BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! - Close Range Ruleset

Hi Guys! In this post we are exploring on another Splinterlands ruleset. The ruleset we are focusing on is Close Range.

In a Close Range ruleset, units with ranged attacks are allowed to attack in the first position.

Lets take a look at a Modern Silver ranked match with Close Range as one of the ruleset. The battle restrictions are:
Briar Patch and Close Range with a max mana of 27. All splinters are allowed in this battle except for Fire. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_9e6c7b0ca56c0423ec52e06ebc813013&ref=genming

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Quix the Devious	4	Summoner	There were 2 rulesets in this battle, Briar Patch and Close Range. With Briar Patch, it meant all units would had Thorn ability. This gave melee attackers a disadvantage thus it was unlikely there were going to be melee attackers. Believing I would only be facing either magic or ranged units, I chose Quix because it not only reduced enemies' ranged damage by 1 but also will reduced enemies' speed by 1.
Pelacor Conjurer	2	1st	Pelacor Conjurer is a very cost 2 mana flying unit with 6 health and Magic Reflect ability. It will help against my opponent magic attacking units which I was expecting to face in this match. I had already taken care of Ranged defense with my summoner so Magic defense is my next priority.
Kra'ar Xoc	1	2nd	A very cheap unit that cost only 1 mana. It will be my cannon fodder to protect against my offensive backline. Reason I put it in the 2nd position instead of first was because it has Scavenger ability and would get more health when units died. Putting it in 2nd position allowed it some extra time to get more health.
Venari Crystalsmith	4	3rd	I need healer to keep my Pelacor Conjurer alive as long as possible.
Spirit Hoarder	3	4th	I need a healer for my backline which you were see why later. Spirit Hoarder has Triage and would help keep my backline alive.
Vruz	2	5th	Vruz is a small mana unit with Martyr ability. It had Sneak ability and is a melee attacker. I chose to put it here because I needed it to die from the Thorn ruleset and then boost its neighboring units stats.
Iziar	11	6th	Iziar was my biggest mana unit in this match but I felt it was worth it. It had Void, Taunt and a big health thus making it a good tank against magic attacks. Void would cut the enemy units' magic attack by half while my Spirit Hoarder will try to keep Iziar alive with healing. Its vulnerability was against Ranged attack but that was already mitigated by Quix's -1 ranged attack ability
Total Mana:	27

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Opponent Lineup:

My opponent went with an Earth splinter lineup with Obsidian as the summoner. It was almost a full magic lineup so we can see how my magic defensive lineup would fare in the battle.

End of Round 1:

My Vruz died very early in this round. That was because my opponent was using a level 2 Queen Mycelia and thus had Amplify. This caused Thorn to do extra damage to my Vruz and thus it died immediately after its melee attack. This worked well for me caused now both my Iziar and Spirit Hoarder had their stats boosted before their attacks.

One other very important thing to note was my opponent also had a Goblin Psychic that had a 50% chance to cause Affliction on my Iziar. It didn't trigger this turn else it would have been a very bad start to the battle for me.

End of Round 2:

My opponent tank, Hill Giant, was quickly dispatched off this turn while my Spirit Hoarder healed back up my Iziar. Iziar again survived the round without being afflicted. You can also see my Pelacor Conjurer now deflecting Magic damage back to the opponent unit.

End of Round 3:

Once again my opponent failed to afflict my Iziar. As long as Iziar is not afflicted my opponent's magic unit lineup cannot get past my defense. Meanwhile at the front, my Venari Crystalsmith was also keeping my Pelacor Conjurer alive. At this point even if Iziar was afflicted I would probably still be winning.

End of Round 4:

My Iziar finally got afflicted and now I can't heal it with my Spirit Hoarder. But it was way too late as my opponent only had 2 units left while I had 5 with my Kra'ar Xoc's health growing now to 7.

End of Round 5:

Took me 5 rounds to win this battle as I was fairly defensive in my setup. I do wondered if I would still win if my Iziar was afflicted right from the start at round 1.

KEY STRATEGY
My strategy was to reduce incoming magic and ranged attack while using healers to heal my tanking units. It worked as my opponent went with an almost all magic lineup.

CONCLUSION
Generally ranged units are not used as often as magic and melee units. This is because ranged units can't fight in the first position as it put them at a very disadvantageous position in battle. Close Range even out the odds for them but as you can see, they are still not very often used. From the lineup, my opponent actually even went with melee units rather than ranged in a Briar Patch ruleset. As for me I did go with a ranged unit, Venari Crystalsmith, because in this battle it not only can hit in the first position but also can heal.

Prehaps in future we can see some new abilities that can be added to the game to give ranged units a push on their usability.

To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.

My guild, The Guild of Kingshaven, is also actively looking for new members. The guild is currently battling in tier 3-4 and is able to get very decent SPS and Merits from brawl competition. If you are able to fight at least in Silver and above league and is committed to do your brawl battles, do feel free to apply.
Our guild link is https://splinterlands.com/?p=guild&id=07ab9325eea386c3570db41f53fd991e78806485&tab=