A Splinterlands Guide to Near-Certain Defeat!

I'd like to start a discussion on tactics and strategies.

Each set of rules brings new challenges and successes but which splinters, abilities, and cards, are optimal for each?

I'm here to tell you before God and everybody that my rank and history stand as proof positive that I don't know.
However, once in a while I get lucky and from my own experience I'm trying to piecemeal something of a strategy guide for how to build for each current set of rules. This isn't going to be as simple as I'd like since the game is so dynamic, but where would be the fun in that anyway. The short of it is get ready for a clusterf**k of nonsense that I hope by the end will magically distill into something useful to both myself and everyone who enjoys the game. Actual expectations should be considerably lower.

Standard:

Getting the easy one out of the way first, the best splinter to use for the standard rule set is your strongest. Simply put, the absence of handicaps is when you get to shine, so bringing out your best team is just a no brainer. I actually feel kind of dumb for even saying it out loud, but in all fairness it has to be addressed. So, moving on in no particular order...

Back to Basics: Monsters lose all abilities.

It's been my experience that losing all abilities seriously empowers magic. Bypassing armor with no worries of void or reflect magic weakening your attack or flinging it back in your face seems to turn the match basically into a slugfest. It's all about who can deal the most damage the fastest. It doesn't always work, as nothing ever does in Splinterlands, but I seem to have the best luck leading with Peaceful Giant and whatever hard hitting mages I can hide behind him. Obviously, I'd recommend a summoner that boosts magic attacks, and if you're lucky enough to have an appropriate level Epic summoner, the other buffs can make all the difference, although that can really be said for any set of rules or match for that matter.

Broken Arrows: Ranged monsters can not be used in battle.

This one is definitely trickier than the previous sets of rules for a few reasons. Unlike standard, wherein you get to pick from your most powerful cards, or Back to Basics, wherein you need to focus only on hitting and staying power, Broken Arrows enhances some cards at the expense of others. I haven't yet figured out exactly which of the remaining attacks it lends to most, however, so prepare for a spoonful of that nonsense I promised earlier.

If you have at least mid-level cards, specifically something that can poison, I'd recommend that. Since melee and magic still have the same handicaps from abilities such as thorns, shield, reflect magic, and void, something that automatically does damage each round can win he match for you even after the poisoner has died. That, also, tends to be a decent tactic for most sets of rules, but so far, even though there are ranged monsters that poison, I think there's more melee and equal magic options so broken arrows is a good place to take advantage of them.

Healed Out: Monsters lose all healing abilities.

This one is actually one of the simpler rule sets for me, personally, but everyone has there own angels and demons. The fire splinter is one of my strongest, if not the strongest, splinter I play, and the only healer I'm aware of for it is Cerberus and he's not strong enough to get a lot of play outside of specific rule sets so the no healing handicap generally doesn't really affect my choice of cards when playing with the fire splinter. Unless your fire splinter is just too weak to compete I recommend it over all others for this rule set. However, if it isn't up to speed you aren't just completely sh*t out of luck! The Death Splinter is also more or less without a healer. However, in this case the no healing handicap does complicate my choice of cards. I rarely play the Death splinter without leading with Haunted Spirit. Magic reflect and healing make it a formidable opponent to drop into the tank position so losing half of what makes it such a great card means the same general death splinter lineup is throw askew. I wouldn't call that a problem, though, if you're adaptive. There are several other really good tanks that can step in and take the day if they have a good team behind them.

Earthquake: Non-flying monsters take 2 melee damage each round.

This one threw me off a little at first but I think I have a good idea of a few different ways to navigate it.

First off, it's important to point out the damage type is melee. At first I didn't realize that it would hit armor first, so I was focused on tactics that implemented monsters that just didn't have to worry about that damage. At first, I did ok, but someone else figured out that heavily armored monsters on the ground can be just as effective and more-so with the right build, so I'll talk a little about both approaches.

If you're going to go the flying route, and mana caps allow, I believe fire and death splinters are the way to go. Both have enough flying creatures to build a decent team that isn't susceptible to earthquake damage and avoidance is obviously preferable. If you have to have creatures on the ground find something with armor and health to compensate for the earthquake, rather than buff or abilities since they generally won't be sticking around long enough for them to have a significant effect. That's not to say a brief boost in speed or health, or loss of it, can't make a difference but if it can't make the difference in one or two rounds I think it's best to focus on staying power. If you can build a team that can just take enough abuse to wait it out the quake can do your work for you.

If you're looking into the armored approach, you're in luck because Earth, Life and Water all have monsters with protect. Extra armor points go a long way during earthquake. Having said that, I think if you have the right monsters, Life is the way to go. Obviously, the Life splinter has the most armored options to choose from and a summoner that gives a boost to them, but if you can sneak in an Armor smith somewhere without sacrificing another serious monster, the results can be delightful! The real gift is the way even one point of armor can deflect infinite damage (in this specific case, anyway), so each monster you can keep a single point of armor on will ignore part of the earthquake damage each round and suffer minimal health loss if any (from earthquake) throughout the match.
That isn't to say, however, that the Earth splinter is any less impressive here. If you can drop a Spirit of the Forest into play and get that armor boost along with tank heal you're looking good. You're already ahead of the curve because she flies, and I find she shines (for me) more than about any other card during an earthquake match.

