Welcome to another Battle Mage Challenge, this time featuring the “Close Range” rule, where Ranged attackers get the ability that allows them to attack in first position.
As well as the rule from last post, “Broken Arrows”, I do not believe that this one need much in-depth strategy either. Close Range allows Ranged attackers to attack from the first position and this gives us more options. Also, if you’re only left with Ranged Monsters in your team, you still have a chance of victory.
In my opinion, to fully take advantage of a rule like this you don’t need a strategy, you just need a great deal of knowledge of your own cards, so when this rule pops out, you immediately mentally scan your deck and choose Ranged Monsters that could be great as a tank, even better than a Melee Monster.
Examples of great Ranged tanks could be cards with self-healing abilities, like Cornealus, cards with very high evasion, like the Runic Skyclaw or maybe those rare Ranged attackers with Shield, like Poseidon or Cyclops.
This battle was done in a recent Brawl, where the Fray only allowed Chaos and Rebellion sets, up to a Silver level cap. As well as the “Close Range” rule, the “Little League” rule is in effect, so no Monster over four Mana.
Well, the battle was lost… I don’t think my team was bad, but maybe I could’ve done a better job protecting the back line. One way would’ve been by placing the Xenith Monk, instead of the Pelacor.
Anyways, my opponent had a very good lineup, a much more offensive one, while mine was way more defensive, with the Healer and the Armor Repair.
This second battle was done in the Modern Format with a Silver level cap. Alongside with Close Range, all Monsters were granted the Enrage ability, so my team was assembled to take advantage of this last effect.
The battle was a success; I expected Oshannus to survive the whole fight and he did. But in the case he didn’t, both the Supply Runner and the Swamp Spitter would’ve been great in the first positions, the first one thanks to it’s Speed and the second one thanks to his Repair ability.
As you can see, in neither of these battles the presence of the Close Range rule lead to significant changes in tactics, so there isn’t much advice to be given.
This is it, thank you for reading!
