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Ahoy and welcome to my next Battle Mage Secrets post.

For this week's challenge the featured ruleset is Super Sneak. When that ruleset is active all the Monsters with a Melee attack will gain the Sneak ability which will make them all able to attack from your backline as they will attack the last Monster in the enemy backline.

You can recognise the ruleset with the following icon.

You could expect your opponent to put a heavier focus on Monsters with a Melee attack in which case it's great to have abilities like Thorns, Shield and Demoralize. But you must also take into account that your opponent might decide to go with something entirely different if they think you're preparing a team to counter a heavy Melee play.

The battle I want to share with you for this week's challenge is from the Gauntlet Wild Bronze GF Invitational Tournament that started halfway this past week. I really wanted to share a battle from that Tournament because I did quite well, ending up in 13th place. Luckily one of my battles that was a victory did have this ruleset! It was a battle against the player xhardbeast.

Here is a picture of our initial lineup.

Battle Rules

This was a battle with a 59 Mana Cap. All the Elements were available! So really a lot of possibilities here. The battle had 3 rulesets:

• Super Sneak: All Melee attack Monsters have the Sneak ability.
• Unprotected: Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
• Target Practice: All Ranged and Magic attack Monsters have the Snipe ability.

Here is a link to the battle if you want to check it out: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_iXXGHmrGd7zprNQ75sIC&ref=athunderstruck

Battle Lineup

Sometimes with this ruleset I play something entirely different, for example a team with a heavy focus on Magic attacks, but this time I want to definitely put more focus on actually using Monsters with Melee attacks. Especially because the enemy backline can't be protected with Armour due to the Unprotected ruleset. I do wanna make a team that can possible deal with some Magic attack but also being strong if my opponent does put more focus on Melee units too.

I decide I'll use Mylor Crowling as my Summoner to give Thorns to all my Monsters. That way if my opponent uses some Melee Monsters at least 99% of them will be taking damage back. Only if they have Reflection Shield as their ability they won't.

I use Unicorn Mustang as my frontline with its high health. I also has the Void ability but that won't immediately be a factor if my opponent brings Magic attacks. Because of the Target Practice ruleset that gives every Ranged and Magic attack Monster the Snipe ability! Since I'm bringing Prismatic Energy as my second Monster all of those attacks would first go against it before the Void ability on my Unicorn Mustang could make a difference.

Up next I have Nectar Queen, decent Speed and it has a strong Melee attack so definitely want to use that to attack the backline.

Then I have Flesh Golem who has a good amount of Health and the Heal ability to keep healing himself for a while, potentially lasting longer against some of my opponents Melee hits if they bring them.

Grund is a unit that can definitely not be left out if you're playing an Earth team focused on Melee attacks thanks to the Super Sneak ruleset as he has that Double Strike ability so he can deal 6 damage per turn if both his attacks hit.

Last but not least I use Mycelic Infantry to have the Shield ability in my backline so my opponent's Melee attacks would deal less damage while they still take the same damage from Thorns.

Battle Analysis

Alright will you look at that my opponent did also expect me to possibly go and use Melee attack Monsters as they're also playing Mylor Crowling! It looks like 3 of our chosen Monsters are the same and mostly the same position too except for the Grund.

We both placed our Unicorn Mustang up front as its Void ability could protect against potential Magic damage, once any units in the backline that could get targeted by Snipe are gone. We also both placed Mycelic Infantry in the back to use that Shield ability to make it take longer for Melee units to get through.
Our Grund are placed on the opposite end. I placed mine 2nd to last, basically kinda sacrificing him to Melee units after my Mycelic Infantry falls. Whereas they played theirs right behind the Unicorn Mustang to have Double Strike against my frontline when their Unicorn Mustang falls.

The different Monsters my opponent brought are Mushroom Seer, Mitica Headhunter and Mycelic Slipspawn.

The Mushroom Seer is a smart pick in case I'd go with a team more focused on Magic damage since it reduces all Magic damage on my team by 1.
Mitica Headhunter has high Speed and high Ranged attack so it can definitely help with dealing a lot of damage to my team.
Mycelic Slipspawn is nice to draw away my potential Ranged and Magic attacks, but it also comes with the drawback that now my Melee Monsters are actually going to focus against it making their Mycelic Infantry less useful.

