Greeting Batllemages!
This week we go with a powerful Mage of Death with unique abilities: the Magi Necrosi!
The card
Magi Necrosi is an Epic Death monster, costing 6 mana to play. He's naturally quite fast with a Speed of 4 at level 1, he won't take much damage with his 4 Health, but deals a nice 2 points of magic damage per attack.
What is even better is that he comes at level 1 with 2 useful abilities!
First, he has Snipe, actually bypassing the tank and attacking Magic, Ranged or units with attack. It's a very good way to quickly get rid of support units or to quickly diminish the firepower of the opponent. The less damages you receive, the more likely you are to win!
The second ability is Camouflage. He cannot be targeted unit he is in first position. Very useful: you put him at the end of the lineup, and you are sure he will last all the match!
Now, I have to say: I like the card. I bought him after losing a few battles to him. But he comes with a defect that is not so obvious. It's a Death unit, with a magic attack of 2.
Which means, if you pick Death, your opponent might as well pick Death. And the most used Summoner these days is Thaddius Brood. With his -1 to magic attacks, Magi Necrosi gets hit by the malus big time! That's why when I play Death, I would usually pick monsters with 1 magical damage, as in case of mirrors matches they don't get nerfed. But it's just temporary I think, the meta will change.
The Battle
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_d97d725cb05c83200e0832df02db52d9&ref=engilhramn
The battle is played in Modern Silver. It is opened to Fire, Earth, Life and Death. It has a mana cap of 28 and its rule is Briar Patch: all units receive the Thorn ability.
The lineup
I noticed my opponent always played Earth, so I kind of decided to punish it. The Briar Patch ruleset calls for an Obsidian team, but hell, I went for its counter.
Summoner: Thaddius Brood, for the Magic and Health malus, perfect counter to magic teams
First position: Harklaw, if I am to take Thorn damages, at least the Shield ability mitigates it
Second position: Spirit Hoarder, cheap magic attacker and healing the back row is a nice bonus, although I'm not worried of it in this match
Third position: Life Sapper, for the Life Leech ability, hopefully he will have gained quite some Health before arriving to the front line. Then it saves time for the attackers behind him
Fourth position: Soul Strangler, 3 mana, 2 ranged damage, do I need more explanations?
Fifth position: Chaos Agent, the last spot, I had 1 spare mana. He would have been better in first position though
Last position: our Magi Necrosi, to snipe weak enemies in the backline
As planned, the opponent went with an Obsidian team.
Centauri Mage as tank
Khmer Princess just behind, then Spirit Hoarder and Queen Mycelia, all low Health units
Regal Peryton in fifth position, a bit far for the second beefy unit
And lastly Djinn Biljska
Round 1
The fastest unit is Regal Peryton, then Magi Necrosi who already sniped the Khmer Princess. Centauri Mage returns fire on the ranged Soul Strangler, but he gets healed by Spirit Hoarder, so no problem at all.
Round 2
I have the fastest units on average (Earth is so slow...) so I think it should go well for me, making kills before the enemy can attack. Magi Necrosi makes a second victim of Spirit Hoarder, cleanly sniped from the start. The Centauri Mage gets rid of my Harklaw, and he is avenged by my Spirit Hoarder.
Round 3
The Spirit Hoarder gets killed by Regal Peryton. Life Sapper gets in first position and has enough Health to last the round. Magi Necrosi starts sniping at the Regal Peryton.
Round 4
Third victim for Magi Necrosi, finishing off Regal Peryton! Soul Strangler finishes Queen Mycelia, and the Life Leech of Life Sapper has proven useful one more time!
Round 5
Well, right... It's more of a photo-finish than a real round... Magi Necrosi puts one more at his counter.
Takeaway
Don't be a bot! If you always play the same things, you will be countered! It's because the opponent always played Earth I was confident to counter it and put Magi Necrosi in play. And gosh, he did shine! 4 kills! These weak magic units stood no chance!
See you on the Battlefield!