Battle Mage Challenge - Briar Patch

Hey!

Hi everyone and welcome! For this week’s Battle Challenge, we have the “Briar Patch” rule, where every Monster in the battlefield receives the Thorns ability.

Briar Patch

Granting the Thorns effect to a Monster means that when hit by a Melee attacker, the defender is going to return two points of damage back. Is always two points, unless there is a Monster with Amplify in the defender team, in which case the damage returned is three.

By the way, Splinterlands post about this Challenge says that with the “Thorns” effect this happens, and I quote: “Damage returned is equal to damage of the attacker divided by two, rounded up”. I don’t know if it is mistake or something changed, but it hasn’t been updated in the game.

Anyways, the approach here is quite simple… just don’t use Monsters with Melee attacks. Unless of course, the positive aspects of using a Melee Monster surpasses the negative ones. One good example would be the use of a strong Monster with Taunt, Shield or other valuable ability, like Reflecion Shield, which nullifies Blast and returning damages.

So, in a way it would be like the “Keep Your Distance” rule, where you cannot use Melee Monsters. You definitely shouldn’t worry about Sneak or Opportunity attacks, unless your opponent has one of those rare Monsters, but they are not that common in the battlefield.

You should definitely worry about attacks going to your cards positioned in the first and second places, since Snipe is a very regular effect among Magic, and especially Ranged attackers, so Monsters with high evasion or a certain protection, such as Void are great. And of course, the usual healers for the tank or for the backline.

And the same way you should worry about protecting your back line, you should worry about attacking your opponent’s, since there you’ll find the key cards holding things together, like healers or key attackers. Use Blast, Snipe, Scattershot or those rare Sneak Ranged attackers.

Battle

Ruleset

Lineup & Analysis

This battle is a Ranked battle from the Wild Silver League. Alongside with Thorns, which prevents us from using Melee Monsters, we have the “Fire & Regret” rule, which prevents us from using Ranged attacker, so that lead us to use Magic Monsters exclusively… and only the Water Splinter is active.

• As Summoner, the Pembrook Nymph. My Water Splinter is my most under developed deck, since I have a level two Kelya, but my Nymph is level four, so she allows me to use Monsters with better stats and effects.
• In first position, the Venari Marksrat, a Martyr.
• As a tank, a level two Djinn Oshannus, who’s able to dodge Magic attacks or halve them, if hit.

• Then, River Hellondale. His purpose is to revive the Martyr, to double boost Oshannus. Sometimes the Magic attacks can be to overwhelming, even with Void and a Healer, so is good idea to dodge.
• Next, Flagulon Reine. He’s there for his Blast effect, which can help you get to key cards in the opponent’s lineup. Of course, if you don’t have it, the Riverboat Captain is a great alternative. Same Mana, Speed and attack, but without the perk of Bloodlust.
• In fifth position, Musa Saline. I had three points of Mana available and I think I never made use of her, so I picked her for this battle.
• At last, the Merdaali Guardia, a Healer for the tank.

This battle damaged my pride, since I lost with four Legendaries in the field, including a dangerous Gladius. It was also a stupid way to lose, since I lost for not using a key card in my lineup, that I own.

Call it arrogance or stupidity, but I picked Musa Saline because I never used it and I felt confident enough in my lineup. The card I should’ve used is the Spirit Hoarder, card that I own at level two. At level two it has Triage and Dispel.

The Hoarder’s Triage would’ve prevented the Blast effect of my opponent from damaging my lineup, allowing me to have the same amount of firepower. It’s Dispel effect would’ve debuffed the enemy Oshannus boost.

Of course, my opponent had a great lineup, but my cards would’ve eventually made their way through, since I had enough firepower for that.

So, if you learned something today is, trust the system and don’t do anything stupid like me, just because you want to make use of a new card.

Battle Link

This is it, thanks for reading!

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