Welcome everyone 👋, I'm back again with a new post for the Splinterlands Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!
What is Splinterlands?
Splinterlands is an online collectible card game using blockchain technology. Every card in the game is owned as a non-fungible token (NFT) and is traded using similar features to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. If you’ve ever played collectible trading card games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh!, you’ll find a similar experience, but through a web browser and blockchain wallet.
Going the Distance
This week, the ruleset we have to introduce for this challenge is the Going the Distance ruleset, which only allows ranged monsters to be played on the battlefield. Melee, magic, or non-attack monsters that have no attack are not available, but monsters that have two or more attack types that include ranged attack can be played.
Abilities that work with this ruleset:
The Close Range ability will allow your ranged monsters to attack from the frontline position.
The Return Fire ability will return reduced damage back to its attacker if it's a ranged attack (damage returned is equal to damage of attacker divided by 2, rounded up).
The Amplify ability will increase the damage done by the Return Fire ability by +1.
The Headwinds ability is a good option, it reduces the ranged attack of all enemy monsters by -1, but not less than 1.
With the Shield ability, units will take less damage from melee and ranged attacks. Attack damage gets halved (rounded up), except attack 1 which deals 0 damage.
With the Reflection Shield ability, monsters will be immune to all indirect or reflected damage, meaning they will not take damage from Return Fire.
Currently there are only 6 monsters that have 2 types of attack that includes range:
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Now let's analyze a high-ranking battle in the Champions League wild format:
Cryptodollabill VS Orrkis!
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| Going the Distance: Only monsters with ranged attack may be used in battles. | FiveAlive: Up to five units can be used. | Equalizer: The initial health of all units is equal to that of the monster on either team with the highest base health. |
The first player: Cryptodollabill, decides to choose Zaku as his summoner, who is very good with ranged monsters, since it increases the damage of those monsters by +1, it also gives +1 health to all its monsters, and will give them the Blast ability, allowing them to deal additional damage to Monsters adjacent to the target Monster (the additional damage is equivalent to main damage divided by 2, rounded up).
In the frontline Position, Lava Launcher who can attack from the first position and has a 50% chance to apply Stun to the enemy, causing it to skip its next turn.
In the second position, Ash Mirage reduces the enemy's ranged attacks by -1, and in case the enemy use units with the Blast ability, it has the Reflection Shield ability leaving it unharmed.
In the third position, Rush Townsend, will attack before the battle begins, it has Piercing attack and will have 50% chance to apply Affliction to the enemy, causing it to be unable to be healed. Additionally, it has the Amplify ability.
In the fourth position, Supply Runner, will increase the Speed and Health of its allies by +1.
And in the last position, Countess Sinash, who has 5 abilities: Opportunity (will attack the enemy with the lowest health on the enemy team), Camouflage (cannot be directly target by attacks unless it's on the frontline), Swiftness (increases +1 Speed to units), Affliction and the powerful Blast ability.
On the other hand, Orrkis plays Mimosa Nightshade as his summoner, who reduces the enemy's ranged attacks by -1, and also gives enemies the Affliction ability, causing them to be unable to be healed. Additionally, it gives its team the Void ability that reduces damage received from magic attacks by 50%.
Cyclops is in the frontline position, who will received less damage from melee and ranged attacks by 50%, and has a 50% chance to apply Stun to the enemy it attack, causing it to skip its next turn.
Cornealus in the second position, has high health, and will heal itself for a max third of its health each round, will also return half damage back to its attacker if it's ranged and/or magic damage. Additionally, when it takes melee damage, it will deal 2 melee damage back to its attacker.
Queen of Crows in the third position, she is able to attack even in the first position, and also reduces enemies' ranged attack and speed by -1. Additionally, she will return half damage back to its attacker if it's a ranged attack.
Soulstorm in the fourth position, which also reduces the enemy's ranged attack by -1. It can Fly, meaning it has a 25% chance to evade melee and ranged attack from non-flying monsters, and when it attacks, it will remove the enemy's flying ability and have a 50% chance to Stun it.
And in the fifth position, Octopider, the Giant Spider, will reduce enemies' melee damage by -1, and apply Blind to melee and ranged enemies, causing them a 15% chance to miss their attacks.
Round 1-3:
-☠️Cornealus is the first to be defeated by Rush Townsend's Blast ability.
-Soulstorm destroys ☠️Lava Launcher.
Round 4-5:
-Rush Townsend defeats ☠️Cyclops.
Round 6:
-Rush Townsend defeats ☠️Queen of Crows.
-Octopider destroys ☠️Ash Mirage.
Round 7-8:
-Countess Sinash defeats ☠️Soulstorm.
Round 9:
-Finally, Supply Runner ends the battle by destroying ☠️Octopider.
With only ranged monsters due to the Going the Distance ruleset, this time Zaku was stronger than its opponent, mainly because it gave the Blast ability to its allies, allowing them to deal more damage. Although the enemy was initially able to reduce -3 the ranged damage of enemy units, it was not enough to defeat Zaku's team.
MVP
MVP
Rush Townsend with a triple kill
-There is a movie with the same name as the Ruleset: Going the Distance, which is a 2010 romantic comedy centered on a guy and a girl who try to keep their love alive as they shuttle back and forth between New York and San Francisco to see one another.
-There is also another movie with the same name released in 2004. In order to prevent a recent high school graduate from getting engaged, two friends intervene by taking him on a cross-country road trip.
If you haven't played Splinterlands yet, you can join this fantastic game with this link.
Enjoy great battles and a great experience with it.
That's all for now, see you on the battlefield!