Battle Mage Secrets - Who Is The Best Summoner For Holy Protection Ruleset?

The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Holy Protection ruleset this time! This means all units gain the Divine Shield ability which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0. And if you read closely, Divine Shield will be re-applied when a unit is Resurrected. It's not always easy to get the specific ruleset, but if you play hard enough, you definitely can find one! This time I was lucky enough to have one - woohoo!

So here's the interesting battle that I encountered.

Anyway, I thought it would be still be interesting to introduce some useful cards and show how their strengths can be maximised especially with a particular ruleset. In this post, the featured card is a Legendary Summoner, Astral Entity!

Astral Entity packs not just one, not just two, but three amazing abilities. A reduction in armor counters opponents with high armor or use summoners or cards with armor boosts. Dodge ability when combined with cards with high speeds (there are plenty of them in the Death deck!) make it almost impossible to hit them. And finally, Resurrect needs no introduction! It can be used strategically to activate Martyr twice.

As usual, here's the lore for Astral Entity for your reading interest:

From the shadows and the ether comes an eldritch entity known only as the Astral Entity. It is a celestial being that drifts through rifts in reality, searching for new planes and realms. There are almost no recordings of the Astral Entity in the athenaeums of the Splinterlands, but if one was to search through forgotten scrolls in the cobwebbed corners of ancient libraries, one would find the briefest mentions of this being. Snippets from across the centuries mention a humanoid shape made of cosmic energy. No one knows where it came from or what it wants, but it has only been recorded doing one thing: observing.

In spite of this, death always seems to follow the Astral Entity’s arrival. Clans and nations go to war. Crops wither, livestock become ill or infertile, and famine ravages the land. Droughts, plagues of locusts, and violent storms bring empires to their knees. And when it’s over, the Astral Entity vanishes without a trace.

When the Chaos Legion invaded the Splinterlands, the rift they opened echoed across realities. This drew the attention of the Astral Entity. It was able to slip through the rift undetected and explore this new world.

It witnessed a world rich in mana, with diverse people and dramatic landscapes. It also witnessed a world crushed by the grip of the powerful Chaos Legion and their leader, Silus of the Rift. The Astral Entity observed the battles, the people suffering, and all the death, but it did nothing to intervene. What it did do was learn. It learned the strengths and weaknesses of not only the Splinterlands, but of the Chaos Legion, as well.

The time may come when the Astral Entity chooses a side. Whatever choice it makes will be purely for its own gain and based on all it has learned from its eons of passing through the rifts.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

Astral Entity is one of the best summoner for this ruleset because having the Resurrect ability means it can take advantage of the Holy Protection for one extra card once more. This might be vital in buying time for the backline to deal more damage.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Venari Marksrat	3

Venari Marksrat is chosen to take the tank to tempt the Martyr boost for its adjacent card. Having Resurrect from Astral Entity, if it goes down first, this mean Martyr will be activated twice, which is a massive boost.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Pelacor Deceiver	5

The important card that is adjacent to Venari Marksrat would be Pelacor Deceiver. Sitting at 2 Melee attack, 4 Speed and 8 HP, if the double Martyr boost works, it would 4 Melee attack, 6 Speed and 10 HP. With Astral Entity's Dodge, he is very hard to hit by Melee and Ranged attacks.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Riftwing	4

Riftwing is another card that goes very well with Astral Entity. Having high speed of 4 and Dodge from Astral Entity, it is also extremely hard to hit Riftwing. With Resurrect from Astral Entity, this gives Riftwing an additional Scavenge opportunity, i.e. 1 more HP.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Revealer	4

For a relatively low mana battle, Revealer fits the bill of a decent card. His Stun is useful when successful, and I find him better than Venari Bonesmith actually.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Creeping Ooze	1

Creeping Ooze comes in as a filler card but its Slow ability further damage my opponent's card and they will have a harder time hitting my high speed cards.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Ravenhood Warden	4

Ravenhood Warden is a welcome addition to the Death deck and having low mana cards that come with Protect can be extremely useful. In this case, it sits at the back.

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• Pre Battle: Both sides put out similar cards except my opponent made full use of Cursed Windeku, which is an extremely strong tank. Let's see if Astral Entity can lead the team to a win!
  

• Round 1: With Divine Shield, it was a warm up for both sides in the first round. Nothing much happened.
  

• Round 2: My Venari Marksrat went down as expected and Pelacor Deceiver received its first Martyr boost. I was lacking in damage output at the moment.
  

• Round 3: I was quickly down to 4 cards. Venari Marksrat went off the second and final time and Pelacor Deceiver took the center stage. Two Sneak cards were hunting down Ravenhood Warden since the start of the battle and they finally succeeded. Was I in trouble?
  

• Round 4: Pelacor Deceiver rested for 3 rounds and swung right into action this round by taking out the opposing Cursed Windeku. Now it's 4 vs 5.
  

• Round 5: It was a race against time as the opposing Sneak cards were picking off my backline. Pelacor Deceiver took out the 2nd card with 4 Melee attack and it was down to 3 vs 4.
  

• Round 6: Revealer's Stun ability came into play and obstructed the opposing Life Sapper from attacking.
  

• Round 7: Things were moving rather slowly with Divine Shield and Pelacor Deceiver was taking a lot of misses. Finally I caught up and it's 3 vs 3.
  

• Rounds 8 to 11: One by one, they were taken out by Pelacor Deceiver. The double Martyr boosted Pelacor Deceiver was just impossible to hit.
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? Definitely, the opponents are getting tougher these days. Hence, strategising is become more and more important to outwit these players and Astral Entity is an extremely strong summoner.

What's the Battle Mage Secret? Astral Entity is the one of the best Death Summoners for this Holy Protection Ruleset.

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So that's all I have! What are your takeaways from this battle? Feel free to comment below, as I am always keen to learn and improve!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

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