This week I'll be showcasing one of the NEW Riftwatchers cards, Corsair Bosun! Corsair Bosun is a Life splinter Melee monster with some excellent abilities!

Corsair Bosun Highlights

Corsair Bosun is a must have card in my opinion. Even at level 1. It is a strong Melee monster with Reach which allows it to attack from the 2nd position. Not only that, it comes with Reflection Shield right out the gate.

Icon	Ability Name	Description
	Reach	Melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team
	Reflection Shield	This Monster is immune to all indirect, or reflected damage. That means that it will not take damage from Blast, Thorns, Return Fire, or Magic Reflect
	Cleanse	Removes all negative effects on the Monster in the first position on the friendly team

At Bronze and Silver, this is a great card to fight back against Blast and Thorns. Although it is high mana, it has great stats that make it worthwhile.

In Gold and above, you gain Cleanse which makes this an even better support monster. It can help your tank in case of Poison or Stuns while still dishing out some major damage AND protecting your backline from Blast.

So when do I use the Corsair Bosun?

• Just like the Tide Biter in Silver, this is an excellent 2nd position card when you're up against Blast or a Thorns tank
• It can function an a great secondary tank as well, especially if you're in a Lost Magic battle
• With 4 damage, it is a great in almost every high mana battle

This Week's Featured Battle

In this week's featured battle, we have a General Sloan showdown in a Weak Magic, Equalizer battle!

Battle Ruleset

	Weak Magic	Magic attacks hit Armor before reducing Health
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health
	44 Mana	This is considered a high mana battle
	Active Splinters	Only the Life Splinter is available

• Weak Magic
  • Armor is very important! And because of that, so is Rust
  • Even though Magic damage has to go through Armor, so does everything else so don't shy away from Magic if the monsters are stronger
  • Repair monsters as well as Resurrect can go a long way
  • Shatter can also be a nice ability to have
• Equalizer
  • Focus on damage output, not so much on health of your monsters
  • Look for great ability synergies
• 44 Mana
  • This is a high Mana battle so expect to see a full lineup of monsters although not exactly the absolute strongest

With Weak Magic in play, I tend to look at maximizing Poison, Rust, and Shatter cards. I want to get rid of that armor as quickly as possible.

In Equalizer, I prioritize Speed and Damage output. In a 44 mana battle, it's likely we'll all have a decent amount of health, unlike a low mana equalizer where you REALLY want to be the first one to attack in case of 1-shots.

Since Life is the only summoner available, it was very likely that General Sloan was the go to for both of us. Although Sloan buffs Ranged damage, I find that the heavy hitters are a bit slow so my strategy here was to go for Speed and Magic.

I was also expecting the Prismologist and her Blast ability so Corsair Bosun was the perfect play here. I wish I had an Ilthain to help with the Speed but unfortunately, Sloan is my only option.

The Lineup

Position	Card Image	Card Name	Notes
Summoner		General Sloan	Rare Life Summoner that grants all friendly monsters +1 Damage to their Ranged Attacks
Pos 1 (tank)		Chaos Knight	Great tank with the Shield ability. Should be excellent against a lot of Ranged attacks
Pos 2 (secondary tank/attacker)		Corsair Bosun	Reflection Shield and Reach are HUGE for me here. The 4 damage is also excellent
Pos 3 (attacker/support)		Djinn Renova	Strong Magic attacker with decent speed and just in case there was backline damage, Triage would be helpful
Pos 4 (attacker/support)		Adelade Brightwing	In Weak Magic, Adelade is a MUST. Resurrecting a card with Armor brings back all the Armor. Her Repair ability is also extremely useful
Pos 5 (attacker/support)		Time Mage	Not only do I get to slow down my opponent, I also get to remove their armor! Nice abilities even though it's a "weak" attacking card
Pos 6 (attacker)		Pelacor Arbalest	This is a heavy hitter. Even though I prioritized Magic damage, it's hard to ignore a 3 damage double striker

Let's Battle!

• My opponent went with a nearly all Ranged Line-up. Very powerful but my Speed advantage really helped me out
• You can also see how my Resurrect and Repair ability allowed my Tank to stay alive much longer than theirs

• Once I took down the first 3 monsters, they began to lose attack power FAST since none of the remaining Ranged monsters have the Close Range ability
• As I mentioned before, Speed was a major factor here

Did it work?

Yes! My Speed and Rust abilities were the difference makers here. Even though my damage output was lower, I was able to take their monsters out quicker and before some of them could attack more than once.

I analyzed the battle with Splintertools and was given a 100% chance of winning the battle. That is always great to see!

Final Thoughts

The new Riftwatchers mini-set is a welcome addition to the game! I'm still learning the new cards and how they can work with Chaos Legion but so far I'm enjoying them. Corsair Bosun is an easy one to use but it is quite expensive for a Rare card at $0.90/BCX. I'd recommend having at least 1 in your arsenal.

Thanks for reading! I hoped you enjoyed it!

Referral link : https://splinterlands.com?ref=at.bui89

If you decide to use my referral link, I'll happily send you a few cards to help you get started!