Thanks for checking out my #Splinterlands Battle of the Day #BOTD for your reading and watching enjoyment. All hail the #ageofthebattlemage!
BATTLE LINK -- January 17, 2025 -- Day 17 of 365 vs.
Today's battle is a Tofu mirror match that I don't typically feature in my BOTD series. But when first-place bragging rights are on the line in the Scarred Hand Diamond Cup Gold Foil 
The key Day 2 battle provided 50 mana and had three rulesets: Earthquake, Up Close & Personal, and Maneuvers. Water was the only element excluded, so all roads led to Tofu for its thorns ability against a battlefield of melee monsters. In addition to the same summoner, we selected four of the same monsters.
The outliers were Mantaroth and Halfling Refugee. They took advantage of the reach ruleset to slap the powerful legendary promo in 2nd position to beat down and provide support with repair. Halfling Refugee was simply a 1-mana meatshield in their lineup which would hold up against earthquake with its self-heal.
Today's featured card is the dual-element Rebellion promo legendary Rikauniman. This guy is the real deal and a necessary evil against Tofu. His expose ability, which removes shield and reflection shield, is a game-changer in a battle where many monsters are selected for these two specific abilities. By removing these two shield abilities, it leaves those monsters much more exposed to attacks and thorns from the opponent.
Riklauniman's expose ability is so important in this battle, that I'm running it in Gold Foil at Level 2 just to get it in the battle. On the other side, Kesryn has the fully maxed Level 4 version with a big benefit in stun on a double striker plus an extra range attack. Because I viewed my Rik as the most important threat on my board, I gave it Tofu's triage/scavenger tactic and stuck it in my 6th position.
My opponent also gave the Tofu tactic to their 6th-position monster, Olivia. But Olivia doesn't have as big of an attack in this matchup, so I don't see it as big of a threat as Riklauniman. Their choice to push Rik up to 4th position meant his big stunning legend was off the battlefield first.
The other big difference in our lineups was my selection of the more vulnerable but deadly legendary -- Venka! My other objective in this battle was to keep Venka alive, and I managed to do this with the support of Mana Warden.
By keeping Venka alive with shield and triage to get over the finish line, it was able to deal some crucially important chunks of damage once shields were down. Again, my Venka was a much bigger threat in this game than their Olivia, so prioritizing its defenses made the difference in getting their monsters off the board.
Interestingly, neither of us bothered to run Drath Risquel in the earthquake battle (or any Rebellion flyers at all). I think we both saw Tofu's snare guaranteeing 100% attacks as too big a potential drawback to chance the selection. Drath also loses a ton of equity from its taunt tactic in tournaments when the asynchronous battle means the taunt can't be placed strategically on an opponent's revealed lineup.
I hope you enjoyed this peek into a Rebellion-only mirror match with the tournament title hanging in the balance. It is a necessary reminder of how even the smallest details in lineup placement and monster selection have huge implications for the results of our battles. May the luck be ever in your favor!
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Templates were used, AI was not!
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