A fun variant, took me a few runs to understand the strategy but then it was fairly smooth. I got 241 on my second completion, but I realized I could have squeezed a few points more out if I hadn't misspent one of my hp and remembered to kill a bat before the dragon.
Comparing it to Mamono Sweeper, I feel like this variant is a lot less predictable. This is good in that it opens up potential gambles and new strategies while MS pretty much always plays the same, but bad in that your starting cells extremely dictate how the match will feel. An early gnome or gold chest could catapult you ahead of the level curve, while an early witch, rat king, or bubble spell gets you a lot of information. Said information is extremely important, so early beholders can change starts a lot too.
With a larger grid I wonder if it would be more stable, either way it was a fun play.