One of the most chaotic and unpredictable rule sets for me is the Earthquake. What this rule set does is it deals 2 damage to all units on the battlefield at the end of every round.
Truthfully, I'm really annoyed and agitated whenever I see this rule set come up in the battle. But even if that's the case, it's also interesting to see what strategy my opponent comes up with to combat Earthquake. And of course, I also adapted and picked up some tricks to increase my chances of surviving.
Health and Healing
First off, the most straightforward way to outlast Earthquake would be having units with very, very high health. What I would also sometimes do is tuck away a very chunky unit in the middle or far back of my team just so it's safe from direct enemy attacks and hope that my enemies would die faster than my own units. The race of Ulunds is currently the ones who have absurdly high health like Warwall Juggernaut and the Ulundin Overseer. I like the Overseer the most because it already has 12 health even at just the first level.
Alternatively, having units with Heal is also an effective way to mitigate the damage from Earthquake. The new Frontier unit, Dread Tafarian is a good example of this, where it can heal away the regular penalties of this rule set.
One of the downside to this strategy though is that you can only pull this off in a high mana matchup. This is because units with high health and Healing are typically expensive to include in your team. And forcing these units into low to mid mana battles will just end with them being the focus of the enemy's attacks.
Take Flight
Probably the most popular way to mitigate Earthquake is to include Flying units in your team. Basically, those with Flying are unaffected by Earthquake since they are not touching the ground. There's also a wide array of monsters with Flying, with varying mana cost. But personally, what I like to use the most is Night Reaper since I am fond of the Dragon element. But the true number one solution to Earthquake would be using Risquel Drath because it gives Flying all allied units regardless of what you pick. That would make Earthquake a one-sided disadvantage to your opponent.
And since Flying is an expected answer against Earthquake, opponents might think one step ahead and prepare against your Flying units. There are two abilities that directly counter Flying. Those are Snare and Wingbreak. Snare removes Flying and the ability of units to dodge attacks. But a deadlier ability against Flying would be Wingbreak. Wingbreak equipped units actively attacks Flying enemies first and deal an additional 2 damage to them. That's a heavy blow.
Armor up
Finally, we have armor. Since Earthquake is a physical attack, having armor blocks that damage. Archons like Fithe Bladestone give 2 armor to all allied units. This protects your units from one round of Earthquake penalty. You can also include those who have the Protect ability which gives 2 armor to all allies. Nimbledook Explorer and Silverblade Fighter are some that I usually go to for this. IF you also include Repair to your strategy, it can really help you outlast your opponent.
Armor is also counterable with abilities like Rust and Corrosive Ward. You can also employ this tactic if you think the enemy would also deploy heavily armored units. If you are using Death element, this goes nicely with reducing their health to ensure that Earthquake would have a heavier effect on them than yours.
Those are a few of the strategies I've seen and realized while playing in ranked mode. There might be more that I haven't included so feel free to comment them below.
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