Let's go for another episode, for today we have the Up Close & Personal rule which will turn the battlefield into a real gladiatorial arena, it is a very common rule to appear and also one of the oldest in the game, the melee monsters are the most badass in the game it will be very cool to see 😁, this was a match for the silver league in the modern format.

🌟 UP CLOSE & PERSONAL 🌟

Rule	Description
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL	You can only summon units with melle attacks.

Up Close & Personal is one of the rules that limits your choice drastically, allowing only units that have a melee attack, practically leaving about 1/3 of the cards available to play, with the field full of units with physical damage abilities that use this type of attack shine here like Demoralize, Protect, Shield and Thorns, as well as units that seem to have been created for this rule like Mordeus, Harklaw, Venka the Vile, Djinn Chwala and summoners like Possibilus the Wise, it is worth remembering that some units will escape this rule and may surprise, as they have two types of attack the most common is Quora TowerShield and the newcomer Olivia Of the Brook both have magical attacks and will probably pass through your defense focused on physical damage, it is worth remembering that all skills that allow a unit to melee attack from anywhere in the line-up are welcome and worth gold here 😁.

This is an easy rule to play keeping in mind that the opponent will only use melee cards with physical damage (with a few exceptions) it will be easy to protect yourself and attack, I usually focus on a team all able to attack from anywhere in the line-up and resistant tanks to withstand several hits without the need for support, Harklaw and Cursede Windeku are good examples, all units capable of attacking from anywhere are my main DPS choices good examples are Deeplurker, Kulu Mastermind, Dhampir Infiltrator, Silent Sha-vi, Uraeus and Venka the vile.

In addition to the skills that attack from anywhere in the line-up, I've listed some that I like to use and avoid in this type of rule.

Best Skills

Abilities	Nome	Description
	Blind	Very good, as it affects the entire opposing team, making their attacks miss. If combined with other skills that help with dodging, such as fly and dodge, it is incredible.
	Demoralize	Perfect skill for this rule, use it whenever you have the opportunity, don't think twice, it reduces the damage of melee attacks from all enemy units and they are also cumulative.
	Protect	+2 armor for your entire team, makes your units need to be hit at least twice to be knocked out.
	Inspire	Excellent buff for your team, but it's difficult to find a unit with this ability in the modern format that uses physical attacks, the only ones that come to mind are the gladiators Relenor Cleaver and Marisol Contuma.
	Rust	Another very good offensive skill, your opponent will certainly have shields, this skill will take -2 shields from the entire opposing team, perfect for those simple +1 or +2 shields, making your attacks directly hit the unit's HP.
	Repair	Since there will almost always be armor to be regenerated, this ability becomes very useful here.
	Shield	Essential for tanks in this rule, you will practically only take half of all enemy damage.
	Thorns	Excellent here will practically deal 2 damage to all units that attack the unit equipped with this ability.

Worst Skills

Abilities	Nome	Description
	Headwinds	Practically useless, it is unlikely that a unit with two types of damage will appear where it is worth using this skill.
	Magic Reflect	It will hardly be activated, as few units have two types of attacks for this ability to become effective, it is better to leave it for a last option.
	Return Fire	Same thing as Magic Reflect, but for ranged attacks, it's best to avoid using it.
	Snipe	I think it is currently impossible for this skill to appear in this rule, but someday a summoner may appear that enables this skill, but it will continue to be practically useless here.
	Void, Void Armor	It may even surprise you, but you must have better skills to focus.
	Silence	Practically useless like Headwinds but for magical damage.

⚔️ My Team ⚔️

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A match with 24 mana and the rules Up Close & Personal/ Heavy Hitters, the first limited my options, so I decided not to use the heavy hitters bonus, with this low amount of mana I imagined that the opponent would use cheap units with sneak, because the colors black and red were able to played, So I placed Harklaw in the last position to hold the damage and reduce the damage of the entire opposing team, for the tank I chose a cheap but resistant unit, then I placed the best DPS I had available to attack the opposing back line, I completed the team with what was left of mana to save time in case my tank is defeated.

