Lesley, one thing you are going to want to watch out for when you get into the mud is if your opponent starts to build up too much energy in the ground state. Here, I recommend Feynmann's approach where you renormalize to neutralize all of that energy. Among physicists, Feynman had the greatest promise as a mud-wrestler. However, he refused to dirty himself. If that didn't leave him without a stain on his character, I don't know what did leave him without one. Among the classicists, Newton would have you wear down your opponent a little bit at a time, whereas Lagrange's approach would be to take the path to victory in one fell swoop. Going further back there's Archimedes' gambit, but I think it's a violation to bring a lever into the mud pit now.