Hi folks, it's been awhile since my last SHARE YOUR BATTLE challenge.

It's always exciting every challenge as the use of these 'off-meta' cards usually employ some clever strategy to win.

In this week's instalment, we have the Centauri Mage as the theme of the week.

What IS the Centauri Mage?

In short, the Centauri Mage is an Earth card with the unique ability to Return Fire which reflects ranged damage back to its opponent.

It's a pretty rare ability as Centauri Mage is the ONLY card that has it right from the beginning at Level 1.

What's MY Centauri Mage?

Thanks to the power of rentals, I was able to snag a Level 3 Centauri Mage from the marketplace.

This means that it came with 2 Magic damage instead of the usual 1 Magic damage which makes it a pretty decent addition to most Earth decks dealing with Ranged enemies.

The Battle and Lineup

Currently, I'm at a rating of 2510 and I'm sitting in Gold III. This means that most of the enemies I'm encountering are pretty decent players with pretty complex rules.

Battle Link: https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_31cfd40c9082d4c588d997cd70c7aa21

In my particular battle, the conditions were Armored Up (every monster gets additional 2 Armor by default) and Keep Your Distance (No Melee attack Monsters to be played).

Besides that, looking at the opponent's history, I could see that the player had Sacred Llama as its main hero and it liked to play Kron the Undying in the front.

With this knowledge, I knew that I needed to formulate a plan of attack revolving around more damage to the enemy first tank, hence, with the 29 MANA allocated, I came up with this lineup.

Slot 1: Prismatic Energy level 4 (Magic Reflect was essential here to reflect damage caused by Kron).

Slot 2: Centauri Mage level 3 (in case of Opportunity/Snipe enemies and if Slot 1 falls, this can tank + reflect).

Slot 3: Failed Summoner level 4 (decent tank with SEVEN HP for only 2 Mana).

Slot 4: Wood Nymph level 6 (for the combination of Strengthen increasing cards HP and also the Tank Heal to keep the front tank alive).

Slot 5: Khmer Princess level 4 (a personal favourite, 2 Mana cost for a character that does healing AND Magic damage to help keep the front alive with heals).

Slot 6: Earth Elemental level 4 (a combination of a tank and a damage dealer, it's meant to hold off any Ranged Sneak and also to be able to survive in case of Poisons).

Strategy

As can be seen, my strategy focused on keeping my tank alive with the Magic Reflect and heals.

It was a pretty big gamble on keeping the Prismatic Energy in the front, but knowing most Magic enemies attack the front, it was a more sensible choice to keep my Prismatic Energy in Slot 1.

How It Went

Round 1

As I expected, the enemy had mostly Magic damage attacking my tank, with the Magic Reflect, the damage to be inflicted was minimal.

Looking at the damage they could've inflicted 6 (3 + 1 + 1 + 1), the Healing I get from Wood Nymph and Khmer Princess far outweighs the damage that I would receive.

Round 2

As can be seen, at the beginning of Round 2, almost none of my cards have died, they only suffered a minor hit to their armour.

Round 3

Just looking at the beginning of the 3rd round, it becomes clear that my strategy of healing my tank is winning, both of us haven't lost any cards, but their Kron the Undying is down to its knees while most of my characters are at full health and have reflected and healed most of the damage away.

Round 4

With my combined direct attack of 8 (2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2), it was only a matter of time before their Kron the Undying and Goblin Sorcerer died.

Since Ranged characters couldn't hit if they're in the first position, it's just becoming a mopping up party as the enemy struggles to beat my tank.

Round 5

At round 5, only my Centauri Mage has taken a bit of damage (which was reflected). Every other card was still standing.

It's now just a matter of time before the enemy falls.

Round 6

And here we are at the penultimate round, with most of the enemies dead, it's just a clean up operation for my deck.

Funny thing was, since the Furious Chicken survived, it activated Last Stand with 0 HP. What a rare sight.

Round 7 - The Final Round

And here we are, took us 1 damage to defeat the enemy, with ALL of our cards intact.

Not too shabby indeed.

Conclusion

In short, the battle was a decisive victory. With the battle conditions being no Melee damage, it was clear that having Magic Reflect and Return Fire would prove invaluable to the decks.

Here, Centauri Mage with its combination of 2 Magic damage and Return Fire, effectively gave me 3 damage minimum per round.

In other battles as well, Centauri Mage proves invaluable by being a strong tank that can easily handle a couple of hits (especially with the Earth Splinter's selection of healers).

Thank you for reading everyone :)

Interested in starting YOUR own Splinterlands journey? Feel free to use my link https://splinterlands.com?ref=darrenleesl. The game is free but in order to start earning, you would have to invest in a Summoner's Spellbook. Have fun!