BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge Featuring CLOSE RANGE By affliction

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Hello Fellow Hivers!
Hope all of you are having a great weekend.
Today, I am back again to talk about a Splinterlands battle featuring the rule set CLOSE RANGE
If you are not sure what Splinterlands is, make sure to give this articles a read and at the end you will find some information to get started with the game.

ABOUT THE RULE SET:

Monsters with ranged attacks are allowed to attack in the first position.

In our last week's post, we spoke about battle featuring BROKEN ARROWS where we are not allowed to use any ranged monsters. Whereas this week, we will be talking about a battle featuring the rule set CLOSE RANGE which is a great buff for the ranged attackers as all ranged attackers now can attack from the front position and we all know how deadly can that be as ranged attackers are often the best damage dealers with high speed.
For our today's battle, we will be talking about a Gold League battle from the Modern format.

BATTLE RULES :

• Mana Cap : 51
• Rule sets :

Rise of the Commons: Only Common and Rare Monsters may be used in battles.
Close Range: Monsters with ranged attacks are allowed to attack in the first position.

• Available Splinters :
  Water
  Life
  Death

THE LINE UP :

Position	Card	Mana	Level	Description
Summoner		4	6	Like lat week's battle, we are playing a level 6 Kelya Frendul, one of the most popular summoners from Chaos Legion. The +1 to armor and +1 to speed makes it quite versatile and strong to be played in most of the rule sets.
Position 1		8	5	As the tank, we are playing a level 5 Diemonshark, which is withot a doubt one of the best offensive tanks from Chaos Legion set with 3 melee damage, 4 speed, 6 armor and 9 hp at level 5 combined with the abilities of Trample and Enrage.
Position 2		7	6	In the second position, we are playing a level 6 Flying Squid as the secondary tank. The card works wonders in the second position thanks to the Reach ability. As for the base stats, the card comes with 3 melee damage, 4 speed and 8 hp at this level. Apart from the Reach ability, the card also has Blind at level 6.
Position 3		6	8	In the third position, we are playing a level 8 Deeplurker, one of the most deadly attackers from the Chaos Legion set with 5 melee damage, 4 speed and 6 hp combined with the abilities of Opportunity and Poison.
Position 4		6	8	Next, in the fourth position, we are playing a Neutral ranged monster to make the best of the Close Range rule set. The card is best known for it's high speed and the Swiftness ability it inherits from level 5 and above. The card also comes with pretty decent base stats of 3 ranged damage, 5 speed and 5 hp at this level.
Position 5		7	5	In the fifth position, we are playing our second ranged monster, this time the Soul Bound reward card from the Water Splinter, Swamp Splitter with 3 ranged damage, 3 speed, 2 armor and 5 hp along with the Repair ability.
Position 6		8	4	In the sixth and last position we are playing a Taunt monster that can absorb the magic damage from the opponent line up with it's Void ability, and the card we are talking about is Wave Brood. The level 4 copy of the card we are playing comes with 2 ranged damage, 1 speed and 13 hp. In addition to the Taunt and Void, the card also has Close Range which is somewhat wasted ability in this battle.

THE OPPONENT LINE UP :

Position	Card	Mana	Level	Description
Summoner		4	5	For the summoner, the opponent too decided to play Kelya Frendul, like us. However, we are going to have a level advantage in the battle as we will be facing a level 5 Kelya. Let's see what kind of line up the opponent plays though.
Position 1		8	4	In the first position the opponent too is playing a Diemonshark. However, the level 4 copy of the card has 1 less hp compared to our level 5 one. It is still a strong card nevertheless.
Position 2		9	2	In the second position, we are facing a level 2 gold foil Nerissa Tridawn with 3 magic damge, 2 speed and 10 hp.
Position 3		6	3	In the third position, we are facing another magic damage dealer. This time it is a Neutral level 3 gold foil card from the Chaos Legion set, Magi Of Chaos. At level 3, the card comes with 3 magic damage, 2 speed and 6 hp.
Position 4		6	5	Next, in the fourth position, we are facing a gold foil level 5 Supply Runner. Compared to our level 8 copy, the card has 1 less speed and more importantly 1 less ranged damage.
Position 5		7	5	In the fifth position, we are facing exactly the same card we are playing in this position and that too having the same level, a level 5 Swamp Spitter.
Position 6		8	2	In the last spot of the line up, the opponent too is playing a Wave Brood like us, however only a level 2 gold copy that comes with 1 less ranged damage and no Void ability.

THE HIGHLIGHTS :

• Round 1:

In the first round was very close as expected and we see no causalities and the battle was evenly poised.

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• Round 2:

Round two started positively for us as our Supply Runner eliminated the Wave Brood by the very first attack of the round. The opponent team soon faught back though as the Swamp Spitter soon took out our Wave Brood and our Diemonshark was exposed to the magic damage from the opponent which was bad news for us.

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• Round 3:

In round three, our Flying Squid gave us an advantage as it eliminated the Diemonshark from the first position. Our celebration did not last long though as the Magi Of Chaos from the opponent team soon eliminated our Diemonshark and both teams were down to 4 monsters.

• Round 4:

In the fourth round, our Deeplurker got the kill of Supply Runner which was very important. But the opponent fought back before the round was over as the Nerissa Tridawn took out the Flying Squid and both teams were down to the last 3 monsters.

• Round 5:

In the fifth round, our Deeplurker got it's second kill by taking out the Nerissa Tridawn and it finally started to feel that we are most likely to win this one.

• Round 6:

In this round, we were even closer to the victory as our Swamp Spitter got the first kill of the battle by taking out the Magi Of Chaos and the opponent tean was only left with the Swamp Spitter as the last card remaining.

• Round 7:

In the seventh round, we get our deserved victory as the Deeplurker bagged it's third kill of the battle by taking out the Swamp Spitter.

THE BATTLE LINK : Interested to watch the full battle ? You can watch it here

STRATEGY:
Our strategy for the battle was to play both Diemonshark and Wave Brood together so that the Diemonshark can be protected from the magic damage. While the tanks buys out enough time consuming damage from the oppoent attackers, we are going to rely heavily on our Deeplurker to take down the opponent line up. Support cards like Supply Runner and Swamp Spitter was also a part of our line up to boost our team with Swiftness and Repair](https://www.splintercards.com/abilities.php?ab=24) respectively. Combination of Flying Squid and Supply Runner was also a part of our strategy as more speed with Blind means higher dodge chance which did not trigger that well since the oppoent team too was playing a high speed team.

MVP:

Card	Kills	Contribution
	3	The Deeplurker is a very deadly card with Opportunity and Poison abilities combined with jaw-dropping 5 melee damage which proved how the card bagged 3 kills proving itself to be the MVP of the battle.

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