[Splinterlands] Beware of the Time Mage

This is my entry to the Splinterlands Share Your Battle featuring the Time Mage. If you want to join in this challenge, you can check this link. Alright, let's start first with the monster's lore, then deep dive into its compatible summoners, monster's stats & abilities, and the highlighted battle.

TIME MAGE

Time Mages are members of the Order of the Silver Shield and close associates of the Wizards' Council. They are trusted to peer through the fabric of time and reality to foretell the future or manipulate the present by slowing the flow of time. They can also speed up the aging process of armor, causing it to rust prematurely.

However, with such power also comes great risk. The future is ever-changing, and the ripples of time can affect everyone. Time Mages must undergo strict training to ensure they don't abuse their power and use it only for the most dire of circumstances.

TIME MAGE is one of the newest additions in the Life Splinter from the Chaos Legion release. It uses its magic to slow down the enemies and also uses time magic to speed the aging of monster's armor.

STATS and ABILITIES

At its initial level, it has a 1 magic attack, 4 speed, and 3 HP with the Slow ability at a 4 mana cap monster.
At level 5, it gains a newa ability, Rust, to reduce the enemy monster's armor.
And at its max level 8, its magic attack reaches 3 Magic damage, a 5 Speed, and max 4 HP.

Abilities:

Description
	Slow Reduces the speed of all enemy Monsters. This ability reduces the Speed of all enemy monster by 1. If you have multiple monsters with this ability, its effect can stack but can only further reduce the enemy speed to 1.
	Rust Reduces the armor of all enemy Monsters. This ability reduces the armor of all enemy monsters by 2. If you have multiple monsters with this ability, its effect can stack and can further reduce the enemy armor to 0.

Ability to Counter Time Mage

Description
	Cleanse Removes all negative effects om the Monster in the first position on the friendly team. Clease can remove all the debuff provided by Time Mage to atleast the first position monster.
	Swiftness All friendly Monsters have increased Speed. This will somehow negate the effect of SLOW.

SUMMONER COMPATIBILITY

Summoner : LORNA SHINE

Splinter : Life

LORNA SHINE provides Divine Shield to all friendly monsters. Since TIME MAGE has a low HP and no armor, having a Divine Shield will help it nullify one attacks from opponent.

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Summoner : TYRUS PALADIUM

Splinter : Life

TYRUS PALADIUM provides +1 Armor to all friendly monsters. TIME MAGE has no armor by default.

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Summoner : MOTHER KHALA

Splinter : Life

MOTHER KHALA provides +1 Health to all friendly monsters. This will increase TIME MAGE max HP.

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Summoner : DELWYN DRAGONSCALE

Splinter : Dragon

DELWYN DRAGONSCALE increases the magic damage of all friendly monsters. Since TIME MAGE is a magic attacking monsters, the additional damage will greatly increases its offense while having debuffs ability

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Summoner : ARCHMAGE ARIUS

Splinter : Dragon

• ARCHMAGE ARIUS increases the melee, ranged and magic damage by 1. Its effect for TIME MAGE is just similar with what DELWYN DRAGONSCALE can provide. ARCHMAGE ARIUS is better for monsters with dual-attack type (melee and ranged, melee and magic, or magic and ranged) to utilize its buff effect.

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Summoner : BRIGHTON BLOOM

Splinter : Dragon

• BRIGHTON BLOOM on the other hand provides FLYING ability to all friendly monsters. TIME MAGE does not have the Flying ability. Once you are in a match with Earthquake rule, it is best to use monsters with Flying ability or just use BRIGHTON BLOOM to provide all friendly monsters with Flying ability.

There are other Summoners from Life and Dragon Splinter that are more on the defensive side.

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FEATURED BATTLE

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_2e63865ff1251c27655bf01466b4ee37&ref=jpleron

Battle Condition
Rule #1	Explosive Weaponry: All Monsters have the Blast ability
Rule #2	Equalizer: The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health.
Mana Cap	22
Allowed Splinter	Life and Death

MY LINE-UP

CARDS	Description
	GENERAL SLOAN provides plus 1 Ranged damage to all your monsters.
	BLINDING REFLECTOR has a high armor and high HP for a 3 mana monster with Magic Reflect ability.
	PELACOR CONJURER is a no-attack monster with Magic Reflect ability. It's only a 2 mana monster good for a pseudo-tank. With the Blast rule, Magic attack from enemy will also hit monsters beside the targeted one. With Magic Reflect both from our main tank Blinding Reflector and pseudo tank Pelacor Conjurer, this will hit back very hard.
	TIME MAGE, our featured monster for this week, has a SLOW ability which can reduce the Speed of all enemy monsters. The speed reduction is crucial for this ruleset since we have a Blast rule. As much as possible, we want to attack first and eliminate enemy monster before they can attack.
	DAX PARAGON is a 2 mana monster with Amplify ability. Amplify ability increases the damage return by Thorns, Magic Reflect, and Return Fire. Since we have two monsters with Magic Reflect, the Amplify ability will increases the return damage to attacking monster.
	SILVERSHIELD ARCHERS is a 2 mana ranged monster with SNIPE ability. The buff effect from General Sloan will increase the attack of this monster. SNIPE ability is a great combo with BLAST rule as it will allow to hit more enemies due to its blast effect.
	PELACOR BANDIT is also a Ranged monster with Snipe ability and Armor Repair ability. The SNIPE is one of the best combo for BLAST rule while the ARMOR REPAIR will help our main tank to absorb more physical damage since Lone Boatman can repair the damage from its armor.

ROUND 1

At the end of round 1, we were able to eliminate two monsters from enemy side with the help of Magic Reflect - Amplify ablity. Enemy's Death Elemental was killed after the two Magic Refect from Blinding Reflector and Pelacor Conjurer hits it back. While Life Sapper was able to survive the damage from Magic Reflect because of the Life Leech ability but still did not make past round 1 because of the SNIPE attacks from both Silvershield Archers and Lone Boatman.

ROUND 2

At the end of round 2, we eliminated Cursed Slimeball and Crypt Beetle.

ROUND 3

In round 3, we were able to take down enemy's Undead Badger and Silent Sha-vi.
This was the end of the matched.

Check this link to watch the full battle replay:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_2e63865ff1251c27655bf01466b4ee37&ref=jpleron

SUMMARY

Did your strategy work?

• My strategy is to go with SNIPE ability monsters to utilized the BLAST ruleset. SNIPE will target monsters with no-attack, ranged or magic monster that are not in the first position. This allows Blast effect to spread more than 1 monsters.
• On the defensive side, I utilized the Magic Reflect and Amplify to hit back enemy magic monsters. Blast rule will spread damage to more than 1 monsters so having two monsters with Magic Reflect combine with Amplify is a great counter.

What will you try differently next time?

• Given the same battle ruleset, I may opted to use Pelacor Arbalest with Double Strike to also utilize the Blast effect.

VERDICT | Is TIME MAGE a good card?

• Definitely, Time Mage is one of the most used cards in the Life Splinter. It has a good debuff abilities like SLOW and RUST ability.

If you want to know more about the game, you can visit their website at https://splinterlands.com?ref=jpleron

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