Hello Battle Mages!

Welcome to another Splinterlands Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge. For this challenge, we are going to discuss the Fog of War where you need a strong frontline defender and a supporting member of the team from the backline. In this ruleset, the sneak, opportunity and snipe abilities will not work.

For those who are new to my post, I usually post information about Gold Modern league which I usually play in rank, brawl and tournament.

💨 Ruleset: Fog of War

Card	Description
Fog of War	Monsters lose the Sneak, Snipe and the Opportunity abilities.

Consideration

The Fog of War ruleset is a bit of a straight forward ruleset where-in the target of attack is based on the position starting from the 1st position up to the 6th position. This means that in order to play this ruleset effectively, you need a good frontline defender, a backline attacker and backline supporter.

In terms of a frontline defender, a strong monster with a high health is very suitable. This comes in a form of a melee, magic or no attack monsters. In terms of abilities, those monsters with healing, void, void armor, thorns, return fire, shield and magic reflect are those monsters that are great in the frontline.

In terms of a backline attacker, those with high attack range or magic are the best to use. A melee monster with reach ability is also a good choice for the second position as long as this monster can also serve as a secondary tank.

In terms of a backline support, those monsters with tank heal, repair, ressurect and cleanse are those that are the best to use.

The keypoint is the sustainability of the frontline and avoid using monsters which specialized in opportunity, sneak and snipe abilities.

💨 Cards

Suggested Cards

In terms of summoners in modern, most of the summoners are good to use in the fog of war ruleset except for Lily Shieldpaw which I don't see its benefit.

Summoners such as Tarsa, Possibilus, Mylor Crowling and Brighton Bloom seems ineeffective summoner to me in this ruleset as these monsters benefit mostly for Melee monsters.

So without further ado below are my top summoners choice when it comes to Fog of War.

Card	Information
Conqueror Jacek	When it comes to effectively dealing with the support monsters in a fog of war ruleset, Conqueror Jacek's scattershot ability provides a high chance in taking down the support monsters.
Yodin Zaku	Yodin Zaku is another effective summoner in Fog of War due to its blast ability which affects the secondary monster as well as boosting up range monsters attack.
Lir DeepswimmerIlthain	Lir Deepswimmer and Ilthain provides a great defense against range monsters which can be the main damager in your opponent's line-up.
Immortalis	Immortalis on the other hand provides a good defense against magic attack due to the void ability it can provide. The shatter ability can also be a good one especially when dealing a defender with high armor or with void armor ability.
Mimosa Nightshade	Mimosa Nigthshade for me I think is the best one in fog of war when it comes to Fog of War due to the three abilities it provides. A reduction on the range damage, a void ability which reduce the magic damage taken and affliction which prevents monsters from healing.
Byzantine Kitty	Byzantine Kitty is the powerful summoner which helps in healing the frontline defense monsters to keep sustaining the frontline.

In choosing the monsters, three things we can consider as I have mentioned. A defender, an attacker and a support.

In terms of a good frontline defense, below are my top choices:

Monster	Element	Ability	Health at Max Gold
Antoid Platoon	Fire	Shield	4
Grum Flameblade	Fire	Void, Void Armor	14
Living Lava	Fire	Shield	8
Septic Slime	Fire	Heal	10
Tusk the Wide	Fire	Void	14
Baakjira	Water	Void, Heal	13
Diemonshark	Water	-	10
Djinn Oshannus	Water	Void, Phase	11
Hill Giant	Earth	-	8
Pelacor Mercenary	Earth	Heal	10
Mycelic Infantry	Earth	Shield	9
Terraceous Grunt	Earth	Return Fire	11
Venari Knifer	Earth	Thorns	8
Blinding Reflector	Life	Magic Reflect	6
Chaos Knight	Life	Shield	6
Imperial Knight	Life	Heal, Void Armor	8
Shieldbearer	Life	Shield	10
Uriel the Purifier	Life	Heal	12
Cursed Windeku	Death	Heal	11
Harklaw	Death	Shield	9
Agor Longtail	Dragon	Thorns	10
Djinn Chwala	Dragon	Heal, Void Armor	14
Almo Cambio	Neutral	Phase, Return Fire	15
Chain Golem	Neutral	Shield, Void	8
Coerl Lurker	Neutral	Phase	14
Legionnaire Alvar	Neutral	Void Armor	6
Onyx Sentinel	Neutral	Shield, Void, Thorns	8

For supporting monsters, here are my choice:

Monster	Element	Ability
Merdaali Guardian	Water	Tank Heal, Repair
River Nymph	Water	Cleanse
Swamp Spitter	Water	Repair
Goblin Psychic	Earth	Tank Heal
Adelade Brightwing	Life	Repair
Venari Crystalsmith	Life	Tank Heal
Oshuur Constantia	Dragon	Tank Heal
Scavo Hireling	Neutral	Repair

For the monsters which deals damage in the backline, those should be a high damaging range or magic monsters. Choose those with abilities such as headwinds, silence to reduce range and magic attack as well as those with affliction and cripple.