Up Close and Personal: Only melee monsters may be used in combat.

I find this set of rules to be among the most limiting, but that also makes it pretty straight forward. Anything that boosts (or reduces for your opponent) melee attacks, health, armor or speed, is a big help here. With no ranged or magic to contend with the need for a lot of abilities is cast right out the window. No void or spell reflect to consider narrows down your tank choices considerably. Death and Fire seem like the obvious splinters for this set of rules for obvious reasons. You get a buff (or debuff) of the only damage type right out of the gate. That's a sweet deal! Both have a melee poisoner and a melee sneak attack to that match up nicely with an Elven Cutthroat, and although not unique to those teams, both have a monster with reach. Even at high mana caps one can have a line up of monsters that don't have to wait until the tank is killed in order to act. I've seen people do well with other splinters for this rule set, but these are the two I tend to do the best with. Occasionally I can hold my own using a Flesh Golem from the Earth splinter, but Fire and Death are my go to.

Melee Mayhem: Melee monsters can attack from any position.

When I first saw this set of rules I, how can I say it somewhat discreetly, almost had an adult accident... you know, down in my jeans. It was very exciting. After seeing how creative some players are, however, this, too, became a challenge. At first glance it seems simple. Throw your strangest melee card up front and then the nest and the next and the next and just hack your way through your opponent. Then I got high enough on the leaderboard to unlock thorns. This just broke my heart. My best melee monsters often kill themselves in this rule set, so as a result I've come to the conclusion that this rule set is a trick. You think you should just send in ogres with axes and hammers, but while they're essentially trying to break down the gate by banging their heads against it, the opponent using the same basic strategy for Standard Rules can do quite well. Make sure your tank can take (or avoid) a lot of damage, either by healing, or high health or speed and armor, and focus on damages that ignore armor or do blast damage. Since melee thus far has the most poisoners you may consider dropping a monster with the Cleanse ability into your team if you have the option, but shield and thorns seem to be among the most useful abilities for these rules.

Silence Summoners: Summoners grant no buffs or debuffs.

I think this is as straight forward as the Standard rule set. The summoner buffs are nice, unless you're considering legendary summoners, in which case they're F**KING SWEET, but over all only add nominal benefit to a given match. Earth and Life splinters seem to be the hardest hit by this one as they are the only summoners with buffs that affect a team in it's entirety, but they both have monsters that can compensate for the loss so it isn't a hindrance so much as an inconvenience. For this set of rules I think just going with your strongest splinter will be as likely to get you a win as any other.

Weak Magic: Magic hits armor before reducing health.

I find Life and Earth to be the best suited splinters for this set of rules. Both have monsters that give a boost to armor and have a tank healer, so with any luck you can keep your front man fighting strong for a good portion of the match, giving plenty of time to focus on the rest of the team. Again, Spirit of the Forest is a seriously functional monster for this rule set. Armor, tank heal, and snipe, can all lend heavily to success here. If you're a Lifer, though, you're likely equally as comfortable with the extra armor from both your summoner and Defender of Truth, so really the only ability that can cause you serious problems is piercing. If you can negate that with a quick kill, or high health (or obnoxiously regular healing, this rule set is generally not much of a handicap.

I feel like I'm forgetting something, but I can't say what it is so I'll bring it back around to mana caps before I sign off.

I suspect it's the same for everyone, but low mana caps completely wreck me. With a high mana cap it's relatively easy to build a decent team that can at least put up a decent fight before going down weeping in a ball of flames, but low mana caps deserve a guide on their own. I can't say I can speak intelligently on how to win any match with low mana caps, but the best luck I've had is using splinters that have low cost monsters with good abilities. My tank rarely changes and that always eats up a huge reserve of the mana I have to spend, but my experience doesn't justify a Cockatrice tank, so I work around the best I can. Most of the time I use a tank with healing and slip in another healer before something with sneak attack or ranged that has blast. Since there's no room for a lot of monsters here, killing even one very quickly can cripple a team and end the match quickly, even by low mana standards, but speed seems to come in really handy for me here, too, since low mana cards generally have low health, one or two points of speed can really make a difference in a monsters staying power so dodge is also worth considering.

That's all I have for now. This is not intended, or successful, as an all inclusive guide to Splinterlands. It's just my thoughts on some things one might take into account when trying to rise on the leaderboard. If anyone has other tactics or strategies that have worked for them I'd love to see it in the comments. Also, if you got anything thing out of this, be it information or entertainment (I don't know how your dysentery is caused or exacerbated by this so I won't take any responsibility on that front), please consider re-steeming, following, etc. I don't think my ramblings are worth getting paid for, but it would be nice if it reached enough people interested in the game to get a dialog going of different approaches and tactics.

Edit: I'll release a follow up as time permits to cover the rule sets I left out and the new rule set Armored up! I'm loving this one but sadly it makes me over confident using the Life splinter. More soon!

If you want to know more about Splinterlands (a.k.a. STEEM Monsters) go to:
https://steemmonsters.com/

If you'd like to get in the game using my affiliate code it's:
https://steemmonsters.com?ref=sinistry

As always, Thanks for letting me rant!