BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! - Melee Mayhem Ruleset

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

In a Melee Mayhem ruleset, melee units can attack from any position in the lineup.

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Lets take a look at a Modern Silver ranked match with Melee Mayhem as one of the ruleset. The battle restrictions are:
Melee Mayhem and Odd Ones Out with a max mana of 29. Only Water and splinters are allowed in this battle. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_bcd6b7a6ff7ca22634f91ae7f0a6b4b5&ref=genming

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Kelya Frendal	4	Summoner	I decided to go with Kelya for this match because Kelya gave +1 Armor and Speed to all my units. The armor is particularly important as I am expecting a lot of opposing melee units due to the Melee Mayhem ruleset.
Coeurl Lurker	11	1st	Coeurl Lurker is fast becoming my favorite tank to use these days. I have only recently started to use it and find it amazingly good especially when you can give it even more speed. It has Taunt, Dodge and Phase meaning it can dodge melee, ranged and magic attack very well. Kelya would give it an additional speed which will boost its speed to 5.
Tide Biter	3	2nd	A good 2nd unit with Reach ability. Reach isn't important in Melee Mayhem ruleset though but its other ability, Reflection Shield, would be helpful if facing an opposing tank with Thorn.
Venari Wavesmith	5	3rd	Very important unit in this setup, Venari Wavesmith not only deal magic attack but also add 2 armor to all my units with its Protect ability. This unit would make my entire lineup more resilient.
Merdaali Guardian	3	4th	Healer for my Coeurl Lurker. I absolutely need to keep my Coeurl Lurker alive as my entire strategy is based on it surviving.
Scavo Hireling	3	5th	Armor repairer for my Coeurl Lurker. Together with Merdaali Guardian, these are my important support units for my tank.
Total Mana:	29

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Opponent Lineup:

My opponent went with a Life splinter lineup with a level 2 Grandmaster Rathe as the summoner. Also in my opponent lineup is a Jared Scar. Jared Scar can become very scary once it starts to get some kills. Thank goodness my opponent's Jared Scar is only level which means it doesn't have True Strike yet. Otherwise it would have been a huge problem.

End of Round 1:

My opponent's tank, Evelyn Auvera, proved to be a tough tank to crack as it not only had Thorn but gotten Void Armor from the summoner Grandmaster Rathe. On the other hand, my tank was also doing well as it dodge 2 out of the 4 melee attacks thrown at me by my opponent. At this point I am really worried of getting hit by my opponent Jared Scar.

End of Round 2:

Once again my tank dodged 2 of the 4 melee attacks thrown at it. My Scavo Hireling and Merdaali Guardian were also helping to keep my tank alive with armor repairing and healing which further frustrate my opponent's attacks. But it was still a close fight because the Thorn ability of my opponent was dealing back heavy damage to my tank.

End of Round 3:

This was a good round for me. Not only did my tank eliminated the opponent tank but it also dodged 3 out of 4 melee attack. To be fair, based on mathematical calculation my Coeurl Lurker has a 55% chance (25% from Dodge plus 30% from being 3 speed faster) to dodge each of the melee attack from the 2 speed melee opponent unit. So it was not a surprised that my tank dodged 2-3 times from the 4 melee attacks per round.

Now with the enemy tank gone, my opponent chance of winning drastically dropped.

End of Round 4:

Once again my tank dodged 2 out of the 4 melee attacks but now without getting damage by Thorn, my tank actually was becoming stronger due to the healing. At this point there was no chance of my opponent winning. The only chance for my opponent right from the start was to hit me 3-4 times per round but that required some good luck. On normal probability that is not going to happen. This coupled with the fact that the opponent's Jared Scar seem to be the first to hit all the time before his/her other units means my repaired armor would always block the huge Jared Scar attack even if Jared Scar hit.

End of Round 5:

My Coeurl Lurker was almost back to full health by the end of round 5. No chance for my opponent to win at this point.

End of Round 8:

The match ended in round 8 with my entire team intact. Coeurl Lurker is a crazily good monster and that is why it is so highly prized in the market.

KEY STRATEGY
My strategy was to use repair and heal to support my high dodging Coeurl Lurker to take out the enemy lineup one by one. My tank absolutely need to survive throughout the battle in order for me to win.

SUMMARY
Some abilities that are useful in Melee Mayhem ruleset include:

1. Protect and Repair - Protect give +2 Armor to your lineup while Repair will repair +2 Armor back.
2. Shield - Unit with Shield will receive reduced melee damage.
3. Double Strike - Most Double Strike units are weak in health and armor but in a Melee Mayhem ruleset, you can hide these units in the middle of your lineup and let their offensive power shine without worrying too much of their vulnerability.
4. Thorn - Giving back Thorn damage back to melee attackers.
5. Speed, Dodge, Flying, Blind - If your opposing units can't hit you, it doesn't matter if it can hit for 1000 damage.

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 looking for new members. For added incentive to joining us, our guild leader will also be assigning Runi to any new member that can actively participate in brawl battles and give donation to our guild buildings. Runi is extremely powerful and is the only unit that has the Rebirth ability.
Our guild link is https://splinterlands.com/?p=guild&id=07ab9325eea386c3570db41f53fd991e78806485&tab=