So the battle starts with their Mitica Headhunter hitting my Prismatic Energy that then hits their Mycelic Slipspawn. Both of our Unicorn Mustang attack each other for 3 damage and take 2 damage from Thorns, with theirs going first.
My Grund attacks their Mycelic Slipspawn and brings it down to 4 Health. Would be perfect for my Nectar Queen to hit it now and take it out, but unfortunately my Flesh Golem attacks first :( Dealing 2 damage and taking 2 from Thorns, now Nectar Queen kills the Mycelic Slipspawn with 2 damage overkill. Would've been better if it went first so my Flesh Golem could've done a damage to the Mycelic Infantry already.
Their Grund attacks my Mycelic Infantry. Our Mycelic Infantry both hit each other.
Their Mushroom Seer attacks my Prismatic Energy and takes 1 Magic Reflect damage from that attack.

At the end of round 1 my Mycelic Infantry is almost dead, at 1 Health. Theirs still has 5 Health but that's because my units took out their Mycelic Slipspawn.

Mitica Headhunter now takes out my Prismatic Energy.
The Unicorn Mustang's once again hitting each other dealing 3 damage but taking 2 from Thorns so they both end up at 1 Health after they attacked.
My Grund goes first, dealing 4 damage to their Mycelic Slipspawn and taking 4 damage from the Thorns, leaving him at 3 Health.
Since my Mycelic Infantry is at only 1 Health when his Grund goes after mine it is now able to take out both my Mycelic Infantry and my Grund, while taking 4 damage from Thorns leaving their Grund at 3 Health now.

This time it would be perfect for my Flesh Golem to go first since their Mycelic Infantry has 1 Health left and then the full attack of my Nectar Queen could possibly be used against the Mitica Headhunter. But noooo now my Nectar Queen has to go first which is an absolute waste of that damage xD

My Flesh Golem heals himself and misses against the Mitica Headhunter. Not too bad I guess as it doesn't take any Thorns damage now and my Unicorn Mustang is about to die because of the Mushroom Seer which would bring my Nectar Queen to the front.

Mushroom Seer has 2 Magic attack so even against the Void ability on my Unicorn Mustang it's still enough to take it out as it was at 1 Health.

Here is our lineup at the end of round 2. This time my opponent has the most Monsters still alive compared to the previous round end.

In normal circumstances my opponent would have a 25% chance to miss against the Nectar Queen because of the Flying-ability, even if they have higher speed. But Mitica Headhunter has the Snare ability which gives it guaranteed hits against Monsters with the Flying ability and taking that ability away. So this round is quite brutal for my Nectar Queen. It only has 7 Health left. Takes 4 damage from Mitica Headhunter and losing the Flying ability. Which now guarantees the Unicorn Mustang to be able to hit the Nectar Queen and it has more Speed so it goes first, killing my Nectar Queen before it can do anything. At least the Thorns also takes out the Unicorn Mustang.

Now all I have left is my Flesh Golem. Their Grund is up next being Epic rarity it has priority over my Flesh Golem being Common rarity when they have the same Speed. So Grund attacks my Flesh Golem twice for 6 damage, but also killing itself in the process from taking 2 Thorns damage 2 times! Which does allow my Flesh Golem to now take out the Mushroom Seer.

That secures the victory for me!

Even if Flesh Golem misses against the Mitica Headhunter, it will kill it after some turns as Mitica Headhunter can't attack from this position. The Thorns also won't kill Flesh Golem as he will heal for 3 Health per turn which is more than the damage he takes from Thorns.

What a close fight! GG!

Was My Strategy Successful?

Yeah pretty good! If I didn't bring the Prismatic Energy, or any other high health unit with NO attacks, Ranged attack or Magic attack then that Mitica Headhunter could've been a real problem. But I brought the Prismatic Energy exactly for protecting my team against some potential Ranged/Magic attacks. So that went really well.

We could think that perhaps I could've switched my Nectar Queen and Grund from position. Then my Grund wouldn't have died as fast. But at the same time my opponent's Grund would've had a chance to miss against my Nectar Queen which would leave it at higher Health and maybe I wouldn't be able to properly take it out then. So all in all that still felt like good placement.

Conclusion

A pretty solid team to distract some Ranged/Magic units for a little while so that my Melee attack Monsters would try to wreak some havoc. Which they did. It was nice to see a somewhat similar thought process on my opponents side as we both picked Mylor with Unicorn Mustang and Mycelic Infantry. A bit of a different placement for our Grund's, but it does feel like that worked out in my favour.

This battle was from the 2nd round of the mentioned tournament. I ended up 13th place in that tournament which is pretty good! From the link to the battle, https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_iXXGHmrGd7zprNQ75sIC&ref=athunderstruck , you can go check out the tournament results if you want. There you could also view the battles page and type my name if you want to check out some of my other battles from that tournament.

That's it for my Battle Mage Secrets challenge this week. Thank you for reading!

If you haven't signed up for Splinterlands yet and want to check it out, you can do so with my referral link at: https://splinterlands.com?ref=athunderstruck