Good Morning Again Hivers,

Wellcome to my another weekly Splinterlands BATTLE MAGE SECRETS. This is my second entry for the GOING THE DISTANCE ruleset, the extra bonus post.

THE BATTLE

This was a Modern Gold league rank battle, of course with Going the Distance ruleset. I could say this was a F-Up battle, very low mana, a close range ruleset, so everything could go here...

With these rulesets and condition, I was not aiming to build a great team. My focus was to build a team which was not as bad as my opponent, this battle I believed was a contest who had worse team rather than who have better meta.

Fire or Earth, I liked earth better however I felt I knew fire monsters better than earth ones. So definitely I went with Fire, when all hell broke lose, trust the one you know the most.

So here was my line up:

Position	Card	Ability	Plan and Strategy
Summoner		+1 Melee, +1 Health	Straight to the point, she was the only Fire Element Summoner I had. I could only expect her buff on +1 health could make me won the battle. I had a hunch my opponent would come for the same reason too
Main Tank		Snipe, Snare	With everything goes in this battle, Lava Spider 5 Health point became my major consideration to put this spider as my main tank.
Second		none	This should be a filler card, however for a 14 mana cap battle, everyone was the core monsters. She might be the best 2 mana card available for this kind of battle.
Third		Knockout	He is my main trump card, whether my team win or lose, all would be back on how Scavo Firebolt could carry my team. I believed my opponent would have the same thought too

I still had 1 mana left, and I had tried different configuration of lineups. I got to a point which I believed these trio was the best, instead of getting 0 mana left which would lead me to a line up that was weaker than my trio here. Ok that's my line up story background, and Let see how this battle would go

ROUND 1

• The battle started with both of us Buffing up our team and debuffing our opponents.
• My opponent came with 2 cards with a combined 5 range damage per round.
• My team had 7 range damage per round.
• I had more monsters so it's natural that my team had better fire power.

ROUND 2

• Round 2 started with 2 vs 2 match up. My Lava Spider died in the first round.

ROUND 3

• The third round started with 2 vs 1 condition, I had Xenith Archer survived the second round. She died in this round however taking one of my opponent Scavo Firebolt attack was a decisive winning point here.

ROUND 4

• This was the last round. Although the end game was Scavo Firebolt vs Scavo Firebolt, my Xenith Archer managed to get one turn gap which in the end giving the win to my Scavo Firebolt duel.

CLOSURE AND DISCUSSION

It was a close call, I won by a single move a head, else it would become a draw. So what are the key winning points we can see here?

1. YOU DON'T HAVE TO CONSUME ALL THE MANA

My opponent formation was one of the best for 14 mana team, I was planning to use the same one but after estimated the outcome... I went with my trio Lava Spider - Xenith Monk - Scavo Firebolt.

Our goal is to set up, build, or arrange the best line up we could get with the mana cap available. So sometime the best one came with less mana you can spend, although most of the time having higher mana team indicates you get a stronger team.

2. SPEED ISSUE AGAIN

Molten Ash Golem is a strong monster with 6 mana requirement. For some line up, he is a beast, a force to reckon... However bear in mind that his speed is only 2... He is a sloth, move last after everyone have beaten him.

You need to consider again if you want to use him to kill your opponent. He is a great meat wall but not a great killer. Putting to much on him as your main gun, definitely will get you a silly lose like this battle.

Ok that's all for today post. Have fun with your GOING THE DISTANCE battles!!

Thank you for visiting my BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge, don't forget to leave your comments and feedback below. There are credits in this post for these people:

• @splinterlands : for holding weekly social media challenge events
• carrieallen : for ultimate markdown tutorial
• bulldog1205 : for the scholarship account : blackkrrsantan
• thepeakstudio : for wonderful divider art