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...

Melee Mayhem

"Melee attack Monsters can attack from any position"

Usually, Melee monsters can only attack when they are in the first position, (unless they have abilities like SNEAK, OPPORTUNITY, or REACH). In this Ruleset, Melee monsters are allowed to attack from any position BUT their attacks are still aimed at the opponent's monsters in the first position.

Although they can attack from any position, their attacks still have to pass through the ARMOR of the opposing monster (if they have one). Therefore, additional abilities such as PIERCING (or SHATTER to damage "all" the ARMOR of the opposing monster) are required.

From one of the monsters above, there is Drybone Raider which is a Dual attack-type monster. I briefly discussed him (HERE). This ruleset is one of the rulesets that are quite suitable for him who is a Dual attack-type monster and has the DOUBLE-STRIKE ability because he attacks 4 times (if no one misses).

RULESET & FORMATION

In addition to MELEE MAYHEM, the ruleset for this battle is...

FEROCITY

This ruleset is not intended for TAUNT monsters, because this ruleset will give FURY abilities to all monsters. FURY ability is an ability that gives an additional attack power of 2 times if it hits TAUNT monsters.

The way to overcome this Ruleset (in my opinion) is to not use monster TAUNT. Use abilities such as OPPORTUNITY, POISON, or SCATTER SHOT if it is felt that the opponent will "strengthen" the defense of the monster in the first position or there are "supporting" monsters that feel quite troublesome if not defeated first.

HEAVY HITTERS

HEAVY HITTERS is a Ruleset that will grant an additional KNOCK-OUT ability to all monsters. The way to use it is to bring a monster with the STUN ability. If the opponent's monster is successfully hit by STUN, then the other monsters will use the KNOCK-OUT ability (gives an additional attack power of 2 times when attacking monsters that are hit by STUN).

My Line-Up

Cards	Ability	Reason
	- Give an additional 2 SPEED, PIERCING, and SCATTERSHOT ability to All Allies	The reason I chose Conqueror Jacek is that I need more SPEED and PIERCING abilities that can be utilized by Melee monsters. If they have a large Attack power, this ability can make their attacks damage the ARMOR (if there is little ARMOR) and Health points of the opposing monster.
	BLODLUST + VOID ARMOR + VOID + GIANT KILLER	I chose Grum Flameblade because the elemental choices available are only FIRE and EARTH where EARTH Splinter itself is more dominant to Magic monsters. Grum Flameblade has quite high STATS (Attack power, ARMOR, Health points) and resistance to magic attacks (VOID + VOID ARMOR).
	BLAST + REDEMPTION	monsters with low Mana (4) but high base SPEED made me decide to choose Exploding Rats. If you add the 2 SPEED of Conqueror Jacek, there is a possibility that the Melee or Ranged Attack coming from the opponent's monster fails to hit it (due to the high-SPEED difference.
	VOID + INSPIRE	Tusk the Wide only has VOID abilities when he is at level 1~3, but when he is at Level 4 (GOLD LEAGUE) he gets an ability that is useful for Melee Attack (INSPIRE). This ability gives an additional 1 Attack point to Allies Melee monsters. If coupled with the MELEE MAYHEM Ruleset, in addition to supporting Melee monsters with INSPIRE, it can also participate in attacking the opponent's monsters from any position.
	OPPORTUNITY + STUN	Mordeus has the highest Attack power of all the monsters I brought. Although it is in the MELEE MAYHEM Ruleset because Mordeus has the OPPORTUNITY ability, it will prioritize its attacks on monsters with the lowest Health and defeat them as soon as possible. Mordeus also has STUN which is a requirement to optimize the Heavy Hitters Ruleset.
	STUN + FURY	Besides Mordeus, Technowizologist also has STUN. But unfortunately, his attacks will occur randomly due to the additional SCATTERSHOT ability from Conqueror Jacek.
	DOUBLE-STRIKE + SHATTER	Drybone Raider will be the monster with the most number of attacks each round. Because, with the MELEE MAYHEM Ruleset + DOUBLE-STRIKE ability, he can attack 4 times when he is not placed in the first position. And even though the number of times it attacks is less than the number of ARMOR of the target, Drybone Raider can immediately destroy it with the SHATTER ability.

BATTLE START !!!

The opponent prefers to use Tarsa as a Summoner to increase the Attack power of Melee monsters and increase Health points. Grum Flamblade is also the opponent's choice to fill the first position, supported by Arkemis the Bear to increase ARMOR and Junker who is in charge of repairing some of the lost ARMOR.

At the end of the first round, the opponent had lost Scavo Alchemist which he used to slow down the SPEED of my monsters. Scavo Alchemist was defeated by Drybone Raider (first Ranged attack) and Mordeus so the SPEED of my monsters returned to normal.

The attack from Technowizologist in this round was directed at Cornealus and successfully gave him a STUN effect so that Cornealus did not get a turn to attack.

The opponent's Grum Flameblade was defeated by Exploding Rats, while Arkemis the Bear was defeated by the BLAST effect of the Exploding Rats attack as well as 4 attacks from Drybone Raider and ended by Mordeus attack. Because Arkemis the Bear was defeated, the additional 2 ARMOR given to the opponent's monsters disappeared.

Junker managed to defeat my Grum Flameblade, but Cornealus who managed to recover from STUN failed to land his attack on Exploding Rats who filled the position of Grum Flameblade.

Exploding Rats can only be defeated by the magic attack of Doctor Blight, but its defeat activates the effect of the REDEMPTION ability (reduces 1 Health point of all opponent's monsters).

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 panicked when my Grum Flameblade was hit by the HALVING ability effect when it got attacked by Arkemis the Bear. But luckily the attack from my opponent's Grum Flameblade did not defeat mine.

The Drybone Raider in this battle was very meritorious. The 3 attacks he successfully directed at Grum Flameblade and 4 attacks at Arkemis the Bear made the attacks of the other monsters feel easier. (If one of his attacks on Arkemis the Bear misses, Mordeus's attack won't immediately make Arkemis the Bear lose because of the FORCEFIELD ability)

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