HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to yet another week of the "new" iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges 😜. The "old" Battle Challenges are now a thing of the past (at least for now?) and they have been replaced with this week's "Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Ruleset Riddles".
For any old Hivers/Splinterlands players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.
In this week's edition of my Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Ruleset Riddles, I will do something drastically different from my usual battle showcases. Instead of war, I will become a peaceful teacher showing all new players how to most effectively navigate the topic of "Ruleset Riddles".
There are certain rulesets in Splinterlands that immediately make you stop, blink twice, and go, “Well… there goes my entire usual strategy.” For me, Reverse Speed is exactly that kind of rule bending chaos. It flips the script on everything I’ve internalized about turn order and tempo. In most matches, speed is king. We all know how crucial it is to land that first hit, dodge those incoming blows, and let your summoner buffs give you that precious early advantage. But Reverse Speed? It throws all that out the window and crowns the slowest monsters as the new MVPs.
I’ve always found Reverse Speed to be both infuriating and fascinating. It’s a perfect example of how Splinterlands keeps its players on their toes and reminding us that adaptability is more valuable than memorized strategy. And once you’ve really learned to love the slowness, this ruleset starts to feel less like a trap and more like an opportunity to outwit your opponent.
That being said, here's some tips and tricks from Yours Truly which will hopefully help any new player who comes across this guide. Read on to find out more! 😜
No matter! I present to you — Ruleset Riddles.
So without further ado, let me introduce how best to navigate this seemingly impossible task to you! 🎉
⚔️🛡️ Ruleset Riddles — The Reverse Speed Conundrum 🛡️⚔️
With all that being said, here is how I would advice ALL players on how you can capitalize on some of these simple strategies!
In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets... The Flash becomes as slow as a Tortoise. This is a reality in which the Tortoise most definitely won the Hare by a fair margin in the race and left him in the dust.
No matter! I present to you the ruleset — REVERSE SPEED 🐢🏃🏻💨
The game's description of REVERSE SPEED is as follows: "Monsters with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks."
This is actually a pretty straightforward ruleset. All you need to do is to think of your usual fast units as the slow ones now and vice versa. If you want to take out your opponent at breakneck speed, just stack your team with "speed 1" units and watch as they suddenly move at breakneck speed!
🌀 Understanding the Reverse Speed Ruleset
For those newer to the game: Reverse Speed means that the slowest monsters attack first. Miss chances also flip — faster monsters are more likely to miss slower targets. The result? Speed buffs become liabilities, and suddenly, all those 1-speed tanks and chonky melee brutes become the heroes you never appreciated enough.
This ruleset forces you to completely rethink your summoner and card choices. Monsters that are usually liabilities because of their sluggishness — think Lord Arianthus, Legionnaire Alvar, or Harklaw — become terrifyingly effective. You stop fearing the “slow” monsters, and instead, you start celebrating them.
The first few times I encountered Reverse Speed, I’ll admit I played it wrong. I instinctively reached for my usual speed buffs, my trusty Kelya Frendul, my fleet footed Ranged hitters. And every single time, I was punished brutally. My so called quick monsters whiffed attack after attack, while my opponent’s lumbering behemoths smacked me into oblivion. It was humbling.
But that’s the beauty of this ruleset: once you stop fighting it, you start mastering it.
🧙♂️ Crafting the Right Strategy
My approach to Reverse Speed now starts before the battle even begins, right at the summoner selection screen. The goal is simple: don’t boost speed. Ever. In fact, if possible, find ways to reduce your opponent’s speed advantage.
Here’s how I usually build for this ruleset:
1. Avoid Speed Buffs — Embrace Sluggish Summoners
Forget Kelya or Quix. In Reverse Speed, those +1 Speed buffs can doom your entire lineup. Instead, I turn to summoners like Thaddius Brood or Obsidian, who don’t touch speed but give other meaningful advantages.
Thaddius, in particular, is one of my favorites here. The -1 Magic and -1 Health work wonders in slower matches where big, tanky units can endure longer.
2. Prioritize Low Speed, High Health Monsters
Some of my personal go to picks:
Harklaw (Death): Great survivability with Shield and Immunity, plus a base speed of 1. That makes him the perfect anchor tank.
Legionnaire Alvar (Neutral): An absolute wall under Reverse Speed, and that Giant Killer often shines in slower, high mana matches.
Torhilo the Frozen (Water): Slow, sturdy, and with Void to counter Magic — the perfect anti meta tank for this ruleset.
Djinn Chwala (Dragon): The slow speed and Thorns combo make her deadly against melee heavy teams.
These units thrive in an environment where agility means nothing and endurance means everything.
3. Use Debuffs and Speed Reductions
If you can manipulate speed — do it "downward".
Cards like Creeping Ooze and Swamp Spitter can swing the match drastically in your favour. Even a single point of speed reduction can make an opponent’s monster too fast, thus causing them to strike later and miss more often.
4. Rethink Attack Types
Magic damage tends to shine here because it never misses. No matter how the speed order plays out. Combining the "previously fast but now slow" Magic hitters like Djinn Oshannus or Oshuur Constantia (if you’re lucky enough to have either of them) gives you reliable damage output in a ruleset where melee and ranged attacks can sometimes fumble.
⚔️ My Featured Battle: When Slow Won the Day
In one of my recent matches, the ruleset combination was Reverse Speed + Heavy Hitters. My opponent fielded a speedy Water team led by Kelya — a classic mistake under this ruleset. They had Deeplurker, Serpent of Eld, and Flying Squid — all respectable cards, but all too fast for their own good.
I, on the other hand, went with:
- Summoner: Thaddius Brood
- Frontline: Harklaw
- Second: Legionnaire Alvar
- Backline: Silent Sha-Vi and Dhampir Stalker for slow but heavy hitting ranged support
The result? Their entire frontline started missing attacks as my slowpoke bruisers landed every single hit. Harklaw barely took damage, and Alvar’s Giant Killer mowed through their midline. It was a textbook case of patience triumphing over pace.
The slower I went, the harder I hit — and the more satisfying it felt watching those “fast” monsters swing at air.
💡 Lessons and Insights for New Players
The main takeaway for new players is this: don’t fight the ruleset but lean into it.
Reverse Speed isn’t about doing what you normally do “but slower.” It’s about completely flipping your mindset.
If you usually chase speed buffs, this is your opportunity to test the opposite and see just how deadly “bad” stats can become when the rules change.
Also, don’t underestimate the psychological edge. A lot of opponents forget or misread the ruleset and build their teams on autopilot. If you’re paying attention and plan specifically for Reverse Speed, you’re already halfway to victory before the match even starts.
🧩 Final Thoughts — The Beauty of the Backward Battle
Reverse Speed is one of those rulesets that teaches humility. It’s a reminder that in Splinterlands, flexibility is as important as power. The best players aren’t the ones who memorize lineups but the ones who adapt instantly, who see an odd ruleset and smile because it’s a fresh puzzle to solve.
Personally, I’ve grown to love Reverse Speed. There’s something satisfying about watching the game’s forgotten monsters — the plodding, clumsy, tanky types — finally get their moment of glory. It’s like rooting for the underdogs in a world obsessed with speed and flashiness.
Every Reverse Speed match feels like a chess game in molasses — slow, deliberate, and oddly beautiful in its pacing. And when you finally win one by thinking slowly, it’s a feeling that never gets old.
💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭
I definitely can appreciate Ruleset Riddles and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those situations which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper strategies. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻
I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉
To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.
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