Briar Patch is one of the simple and popular ruleset to be used. Basically Briar Patch bestow Thorns ability on all cards. Thorn is a type of counter abilities which would deal return damage if triggered by a successful melee attack. So the main strategy is to avoid using melee cards at all cost. Although this isn't always the case because Thorns have 2 damage as the upper cap, and having Shield ability will reduce the damage by 1.
Briar Patch also one of the possible way for some cards possessing Amplify ability to gain benefit of it (so far only Venari Heatsmith which independently possessed both Amplify and Thorns). Its a simple ruleset after all where everybody would have the same though, so its best to think two steps ahead on this ruleset. So lets get going!
| 1. Briar Patch become an obstacle for using melee cards. So having Splinter with stronger and rare ranged or magic cards could be an advantage. | 1. Briar Patch might be an obstacle for melee cards, but this isn't true for melee cards with very high damage and/or Shield ability. Since Thorns damage are capped at 2 damage, then melee cards with at least 4 damage could still offset the Thorns damage from it. |
| 2. Opportunity and Sneak are possessed mostly by melee cards. So under Briar Patch ruleset, there's lesser chance the back-row got into ambush. | |
3. Powerful Tanker come mainly from melee cards, but since melee cards pose higher risk from the Thorns damage, then its a great advantage to have powerful Non-Attack cards to be the best subtitute Tanker cards. |
| Ruleset | Strategy |
|---|---|
| With melee cards being a less preferred choice, and magic cards are locked from being used, you will be left with very limited choice on ranged cards only; and vice versa if ranged cards are locked from being used. | |
| In Up Close & Personal ruleset, it become a matter of who deal much faster attack with bigger damage. The main key is to deal melee damage which outstrip the Thorns counter damage. And as mentioned previously, having Shield is a good option not only to minimize the melee damage, but also the Thorns damage. |
So here we have the battle experience with Briar Patch as the ruleset.
https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_9417a0a8350e08c3af830568845c7a0c
The battle has 27 mana cap, with Briar Patch and Broken Arrows ruleset, and only Earth, Life, Death, and Dragon Splinter are available. For my formation, I used:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Thaddius Brood | 4 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Bone Golem | 4 | 7 | 8 | 3 | 1 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Riftwing | 5 | 4 | 6 | - | 4 | None | - |
| 3rd Row | Magi Necrosi | 1 | 6 | 4 | - | 4 | Magic | 2 |
| 4th Row | Silent Sha-Vi | 5 | 5 | 6 | - | 5 | Melee | 3 |
| 5th Row | Corpse Fiend | 1 | 0 | 1 | - | 2 | Melee | 1 |
| 6th Row | Carrion Shade | 3 | 1 | 2 | - | 2 | Melee | 1 |
My opponent formation:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Obsidian | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Pelacor Mercenary | 3 | 7 | 9 | 1 | 2 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Fungus Fiend | 1 | 0 | 2 | - | 1 | Melee | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Spirit Hoarder | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
| 4th Row | Queen Mycelia | 1 | 4 | 4 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
| 5th Row | Goblin Psychic | 3 | 6 | 5 | - | 1 | Magic | 2 |
| 6th Row | Djinn Biljka | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
Thinking two steps ahead are the most important things in any ruleset applied. Briar Patch will drive away players from deploying melee cards, and Broker Arrows will shut off ranged cards from being deployed. So this concludes that magic cards would be the best choices. But just think two steps ahead, every players would have the same thought, the battle arena will be crowded with magic cards! Well in that case, the best strategy then would be to counter those magic cards, and divide the attacks on combination of melee and magic cards (instead wholly on magic cards).
So I choose to use Thaddius Brood with its magic damage debuff. But its not enough since 1 magic damage could chip away any health soon enough. So my first choice as Tanker would be Bone Golem with its Void. And then I followed with Riftwing which would be a good secondary Tanker considering the Scavenger; and also at this level having Backfire would guarantee counter damage in addition to Thorns. Magi Necrosi follow up since magic should be primary damage maker. And then Silent Sha-Vi which although a riskier choice, its Sneak attack should breach the opponent back-row. The rest of the row are cannon fodder cards just to protect Silent Sha-Vi.
My opponent choose to use Pelacor Mercenary, a solid Tanker with high evasion gained from Flying. Fungus Fiend seemed to be cannon fodder. And my guess of using Bone Golem was right, a companies of magic cards await in their back-row.
Magi Necrosi and Silent Sha-Vi initiates the attack and blast into Goblin Psychic and Spirit Hoarder. A kill on Spirit Hoarder bring so much advantage to my formation, since Triage are no longer useable. Pelacor Mercenary and Bone Golem exchanging blow and Thorns damage, but due to wrong timing, Bone Golem losing more health than Pelacor Mercenary.
The start of Round 2, and both Magi Necrosi and Silent Sha-Vi open with attacks. But unlucky for them, they left Goblin Psychic and Queen Mycelia with 1 health left. Pelacor Mercenary cemented its position as it struck by Thorns but recover from mend casted by Goblin Psychic. And then Bone Golem start losing its poise as it strike Pelacor only to struck down from the Thorns damage.
The effort from previous round start to be fruitful with Goblin Psychic and Queen Mycelian meets their demise. This in turn just reinforce Riftwing into 11 health. But the fight is far from over, since the lost of Silent Sha-Vi, my formation only have Magi Necrosi as the main damage maker.
Fortunately at the start of Round 4, the combined damage of Magi Necrosi and the Thorns damage from Pelacor Mercenary own attack bring demise to Pelacor itself. And the battle just turn better with Fungus Fiend defeated from Thorns damage.
By the start of Round 5, the fate is already sealed for my opponent as single blow from Magi Necrosi put Djinn Biljka into its final moment.
Anticipation of your opponent strategy and moves are important in battle with very restrictive ruleset. My first thought, I've put too few damage-dealing cards. Silent Sha-Vi was meant to succumb in the long run, and therefor only Magi Necrosi could finish the job. Actually this battle could turn worst if Magi Necrosi damage output are affected by any debuff or Void. Any Snipe could also put much danger especially in Round 2, where Magi Necrosi would be the main target. Other than that, the strategy of using Thaddius Brood work very effectively to counter Obsidian damage buff.
