Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Fog of War Ruleset.
About the Ruleset
Fog of War
The Fog of War ruleset states that "Monsters lose the Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity abilities". This means that your backline is unlikely to be targeted first, unless the opponent uses monsters with the Scattershot ability or you place a monster with the Taunt ability on the backline.
Battle Ruleset(s)
Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.
Fog of War: Monsters lose the Sneak, Snipe and Opportunity abilities
Are You Not Entertained?: One additional Gladiator card may be used in battles
Only the Fire, Water and Dragon Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 38
Format: Modern Tournament, Bronze League
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
Summoner: Kelya Frendul - This increases the Speed and Shield of all my Monsters by 1.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  | |  |  |
| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venari Marksrat | It's here to provide added stats to Djinn Oshannus in position 2, with its Martyr ability |
| 2 | Djinn Oshannus | It is the main tank with its high health and Void ability to take reduced damage from magic attacks. |
| 3 | River Hellondale | It's in third position and is meant to revive Venari Marksrat so that its Martyr ability can be used twice. |
| 4 | Riverboat Captain | It has the Blast ability and helps to provide additional damage to monsters adjacent to the attacked one. |
| 5 | Edith Emberstar | My Gladius card used in this battle, since it's part of the ruleset and Gladius cards all have the Bloodlust ability. |
| 6 | Igor Darkspear | I only had 2 mana left, and this was perfect to fill up the last slot. |
Strategy
The combination of rulesets here meant:
- Melee monsters will take 2 damage everytime they attack
- Backline monsters are unlikely to be targeted first
- A Gladius card with the Bloodlust ability can be used. Gladius cards are a little stronger compared with the other sets with this ability.
Given these 3 combinations, a good strategy would be use mainly Magic monsters, as Ranged monsters come up short once they get to position 1. So I came up with a deck that uses Djinn Oshannus to tank against magical attacks, with the combination of Venari Marksrat and River Hellondale to beef up its stats. I also used Edith Emberstar with its 4 Ranged attack, to hopefully hit the opponent harder. It's a little unfortunate the Edith Emberstar only mainly took down the shields for most of opponents monsters.
The opponent had 2 cards with the Resurrect abilty. I was lucky that he didn't employ my strategy, else I would have been on the losing end instead. And I think it was a rather close fight.
Thoughts on the Fog of War Ruleset
The Fog of War ruleset reduces the attack vector for Melee monsters, as those with the Sneak or Opportunity abilities, are now unable to attack from the backline. It's not as bad for Ranged monsters with the Snipe ability as they can still attack from the backline. The best strategy in the Fog of War ruleset is to employ a full deck of Magic monsters, as they are able to attack in all positions. Ranged monsters are at a disadvantage unless they have the Close Range ability.