Syngery: MAGIC REFLECT and AMPLIFY - but sometimes all you need is luck!

Today I want to have a bit of a conversation around one of the most awesome SYNERGIES in the game: MAGIC REFLECT and AMPLIFY. These two are powerful to be able to rip an opponent's MAGIC team apart by having their cards essentially kill themselves. It's a great way of going behind your opponent's tank, and as magic cards often have low health - you can take them out pretty quickly.

To develop my understanding of this synergy, I want to explore two cards: VENARI SPELLSMITH and OYSTER ROTWELL. Let's start it off by checking out VENARI SPELLSMITH:

I have VENARI SPELLSMITH at Level 4 - and you'll notice that his stats are pretty average. At +1 Magic damage, he's not an effective offensive card; particularly with his low speed of only +2 boots, and at 4 health and 0 armour, let's face it, he's squishy.

But, where this card is amazing, is in his skills, DISPEL, which clears positive buffs from the opponent's tank - but even better, AMPLIFY - an amazing skill which will send magic bolts back to your opponent's cards. If they hit you for +3, they'll get +3 sent back to them! If they hit for +2, they'll get +2 sent back to them. It's a really powerful skill and more than makes up for the poor stats of this card.

From a #leofinance point of view then - let's check out this card's financials. Now - if I was being blunt, I need to say: You need this card at Level 4 to get AMPLIFY, so that sets a minimum benchmark for you to invest. I have this card as a GOLD FOILER, and, you can see that a GOLD FOIL will set you back about $2.60, or $10.40 for a Level 4. I think we need to be clear, that's an absolute bargain given the potential of this card not just to AMPLIFY MAGIC REFLECT, but also THORNS, and as this card is NEUTRAL, you'll find that he'll have utility in a HEAP of line-ups. This versality is certainly worth the investment.

This card is part of the CHAOS LEGION deck, and there are currently 6459 in circulation. However, as players start leveling this card up (you need 11 for a Level 6, which will move him to +2 magic) then you can see how the amount of cards could very, very quickly go down. CHAOS LEGION cards are holding value at the moment, but with another 6,000,000 packs to sell, there would expect to be some further downward pressure - before supply bottoms out and the prices start to reverse. I purchased these cards about 2 weeks ago for $2.70 or so - so the price is steady. The alternative is to rent this card at Level 4 GF, which will set you back about 20 DEC per day.

The next question is then, where to get the MAGIC REFLECT to create the AMPLIFY synergy? And the answer could be a number of cards, but I thought - go hard, and I chose to play the SUMMONER, OWSTER ROTWELL:

As far as summoners go, I like this guy - as he gives everyone on his team the MAGIC REFLECT skill - which makes your team very, very, very dangerous when opposing MAGIC line-ups (especially when BLAST is at play). If you wanted to buy this card as GOLD FOIL to Level 4, it'd set you back around $230, but instead, I picked him up on the rental market for 48 DEC per day. This was more than I would have liked to have paid for him, however, I needed him for a brawl battle and I used quick fingers to rent him!

All that was left then, was to find the right ruleset. And how's this for perfectly setup for this duo? You see, it was a no-melee match, and that naturally invites a MAGIC DUAL!! I seen this and single-mindedly put in place the OWSTER ROTWELL and VENARI SPELLSMITH LINE-UP.

Speaking of LINE-UPS, check mine out.

TANK: RIFTWING.

This is a 4 mana card, but the reason I wanted him out front was because of his health. At 6 health, he was well set up to take a number of hits to return them. My intention was to use his health against my opponent.

Off-tank: VENARI SPELLSMITH

I played the VENARI SPELLSMITH in the second position. In truth, this was probably a mistake, as he really should have been in the fourth position to maximise his AMPLIFY. But, I was also hoping to protect the STUN ability in my line-up, and that shuffled VENARI forward.

Backline: REVEALER

I love this guy, for 4 mana his +2 magic attack is powerful, but what is even more powerful is his STUN ability. It hits the enemy tank, and when it stuns the tank, it will rob him of his next turn. Powerful!

Rearguard: VENARI BONESMITH

This card finished the line-up well, I had hoped he would use his lifeleech to grow his health, which would in turn, give him more ability to reflect magic back on my opponent, while his POISON would hopefully help me take out the front line.

But - would you believe it, my opponent didn't play a single card. Needless to say I was worried, as my opponent's PRISMOLOGIST had a powerful +5 arrows attack, which would blast for +3. With my opponent hitting for up to 8 damage each round, I felt that this looked like a very flimsy line-up indeed! But it raised the wondering, could an anti-magic team hold on? Let's see:

Round 1 was great for me - I killed my opponent's CHAOS AGENT, which activated my RIFTWING's SCAVENGER. At the same time, the PRISMOLOGIST's attack missed me (YAH) and my POISON landed on the CUBE and started to take his health. What an impressive start!

Round 2 was again interesting, but dangerous for me. You see, the PRISMOLOGIST's arrows hit, and that took 8 health from my front two characters. If he was to land a 2nd hit, both of these cards would be down. However, with the help of POISON, my opponent's CUBE was down to +3 health only. My path to victory is becoming clearer: if the CUBE dies, the PRISMOLOGIST cannot attack in that first position, and that will give me a very easy win.

And then Round 3 finished the battle's competitive stage, as the PRISMOLOGIST again missed his attack. Want to know who doesn't miss? Magic attackers - so they were able to take the last of the CUBE's health and promote the PRISMOLOGIST to the tank position. In that position, arrows cannot be launched, which meant I would finish my opponent off over the next two rounds.

Want to re-live the battle? Here's a video recording:

Or if you'd prefer, here's the battle link:
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_6885dea22fbedc4435eb3bd3c76bba57

Evaluation:
I really love playing MAGIC REFLECT and AMPLIFY, but in this battle, I felt a bit foolish as I completely missed what my opponent would likely do. That said, it shows that sometimes good cards are simply good cards - and the strategy of playing MAGIC REFLECT + AMPLIFY may not have been effective, but the strategy of playing STUN + POISON certainly worked to my advantage.

Did we learn anything about this synergy? Look, we didn't - given my opponent didn't play MAGIC, but I left the battle feeling satisfied with the win. It was unexpected, but sometimes, all you need is a bit of luck!

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