Hey Splinterheads, I hope you are all having a great Splinterday!
The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge is a wonderful and effective way to get to know rulesets better and improve your gameplay. Not only do you study and analyse rulesets and example battles closely, you also get to read and see what other Splinterheads are thinking and doing with their little darlings on the battlefield.
With many battles now being comprised of 3 rulesets, it is important to know your rulesets well, how they relate to other rulesets and what corresponding cards work well to either exploit the ruleset or defend against it. We have also seen a number of new rulesets coming into the game lately and a bunch of new monsters have received new abilities.
The game is becoming more and more technical, leaving you with ever decreasing chances of winning battles with sheer brute force and overkill strategies. All these reasons and the clear challenge that players (and bots unfortunately) are getting „smarter“ all the time underscore the need to know rulesets very well. The Battle Mage Secrets Challenge helps and motivates us players further to do just that.
In today's challenge we are looking at the Holy Protection ruleset.
Holy Protection
All units gain the Divine Shield ability, which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0
Divine Shield will be re-applied when a unit is Resurrected
Blast damage will remove Divine Shield
Holy Protection is an interesting ruleset. It gives all monsters the Divine Shield ability, which makes every monster immune to the first attack, whether it is a meelee, range or magic hit. The idea is to eliminate the Divine Shield of enemy monsters as quickly as possible, so by using speed and spreading fire to get rid of the shield with fewer hits, such as with using Blast or Double Strike.
What is most important for me, when dealing with this ruleset, is to field 6 shooting monsters whenever possible to maximize the number of firing turns. This can be difficult to do in low mana games. In mid mana games, it is important to pay attention to maximizing speed and in high mana games, we need monsters with Blast or Double Strike.
Another consideration is to use a Taunt monster to prevent you opponent from spreading fire. This can be very effective, as it leaves the Divine Shield intact on all remaining monsters, once your Taunt monster is defeated, giving you midfield and backline an extra turn each to stay alive (theoretically).
The battle we are looking at today is a water war with the Holy Protection ruleset. The mana cap is 34 and the available splinters are fire, water, life and death.
It was a tough decision but I went for a water team, because I wanted to use a fast monster with the Double Strike ability. Here is the team I selected:
Kelya Frendul is the summoner to lead the team today. His extra speed will make my team faster and the extra shield will give my little darlings double protection.
First in line is Venari Marksrat. He is here to Martyr and boost Oshannus' stats to give him a total of 7 speed and 3 magic.
Here is the master blaster Oshannus in second position to do fast and major damage to every monster in front of him by shattering the Divine Shield first to then allow the midfield to fire and inflict as much damage as possible.
Swamp Spitter is in third position to also fire quickly but also to Repair shield provided by Kelya. This is a great offensive and defensive combination at the same time.
Merdaali Guardian is in fourth position to heal Oshannus as often as possible.
And here is the monster in the spotlight, Axemaster with Double Strike. He is fast with 4+1 speed to hammer away at the enemy with double hits each time. The team is built around him, so his actions will likely determine the outcome of the battle.
Last, but not least is Xenith Archer in 6th position to act as a 'plug' protecting Axemaster and use up the 2 remaining mana.
My opponent also came with a water team, looking quite solid but I saw immediately that I had a speed advantage. The total fire power was equal on both sides and the main concern was that my opponent came with 3 stealth fighters. This was going to be a close call!
Oshannus opened the round and took the Divine Shield of the other Oshannus, followed by a 6 damage combination from Axemaster and Swamp Spitter. Venari Marksrat then martyred to give Oshannus increased stats. Merdaali Guardian collected an important miss to finish the round.
In the second round, Oshannus struck first, followed by the return blow from his counterpart. The came further 4 damage and 1 miss from Axemaster and Swamp Spitter to further weaken the enemy Oshannus. Merdaali Guarding then collected the next miss to enable her to heal Oshannus unhindered.
Oshannus opened again and the health stats between the two master blasters was 11:2. Axemaster finally wiped the enemy Oshannus out to expose the opposing midfield. This basicall spellt the beginning of the end of the opposition, as there were no tanks to follow. To make matters worse for the enemy, there were two further misses before the end of the round.
The enemy Guardian then bit the dust, followed by more heavy attack from Axemaster and Swamp Spitter. Our Guardian got her shield back to fend off another attack from Deep Lurker but then fell at the hands of Feasting Seaweed.
Oshannus picked the remaining enemy monsters off one by one at the beginning of each round with hardly any opposition and backfire...
... and again in round six.
... and thanks for coming to the show.
AXEMASTER
This was a well executed ploy! Axemaster's Double Strike delivered 14 hits in 7 rounds, most of which drew blood, not wood. Although Oshannus fought hard, too, it was Axemaster, who controlled the action and the outcome. As my opponent had 3 stealth monsters, I think it may not have been such an easy win, if Axemaster hadn't been in the field to pound the frontline like he did. As Divine Shield is a defensive ruleset, the way to deal with it is to deliver more and faster blows to force the victory.
