Up Close and Personal Modifier is a very direct Modifier because only melee units can be used in this battle. It's simple and easy to understand. That means, every unit on both sides will attack using melee which changes how we build our team. There is no magic and no range attackers so defense and positioning becomes very important. Since all units fight face to face, the battle can usually be a simple stat vs stat match. Up Close and Personal Modifier rewards players who understand melee and how you can win a brawl with cards you were dealt with.
Modifiers
Up Close and Personal - Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.
- Shield ability is good in Up Close & Personal Modifier because it halves all melee attacks. In a battle where all enemies have meleee attacks, this ability doubles the value of the health and armor of the unit that has the Shield. It is an ability you should prioritize in this modifier.
5 Combos You Can Do with modifier_name_xxx Modifier
| Modifier | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Shield | Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks |
| - Shield ability is good in Up Close & Personal Modifier because it halves all melee attacks. In a battle where all enemies have meleee attacks, this ability doubles the value of the health and armor of the unit that has the Shield. It is an ability you should prioritize in this modifier. | ||
 | Thorns | When hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker |
| - Thorns is a good ability to use in Up Close & Personal modifier. Since all units are melee attacks, you can make sure that all units take Thorns damage. There are a lot of melee units with Thorns ability as well so you can certainly find units that would fit the requirement for this modifier to increase your odds of winning. | ||
 | Retaliate | When hit with a Melee attack, Units with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker |
| - Retaliate is a better form of Thorns. The good thing about Retaliate is that the damage this ability can do depends on how much the unit's current damage is. If the unit has 5 melee attack, then Retaliate does 5 damage. For the downsides, only melee units can Retaliate, which fits the Up Close & Personal modifier. Unlike Thorns that deals consistently, Retaliate only works 50% of the time so there would be attacks to this unit and nothing really happens. Still, this is a good ability because you can combo it with other abilities since Retaliate still works as another attack and can trigger abilities like Blast or Life Leech unlike Thorns. | ||
 | Inspire | Gives all friendly Units +1 Melee attack |
| - Inspire is a nice ability to have in Up Close & Personal Modifier. Since everyone you have in the lineup is melee units, then all of the untis will benefit from this ability. What's nice about this ability is that it can stack. You can have up to 6 Inspire abilities provided that all of your units have Inspire. That's not impossible with Captain Frankie with a full Rodentian and Tideborn Bloodline lineup. To counter this ability, Dispel removes all Inspire on the unit it hits so watch out for this one in your battles. | ||
 | Corrosive Ward | When hit with a Melee attack, a unit with this ability does 2 damage to the attacker's armor AND reduces the max armor of the attacker by 2 |
| - Corrosive Ward is a bad ability in the opinion of others. To some, it looks like a worse version of Thorns because it cannot affect health and can only affect armor. The advantage of Corrosive Ward versus Thorns though is that Corrosive Ward's damage is permanent for that battle. If your enemies have Repair ability, they wouldn't work on the unit that has been damaged by Corrosive Ward. Even if the unit with Repair doesn't work, they would keep Repairing the same unit so not only you can remove the enemy's armor but also potentially lock out their Repair unit as well. |
Battle Breakdown
Early Game:
I had 3 Rodentians and 1 Tideborn in his battle so with Captain Frankie's Bloodline Dominion ability, I get 4 Inspire abilities to them. As usual, I gave the Pierce and True Strike ability to Saltwraith Bulwark to maximize his high damage. The other one, I gave to Sherringham Logger. Sherringham Logger isn't a Rodentian or Tideborn but a Leonine but after seeing the enemy lineup during the planning stage, I chose safest unit to put it on. The enemy doesn't have any Sneak so putting it on the last unit is the safest choice.
Mid Game:
The death of the enemy Taunt made their lineup very much in danger. Without a single unit that takes all the attacks from my team, my units will start attacking different units due to the different abilities they have and with the multiple Inspire abilities providing +4 damage to all melee units, which is all of my units because of the Up Close and Personal modifier, the overwhelming difference in damage can be seen in this battle.
Late Game:
The difference in damage is so huge that my team can kill the enemy units in just 1 to 2 attacks. I really like that I have this archon in this modifier because it can really make Captain Frankie shine. I don't normally like melee units because there are a lot of limitations when using melee units but one big advantage of melee units that units with magic damage and range attacks have is that only melee units have stackable team-wide buff like Inspire. With this, you can make every melee unit hit hard and not just a few of them.
Full Battle can be found here: https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_cb7747cc28c24f13b975398f72e7b92e
Closing Thoughts
The Up Close & Personal Modifier really feels like it is made for Captain Frankie. Not only your units can get huge damage because everyone gets Inspire if you have Rodentian and Tideborn on your team, this also affect non-Rodentian and Non-Tideborn Bloodline units because Inspire affects all of your melee units. Just like in my battle, Loggingham still had +4 melee attack despite having Leonine Bloodline making him a strong unit. This flexibility is good because the problem I have with the Rodentians and Tideborns are they don't have a lot of units with high health. So, you can add some units that aren't those bloodline in order to keep your team healthy while still reaping the benefits from the stacking Inspire abilities.