This week in the Community Engagement Challenge in Splinterland, it's all about strategy and game rules. So I picked one that I use quite often when it's Ranged Only...
Splinterlands Cads & Abilities Fatigue!
As someone who has been around since 2018 and mainly plays some manual Survival Mode Battles while letting a bot run in Wild, I do have quite some card and abilities fatigue as there are just too much to keep up with. I'm not willing to buy any of the new cards since they are near sure to lose their value if they ever get dumped in hive while they also are getting inflated and power creeped away. On top of all this are all the new super complicated abilities which I'm not caught up with. So my strategy surely isn't the most advanced and up to date mostly using some of the older cards. However, it tends to work while I'm rarely up again someone who makes the same choices. With most of the matches having 3 different game rules and restricted splinters, it also doesn't always work.
Ranged Only Ruleset
This is one where basically only monsters that have ranged attack can be used. This instantly brings some dynamics that you want the Close Range Ability, as you want the monster in 1st place also to attack. Headwinds is also super powerful with this rule as it reduces the Ranged attack of all enemy monsters by 1.Shield also gives a massive benefit as it pretty much doubles all health and in case of 1 ranged attack reduces it down to zero. Return Fire also helps to potentially do extra damage especially in combination with Amplify which increases this damage.
Aside from these there is also Self Heal, Tank Heal, Double Strike, Protect, poison, ... that all tend to be useful in this game rule.
The Power of Possibilus The Wise
While the instant obvious Summoners for this game rule point toward those who directly have an influence on Ranged Damage like General Sloan, Quixc The Devious, Fernheart, Lir Deepswimmer. That last one as one that not too many will own at max level. My Choice generally goes out to Possibilus The Wise which doesn't have much effect on range attacl at least at first sight.
Great Water Ranged Monsters
The Wave Brood with 114 Health is always the best option to put in first place as it is able to attack because of the close range ability. It has taunt so all attack is pointed toward it and an top of all this, it has The Return Fire ability. So it's one of the best monsters in the game when Ranged Only pops up as a tank in 1st place.
The War Chaang combined with Possibilus in 2nd place works really good as it has 3 ranged + 3 Melee attack with ok health and speed. Once it gets in 1st position, it can also still attack with the melee damage.
The CrustaceanKing also is a must include somewhere in the back as it gives all monsters +2 Armor which can't be bypassed by ranged attacks. On top of this, it also gives some tank heal which can make the 14 health of the Wave Brood potentially last a long way.
Two more Key Cards in for this game rule with the Water Splinter are the Mar Toren Trader & the Naga Wind Master since they both have the Headwinds ability. This by default reduces all the ranged attack from the opponent by -2. This means that the maximum attack can be 3 and likely will only be 2 or even 1. The Naga Windmaster also has the poison ability while the Mar Toren Trader can be places in 3rd place giving it double heal combined with the Crustacean Kind behind it.
Another excellent Ranged Water monster is the Axemaster wich has Double strike while it can attack from the first place and it reduces the maximum health from the opponent monster by 1 each hit. This also pretty much is a must include.
There are even more Water Class cards to choose from and probably even more that I'm not even aware about.
Ranged Neutral Monsters
There are also a couple Ranged Neutral Monsters that are very much suited. The Cyclops in first position with the Shield ability even though it can't attack can be unbeatable when combined with a triple headwinds + heal. The Cornealus with quite some health, self heal, and most of all Return Fire as an ability also works well with the Ranged Only Rule. Finally, one of the overprinted cheap card options with the Gargoya Devil which can attack from 1st place with having some armor and the fly ability to possibly pick up a miss can be used regularly here.
Conclusion!
Splinterlands nowadays has so many cards that even with very specific rules there are too many choices for a normal human to make. If I get the Ranged Only Game rule, my default choices almost always goes out to playing Possibilus in combination with some of the really powerful Water Splinter Cards.
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