Splinterlands Weekly Challenge Battle BATTLE MAGE SECRETS! CLOSE RANGE

Every week there is a Splinterlands challenge to share a rule set using a specific card and on this week's post it is a battle with the Close Range rule set. I also encourage Splinterlands players to partake in the challenge because you get to try different strategies and earn some crypto in the process.

Rule set, Battle and Plan

The ruleset this time is close range and rise of the commons. This means that ranged monster can attack from the first spot and only common/rare cards can be used. There is also 33 mana available and I am left with the choice of water, earth, death or dragon splinter.

The summoner I choose to use this time is Thaddius Brood. In a match like this, -1 health and magic will be quite useful. At the same time, I can use my cards to the highest level.

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Thaddius Brood	4	Summoner	-1 Health and Magic
Soul Strangler	3	1st	Thorns
Riftwing	4	2nd	Scavenger
Venari Bonesmith	4	3rd	Poison and life Leech
Soul Strangler	3	4th	Ranged damage
Ravenhood Warden	4	5th	+2 armor
Dhampir Stalker	7	6th	Ranged damage
Total Mana:	29

My plan is just to have a lineup using a few tanky monsters up in front. I start things off with a thorns monster followed by a scavenger monster. I have a single magic monster and it has poison. Then I have my ranged damage dealers and one of them gives +2 armor.

Round 1

At the first glance of my opponent's lineup, I think I have the stronger lineup due my lineup. My opponent will take quite a bit of damage due to thorns and this match will rely on whether or not I can kill off his front few monsters fast enough.

Round 2

We have almost traded our front line tank but I have the advantage because his Night Ghoul will die from poison. Silent Sha-vi won't be able to kill off my last monster either this turn so it depends on how fast I can kill my opponent.

Round 3

I lost my tank but I got lucky with another poison proc. This means that my Dhampir Stalker will be able to survive to deal damage in future rounds. My advantage is still there.

Round 4

I didn't miss any attacks and my opponent is left with a single range monster left. With all the damage I have left, I don't see anyway for my opponent to win.

With my magic monster there, there was zero chance I would miss and I finished off my opponent.

Conclusion

The battle this time around went exactly as I expected. The lineup I went for had my opponent focus on my tanks and this let my damage dealers live long enough to take out my opponent's monsters. The poison definitely came in helpful because it helped me finish off a few monsters during the first few rounds. Thaddius Brood was helpful and there were two cards that would have survived an extra round if I didn't have that -1 health debuff. It would have been a way closer match if I lost my Dhampir Stalker too. So I think my opponent had a fairly decent lineup. It's just too bad that his Night Ghoul couldn't survive long enough. I had some ranged monsters ready to deal damage if they got pushed up to the front using close range but it never happened.

You can see my entire match here.

What did you think of my match? Was there anything you would have done differently? I think it is quite interesting to see how different players use the same card.