Hello there, this is my entry to the new "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or know more about the challenge, click here. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Heavy Hitters ruleset.
RULESET: Going the Distance
With the Keep Your Distance ruleset, monsters with melee attacks cannot be used.
The 'Keep Your Distance' ruleset is easy to understand as all monsters with melee attacks cannot be used, even those with multiple attack types and one of them is melee can't be used.
With Melee attackers out of the equation, we can focus more on countering magic and ranged attackers so we can use 'magic reflect' and/or 'return fire' abilities to counter those attack types.
Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle. But first, let's focus on my lineup.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
This was a 45-mana cap battle and it had two rulesets:
Keep Your Distance - Monsters with Melee attack may not be used in battles.
Ferocity - All Monsters have the Fury ability.
All except the Life and Dragon elements were active during this battle. I went with Earth as I wanted to form a lineup with mages and that's the reason I used Obsidian as my summoner which increased the magic attack of all the mages by 1.
I used the Mycelic Slipspawn in the first position as a powerful tank. Although, it costs 9 mana but its huge health and good attacking strength make up for this cost. Also, its 'taunt' ability will not allow for my weaker units to be hit until this one is eliminated. A strong tank at the front of the lineup is very crucial to the health of the entire lineup.
Regal Peryton came in the next position, it is a strong unit as well. Deals 2 magic attack damage with incredible speed and combining this speed with its 'flying' ability it will become much harder to hit for ranged attackers during this battle. All this for just 5 mana was a real bargain!
In the next position, I used the Queen Mycelia. She comes with a 'protect' ability which gives +2 armour to all the friendly units. Since melee attackers were not allowed during this battle, it would still be useful against ranged attackers. And she cost just 4 mana.
In the fourth position in my lineup, I used another strong mage which dealt 2 magic attack damage on its own. It also had a good amount of health. However, its 'rust' ability was not too useful in this ruleset but it still comes in handy against my opponent's tank.
Next on my lineup was perhaps the MVP of this battle, the Goblin Psychic. It not only deals 2 magic attack damage but has the super useful 'tank heal' ability which can be a decisive factor in any lineup. This was the only unit with some sort of healing ability.
Last but not least was Magi of Chaos, another heavy magic attacker dealing 3 attack damage on its own and costing just 6 mana. I had to use it to increase my overall attacking strength. All of those would get an additional boost of attack damage because of my summoner.
Now that my lineup was set let's talk about my strategy for this game.
My Strategy
Since this was a high mana cap battle and no melee attackers were allowed. I went with a heavy magic attack. That's why I used the Obsidian as my summoner.
I thought about using the summoner that gives 'magic-reflect' ability but if my opponent had guessed it and used heavy ranged attack type, it would have been wasteful. That's why I used an offensive strategy rather than a defensive one.
I also expect my opponent to use lots of mages so I had to make sure I had enough defensive strength as well. I used a heavy tank with a 'taunt' ability at the front of the lineup so my weaker monsters will not be getting attacked earlier in the battle.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link
My opponent used a strong tank as well in the form of Djinn Muirat. They were expecting me to attack with magic attackers as well.
All of the units were attacking each other's tank and soon in round 1, both of them got eliminated.
They used a mix of ranged and magic attackers which was beneficial for me as I had extra armour given by Queen Mycelia which soaked multiple hits from ranged attackers while my mages ignored their armour.
Regal Peryton survived for a long as it got healed up during the start of a new round. It happened twice in a row and that was the final nail in the coffin for my opponent. All this time, they constantly lost units at regular intervals.
One of the weird things is the placement of Will-O-Wisp on my opponent's lineup. It didn't have any attack and was still placed at the end of the lineup, maybe they were expecting me to use multiple 'sneak' monsters? Anyways, I won the battle easily with just my original tank eliminated. It was a one-way street from the start.
Conclusion
Keep Your Distance is an interesting ruleset, it just forces you to use either ranged or magic attackers and players have to carefully decide whether to go for countering those attack types or just focusing more on their own attacking strength. There has to be a balance between the two and that decision doesn't always turn out great.
I just focus on the fundamentals of the game. Use a strong tank at the front and tuck away your weaker monsters somewhere in the middle of the lineup. Using heavy magic attack damage comes with its own risk as your opponent might use abilities like 'magic reflect' and you will be in great danger.
Let me know if this ruleset bothers you or if you just ignore it and go back to the fundamentals and don't do anything special.
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