This post is an entry to the BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge!

CHALLENGE RULES

RULESET: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL

Description: Only units with melee attacks can be used.

Info: Use Thorns and Demoralize to counter melee attacks.
Units with 2 types of attacks (including melee) can be used.

The Battle

Battle Rulesets	Description	Info
UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL	Only Monsters with Melee attack may be used in battles.	Choose a summoner that increases/reduces Melee attack or Mylor. Keep a monster with Shield, Retaliate or Thorns in the first position. Reach, Sneak, Opportunity help in this ruleset.
EARTHQUAKE	Non-flying Monsters take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.	Using monsters with Flying or Heal is the trick for this ruleset, but if you are unable to choose such monsters, use monsters that have high HP and high damage. Don't keep heal units up front. Shield has a very important role. Using Brighton Bloom as summoner can help in this ruleset. Keep monsters with Flying in last positions when Earthquake has done enough damage to both sides.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITY	All Monsters have the Opportunity ability.	Speed and HP are the trick here: higher speed will let you target the enemy's low HP monster first, opening the way for your slower monsters to deal damage to higher HP enemy monsters. Keep lower HP monsters in front. Monsters who have two attack types should always be preferred.Keep lower HP monsters in front. Monsters who have two attack types should always be preferred.

Lineup

It was a low mana games with Opportunity.

Card	Strategy
	Lux Vega - My default choice in most of the games. The stats bonus is good for melee monsters.
	Hardy Stonefish - For 1 mana it is a good filler for absorbing some damage.
	Tide Biter - 3 mana and good abilities and stats for this game.
	Disintegrator - Maybe the most important monster in this game. I chose it because of the -1 melee anti-support.
	Deeplurker - Water is my favorite splinter and Deeplurker is one of the reasons. It has huge damage with poison, an ideal choice for 6 mana.
	Xenith Monk - I selected it because of its healing ability. Hope he can survive the earthquake long enough.
	Torrent Fiend - 0 mana filler for fill up the board.

Battle - Replay

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

Luckily, yes. I had only 31% win but it is on my side this time:

Battle Results

Brawl Results

It was 100% winning percent Brawl for me :)

Do you like UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL ruleset? Why or why not?

Yes. I have some good old strategy for this type of games.