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Card	LineUP
	Summoner : The best summoner for this type of rule that I had available, he takes armor from the opposing team and also resurrects the first unit that falls, making it return with all the armor it had, in addition to leaving all allied units with the powerful Dodge ability, which is incredible for this rule.
	Tank : Cheap but resistant to physical damage, its biggest weakness is magical damage, but it will be difficult for something like that to appear in this match.
	Off-Tank: Free unit to complete the team, it will buy time for my DPS to destroy the opponent's back line.
	DPS: Another unit to gain time, it has a slow that combines with the dodge given by the summoner.
	Suport : My Ace, the whole line-up is aimed at protecting him, has good damage and can easily clear the opponent's backline.
	DPS: This unit is very resistant and reduces the damage of the entire opposing team, and is also immune to negative effects, practically nullifying any sneak strategy that appears.

🤜The Battle 🤛

Analyzing the match: Both players have chosen the element of death, but my summoner is more effective here, my Hawklaw will practically hold all the opponent's damage, only one unit will damage him, the big problem will be the front line, luckily the beetle can still revive, the opponent has also placed a resistant unit in the last position, it will certainly be a very long match.

Round 1 - The first round was very lukewarm, only 6 units attacked and only 3 hit and caused some damage, it's really going to be a long match, my main DPS missed his attack.

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Round 2,3, 4 and 5 - This slow game stayed the same until the end of round 4 with my little beetle being knocked out by Windeku but was revived soon after. At the start of round 5 my Silent Sha-vi finally knocked out the Ever-Hungry Skull, opening up the space to attack the weaker units in the next few turns, my Harklaw is practically unscathed so far.

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Round 6 - Right at the start my Silent Sha-vi takes another opponent's unit out of the game, then my tank knocks out Windeku, but he ends up dying from the thorns, in the last move of the round my Corpse fiend is defeated, I have a good advantage because only one opposing unit can damage my Harklaw and he's practically intact.

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Round 7 - Right at the beginning Sha-vi defeats Uraeus, victory is very close.

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Round 8 - A bit after the start, my monk kills the vulture, leaving my opponent with just one unit.

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Round 8 - Finally victory arrived, Silent Sha-vi right at the beginning delivers the final blow guaranteeing me victory.

🎊 Conclusion 🎊

My strategy worked, Harklaw protected the backline very well, holding 2 units and only taking 1 damage per turn, he arrived almost intact at the end, my tank was also great on the front line and with the help of the summoner he defeated the opponent's tank which was much stronger than him, my DPS took a while to get past the flying skull, but then he killed almost all the other units quickly, attacking with only two units was quite risky but at least it worked here.

Up Close & Personal is an interesting and easy rule for predicting your opponent's movements, as there will only be one type of damage in the match, you just have to focus on it and prepare your defenses and attacks. The biggest difficulty is to fill all the back line slots with units that attack from there, I only used one unit myself and I felt the lack of more offensive options at the time of the match.

Game Link: Splinterlands

Battle Link: ZALLIN Vs. NEXTGAME

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SUPER SNEAK	EARTHQUAKE	WHAT DOESN'T KILL YOU

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MELEE MAYHEM	NOXIOUS FUMES	WANDS OUT

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RISE OF THE COMMONS	SILENCED SUMMONERS	LOST MAGIC

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ODD ONES OUT	REVERSE SPEED	LOST LEGENDARIES

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LITTLE LEAGUE	KEEP YOUR DISTANCE	HOLY PROTECTION

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GOING THE DISTANCE	FOG OF WAR	HEAVY HITTERS

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FEROCITY	EXPLOSIVE WEAPONRY	HEALED OUT

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FIRE & REGRET	EVEN STEVENS	EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

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EQUALIZER	COUNTERSPELL	CLOSE RANGE

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BROKEN ARROWS	BRIAR PATCH	AIM TRUE

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BACK TO BASICS	ARMORED UP	AIMLESS

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Image sources: https://splinterlands.com/ and @freeztag/splinterlands-or-art-contest-173-or-a-free-to-use-splinterlands-divider