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...

BRIAR PATCH

"All Monsters have the Thorns ability."

BRIAR PATCH is one of the rulesets that gives additional abilities in the form of THORNS to all monsters in the battle arena. THORNS is an ability that deals 2 points of damage to every Melee monster that attacks a target that has this ability. The damage is the same as receiving an attack from a Melee or Ranged monster that has ATTACK POWER of 2 Points, so one way to overcome this Ruleset is to use monsters that have a lot of ARMOR or can rely on Summoners or monsters that can provide additional ARMOR (or the PROTECT ability which gives an additional 2 ARMOR).

Another way is to use monsters that have the SHIELD ability to fill the first position. If a monster with this ability is hit by the effect of the THORNS ability after attacking the target, it will only take 1 point of damage.

Melee monsters with ATTACK POWER above 3 points will be another alternative if you still want (or because you are forced by certain Rulesets) to use Melee monsters. However, to help Melee monsters, monsters with REPAIR abilities are needed so that lost ARMOR can be repaired immediately.

But the easiest way is of course to not use Melee monsters and only use Magic or Ranged monsters (But that all depends on whether or not there is a Ruleset that restricts it).

RULESET & FORMATION

In addition to BRIAR PATCH, the Ruleset in this battle is...

AIM TRUE

AIM TRUE is one of the rulesets that makes it easy for all monsters so that each attack can hit its target without missing a beat. Because of this advantage, abilities such as DODGE , FLYING , BLIND , and PHASE are not recommended for use in the AIM TRUE Ruleset. Instead, the SHIELD and VOID abilities will be useful in this ruleset because they can both reduce the impact of damage received from attacks from opposing monsters.

Although every attack will not miss, abilities that rely on percentage for their success rate (such as POISON , STUN , and AFFLICTION abilities) are not affected by this Ruleset.

LOST MAGIC

LOST MAGIC is a Ruleset that prohibits the use of Magic monsters in the battle arena. However, this ban does not only apply to Magic monsters but also to Dual-attack type monsters where one of the Attack Type nay is Magic attack.

Since Magic monsters cannot be used, one way to deal with the LOST MAGIC Ruleset is to bring monsters with SHIELD abilities in the first position and use monsters that have REPAIR and/or PROTECT abilities to support them.

My Line-Up

Cards	Ability	Reason
	- Give a reduction of 1 SPEED to All Enemies - Give a reduction of 1 ATTACK POWER to All Enemies Ranged Monsters	My main purpose for using Quix the Devious is because I want to use one of the monsters from DRAGON SPLINTER that will play an important role in the BRIAR PATCH Ruleset. Another reason is because Quix the Devious gives a Debuff to your opponent's Ranged monsters so that their ATTACK POWER is reduced by 1 point.
	SHIELD + IMMUNITY + DEMORALIZE	Harklaw has the SHIELD ability which will be useful in the AIM TRUE Ruleset (where 100% of the attacks from each monster will hit its target). Harklaw will act as a TANK to reduce the attacks from the opponent's Melee and Ranged monsters. In addition, at level 3, Harklaw also has the DEMORALIZE ability which can reduce the ATTACK POWER of the opponent's Melee monster by 1 point.
	SNEAK + MARTYR	Vruz will be the key to this formation. Despite being in the BRIAR PATCH Ruleset (which gives THORNS effect when Melee monsters attack the target), his defeat will benefit my team. This is because Vruz has the MARTYR ability that will give additional STATS to nearby monsters when Vruz loses (or is defeated).
	PROTECT	I am using Ravenhood Warden because he has the PROTECT ability which is very necessary when facing Melee or Ranged monsters. With the addition of 2 ARMOR from his ability, it will allow my monster to defend against 1 Melee or Ranged monster attack and can also temporarily protect Health points from the effects of the THORNS ability in this BRIAR PATCH Ruleset.
	REPAIR + CAMOUFLAGE	In addition to the PROTECT ability, I also equip my formation with the REPAIR ability which will repair some of the lost ARMOR (either due to being hit by an attack from an opposing monster or the effect of the THORNS ability).
	WEAPON TRAINING + VOID ARMOR + OPPRESS	Since I was carrying several No Attack monsters, I decided to use Berix Snakeye. Berix Snakeye has a WEAPONS TRAINING ability that will grant ATTACK POWER to No Attack monsters beside it.
	FLYING + SCAVENGER + BACKFIRE + HEADWINDS	Besides Scavo Hireling who will receive ATTACK POWER from Berix Snakeye, there is still Riftwing who is also a No Attack monster. I'm using it because it has the HEADWINDS ability which functions the same as one of the debuffs given by Quix the Devious. I want to multiply the debuffs so that the attacks that TANK will receive will be less and less.

BATTLE START !!!

The opponent used Eternan Brune as his Summoner. That allowed him to use 1 Gladius Card in Ranked Battle. The debuff given by Eternan Brune removes the additional ARMOR given by Ravenhood Warden through the PROTECT ability.

In the first round, Vruz attacked Scroch Fiend. However, it caused him to be hit by the THORNS effect which reduced his Health points immediately. Meanwhile, my other Monsters (Harklaw, Ravenhood Warden, Scavo Hireling, Berix Snakeye, and Riftwing) concentrated their attacks on Ferox Defender.

Meanwhile, on the opponent's side, their attacks did not cause any damage to Harklaw. Because their ATTACK POWER is reduced to 1 point due to receiving debuff and Harklaw has the SHIELD ability which reduces the impact of attacks. There was only one monster, Chimney Wallstop that managed to attack Harklaw because he had 5 points of ATTACK POWER.

In the second round, Riftwing and Scavo Hireling managed to defeat Ferox Defender and simultaneously removed the additional ARMOR given by Ferox Defender to all opposing monsters. This was then taken advantage of by Vruz who defeated Scorch Fiend.

Although Vruz also fell due to the effect of THORNS , his defeat gave additional STATS to Harklaw and Ravenhood Warden. Then Harklaw, Berix Snakeye, and Ravenhood Warden attacked Chimney Wallstop until he had 2 points of Health left.

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

The victory this time looks quite easy, apart from the opponent's Summoner whose level is below the maximum limit (level 6 for Rare Summoner) which makes the ability of each monster not maximized, the opponent also does not use any monsters that have debuff to reduce the ATTACK POWER of Melee or Ranged monsters.

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