Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Ruleset Revelations - Holy Protection

5 days ago

Hello all Splinters,

This is my entry for the Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge 👍. This week's theme is Ruleset Revelations, where you can share your strategy with the Ruleset. I think random Rulesets make the Splinterlands game unique. Each battle is a small challenge when you need to find a strategy to win the battle in 2-3 mins. No battle is repeated because your opponents and rulesets are different for each batle. This small challenge has kept me playing this game for more than 4 yearsbattle

Today, I would like to share with you my strategy for Holy Protection ruleset. This ruleset gives all the monsters the Divine shield, that protects monsters from 1 attack. After receiving one attack, this divine shield will be destroyed and your monsters take damage as normal.

1. The ruleset

Here is a brawl battle with Holy Protection ruleset

27 mana cap - an average mana cap battle
Unprotected - no more shield for all monsters, Holy Protection and Stampede - the Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the trampled Monster is killed.
Light and Death Splinter can not be used in this battle.
Additional - this is a brawl battle with Bronze League cap, and only GF cards can be used.

In the battle with Holy Protection Ruleset, I would like to apply some approaches as below

Use monsters with Double Strike and/or Blast skills, which helps to clear Divine shield of opponent monsters
Fill up all the positions on the battlefield. The more monsters you have, the better.

2. My team lineup

With these rulesets, I decided to use Water Splinter in this battle.

Summoner		I only have 2 Water summoners that can be used in this battle - Pembrook Nymph and Kelya Frendul. I chose Pembrook Nymph to get 1 additional HP for all my monsters. You can also use Kelya Frendul to get 1 additional speed and do earlier attacks. Shield is not helpful with Unprotect ruleset.
1st position		Chaos Agent - this monster only costs 1 mana. I put him in this position with the hope he can avade some melee attacks with his *Dodge* skill
2nd position		Venari Marksrat - to enjoy the benefit from Martyr skill.
3rd position		Musa Saline - I like her because she costs only 3 mana but has the Scavenger skill. With the buff from Martyr, she will be more powerfull in the late stage of the battle
4th position		Pelacor Bandit - an old monster and still very useful in the Brawl with low mana and high speed.
5th position		Isgald Vorst - a powerful Gladiator costs only 5 mana.
6th position		Riverboat Captain - I chose him because of this *Blast* skill.

3. The battle

You can click on this link to watch the battle

My opponent also chose the Water Splinter in this battle, with Alric Stormbringer as the Summoner. Coastal Sentry was placed in the first position, equipped with the Double Strike ability, while Riverboat Captain held the backline with the Blast skill. The downside of this lineup is that it relied on high-mana monsters, which limited the team to only three units on that side.

Round 1 - Chaos Agent was immediately killed by Coastal Sentry with Double Strike. However, all the opponent monsters lost the Divine Shield while I still had 3 monsters with it.
Round 2 - Both Coastal Sentry and Riverboat Captain in opponent team were killed in a short time, while my team only lost Venari Marksrat
Round 3 - opponent only has 1 monster left on the battlefield vs. 4 monsters in my team. My team could easily finish the battle

After rewatching this battle, I think Kelya Frendul can be more suitable in this battle. My team could do an earlier attack, and Chaos Agent had a higher chance to evade the attack. Pelacor Bandit also could be put in the last position in the battlefield to protect Riverboat Captain from any Sneak monsters.

This is the benefit of rewatching the battle. I can analyze and find a better teamline up to get higher win rate.