Battle Mage Secrets: Succumbing to the Briar Patch

League: Gold (Modern)
Rulesets: Briar Patch, Stampede, Reverse Speed
Element: Earth
Result: Loss

Briar Patch Description

All monsters, both friendly and enemy receive the Thorns ability at the start of the battle. Each monsters that use melee attacks receive damage back.

Damage returned is equal to damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up.

Melee attack monsters with the Reflection Shield ability do not take damage from thorns.

The Amplify ability increases damage

The Battle

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_126dc15d1f32282d78959103675d8dd3&ref=allani545

Both the enemy battle mage and I choose the Earth element with Obsidian to focus on a Magic based monster composition. We both had similar aspects to our line ups however I lacked the ability to resurrect and a monster with blast ability that proved to be instrumently the success of the opposing team.

My selection of Queen Mycelia was not ideal because most of the enemy were magical and they only attacked the tank position with the exception of the blast ability. Additionally, my ranged monster selection (Uloth) was an expensive choice and had the chance to miss the slower monsters.

It was ultimately quite close but There was other selection choices within the Earth element that would have strengthened my composition.

If I could fight the battle again I would replace Mycelic Infantry with Unicorn Mustang. I would move Goblin Psychic into third position and replace Queen Mycelia with Magi of Chaos. Finally, I would replce Uloth with Regal Peryton. This would increase my success chance from 0% to 85%.