For those melee with reach, below are my favorites:

Monster	Element	Other Abilities
Ferexian Hero	Fire	Reflection Shield
Flying Squid	Water	Blind
Tide Biter	Water	Reflection Shield
Bramble Pixie	Earth	Heal
Corsair Bosun	Life	Reflection Shield, Cleanse
Carnage Titan	Life	Shield, Doubele Strike
Junker	Neutral	Repair

Disadvantage Cards

The affected cards by this ruleset are those melee monsters especially with those sneak and opportunity abilities. For range and magic units with snipe, they are semi affected as they are still be able to use in the battle to contribute damage to the frontline.

💨 Battle Strategy

I will share some of my strategy for the fog of war which may be a little different on the approach such as sustain in the frontline.

Battle #1 (Conqueror Jacek's Scattershot)

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Fog of War, Weak Magic
Mana Cap: 57
Playable Splinters: Fire

Team Composition

Given that only Fire splinter is available, there is no sustain heal for this battle but instead the chance of dealing a repair can be done with Scavo Hireling/Flame Monkey and having a low health monster from the backline with high attack is high chance.

• Summoner: Conqueror Jacek simply because of the scattershot and high speed which may penetrate the backline.
• 1st Position: Grum Flameblade in the frontline due to its high Health, Void and Void Armor abilities which can withstand magic damage.
• 2nd Position: Ferexian Hero in the second position due to its high reach attack and reflection shield which can stops blast damage if my opponent choose Yodin Zaku.
• 3rd Position: Lava Launcher which deals a massive range attack.
• 4th Position: Djinn Inferni which also deals a massive magic attack
• 5th Position: Ash Mirage provides headwinds to reduce range attack of the opponents and a high damage
• 6th Position: Countess Sinash which also deals a heavy range damage and further provide extra speed in the battle.

Battle Analysis

Looking into the line-up of the opponent, a second tank is set-up however it does not have a reach ability which may be a waste of attack. The monster with recharge is a good for fog of war however if this has been attack by random scattershot attack it might not be able to attack in the next round. The attack power of the range units from the opponent is affected by a headwinds. The scattershot perfectly plays in the match-up which deals on high attacking monsters from the backline with a low health.

BATTLE LINK

Battle #2 (Scavenger Gameplay)

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Close Range, Tis but Scratches, Fog of War
Mana Cap: 39
Playable Splinters: Fire, Earth, Life Death

Team Composition

In this strategy, I did not focus on the sustain as there is a Tis but Scratches ruleset which cause cripple effect that will prevent monster from healing overtime. Instead I choose having two monster with scavenger in the back as close range ruleset is in effect.

• Summoner: Immortalis due to its extra protection against magic attack as well as the shatter ability which deals against armored opponents.
• 1st Position: Mycelic Infantry is one of the best monster when it comes in defending due to its high health and shield as well as the blessing of Immortalis which granted defense against magic.
• 2nd Position: Regal Peryton in the second position due to its flying ability and high speed that can be use against physical attack, a chance to evade the attack.
• 3rd Position: Goblin Psychic due to its silence, affliction and tank heal ability.
• 4th Position: Vampiric Blossom provides a good range damage
• 5th Position: Iza the Fanged due to its scavenger to stacks up health before arriving in the frontline.
• 6th Position: Venari Seedsmith due to its scavenger the same with Iza but with a higher damage and can inflict poison.

Battle Analysis

Looking at the battle, here are some key notes:

1. Regal Peryton and Goblin Psychic were affected by Thaddius Brood which is why a good line-up of backline attacker should consist of magic and range units.
2. Regal Peryton high speed and flying are effective in dodging range and melee attack. However Lira the Dark with snare and Dhampir Stalker with aim true are 100% hit no matter how high the speed of Regal Peryton.
3. Iza the Fanged and Venari Seedsmith stacks up their health pretty high which is effective in the late round.

BATTLE LINK

Battle #3 (The Importance of Cripple)

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Aim True,Holy Protection, Fog of War
Mana Cap: 17
Playable Splinters: Fire, Water, Earth, Death

Battle Analysis

This is just a quick analysis for this match-up and show the importance of Cripple. In this battle, I regret on not using Merdhampir's cripple ability which can reduce Baakjira's max health overtime, disabling the sustain damage. The cripple is also not curable by cleanse ability which is perfect for this set-up.

This is a draw battle and if I use Merdhampir, I might be able to win.

BATTLE LINK

💨 Closing Remarks

Fog of War is a really amazing ruleset where most of the focus is how to maintain the defense in the frontline and whoever lose the frontline have the high chance in losing the battle. There are different strategies to play this but keep in mind that you need to consider the other ruleset as well to plan perfectly your strategy. Try to read your opponent's line-up whether they are going to perform sustain in the frontline or will try to eliminate your backline through scattershot attack.

Thank you for reading! See you in the next Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!

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