As per the usual, take a look at the starting frame and think about how this might play out before watching the playthrough.
Here's a link for this week's battle
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_2e95078570ac589de084a9eed3989235&ref=
Here's the ruleset
2 spicy new rulesets together. Magic attacks are bouncing back. Melee attacks are bouncing back. That leaves Ranged attacks as the odd man out. The simplest response to this is to use ranged attacks and who better to lead your team than General Sloan?
Let's talk about my lineup
Summoner: Ilthain
In response to the question I posed earlier. "Who better to lead your team than General Sloan?" Ilthain that's who. With this ruleset and this summoner. Every single attack from my opponent will come back to damage their own monsters.
Tank: Shieldbearer
With the taunt ability Shieldbearer takes the hits.
You'll notice that my opponent uses Shieldbearer on the back line with Chaos Knight as their tank. This is not an uncommon strategy when using the light splinter and expecting your opponent to do the same. I'm generally not a fan of this strategy but with the rulesets in play it's not so terrible to soak up some hits that you expect to bounce back at your opponent.
1st position: Corsair Bosun
Corsair Bosun hits hard and has solid speed. Probably my favorite reach monster in the whole game. The reflection shield is amazing for this ruleset and for the explosive weaponry ruleset.
2nd position: Time Mage
With the magic attack Time Mage is liable to kill itself. I included Time Mage for the slow ability to help ensure that my other shots connect. 3 turns should be adequate.
3rd position: Venari Crystalsmith
The Crystalsmith is well known to synergize beautifully with General Sloan. The tank heal ability is huge in this ruleset and while the ranged attack is only for 1 with Ilthain, ranged attacks are the only ones not guaranteed to come back at me in this ruleset.
4th position: Prismologist
Blast damage means this is hitting my opponent for 5 damage each turn which is awesome.
5th position: Divine Healer
I had 4 mana left for my final slot. While there are some great ranged attack monsters besides Venari Crystalsmith for 4 mana, I was more interested in the tank heal. With these new rulesets it's so easy to get caught up thinking about which attacks are the safest to get through it's easy to forget that healing my tank can't come back to bite me and no matter what attack is hitting my Shieldbearer next it will go back at my opponent.
Did we win?
Yes. I considered using General Sloan myself. After that I thought of what might be even better. When seeing that a particular type of attack will be advantageous for a given ruleset I increasingly think it's even better to counter that attack instead of just attacking my opponent that way.
Do I like Corsair Bosun?
Yes. Like I said my favorite reach monster. The reflection shield ability is so great in the blast ruleset and as you saw here it's also great for thorns.
What will I try differently next time?
I was certainly happy with the result of this match. I have become a pretty big fan of both Ilthain and Corsair Bosun. I used Quix the Devious for my last battle challenge and mentioned that I had considered a lineup similar to this one. That decision was even easier to make with the ruleset and splinters available for this match.
A fire lineup with Ash Mirage and Tinderlock could have been great for this ruleset.
Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game.
