Hi battle mages, I hope you are having a great Splinterday! Today's Battle Mage Secrets Challenge is the 
CLOSE RANGE ruleset.
CLOSE RANGE 
The CLOSE RANGE ruleset is very interesting, because you can load your team full of archers, which you can not normally do. When your little range darlings can fire from the first position, you can select a heavy hitting lineup and play the war of numbers. Of course, the more speed your monsters have, the faster they can destroy the enemy. This ruleset is fun, as you don’t need to consider the normal vulnerability of range monsters, once they move to the first position.
The battle I have chosen to look at today is a classic close range battle with no additional rulesets. We have 99 mana, meaning we can bring out the big guns for this one. The only splinters available are life and dragon.
and here is the lineup:
FRANZ RUFFMANE is calling the shots here today. He is my favourite soulbound reward summoner and I have him at level 3, which is more than sufficient for silver league. I also have a specific gladiator in mind, so the choice of summoner for this battle was quickly made. I also appreciate Franz for the extra shield, which is very helpful in this ruleset, assuming that range monsters will dominate the fight.
COEURL LURKER is one of my favourite tanks. I appreciate him as a neutral card and like the taunt and dodge abilities. His special role here is to prevent attacks to the backline, as range monsters are often a little weaker in their defenses than melee and magic monsters.
CORSAIR BOSUN is a monster reach fighter in the second position. High speed and 4 melee makes up for comparatively low health. On the other hand, 5 shield coupled with reflection shield also make him a powerful defender. He is a must in the second position when playing 99 mana battles. He doesn't get much action when putting together teams for mid and low mana matches, so I am glad he has the chance to shine here today.
CORNEALUS is the main actor in this battle and the secret weapon, when it comes to rulesets, like
CLOSE RANGE . The heal ability and the high health turn him into a formidable tank in his own right. Here he is in thirds position to act as a backup tank and a protective wall to shield the backline. At 3 speed, he heals relatively early during the rounds, so it will not be easy for the enemy to get rid of him.
Here comes CAPTAIN KATIE. She is my number 2 gladiator after Quora. I find her one of the most lethal gladiators in the game for her 3 magic snipe. The monsters she targets often have relatively low health, meaning that she has good chances to activate bloodlust during the first round. If she then gets a second chance for a bloodlust fix, she basically becomes upstoppable. Although she is not the fastest, she will get her turn and at 7 mana she is well affordable for mid and high mana games.
The PRISMOLOGIST is one of the heavy range hitters in the game and a perfect selection for this ruleset. She has 3 range plus blast, so she will deliver a heavy load each turn. All her other stats are her Achilles heel: She is slow, has low health and costs 8 mana. This is why I don't use her often, but in this setting, she is an obvious choice from the white deck.
The WAR PEGASUS is the new kid on the block in the white range team. His 4 speed together with the shatter ability mean, that when shooting early enough, he will get rid of any shield defense on the opponent's frontline tank, opening the door for some major carnage attack by my melee monsters. Again, he comes at the relatively high price of 7 mana, so also doesn't usually get much action. Let's see, how he performs here today.
ROUND 1
PEGASUS struck first to get rid of the Shieldbearer's shield, as expected. In fact, all monsters had their turn before the opposition could react with a single shot. The Shieldbearer was seriously injured and the Disintegrator was defeated in the first round. This was a great start to the battle, one which the enemy would not recover from. COEURL LURKER generated 3 misses and therefore survived the first round to get another hit in the following round.
ROUND 2
COUERL LURKER dusted the Shieldbearer. It was looking great for my team. Now the entire opposition range team was exposed, ready to be picked off one by one like blind pigeons on a wire.
ROUND 3
At the beginning of the third round, only the Portal Spinner was left standing to be quickly scalped by King COEURL. Game over!
Well I really like the CLOSE RANGE ruleset and my strategy was successful, as you can see. The key here is speed and fighting power. Putting a good sniper in the team also makes a significant contribution to the outcome of the battle. Although CORNEALUS was not required to heal, he is highly effective in this setting when he is able to heal and shoot at the same time when he moves to first position. When thinking close range, think CORNEALUS!
