Battle Mage Secrets: Ferocity - Protect Yourself and Hit Them Fast

Prelude
Hi all, hope all is well for you and it is time for another Battle Mage Secrets. Last week, we looked at a ruleset that ensured our backline will not be surprised or weakest link will not be picked out or even non melee cards will not be sniped out. This week, we look at something that has not been discussed often as it affects not a lot of cards.

Ruleset Spotlight

Ferocity

Description:

• All units have the Fury ability.
• Fury does double damage to cards that carry the Taunt Ability. So be mindful if you wish to include one in your lineup.

What thrives with this ruleset?
Interesting ruleset but for people who love to use Taunt to protect their other cards, please do reconsider as they will be subjected to double the damage. No more high health meat shield as they will be taken out in double quick timing.

In my Earth Splinter, I always use the combo of Taunt and Triage to ensure I can contain all the damage to the Taunt card and healing it. With this ruleset, it will no longer work because I will not be able to heal it in time. So please do not use this kind of combo unless all you need is 1 turn to hang on before your lineup can retaliate back sufficiently.

Defensively, my take is just avoid Taunt totally. And without Taunt, we need to have cards that can survive and also cards to improve sustainability if possible. Cards that have high armour, Shield or even give Protect is very much desirable. Healing and Repair to bring more sustainability is also welcome.

Offensively, speed is one key that needs to looked at. The strategy to deploy is to hit them hard and hit them fast. With players not using Taunt cards, it will be that cards are generally more vulnerable because nothing will be there to soak up damage for them. With this knowledge, why not hit them early and if there is blast that is available, why not?

Stats wise, everyone of them is important. The higher the better and chances of winning will improve.

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

The Battle
Link: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_d8611e096fa5475a24bc4b1e155300a7&ref=vaynard86

Ruleset
Ferocity, Equal Opportunity, What Doesn't Kill You
Mana Limit: 23

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Kelya Frendul	4	Summoner	My favourite summoner with that +1 speed and +1 armour as it really gives a lot of advantage though it looked subtle
Torrent Fiend	0	1st	Just a simple padding to hold the front.
Djinn Oshannus	8	2nd	Fast speed and high magic damage and also having Void which enhances its survivability.
Venari Marksrat	3	3rd	Martyr giver to neighbouring cards additional stat boost.
Riverboat Captain	6	4th	Card that have high magic damage and blast to give additional adjacent damage.
Igor Darkspear	2	5th	Decent health and decent speed reliable range attack.
Total Mana:	23

Opponent Lineup

• Summoner - Grandmaster Rathe
• Position 1 - Chaos Knight
• Position 2 - Venari Marksrat
• Position 3 - Jared Scar
• Position 4 - Soul Fiend
• Position 5 - NA
• Position 6 - NA

Prediction before pressing rumble
Wow, level 2 Grandmaster, I am in for a good fight for sure as this card will make my magic attacks less effective. Also I see Jared Scar in my opponent's lineup which can really hurt and grow as it kills off any card on my side. Chaos Knight will be a great deal of sustain from opponent end.

Let's battle!

Battle Synopsis

Round 1, A clear cut round where both Fiends which had the lowest health got took out. The remaining cards are generally unscathed due to armour protection.

Round 2, Both Marksrat fell, but for my side, it is gonna be a little problematic than my opponent because my Marksrat was killed by Jared Scar and Blood Lust was activated giving it stat boost above the martyr.

Round 3, No casualty because of the presence of armour. Both Oshannus and Igor Darkspear were hit but on their armour while we bring Chaos Knight's health relatively low for a single hit from Oshannus to kill it.

Round 4, We successfully settled Chaos Knight but upon taking a hit from Riverboat Captain, Jared Scar went to a phenomenal high attack of 11. Thankfully Oshannus manage to dodge it.

Round 5, I got hit by that 11 damage melee attack for Oshannus but survived and Jared Scar was taken out this round. Victory secured.

Post Battle Summary
What a heart racing battle this was which could go either way especially if Oshannus didn't manage to dodge that 11 damage melee attack. But all in all, it can be seen that both me and my opponent planned out well for our lineup.

Did my strategy work? I am sure it did work. Quite a bit of thought went into it especially on which card to fill the 6 mana slot taken by Riverboat Captain and I sure didn't regret my choice because Riverboat Captain has its blast to do adjacent damage. Otherwise, remaining cards were my usual picks and Marksrat for this case due to opportunity which will ensured it die fastest.

What's the Battle Mage Secret?

The Battle Mage Secret for today is to ensure we have sufficient protection and the ability to hit first before opponent can hit back. It might sound a little trivial, but the additional armour saved my cards a couple of times. Without it, long would I have been knocked out. That additional speed was subtle but all enough for me to dodge one 11 melee attack which could turn the tide of the match. And this has essentially made Kelya Frendul the card of the match because of the stats it gave my lineup, giving the team additional +1 armour to take a big blow and +1 speed to hit opponent fast/dodge massive attacks. With or without Taunt cards, this rule can also be applied to many other matchup and rulesets.

Wrap Up
I hope you guys enjoyed reading my sharing on the rule set Ferocity. 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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