Hello people of Splinterlands! It's 
I was matched with another player and the battle had only 30 mana, so I knew I couldn't just fill my lineup with expensive monsters. The ruleset was also interesting because it allowed ranged monsters to attack from the first position. So I had to think about both my frontline and my damage dealers before entering the arena.
Before entering the arena, I checked the battle conditions.
Battle Details
This time the mana cap was much lower than my previous battle, only 30 mana. But the Close Range ruleset made the battle quite interesting. With this ruleset, ranged monsters can use their ranged attacks even when they are standing in the first position.
I thought this could become useful if my frontline monsters were defeated, because my ranged attackers could still continue doing damage instead of becoming useless.
For this battle I decided to go with my Dragon summoner Aurendrak again. I am still enjoying testing this summoner because of the extra flexibility it gives during team selection.
30 mana was less and choosing correct monsters was necessary.
Aurendrak gives ability that's why I got it, so I used an ability which was Flank. This was useful because my second-position monster could also attack from behind the frontline.
Frankarsgard was my main tank in the first position. It had good health and could take the attacks coming from my opponent. Behind it I placed Chaos Furybringer, which could help add more melee damage to the battle.
Then I used Ash Archer as one of my ranged attackers. Since the battle had the Close Range ruleset, I didn't have to worry about it becoming useless if it eventually reached the first position.
Finally, Grand Consul Minion completed my lineup. I liked this setup because even though the team was small, every monster had a role to play.
My opponent was DREHY, who had a rating of 350 and was playing with a scholar from ARCHMAGE.APP. Looking at the opponent's lineup, I knew this wouldn't be completely free.
The battle was a combination of Fire and Earth cards on my opponent's side, with a strong frontline and several monsters supporting it. At first I wasn't completely sure how my smaller lineup would perform.
I was excited to see the ending of the battle as it was becoming tougher by each rounds.
The battle was only for 6 rounds, I am saying only because usually it's 8-9 but maybe due to low mana it lasted for 6 which is more for low mana battles. But it was shorter than my previous 13-round battle. However, Frankarsgard stayed in the frontline and absorbed the attacks while my other monsters kept putting pressure on the opponent.
One thing I really liked was seeing how the Close Range ruleset affected the battle. My ranged attackers could keep contributing even when the frontline situation changed.
Aurendrak's Flank also helped my second-position monster stay useful while attacking. My opponents monsters started to decrease slowly.
In the final round, my team was able to survive.
It was a pretty quick battle, but I really enjoyed watching this lineup work together.
Winning the battle rewarded me with:
My rating went up to 440 after this victory, which was a nice little progress for me.
I also had my daily reward progress going on, so every victory feels useful while I am trying to make progress through the season.
Before playing, I also got some nice rewards from my Lux Favor daily spin.
The first reward gave me:
Then another spin gave me:
I forgot to mention, I also got this skin days before, it's my first cool card skin, even though I don't have that monster, hehe.
I honestly didn't expect to get that much Sparks from the daily spin, so it was a nice surprise before jumping into my ranked battle.
Okay, so you guys should acknowledge that battle with low mean does not mean you will have a weak team. As you can see with only 30 mana, I still managed to build a lineup.
I really liked using Aurendrak again because I am still learning how to use its abilities in different situations. The Flank ability was especially useful here because it allowed my second-position monster to contribute more.
The Close Range ruleset also made me think differently about where I should place my ranged monsters. Normally I would be worried about them reaching the first position, but this time they could still attack even from there.
In the end, the battle only took 6 rounds, and seeing the VICTORY screen with another +20 Rating and +52 Glint felt really satisfying.
I'm slowly getting more comfortable with Modern Ranked and I hope I can continue climbing higher with more battles like this.
Have you tried using Aurendrak with the Flank ability? What is your favourite lineup for low mana Close Range battles? I'd love to hear your strategies in the comments!
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