Hi everyone, Welcome to my BATTLE MAGE SECRETS post. BATTLE MAGE SECRETS itself is a replacement for SHARE YOUR BATTLE CHALLENGE, where if SHARE YOUR BATTLE CHALLENGE takes 1 monster as its weekly theme while BATTLE MAGE SECRETS takes 1 Ruleset as its theme. And the theme for this week is...

ARMORED UP

"All Monsters have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat."

ARMORED UP is a ruleset that gives an additional 2 ARMOR to all monsters in the battle arena. This ruleset is similar to the PROTECT ability where both provide an additional 2 ARMOR, but what distinguishes the two of them is that the effect of the PROTECT ability will end when the owner of this ability is defeated while in the ARMORED UP ruleset, the additional 2 ARMOR is permanent until the battle ends.

There are several Summoners that can be used to utilize or overcome this ruleset. They are...

Grandmaster Rathe can be used to utilize the ARMORED UP ruleset when facing opponents who rely on Magic monsters. With the VOID ARMOR ability and an additional 3 ARMOR, attacks from 1 or 2 Magic monsters only hit the ARMOR of the target (If the target has no ARMOR at all at the beginning).

As for Immortalis and Astral Entity*, they can be used to overcome the ARMORED UP ruleset. If Immortalis can remove all of the target's ARMOR (no matter how many) in 1 attack by using the SHATTER ability, then Astral Entity will only permanently remove 2 ARMOR from the opponent and will not lose its effect until the battle ends (unlike Immortalis which can be repaired using the REPAIR ability).

RULESET & FORMATION

In addition to ARMORED UP, the Ruleset in this battle is...

GOING THE DISTANCE

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GOING THE DISTANCE is a Ruleset that only allows us to use Ranged monsters in the battle arena. Even so, we can still use Dual-Attack type monsters as long as one of their attacks is a Ranged Attack Type.

To be able to overcome this Ruleset, we need Ranged monsters that have the CLOSE RANGE ability to be placed in the first position, as well as Ranged monsters that have the HEADWINDS ability which is useful for reducing 1 Attack Power from the opponent's Ranged monsters.

AIMLESS

AIMLESS is one of the rulesets that will give additional abilities in the form of the SCATTER SHOT Ability to all monsters in the battle arena. This ability only affects Ranged and Magic monsters. Overcoming this Ruleset is not easy, especially if the opponent uses more Ranged and Magic monsters because their attacks each round will hit different targets.

But there are a few tips to increase victory in the AIMLESS ruleset, namely by using monsters with high ATTACK POWER and SPEED to defeat the opponent's monsters faster.

My Line-Up

Cards	Ability	Reason
	- Give an additional 2 SPEED to All Allies - Give additional abilities (SCATTER SHOT and PIERCING ) to All Allies	Although I already got the SCATTER SHOT ability in the AIMLESS ruleset, I still choose Conqueror Jacek because there is another ability that he gives to all monsters. PIERCING ability that he gives will be useful for penetrating the opponent's ARMOR if the Attack Power is greater than the number of ARMOR owned by the target. And as I said earlier where SPEED is very important in the AIMLESS ruleset, so that's also why I use Conqueror Jacek which gives an additional 2 SPEED to all my monsters.
	DOUBLE STRIKE + SHATTER	Although it does not have the CLOSE RANGE ability, Drybone Raider can still be placed in the first position because it is one of the Dual-Attack monsters where one of its Attack types is Melee attack. Drybone Raider can be relied upon to destroy all of the target's ARMOR even though it only has an Attack Power of 2 points because it has the SHATTER ability. And with the DOUBLE STRIKE ability, the second attack will directly hit the health points of the target (if it hits).
	MARTYR	Using the MARTYR ability is a gamble because there is a possibility that the attack from the opponent's monster will hit other targets, but I still brought it. One of them was Venari Marksrat which I placed near Drybone Raider so that he would receive additional STATS to increase his low Attack Power.
	HEADWINDS	Because it is in the GOING THE DISTANCE ruleset, I need the HEADWINDS ability that can reduce 1 Attack Power of the opponent's Ranged monsters. Luckily in FIRE SPLINTER there is 1 monster that has it (Ash Mirage). In addition to having the HEADWINDS ability, Ash Mirage has a fairly high STATS which will be very supportive for this battle (and will receive additional STATS from Venari Marksrat's MARTYR ability if defeated).
	MARTYR + FURY	In addition to Venari Marksrat, I brought 1 more monster that has the MARTYR ability (Firecaller) to the battle arena. Although it has low Health points, the Attack Power of Firecaller is large enough that it can help until it is defeated. Then Firecaller will provide additional STATS to Ash Mirage as well as 1 monster in the position after it.
	CLOSE RANGE + WEAKEN	I chose Molten Ash Golem because it has high Health points even with low Attack Power (opposite to Firecaller). It has a CLOSE RANGE ability that can make it attack in the first position as well as a WEAKEN ability that will reduce 1 Health point from all opposing monsters. Next time Molten Ash Golem will receive additional STATS from Firecaller.
	NONE	I used Xenith Archer because I only had 2 Mana left after choosing some monsters to use. In Fire SPLINTER there are no Ranged monsters that have 2 points of Mana, and only Xenith Archer (which is a Neutral Monster) is available.

