchup
My opponent decided to go with an Immortalis team that I did not expect. They went with a very weird, mixed damage team. They have Thane Newsong, but Grund is the only melee monster. Then they have the taunt+support setup of Slipspawn, Goblin Psychic, and Spirit Hoarder. I am not a big fan of this during Super Sneak and high mana, since there is just too much damage available. They finished their team with Ancient Redwood, a card I don't see very often. Apart from Grund and Redwood, they are lacking a bit in damage, which is what can be expected from an Immortalis team. I'm hoping my team can kill a lot of monsters quickly.
End of Round 1
Terraceous Grunt only lasted 1 round, but I think that is enough. We were able to bring down the Slipspawn to a low enough HP where Quora can get the kill. I think they might have made a mistake on their placement of the Redwood and Hoarder, since Hoarder will be easy pickings once Slipspawn is down. I'm just hoping Grund can survive long enough for Quora to wreak havoc on the backline.
End of Round 2
My Grund survived with 1 HP, and I think that can make a lot of difference. We were able to kill the Slipspawn with Quora which gave it a bloodlust stack. Hoarder is dying soon, and they are slowly losing damage. This is looking really good so far.
End of Round 3
Grund and Redwood can really pack a punch. They were easily able to bring my Quora to low HP, but unfortunately I think it is a little too late. If they were able to put Quora in front 1 turn earlier, they would be favored to win, but with both their damage dealers low, this is looking like a win for me.
End of the Battle
From looking at the lineups at the start of the battle, I was pretty confident that had a high chance of winning. I usually think that the Earth summoners are like rock paper scissors. Obsidian beats Lobb Lowland, Lobb beats Immortalis, and Immortalis beats Obsidian. Immortalis can lack the damage to kill Quora. Checking the simulation of the battle in the battlevision, I was surprised to see that I had like a 20 - 30 percent chance to win. I replayed the battle, and I can't believe that their Grund missing against my Grund [1 speed difference] ended up being the pivotal moment of the battle. That miss let my Quora get another bloodlust stack and deal a good chunk of damage to Redwood. If they didn't miss there, I would have lost. I guess my confidence was wrong, and I just got lucky with the win.
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 team composition that I didn't expect. I thought it was an easy win but it turned out that I just won because of luck. I have been on the other side a lot of times, so I'll just appreciate the times that I do have luck on my side. I'll gladly take this win.
Thanks for sharing! - @mango-juice
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Thank you bhattg and sagarkothari88