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. There are still a few days left to enter this challenge. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Close Range ruleset.
RULESET: Close Range
With the Close Range ruleset, monsters with ranged attacks are allowed to attack in the first position.
The Close Range ruleset is very simple and easy to understand as ranged attackers can even be used in the first positions which makes them a good choice even at the start of the lineup. However, I don't love this ruleset as I am not a big fan of Ranged attackers mainly because of their inability to attack from the first position and having this issue solved it is certainly a better thing.
Some of the ranged attackers have enough health and they can be used in front of the battle as tanks and also units with multiple attack types having ranged as one of their attacks can benefit from this as well.
I have been battling in brawls for some time now and I will share one of the battles from the lower league with Close ranged ruleset and how it affects my gameplay. Let's first focus on the lineup.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
This was a 48-mana battle and I like mana caps in the range of 40-50. This battle had 3 interesting rulesets:
Close Range - Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battles.
Unprotected Monsters - Monsters do not have any armour and do not get armour from Abilities or Summoner Buffs.
Fog of War - Monsters lose the Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity abilities.
All the elements were active during this battle except Death. I went with Earth Splinter and used Obsidian which increased the magic damage of all friendly monsters by 1.
I used the Quora Townstead as my tank and powerful attackers. It has two types of attacks, melee and magic. Both of these were perfect for the first position. Although it costs 10 mana but I could afford this easily during this battle. It has Heal ability which is very beneficial for a tank. Also, it comes with Bloodlust ability as well. You can say that this was the MVP in this battle.
In the next position, I used the Mycelic Slipspawn. I was going for a heavy magic attack instead of having the Close Range to surprise my opponent. This unit had 2 magic attacks and 2 speeds and had a lot of health. Since the Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity abilities were removed in this battle I used strong tanks at the front of the lineup. It also had the Taunt ability which removed the load from my Quora Townstead.
Next was the Regal Peryton, who as you all know is another useful mage with incredible speed. It comes with a Flying ability which helps it evade more attacks.
In the fourth position, I placed the Goblin Psychic. Its tank heal is very effective in the Fog of War ruleset as the tank needs more healing. It also had 2 magic attacks which helped in adding more attacking power to my lineup.
Magi of Chaos came in the next position in my lineup. It was yet another mage that can deal heavy damage and it only costs 6 mana. However, this didn't come with any abilities.
Last but not least was Ava the Undaunted. It was a powerful ranged attacker and had two shields which were not useful in this battle. It dealt 3 ranged attacks with good speed and have the Weapon Training ability even though I had no monsters who could use this.
Now that my lineup was set let's talk about my strategy for this game.
My Strategy
Even though it had the Close Range ruleset, I went with a heavy magic attack to surprise my opponent. They would be preparing for countering ranged attackers while I can do some heavy damage from my mages.
Since the battle also had a Fog of War ruleset, I knew that I had to use some beefy units at the front of the lineup that can survive for a long. So, I went with Quora Townstead and Mycelic Morphoid who both had more than 10 Hp.
I also tried to use Heal to my advantage so I had two units with some form of healing abilities and they helped immensely in this battle.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link
Round 1
My opponent also went with the Obsidian and went for heavy magic damage. They used the powerful Grund as their tank but even before it had the chance to fire my units got him else it would be tough for my Quro Townstead.
By the end of this round, my Mycelic Morphoid took all the hits and was in very low health and about to die. But I was satisfied with it as it played its part beautifully.
Round 2
Round 2 was a nightmare for my opponent. Now they had Runemancer Floree on as their tank which had both magic and ranged attack and had more health than the last unit. But it didn't last long on the battlefield.
We saw the demise of Katrelba Gobson who had a double strike but even couldn't take down the Quro Townstead. The healing was too powerful in my lineup.
Round 3
Round 3 was a lost cause and all of us knew what is going to be the result. They didn't last long in front of my powerful mages. It went all bad right from the start when their Grund failed to even attack. I will also say that my opponent didn't play good as well. They failed to realise that using melee attackers won't be going to do well in a Fog of War ruleset. Anyways, it granted me an easy win.
Conclusion
I can't say that I love the Close Range rulesets as ranged attackers are my least favourite type of attack in this game. I could easily get by with only Melee and Magic attackers and that's the way I have built my deck.
But it gets easier for me to build my deck when I get this ruleset and I usually try to surprise my opponent and try to be one step ahead of them. Sometimes it works beautifully and at other times it fails miserably. That is splinterlands I guess xD. Anyways, let me know if you like this ruleset.
Splinterlands is a popular NFT-based play2earn game. If you have not joined the game yet, then you are missing a lot of fun. You can join by using my referal link.
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