Hi battle mages, I hope this post finds you well! Today's Battle Mage Secrets Challenge is the armoured up ruleset:
ARMOURED UP
All monsters get a +2 armour buff at the beginning of the game
Armoured up gives all monsters two extra shield to protect against meelee and range. Depending on the decks I have available and what I am renting at the time, I decide between either playing defensively or going straight for the kill. A defensive play would include a repair unit and when there is an additional weak magic ruleset, I would also think about bringing a protect to give my babies even more shield. In an offensive play I would look to send in a magic team to bypass my opponent’s defences as quickly as possible.
When I get ready for an armoured up ruleset, the first thing that comes to my mind is using blast. Blast will always hit at least two monsters. When blast is directed at the second monsters or behind, it will hit three monsters. It is the most offensive way to get rid of your opponent's shield, especially when you field opportunity and sniper fighters. The second thing that comes to mind is looking for magic blast monsters.
There are quite a few blast candidates throughout the different splinters, predominantly in the Fire deck and most notably Yodin. My favourite red monsters are Pyromaniac and Pyromancer. These two guys paired with Conqueror Yacek are simply lethal. The red deck was not available in today’s battle challenge, so I had to look elsewhere. The Death deck also has good blast units. My favourites there are Screaming Banshee and the new guy, Kain Hace. The water and Dragon decks also have some good choices, as you can see below:
The battle I am studying in this challenge has three rulesets: holy protection, healed out and armoured up. The mana cap is 26. The green, white, purple and blue decks are available.
As one of my stronger decks is the water deck and there being a new blast unit from the soulbound reward set, it was a quick decision to go for blue team, headed by Alric for the magic buff. I opted for a super offensive magic blast play to get through both holy protection and armoured up in a flash. This was the line-up:
Alric Stormbringer needs no introduction. He is one of the best Beta summoners around at a very affordable 3 mana for his +1 magic buff. As one of my top three favourite team leaders, he features in a lot of my battle strategies, especially magic plays.
First in is the Chicken as cannon fodder. Not only did I anticipate that my opponent may run a similar magic strategy, I also had at least one free spot in a relatively low mana game.
Second is the Torrent Fiend to also play chicken. I decided to place these two at the front rather than at the back because three splinters, that had strong magic monsters were open, so it seemed obvious that my opponent would play magic. The team needed more buffers at the front.
The Fiend is closely followed by Sir Oshannus. Not only is he here to hit hard with purple bullets but to fend off magic counterattacks with void and phase for as long as possible. His 5 speed and 11 health are hard to get through for the enemy.
Enter Riverboat Captain, the new kid on the blast block. He is slow as a lame snail, so I don’t usually field him outside a reverse speed ruleset. This battle was his opportunity to run with the big boys.
In 5th position we have the heartpiece of the magic blast strategy: Ruler of the Seas. I rent him at level 2 for swiftness to increase the team’s overall speed. The number of magic blast attacks that can get through the enemy’s armoured tank during the first round usually decides the fight.
In last position, as he is in almost all my water line-ups, is Pelacor Bandit. He and the Captain are there to protect Ruler of the Seas from both sides and do their bit. 4 speed and flying with armoured up, he is a good plug to take on sneak for a while.
ROUND 1
I was surprised to see my opponent bringing out a mostly melee line-up with only one magic monster. The Riftwing can be useful in such a battle but there was not much fighting power to see in his team. Thaddius took Alric’s magic buff and we got going. Straight off the bat, Pelacor Bandit collected 2 misses, which was nice to see. The round was pretty even and the Chicken got poisoned.
ROUND 2
With consistent magic hammering, my opponent’s tank went early in the second round, bringing the Riftwing to first position. It looked like the game was over already. Pelacor Bandit got missed again and the Fiend took a poison pill.
ROUND 3
Pelacor Bandit took yet another miss and it reminded me how valuable this dude is in the last position. I did well to concentrate on protecting my tank at the front. It didn’t take long and the Rifwing was toasted.
ROUND 4
In Round 4 it was 3 against 3 but my team's health situation was much better. The round was even but my strategy was working just fine.
ROUND 5
Round 5 was bye bye enemy and Ruler of the Seas remained untouched, taking only one hit to lose his holy protection.
My three magic damage dealers were left standing at the end of the battle. I didn’t understand, why my opponent used only a single magic attacker, so I went and looked at his deck before writing my closing thoughts. He owns his cards and has pretty well built decks with lots of magic choices, so I simply assumed I played a bot. Concerning my magic blast strategy for armoured up, it worked perfectly, as you can see. I have a great track record with this kind of strategy, when dealing with lots of shield in the battle. I also really like the Riverboat Captain and the new soulbound reward cards in general. The larger my choice of playing cards, the better I can develop various strategies. Can’t wait to get my hands on a few more of those new legendaries!
I really enjoyed this week’s Battle Mage Secrets challenge and hope you did, too. See you next time Splinterheads!
