Battle Mage Secrets challenge! Plus a giveaway

Joining in the Battle Mage Secrets weekly challenge, where we can show off our skills on the battlefield. This week's theme... is a spiny one!

A lot of different strategies can be used in this ruleset: one of the easiest ways to tackle it is to choose the least amount of melee attackers, since only they are affected by this ruleset. Using a strong ranged/ magical team and shields is a great way to battle here: not only you can produce some decent damage, the shield will add another layer of protection in case melee cards are used despite the ruleset.

As explained in splinterland's website with the game rules though, cards with reflection shield ability are not affected by thorns, so another strategy is to use melee cards with the reflection shield ability: your opponent might not be expecting melee units, hence not worrying about protecting that much weaker cards, and your melee cards can cause havoc, since they won't be harmed by the briar patch. As an alternative, using strong melee units with high attack and shield can cause some casualities in the opposite team before the card gets defeated.

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Battle time!

I had a battle with this ruleset today:

Two more rulesets here:

• Only common and rare cards could be used
• No healings available

The two other rulesets presented a problem: in the available splinters, there were no melee attackers with the reflection shield ability; on top of that, no healing meant that a melee strategy would probably result poorly. So, chose the common strategy: focus on ranged and magical attack only, with some special precautions on my lineup:

Summoner Kelya: +1 speed always comes in handy, and the +1 shield works great in case of melee attacks;

• Kelp initiate as tank; you might think it was an odd choice, but for only 2 mana has high HP, and allowed me to save some mana to more attackers; besides, has cleanse to clear any poison attack
• Prismatic energy as the offtank: expecting ranged attackers, this card is quick, decent attack, and a reflect ability, even handier when no heals are available
• River nymph a damage dealer, but especially because of the amplify ability, which would increase any thorns damage and reflection damage from prismatic energy
• Venary wavesmith, with more magical attack and extra shield
• Swamp spitter, nice damage and repair, great to keep those shields up
• Angelic mandarin: assuming more reliance on magic attackers, the silence ability would help reduce the damage

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The repair, amplify and silence abilities on my team proved handy; my opponent used the legendary earth summoner, providing extra protection against magic attacks, and as me, relied on ranged and magical attack, with only one melee card as tank.

My squeashy tank actually lasted until late in the game, and at the beginning of the third round, my offtank was decisive, when it took the tank role: void ability to reduce damage taken from magic and the reflect, amplified my the river nymph, were enough to secure the win. Amplify proved crucial here, since because of the legendary summoner all opponnent cards had the void ability.

And y the end of round 5, victory was more than certain. You can see the entire battle here!

Do you have any preferred strategy in these rulesets? Let me know on the comments!

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By the way, if you haven't joined a guild yet and you're a dedicated player, our guild Roaring Twenties is at level 10! If you're thinking about joining in, you can check the info on the guild page, or reach us on discord here to discuss membership!

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So, and who won this week's card?

Congratulations @noctury! The Dhampir Stalker is going your way!

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For this next giveaway, the card that will be switching hands is...

The Djinn Apprentice!

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Rules:

No upvote, follow or resteem required. Just comment! Or even better, tag a fellow player! Winner will be randomly chosen at post payout; good luck everyone!

Still haven't joined Splinterlands? In what planet do you live in? Click the banner below and join the fun! (It has my referral link; you can go directly to the website if you don't want to use it; either way... join in! 😎 )