BATTLE START !!!

The opponent uses Ilthain which is known to be very suitable when it comes to facing Ranged monsters because it will give an additional ability in the form of RETURN FIRE which can attack back to the attacker for half the damage that the owner of this ability takes.

In the first round, Supply Runner targeted Venari Marksrat, Venari Crystalsmith and Gargoya Devil attacked Drybone Raider, Pelacor Arbalest attacked Firecaller and Venari Marksrat, Xenith Archer to Molten Ash Golem, Drybone Raider attacks Molten Ash Golem and Firecaller.

While on my side, Ash Mirage targeted Supply Runner, Xenith Archer and Firecaller* at Drybone Raider, Drybone Raider only managed to land one of his two attacks on Gargoya Devil and destroyed his ARMOR, Likewise, Venari Marksrat failed to attack Gargoya Devil, Molten Ash Golem targeted Xenith Archer.

In the second round, Supply Runner attacked Molten Ash Golem, Venari Crystalsmith to Venari Marksrat, Pelacor Arbalest successfully attacked Xenith Archer but his second attack failed to hit Ash Mirage, Xenith Archer defeated Firecaller, Gargoya Devil attacked Drybone Raider, Drybone Raider attacked Xenith Archer and Ash Mirage*.

On my side, Ash Mirage and Xenith Archer attacked Drybone Raider, Molten Ash Golem defeated Supply Runner, Drybone Raider again could only land 1 of his 2 attacks on Gargoya Devil, Venari Marksrat defeated Drybone Raider but he also lost due to the effect of RETURN FIRE ability.

In the third round, Ash Mirage defeated Xenith Archer, Drybone Raider's 2 attacks failed to hit Gargoya Devil despite being ahead in SPEED, Xenith Archer and Molten Ash Golem* managed to defeat Gargoya Devil.

On the opposing side, Venari Crystalsmith attacked Molten Ash Golem and eliminated his additional STATS using the DISPEL ability, Pelacor Arbalest successfully attacked Ash Mirage and Drybone Raider*.

In the last round, Drybone Raider defeated Pelacor Arbalest, Venari Crystalsmith was defeated by Ash Mirage, Molten Ash Golem and Xenith Archer* (although Xenith Archer had to lose due to the effect of RETURN FIRE ability)

To see the entire battle, you can watch it at >> FULL BATTLE LINK
And this is the challenge link >> CHALLENGE LINK

Review of this battle

I was saved by the presence of 2 ARMOR from the ARMORED UP Ruleset, although I had to be counterattacked due to the effect of the RETURN FIRE ability, the attack only partially hit the ARMOR. Unlike my side, which received the additional PIERCING ability so that with a large Attack power, my monster's attack can penetrate (destroy) the ARMOR while reducing the Health points of the opponent's monster. My gamble by bringing 2 MARTYR monsters this time worked very well. The 2 additional STATS saved Ash Mirage from defeat because every time he received an additional STATS, he also got 1 additional ARMOR so the effect of the RETURN FIRE ability only damaged his ARMOR.

That was the post BATTLE MAGE SECRETS for this time. Thank you for visiting and taking the time to read. See you in the next post....

_{Thanks to:}

• @splinterlands
• @thepeakstudio for Dividers