Battle Mage Secrets: Briar Patch - A Thorny Affair

Prelude
Hi all, hope all is well for you and it is time for another Battle Mage Secrets. Last week, the ruleset that we discussed involves in death manipulation where on death effect triggers determines how much advantage we get in the ruleset. This week the ruleset that we will be discussing will be something thorny.

Ruleset Spotlight

Briar Patch

Description:
All units receive the Thorns ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that use melee attacks receive damage back.

Damage returned is equal to damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up.
Melee attack units with the Reflection Shield ability do not take damage from thorns.
The Amplify ability increases damage.

What thrives with this ruleset?
One thing I actually did this time was to google meaning of Briar Patch because it is an interesting name.

Google returned this: Briar patch is a dense thicket of thorny plants; ground made impassable by the impenetrable overgrowth of prickly vegetation.

So indeed when we talk about this ruleset is that thorns are everywhere. Like all solutions, elimination is the best cure. So first and foremost, avoid using melee. This will already make you not receive any thorns impact. As much as possible fill your lineup with Magic or Range attackers.

After elimination, then it will be protect. To let yourself go unscathed while opponent taking up the thorns damage, why not add a protective layer of armour. In this case, abilities such as Protect and Repair becomes very useful where there will be an initial additional armour or armour that is replenished when down.

If unable to protect, we can also reduce/reflect. Since we will be expecting more magic/range attack, abilities such as Magic Reflect, Return Fire, Void, Shield and Headwinds come in handy to deal with the increase probability of such cards.

Otherwise, as mentioned in the description of the ruleset, Amplify bring opponent more pain from the thorns damage and reflection shield helps prevent taking thorns damage.

Overall, this is a very clear cut ruleset, no melee or you will feel the pain of thorns. Stats wise high armour and health will be good while high speed might be a double edge sword, you might end killing yourself when attacking first.

With these in mind, let's start to talk about the battle proper.

The Battle
Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_de992c4073085c32da164df797ff81a9&ref=vaynard86

Ruleset
Briar Patch, Born Again
Mana Limit: 36

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Kelya Frendul	4	Summoner	Gives additional 1 armour to whole lineup
Djinn Oshannus	8	1st	Fast magic attacker with void
Venari Marksrat	3	2nd	Martyr card to boost stats to neighbouring cards
Riverboat Captain	6	3rd	Magic attacker with blast
River Hellondale	7	4th	Allows opportunity for double Martyr to create crazy boosted cards
Venari Wavesmith	5	5th	Gives additional protection against range attackers
Crustacean King	3	6th	Keeps the front card juiced up
Total Mana:	36

Opponent Lineup

• Summoner - Kelya Frendul
• Position 1 - Venari Marksrat
• Position 2 - Djinn Oshannus
• Position 3 - Riverboat Captain
• Position 4 - River Nymph
• Position 5 - Merdaali Giardian
• Position 6 - River Hellondale

Prediction before pressing rumble
This is almost like a mirror match, the main difference will be the tank heal choice, the position of Marksrat and also Wavesmith vs River Nymph. May the better lineup win.

Battle Synopsis

Round 1, 30 actions in this round with me allowing my opponent's Marksrat to die 3 times with a triple Martyr and seeing a 5 attack Oshannus. This is worrying. While my side remain unscathed, dealing with a 5 attack Oshannus is no easy matter.

Round 2, Many actions this round, with my Marksrat falling 1 time, boosting both Oshannus and Riverboat Captain. Otherwise, all in tact.

Round 3, My Marksrat fell a 2nd time, it gave a further boost to Osha and Riverboat Captain. Opponent Riverboat Captain fell and revived. At this time you can see how much boosted my Riverboat Captain have become.

Round 4, Now engine finally on the move with opponent's Riverboat Captain falling again. Now it will be 2 bombardment from my side vs 1 of theirs.

Round 5 onwards, from this stage on it will just be a repeat till the match ends because opponent unable to take down Oshannus whom gets constantly healed and Riverboat Captain doing the blast to take out opponent backline till there is no heal on their own Oshannus. Match ended in round 10, when opponent River Hellondale falls.

Post Battle Summary
Whew, what a match. Somehow in this match, placement become a key especially when we are having an almost mirror match. A good win clocked!

Did my strategy work? Yes it did. With thorns, I had 0 melee attackers, placed my focus to run the double Martyr and a good placement ensure both Riverboat Captain and Oshannus get boosted at the same time. Crustacean King just did it's job by keep healing. Unfortunately opponent did not had an melee or range, hence Protect had little use here. But everything went as planned.

What's the Battle Mage Secret?

For today's secret, I will not state the obvious of not using melee attackers. But for me, the key was to maximize the placement of the Martyr card to make my magic attacks deadlier to delivery of large magic attacks. Oshannus to tank and to hold up the big attack from opponent, while Riverboat Captain blast his way through to the backline which had been supporting their Oshannus.

Another key is that while Martyr at first position is good since it will most probably die faster, but need to know what are the possible cards opponent will play to see if tinkering the lineup a little will give you additional advantage.

Wrap Up
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my sharing on the rule set Briar Patch. I would really appreciate it if you liked and/or commented to let me know what are you thoughts.

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Till my next battle sharing, take care, stay safe and happy battling!

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