One of the things that differentiates Splinterlands from other games is that the rule set is constantly changing. In one rule set, having a fast unit with lots of armor could be the key to success. But in other matches, you might actually want a slow unit. Part of becoming a better Splinterlands player is learning how to use the changing rule set to your advantage. In today's post, I'm going to share my strategy for mastering the Briar Patch rule set that gives all units thorns.
Before we discuss how to succeed in the Briar Patch rule set, it's important to take a step back and understand what this rule set means. In a standard rule set, when your unit attacks the opponent, damage is dealt one way. In other words, your unit deals damage and the opponent's unit takes damage. However, the Briar Patch rule set modifies this interaction by giving all units Thorns. Thorns means that whenever a unit is hit by a melee attack, it deals two damage back to the attacker.
Obviously, this creates a challenge for players who are used to putting a tank with melee in the first position, or who use a lot of melee monsters with the Sneak or Opportunity abilities. Let's suppose that you attack with a melee monster like Chaos Furrybringer. Your unit will deal two melee damage to the opponent, but the Thorns ability will do two damage right back to Chaos Furybringer and knock him out of the fight. You've just lost a six mana unit and only dealt two damage to the opponent.
Thankfully, there are a couple ways of navigating matches with the Briar Patch ruleset. I can think of at least three ways to succed in the Briar Paatch rule set.
The first way is to use units with Deflect.
Units with deflect take zero damage from Corrosive Ward, Magic Reflect, Thorns, Return Fire, and Blast splash damage. For example, a unit with Deflect would deal damage to the opponent, but would not take any retaliatory damage from the Briar Patch ruleset.
The second way to navigate the Briar Patch rule set is to use Amplify, which increases the damage your opponents will take from Thorns. However, there is a problem with both of these strategies. Unless you play at a very high level and have an extensive card collection, you're unlikely to be able to field a team where every unit has either the Amplify or Deflect ability.
My personal opinion is that simply avoiding using melee monsters is one of the most effective things that new players can do to navigate the Briar Patch rule set. If you don't have any melee units on your team, then you can't take any Thorn damage.
Let's take a look at a recent match that I played to see how this plays out. As you can see, I decided to field a magic-heavy team to avoid taking thorns damage. However, I have to give credit to my opponent because they anticipated that I would avoid using melee monsters and decided to play Nim Guard Captain to reduce the damage from magic attacks.
Nim Guard Captain is usually a pretty strong unit to play if you think your opponent is going to play a team with a lot of magic. However Nim Guard Captain only deals one melee damage, but it takes two damage every single time that it attacks into one of my units that has the Thorns ability. In other words, attacking is counterproductive because Nim Guard Captain was doing more damage to itself than to my units.
Although my opponent did a good job anticipating my strategy and trying to counter it by playing a unit with the Void ability, my team was simply too powerful and ended up carrying the victory.
To be fair, I also had some pretty powerful Epic and Legendary reward cards that I used in this match that helped me secure the victory. That brings me to another great point. Sometimes, success in Splinterlands isn't just about knowing the right strategy to succeed in a given rule set. You've also got to have the cards with the key abilities that will help you implement your strategy. The neat thing is that players can earn additional reward cards for playing the game and winning matches. In other words, part of the key to becoming a good Splinterlands player is to play more Splinterlands matches. Playing more matches allows you to get a taste for the different rule sets and how to succeed, but it also gives you the opportunity to unlock new, more powerful cards.
If you like trading card games that require strategy and strategic thinking and you're excited by the possibility of earning reward cards for winning matches, then Splinterlands might be the game for you! I'd like to invite you to join me in the game using the following referral link.
As a US resident, I am required to disclose that I might receive a benefit, such as reward or incentive, if you join using my affiliate link. All image credits belong to Splinterlands. Nothing is financial advice.
