Hey Splinterheads, I hope you are all having a great Splinterday!
The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge is a wonderful and effective way to get to know rulesets better and improve your gameplay. Not only do you study and analyse rulesets and example battles closely, you also get to read and see what other Splinterheads are thinking and doing with their little darlings on the battlefield.
With many battles now being comprised of 3 rulesets, it is important to know your rulesets well, how they relate to other rulesets and what corresponding cards work well to either exploit the ruleset or defend against it. We have also seen a number of new rulesets coming into the game lately and a bunch of new monsters have received new abilities.
The game is becoming more and more technical, leaving you with ever decreasing chances of winning battles with sheer brute force and overkill strategies. All these reasons and the clear challenge that players (and bots unfortunately) are getting „smarter“ all the time underscore the need to know rulesets very well. The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge helps and motivates us players further to do just that.
In today's challenge we are looking at the Lost Magic ruleset.
RULESET: Lost Magic
Description:
Magic units may not be used in battle.
Use Thorns and Demoralize to counter melee attacks.
Use Headwinds and Return Fire to counter ranged attacks.
Units with 2 types of attack (which include magic) cannot be used.
Lost Magic is one of the three rulesets prohibiting an attack type. The other two are Keep Your Distance and Broken Arrows. As pointed out in the Battle Mage post, it is advisable to use monsters to counter enemy meelee and range monsters in your lineup.
There are several monsters and summoners that are able to counter meelee attack. Summoners, like ZINTAR MORTALIS (-1 meelee) and MYLOR CROWLING (Thorns) and monsters with Thorns, like CURSED WINDEKU, XULAX NIGHTWIND and CORNEALUS, among others, come to mind. Monsters with the Demoralize ability, like MOLTEN OGRE, OCTOPIDER and HARKLAW are great candidates to include in your team to counter meelee attack.
Summoners restricting or countering enemy range attack include QUIX, ILTHAIN, THE PEAKRIDER and LIR DEEPSWIMMER. Monsters with Headwinds include NAGA WINDMASTER, RIFTWING and QUEEN OF CROWS, among others. Monsters with Return Fire include PHANTASM, WAVE BROOD and TERRACEOUS GRUNT, among others.
When looking to restrict attack types, such as meelee and range, I prefer using the Death deck:
The ultimate monsters to send into the field in a Lost Magic at max level is, of course, EVER-HUNGRY SKULL, with both Thorns and Return Fire. With 4 speed and 11 Shield, he is a formidable first position tank. Put him together with ASTRAL ENTITY in Lost Magic with Fog of WAR rulesets, and your victory is almost guaranteed!
My preferred approach to the Lost Magic ruleset is to use a summoner that restricts or counters meelee or range. I don’t often rent MYLOR, so my favourite summoner is QUIX. I also prefer using him, so that I can bring a Thorns tank from the Dragons deck, as we will see in today’s focus battle. When the Dragon deck is not available, I usually go for the Death deck, where we find several powerful monsters with Headwinds, Thorns and Demoralize.
The battle stats are the following:
RULESETS: Holy Protection and Lost Magic
MANA: 28
The battle we are looking at today is a mid mana battle with four available splinters: Fire, Water, Earth and Dragon.
Here is the team I put together:
When looking to restrict an attack type, I always opt for QUIX THE DEVIOUS, not just because he is a marvelous summoner, but also because I love the Dragon deck. I also have a Dragon tank in mind to counter meelee attack to put at the front.
The tank in question is DJINN CHWALA. He is an effective tank to lead your team and will stand his ground with lots of health and shield. Although he has weak magic defenses, he does have Enrage to boost his stats further to help him hold the fort.
TIDE BITER is a great little tank in the second position with Reach. I was a big fan of WAVE RUNNER in the past, but this little guy is a great inclusion at the small price of 3 mana. Not only is he a solid attacker with 3 meelee and 4 speed, but his low cost allows more expensive monsters to be included in the lineup. Although there is the possibility that my opponent will bring Thorns monsters, I am concentrating on letting him inflict maximum damage.
PELACOR BANDIT is also here to inflict maximum damage. He has great chances to collect misses and will most likely strike first with 6 speed and Flying.
The same goes for URAEUS. I want him to inflict damage quickly and hopefully deliver some deadly poison. Both he and PELACOR BANDIT will aim for the enemy backline to bother my opponent's lineup from both ends.
And again, I am opting for a meelee monster, although there may be Thorns to deal with, but I will take that chance. Here we now have a stealth trio with two Sneak monsters and an Opportunity. Spreading fire is one of my preferred strategies in any battle.
To close the lineup, there is KULU SWIMHUNTER. Again, I assume that range will be restricted by either Headwinds or Return Fire, but his good stats mean that he will likely fire at least twice when there is not much enemy Sneak around and deliver lots of damage with good speed.
So now let's take a closer look at the battle in focus today. My opponent also brought a Water team, led by BORTUS, who restricts magic attack, which is useless with these rulesets. My opponent probably didn't have an alternative Water summoner or just had a bot pick a bad team. At first glance, it looks like bringing a Thorns tank coupled with a stealth trio will take care of my opponent, so let's analyse the battle:
PELACOR BANDIT opened the battling, as expected, followed by quick action attacks from KULU and TIDE BITER. DJINN CHWALA lot his shield but inflicted Thorns damage to wear down the enemy tanks and then got enraged at the end of the round.
Round 2 began again with PELACOR BANDIT. KUKU then dusted Diemonshark, which is already the turning point in the battle, with my enemy losing his main tank early. DJINN had to go but not without inflicting more Thorns damage on Flying Squid first. The rest of the round was uneventful.
Round three was slow. The enemy Kulu got toasted and TIDE BITER took his leave.
It was 4 against 3 in round four, but we had more speed and more attack force. Flying Squid was the next enemy tank to go.
Round five was the end for the opposition team, leaving just the one hit to deliver in round six to get rid of Angelic Mandarin.
This battle was an easy win. Even with Tank Heal and Triage, my enemy was not able to withstand the onslaught. My enemy didn't make the effort to inhibit my meelee and range attackers, so his demise was pre-destined. When an attack type is prohibited by ruleset, it really is necessary to restrict the remaining two. I am looking forward to reading how other players approach the Lost Magic ruleset in this week's Battle Challenge.
Seeyaround Splinterheads!
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