Old cards, new life #3 – new battle rulesets
There was a time when there were no rulesets, all battles were Standard (No modification to the standard gameplay rules and mechanics), and this made everything very predictable. After some time playing it was easy to feel bored.
But then the rules were introduced and the game took on a much wider dimension and depth.
For example, one of the strongest summoners is Prince Rennyn, who had his power reduced (nerfed) as we explained in the first article.
However, even with this reduction, he was still dominating the scene in most battles.
Then the: Broken Arrows (Ranged attack Monsters may not be used in battles) and: Healed Out (All healing abilities are removed from Monsters and Summoners), were introduced that were not suitable for this summoner and helped to balance a bit.
Sometime later the Close Range (Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battles), benefited all ranged attack cards, for example, the Spirit of the Forest, was even more amazing in this rule, can even be used as a tank, as you can see:
Of course, the advantage or disadvantage for certain cards only occurs in that specific rule, but the mere fact that the rule exists already increases the value of a card to some extent.
Now the last two updates we had with new rulesets clearly show this aspect:
Equalizer (The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health) and Heavy Hitters (All Monsters have the Knock Out ability).
The Equalizer ruleset made many underused cards a lot stronger, for example, Exploding Dwarf, Furious Chicken (especially maxed out one, because it can use Enrage), Enchanted Defender, Fallen Specter, Screaming Banshee, Vampire, Brownie, etc.
And generally speaking all 1-2 mana cards / all cards with good abilities/attack but low base HP.
In this example we can see an Exploding Dwarf with an incredible 13 HP quickly devastating all the enemies it faces:
Meanwhile, Heavy Hitters made all cards with the Stun ability better, especially the fast ones like Spark Pixies, Lightning Dragon or Soulstorm, but many other cards like Stone Golem, Medusa, Dwarven Wizard, Dark Enchantress, Cyclops, among others, excellent weapons to be used in this rule.
Thus new rulesets can resize the value and power of certain cards, change the dynamics and mechanisms of battles, and force players to update themselves and recreate their usual strategies if they want to remain competitive.
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Search source and Images: @splinterlands