The Master of Defence:

I wanted to share a battle with Grandmaster Rathe, and why he really is the master of defence. It was my first legendary summoner that I picked up and I love him. He brought something to the table that my deck was lacking. Longevity on the battlefield!
Grandmaster Rathe is a legendary life summoner that provides +1 armor for your monsters. He boosts the armor by giving the void armor ability to all monsters. To top that off you will get amplified reflection damage, thanks to the amplify ability of Rathe.

• The +1 armor is a huge boost, making you able to repair the armor of any monster on your team, and providing protection against 1 attack.
• The void armor is adding to that armor to even protect against magic! This was a departement that life was lacking. It also means that repair will even protect against magic.
• The amplify is great to combine with a magic reflect ability to add to the magic protection.

Ruleset:

This was going to be a high mana poison match. I know the life splinter has good options for that ruleset, that's why I picked Grandmaster Rathe. In this ruleset you have to pick monsters that can survive for a long time. That means high hit points and or heal abilities. Also the Immunity ability can be very good in this ruleset.

Choosing my lineup:

1st Position:

One of the best combinations with Granmaster Rathe is the Blinding Reflector. He benefits hugely from the voic armor! For only 3 mana you get 9 hitpoints! +1 armor makes it 10! Combine that with the amplified magic reflect and u get a magic monster slayer. This card is a must have for Rathe in silver league. I have won many battles by combining this card with Rathe.

2nd Position:

For the second position I wanted to try out one of my new assets: Corsair Bosun It was a higher mana match, so that gave me the opportunity to play him. I like him, because of the damage and the reflection shield. I didn't want to be torn by thorns. It's also nice that he has the reach ability. That way he can support the first position monster with that 4 damage of his.

3rd Position:

Now it was time to place my champion in this ruleset. This is a very durable tank, that has the ability to heal himself! Please welcome to the stage: Uriel the Purifier!
I really love Uriel as a tank, but in this ruleset I love him for the healing capabilities. That's why I placed him in the 3rd position. He keeps himself alive until he is needed on the frontline. The only thing that I dislike about him is the recharge ability. It just sucks to hit 2 armor with 9 damage. Although I dislike it, it's still cool to see a monster perish to a 9 damage oneshot!

4th Position:

Because of the poison ruleset, giving your monsters extra health can be very benificial. It can keep them alive longer! The strengthen ability gives all of your monsters +1 health. Djinn Renova has that ability in her kit, as wel as 3 magic attack. So keeping everyone alive while damaging the opponent, sign me in!

5th Position:

This is a big one! This card is also a must have for a Rathe deck. This card also synergises perfectly with Blinding Reflector. It is: Adelade Brightwing.
Adelade has the repair ability. This is perfect with Rathe. You can repair any monsters armor on the battlefield, and it even protects against magic. That makes repair a kind of heal.
Then on top of that she has the ressurection ability. This just adds another layer of synergy with the reflector. Remember: when a monster is resurrected, he gets resurrected with all his starting armor! This with the Blinding Reflector has wrecked magic users all over the place. If u do not own this combo, I tell u, it's really good!

6th Position:

For the final position I picked a card that can give some extra damage. It's a card that I haven't leveled up yet, but I am planning to do in the future. The Prismologist is a damage dealer with the blast ability. Even though I haven't got her to silver level, I still use her in a number of occasions. When there are high mana caps, I mostly find her a place in the backline.

The Battle:

My opponents team:

When we entered the arena the first thing that I noticed was the lvl 6 summoner. I am playing in gold modern, with mostly silver level cards. The second thing I noticed was the legendary: Cornealus, a strong tank/ranged attacker with healing capabilities. A great choice for poison matches.
His main tank Almo Cambio has a large health pool, immunity and can dodge magic attacks. The Magi of Chaos was good news for us, because that gives a chance for Blinding Reflector to put in some reflection damage. I also wasn't worried about Gem Meteor , because he didn't have good utility in this matchup. The lvl 8 Parasytic Growth Is also a great choice, because of the scavenger ability, wich allows him to gain health whenever a monster dies. Finally he had a Shieldbearer. A taunt monster that would attract my initial damage. My overall feeling before the battle was:
This is going to be an interesting battle!

Round 1:

The battle started and I noticed that all of the attacks of my opponent were all over the place. It was unfocused and that was good news for us, because we had the armor to survive those hits. As you can see his team was't in good shape. The Shieldbearer attracted the shot from our Prismologist, and that did not bode well for the Parasitic Growth. He would perish from the poison at the start of round 2.

Round 2:

The Parasitic Growth died from the poison, so no scavenging for him. The Shieldbearer Perished from the attacks of our magic users. Magi of Chaos was brought down low, thanks to our magic reflect. Now his team was starting to look small. You could see the confidence wither in the eye of Cornealus. This was starting to look bad for our opponent.

Round 3:

This was starting to look like a cleanup job. Djinn Renova got her 2nd kill and finished of the Almo Cambio. The blast damage of Prismologist finished the Gem Meteor. Now we went on to gank up on Cornealus. He now was looking terrified in this abysmal situation where he found himself in.
As he was paralyzed by terror, he still managed to say his final words: "Eye give up". And after that his I stopped working due to the poison, and he fell to the ground. Victory!!

Watch full battle in real time: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_c6f085cdc9f54b48b511e53badae9422&ref=eijffelbridge

Final Thoughts:

I was very exited to see that my strategy worked out so perfectly. While the enemy had some expensive cards. We were superiour with our battle plan. I wanted to show a battle with Rathe for a long time, but did not find any satifying battles. Until this one popped up.

This was my share your battle! I hope you enjoyed it!

Do you own a Grandmaster Rathe? Or do you plan on getting one for your deck? Let me know in the comments.

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