We know that season 3 is going to have a huge shift in the way battles are conducted. We are testing these out in the mavericks room before they go live.
Each battle is going to have a different rule set, mana cap, and splinter availability. You'll have some time to pick your team based on the settings for this one match. If you don't pick your team in time, then you surrender the match and lose automatically.
So it's good to have an idea of some general strategies based on the different rules we know about.
As of this writing, 2018-11-22, here are the rule sets that I have seen and some thoughts on each.
Game Rules
This is not an exhaustive guide of rule strategy, merely an introduction. After all, what do you do when your opponent has the same constraints? Will you adapt to what you think your opponent is going to do or just optimize based on what you have? Welcome to game theory!
Lost Legendaries
All legendary monsters are unavailable. For a lot of teams this doesn't make so much of a difference. The biggest loser here is probably earth teams because Spirit of the Forest is such an often-used monster.
Melee Mayhem
Melee fighters can attack no matter where they are in position. For offense, fire is your go-to splinter here because of Malric's +1 melee buff. If you are more defense-minded, then death with Zintar's -1 melee debuff is the move. Also, monsters that have an inspire buff like the Enchanted Pixie are huge benefit.
Taking Sides
This is basically just playing under alpha rules. If you are heavily reliant on neutrals, this will be a tough one. More complete decks will have the advantage over those that are neutral-heavy.
Back to Basics
This is one of the more interesting battle modes to me. With no abilities all attacks are focused on the front line. So your summoner buffs become really important and your tanks better tank!
Water does very well here with Alric's +1 magic buff because there is no void or magic reflect abilities to stop the attacks.
Consider double-tanking with DPS in the rear. Remember, there is no sneak or snipe to take out your back line.
Silenced Summoners
Summoner buffs are gone. So use your low-mana epic summoners to get that extra point for monsters.
Rise of the Commons
I love this mode. I think too many commons and rares get ignored, but this is their chance to shine!
A lot of the good tanks are rare, so no problem there. On offense, you'll get a lot of bang for your buck with the cheaper common DPSers.
I also think the name could be better. Maybe Peasant Uprising or Attack of the Plebs
Super Sneak
All melee fighters have sneak. Your back line needs to have self-heals, retaliates, and/or thorns.
Aim True
You know how annoying it is when you can never hit Cockatrice or Spirit of the Forest? Well, this is your chance! Those slow movers won't miss anything in this mode. Slow moving monsters like Frost Giant really have their day here. Snipes are also very effective in this mode.
Standard
Regular rules here. Proceed as normal.
And that's all the game rules I have seen so far. Not to say there won't be more or less in the coming weeks and months.
Mana Levels
The other 2 constraints are mana levels and splinter availability.
High mana
High mana matches are lots of fun because you get to see all the mana-expensive monsters like Rexxie and Hydra. Keep that in mind when forming your teams that there are going to be opponents with lots of abilities.
Low mana
Low mana is obviously the inverse of high mana. I see two types of teams here. One type has one or two high-mana monsters, and the other loads up on the cheapies. Sometimes your opponent's battle history will give you a clue here.
Splinter Availability
There's not much to say here except that there are frequently 1 to 3 splinters disabled. So if you have a narrowly specialized deck, then you're going to have some trouble when that splinter is disabled.
Add Your Thoughts
Any mavericks out there have additional thoughts? Share them in the comments!