BattleMage Secrets: THORNS!

This week's Battle Mage rule set challenge was Biarheart in which all Monsters gain thorns, which immediately screams 'don't use melee'!

All monsters have thorns general strategy....

There are a few basics to get right I think, not necessarily in this order:

1. First and foremost DON'T use melee! The battle below shows a good example of someone losing to me because of having ONE melee attack to my none!
2. This means you're going to have to rely on either magic or ranged, and you can expect this from your opponent too.
3. Counters to either magic or ranged seem like a good idea - so void shield, reflect, void, return fire would all make sense, and AMPLIFY too.
4. A no attack monster as a tank would work well - given that you can expect counters from an opponent.
5. Triage may help - and repair, given the anticipated reflecting and return fire from one's opponent!

THORNS carnage battle exemplar

The battle below shows a battle in which my opponent loses thanks to using just ONE melee monster, I win because I use NONE despite very low 2 total attack per round!

Summoner: Lilly ShieldPaw (on reflection maybe not the best choice, but plus one health works!)

• Bajikeera - No attack (no thorns damage) and slow
• The chicken - blast soak
• Spirit Hoarder - 1 magic attack and triage
• Mershalli Guardian - heal
• Archer - Blast!
• Ooze - one mana left, SLOW!

The battle...

• round 1 - we trade blows for no losses
• round 2 - my Pirate Archer takes out the Mycelium
• round 3 - we trade blows for no loss, the pattern seems to be the Unicorn getting healed back up to max with Bajikeera's health reducing slowly! But no need to panic...
• round 4 - my archer's blast takes out the Kkmer Princess
• round 5 - I lose Bajikeera, ouch!
• round 6 - I lose my Chicken, soak!
• round 7 - I lose the hoarder but my archer takes out the Goblin healer.
• round 8 - we trade blows for no losses
• round 9 - I lose my Mershalli Guardian, but for TWO thorns damage
• round 10 - I lose my Archer, but the thorns damage finishes of the damned unicorn!

It was a close thing...

Final battle analysis

In retrospect Lilly was a terrible choice of summoner as it was highly unlikely anyone was going to use opportunity, which camo protects from, and I don't know what I was thinking with the double triage either?

But that said the wrong choice of summoner goes to show the devastating effects that using just ONE melee monster can have compared to none.

My opponent lost basically on the basis of having two thorns damaged done to his unicorn for only a couple of rounds once the healer was out of the way.

The Pirate Archer's blast was also obviously crucial in this victory, surprisingly!

All monsters have THORNS final thoughts...

If I have one piece of advice - don't use Melee attacks!