This weeks Battle Mage Challenge is about the Counterspell rule.

Splinterlands tells us the following about the Counterspell rule:

All units receive the magic reflect ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that attack with magic receive damage back.

    Damage returned is equal to the damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up.
    Magic units with the reflection shield ability do not take damage from reflected magic attacks.
    The amplify ability increases damage.

Counterspell gives Magic Reflect to all units. This is a strong punishment for playing magic units, especially if they do not have Void to tackle it. One way to play around that is to go for either Immortalis or Mimosa Nightshade, who both give Void to all their units. Then the reflected damage is usually limited to 0 or 1 damage, and might not be a big deal.

Otherwise, it is good to avoid magic attackers and focus on melee and ranged damage, both offensively and defensively.

Incompatible Rules

Counterspell is incompatible with Up Close & Personal, Lost Magic, and Going the Distance.

Desirable Abilities

(Protect, Shield, Demoralize, Headwinds)

Since Counterspell is a rule that gives a big disincentive to play magic units, the four abilities that provide protection against melee and ranged attacks are great to include in this rule. Protect gives the whole team armor, Shield will cut the damage taken in half, Demoralize reduces the enemy teams' attack by 1 and Headwins reduce the ranged attacks by 1.

Disadvantaged Summoners

The disadvantaged summoners are those that prefer magic damage:

Desirable Monsters

(Limited to Modern, as the full Wild set is now huge)

My Battle : Counterspell battle

Battle configuration
Tournament	Modern Novice Tournament (Beginners Training Tournament (NO BOTS ALLOWED)).
Mana	52
Rules	Heavy Hitters, Unprotected, Counterspell
Splinters	Death, Water, Dragon
Misc	No legendary cards.

My Lineup

With no legendaries and the unprotected rule in play, death was my go-to choice here, because I can field a heavy ranged damage lineup. Since this was high mana, I put the biggest unit I could find in front (the Night Ghoul), followed by the Will-O-Wisp, since that gives Weaken, has high health, good speed, and Flying. Next, I added three big ranged units, and spent the final 4 mana on the Dhampir Infiltrator.

Opponent's Lineup

My Opponent went for a water setup that looks quite decent. They included Nerissa Tridawn even though we have Counterspell, but she has a decent health pool to absorb some of that reflected damage. The main threath here is the Relenor Cleaver, which can snowball heavily here if he gets going.

Battle progress and Result

In round 1 we hit away at the tanks. Mind dies first, and before he gets to strike, but then the Wisp fortunately dodges the hit from Relenor Cleaver. My Dhampir Infiltrator finishes off the Wave Brood, and we're ready for round two.

Now the Relenor Cleaver is up front, and without armor he is not a particularly good tank. My Liza Fox and Queen of Crows combine their hits to take him down before he can strike. In the meantime, Nerissa hits the Wisp, and takes another hit of return damage, bringing her down to 1 health (she was also hit by Runic Skyclaw). Finally, Dhampir Infiltrator does her double-strike on Merdaali Guardian and gets the kill.

In round 3, I lose my Queen of Crows, but Liza gets a Bloodlust stack from killing Nerissa. Now my opponent's Runic Skyclaw is their tank, and there is only one unit left to do damage. The Runic Skyclaw dodges both hits from my Dhampir Infiltrator, and that brings us to round 4.

Round 4 is the final round, and because I match the Runic Skyclaw with my own unit, there is no chance that I can lose anymore. Quick and simple battle, where I got great value from the Will-o-Wisp.

I hope you found this post interesting. If you did, you might also enjoy my other content.

Battle mage challenges

Battle Mage Challenge: Close Range
Battle Mage Challenge: Broken Arrows
Battle Mage Challenge: Broken Arrows
Battle Mage Challenge: Briar Patch
Battle Mage Challenge: Born Again
Battle Mage Challenge: Back to Basics
Battle Mage Challenge: Armored Up

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Best of luck in Splinterlands!
Kalkulus