The topic of this week's Community Engagement Challenge is "Tutorials and Tips from the Community". You can write about whatever you want related to any part of the game's economy as long as it is helpful for any new/returning players or just players in general. What I've decided to write about is a brief overview on how to tackle the different modifiers and what cards are most optimal to use on each occasion. As I am a Champ-level player, I will go over the Modern cards at max level, however, for each modifier I will also make suggestions for an optimal Frontier line-up, where there are actually enough Frontier cards to cover the modifier, as some modifiers are not really applicable to the Frontier mode in general. I will also not cover 100% of the them but those which are actually impactful to the game-play strategy, as not all of them really are.
- The first modifier we are starting with is Aimless:
The general strategy for aimless is that you should emphasize on faster Ranged/Magic attack units with larger HP pools, and remember that all Ranged/Magic attackers will ignore any units with Taunt you may have. So, if you rely on the enemy focusing all their attacks on your Taunt unit, that won't work unless the enemy is going with an all-melee team. There are a lot of units which fit this description in the current Modern pool so I won't go over them in detail, but I'll say that the preferable Archons for this ruleset are Lorkus (for Magic attack units), Risqruel Drath for the Ranged ones, Nidhoggr for that mayhem that it could create whether you choose Blast or Execute as the additional ability. For the Frontier mode - the teams I would go with are Death, Water or Fire for this one, of course it all depends on what Elements are available and what cards you have. A stacked Water team can do a lot of damage, on the other hand the Death team can bring down the HP of the enemy team by 2 and make the units easy Scattershot targets. This modifier generally involves a lot of RNG so you might bring your A game and still lose.
- Next is Aim True:
Aim True is a modifier which complete negates the RNG related to attacks missing because they are affected by Speed or abilities such as Dodge, Flying, Evasion. So, when Aim True is active you should avoid relying on units which are generally hard to hit as that will obviously not work. This also means that units that generally tend to miss (due to their slow Speed) a lot can be utilized to a larger degree, so that could alter your strategy a bit. Again too many units in Modern to list. As far as Frontier goes, Aim True does not really affect the meta that much. Yes both players will post maybe very similar teams and RNG won't be a deciding factor when it comes to hitting things. Probably the "who goes first" RNG will be the one to settle the dispute. I would avoid playing Fire in this case probably as Fire relies on Speed which also brings the higher chance to dodge attacks in general, and that is negated.
- Armored Up
Armored Up is an interesting modifier as it can bring out different strategies depending on the occasion. It definitely gives a boost to strategies which utilize Armor in an offensive way - for instance Armored Strike with Elias or other units with Armored Strike in other Elements, or defensive plays with units with Void Armor. As far as Frontier goes - I would probably rely on Water or Death for this one as the Armor will protect my units from Melee/Ranged Attacks and my Magic attacks will go through unmitigated. There is just 1 unit in all Frontier which has Void Armor right now.
- Back to Basics
Back to Basics is probably the "most boring" modifier in the game as it takes out all the fun out of the different units, especially out of maxed units as they have the most abilities available to them. However, even though it's boring, it does not mean there's no strategy to it. The strategy can vary depending on the other modifiers, available elements and mana cap. Generally "Magic Spam" is most successful, paired with Archons which boost the Magic damage such as Lorkus, or Archons which give you an edge with extra attacks - such as Akane. Other strategies are also possible such as giving 3 divine shields to your first 3 units with Tofu, or going all out Ranged attacks with Drath. Again it all depends on the additional modifiers if any. As far as Frontier is concerned, I would probably go Water or Death most of the time when Back to Basics is active but variations are possible depending on the occasion.
- Born Again
Born Again is an impactful modifier as it enables strategies which rely on using units with "on death" effects be even more impactful as well as units with a lot of Armor for instance (especially if they have Void Armor). In Modern Born Again has only one major counter and that is the Death unit - Craniax. He's great at totally ruining all opponent strategies which involve on death effects which are not only limited to buffs but also to stuff such as Trample, Blood Lust, etc. Basically every that involves a unit dying for it to trigger. In Frontier mode I don't find the modifier that impactful but again it could be helpful if you have units with more Armor which could survive a lot longer (unless the enemy has Magic attacks). It's all situational and not that strategic.
- Briar Patch
Briar Patch is definitely a strategy-altering modifier. It generally encourages players to use a more Ranged/Magic attack heavy line-up instead of Melee, however, units with Deflect for instance, do not suffer any damage from Thorns. You can also use units which provide Deflection to the units next to them such as Fizbo, Deep Delver and Umbral Elemental. In Frontier, there is not much you can do to mitigate the impact other than just avoid playing all the Sneak/Opportunity melee attackers and focus on a good tank and a Ranged/Magic set-up. Probably Earth is a good one as well in addition to the usual suspects - Death and Water.
- Counterspell
This one is pretty self-explanatory as with Briar Patch, this time Magic attack units should be mostly avoided. Of course the same thing applies to the strategy here as well - if the unit has Deflect or is given Deflect by a unit with Deflection Shroud, then it has no issues being played when this modifier is active. This is also partially true for units with Void and Void Armor as the take less damage from the reflection or they take damage in the form of Armor, so that could definitely also be useful when setting up your team. In Frontier there's only one Magic attacker with Deflect in the whole set and it's at a higher level in the Water element. So generally I would say that it's a good idea not to go heavy on Magic attacks when this modifier is active.
- Earthquake
Earthquake is another very impactful modifier. It can literally destroy your team if you are not prepared for it, or on the other hand elevate it to the next level, if you have devised a decent strategy. So, there are a few things which could be done when Earthquake is active. You can go with a "Flying" set-up where most of your units have Flying - by using the Dragon element for instance or by using Drath as an Archon, as he grants all your units flying. On the other hand you can go with beefy units with a lot of Armor with Tofu and utilize Tofu's Snare ability to remove the Flying from your opponent's units. You can also rely on units with a lot of Armor and Armor-enhancing abilities, and bring even more armor to the battle by using an Archon such as Elias, on the other hand you can counter the Armor-heavy line-ups by using units with Rust. Another strategy Conclave Arcana has brought to the table is to stack units with Painforge and allow them to take damage from Earthquake, which will boost their damage significantly especially if they can survive a few rounds. That can scale pretty quickly if you have more of them in your line-up.
Well I think I will end the first part of the overview here and continue it the next time we have the same topic because I think it will get too long. I like keeping my posts relatively short so they are not tedious to read.
Over and Out,
Referral
Thanks for sharing! - @mango-juice
