The featured ruleset this week adds the Return Fire ability to all monsters on the battlefield.

The ruleset can be recognized by the following icon:

This ability allows your monsters to return reduced damage to monsters that hit you with ranged attacks (damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up).

It is also present in the summoners Ilthain and Lir Deepswimmer, and other varied monsters.

The battle being shared is from ranked play in diamond league.

Rulesets

This was a high mana battle with cap of 12. The Fire, Water, Earth and Dragon splinters were available. It had 3 rulesets:

• Equalizer: The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health.
• Going the Distance: Only Monsters with Ranged attack may be used in battles.
• Fire & Regret: All Monsters have the Return Fire ability.

Lineups

Link to the battle

Mine

Quix - Chosen to try and reduce damage and speed of the opponent. Despite having higher level summoners I consideried worth it to downgrade use lower level Quix.

Venari Marksrat - Expected damage to hit it, was a sacrifice in order to tank for a bit and give Naga Assassion more speed when it died.

Naga Assassion - Chosen for the speed and backfire, when it moved to the front and return fire when hit or not hit - win/win.

Angelic Mandarin - Chosen to do damage and keep itself and Naga Assassion alive with triage while in the backline.

Team was created to focus on survivability while the opponent monsters would hopefully kill themselves with the help of the Mandarin.

Opponent

My opponent focused on having a single unit that would in his mind repair enough of the damage to survive while returning fire for my monsters to kill themselves.

Round 1

On the first round on the opposing side we only manage to take 1 armor off the opposing monster. On our side we took 2 return fire damage split between our 2 attackers (Naga healed up).

Round 2

Took 2 hp off the opponent monster (armor remains as its repaired after taken out). Again, on our side we took 2 return fire damage split between our 2 attackers (Naga healed up).

Round 3

Took another 2 hp off the opponent monster (armor remains as its repaired after taken out). Again, on our side we took 2 return fire damage split between our 2 attackers (Mandarin healed up). Since it can always heal up to 2 hp on one target, and the monster more in need gets healed up, it becomes obvious Mandarin would keep both up until the eventual win.

Round 4

Took another 2 hp off the opponent monster (armor remains as its repaired after taken out). Again, on our side we took 2 return fire damage split between our 2 attackers (Naga healed up)

Round 5

As expected opponent was defeated.

Conclusion

While not expecting the opponent's strategy, and it was a curious one, it was clear from the get go that it would be a win. Playing Lux, the opponent did gain 1 hp which in theory could make a difference if it went to fatigue, but if instead of a Lux he played a Quix for example, I wouldn't be able to go through it's armor (and it would go to fatigue where mandarin would also get me the win).

Thank you for reading my 2nd entry for the Battle Mage Secrets!

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