After debuting for the first time 23 weeks ago and after learning last week that sometimes no Legendary Monsters are allowed to participate in battles, the Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge is back and continues with its usual discriminatory practices by banning all Magic Monsters. Yeah, I know you've already read the title but even if you haven't, you have positively figured out that the Challenge this week is to display a battle involving the Lost Magic ruleset.
Let us see what this ruleset does before we get into the nitty-gritty of the line-up and the battle itself.
The Lost Magic ruleset is pretty straight-forward - Monsters with Magic attack may not be used in battles.
Now that we've got a good idea of what the Lost Magic ruleset practically does, let's see now how it can be effectively utilized.
- On the picture above I've just shown so commonly used Melee and Ranged attack Monsters which you can take advantage of when no Magic Monsters are allowed. Actually there's another group of Monsters I've missed to display - those with a lot of armor and very low health. They are very vulnerable to Magic attacks but can take a few hits from Melee and Ranged attacks.
Now that we have a decent understanding of the featured Ruleset and its potential advantages and disadvantages, let us have a look at the battle I have chosen to showcase.
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- The line-up of the Battle and the Ruleset:
The rulesets for this battle are Born Again (Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs), Unprotected (Monsters do not have any armor and do not get armor from Abilities or Summoner Buffs) and Lost Magic. The mana budget is 52 which is a fairly good amount so I can splurge on a bit more expensive Monsters for this line-up as I am not really restricted by mana. The available Elements are: Fire, Death and Dragon. This battle is actually from a Diamond-level tournament I played a couple of days ago. I have decided to go with the Death Splinter as I have something specific in mind.
In the first spot I have one of the new soulbound cards which have recently been introduced into the game - the Venari Marksrat. I am interested in its main ability - Martyr (When this Monster dies, adjacent Monsters get +1 to all stats). It's place is obvious - in the middle of the pack so if it dies - it can buff the Monsters adjacent to it. It has only 4 health (at level 3) so that's generally not too hard to happen, especially in a battle such as this where I have it in the first spot and it will probably be brought back to life a total of 3 times buffing my 2nd spot Monster.
I've decided to put my go-to tank when I use the Astral Entity as a summoner - the Pelacor Deceiver - in the 2nd spot. It is a great pair for Astral because of its abilities - Flying (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability), Backfire (if an enemy misses this monster with an attack, the attacker takes 2 damage) and Retaliate (when hit with a Melee attack, Monsters with Retaliate have a chance of attacking their attacker). It is highly evasive when you also add the Dodge (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks) ability from Astral into the mix and it can singlehandedly decimate the whole enemy team if the RNG is on my side.
The 3rd spot goes to one of the newish Legendaries from the RW miniset - Raa. I have it as level two but it has pretty fun abilities at even at that level - Flying (has an increased chance of evading Melee or Ranged attacks from Monsters who do not have the Flying ability), Double Strike (Monster attacks twice each round) , Scattershot (This Monsters attacks hit a random enemy target), Giant Killer (Does double damage against targets that cost 10 or more mana). I play it in probably every battle I go for the Death element and the mana cap is enough to fit its mana cost of 12.
4th in the line-up is the Supply Runner. Some more Speed for the team can never be a bad thing unless it's during the Reverse Speed ruleset. It is not the case this time so the Supply Runner with definitely help. Apart from Swiftness (All friendly Monsters have increased Speed) it also has Strengthen (All friendly Monsters have increased Health).
5th in the line-up is Lira The Dark. It is a great legendary as far as I am concerned and I include it often in my Death Splinter line-ups as long as the mana cap allows it. Opportunity (Monsters with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Monster with the lowest health) and Swiftness are two abilities you should never leave home without.
The 6th spot for this battle takes a Monster which I usually use as a Main Tank - the Cursed Windeku. It has a perfect stat balance for the 6 mana it costs, pair that with the Thorns (when hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker) ability it has right from the start and the Heal (restores a portion of the Monster's health each round) ability it gains at level 5, and you have a truly potent tanking Monster, especially when facing low-mana, low-health melee opponents. In this case I have put it in the last spot to protect against potential Sneak play by my enemy as it is highly likely for that to happen in a Lost Magic ruleset.
It is time for a quick round by round analysis:
- The Summoner I am going with for the battle is the Astral Entity. It has definitely grown a lot on me since it got released a few months ago and I like using it whenever I feel the rulesets make sense. It is definitely a nice fit for this particular battle as it is very strong when Magic Monsters cannot be used. My enemy has chosen to go with the Fire Element and Conqueror Jacek as a Summoner. This means that the whole battle will be a total RNG fest as I have focused my line-up on dodging and the enemy is focused on shooting in all directions through the Scattershot Jacek provides to all Monsters. The Runi could be an issue as it has True Strike hence its attacks cannot be missed.
- After 1 and a lot of dodges on both sides there have not been any casualties so far. I have to remind the viewers that all Monsters also have Rebirth so it's really hard to understand what's going on from the stills and it's a lot better to watch the whole battle unfold in real time.
- Round 3 - the battlefield seems to be in a state of parity still.
- Round 4 - there have been some developments. The enemy has thankfully lost their Runi so my dodge tactic is in a better shape right now. I, on the other hand, have lost my Supply Runner and with that the +1 Speed he provides.
- Round 5 - the enemy has lost their Lava Launcher so definitely another W for my side. I've not lost anything the previous round.
- Round 6 - my Venari Marksrat is down for good but it has managed to buff my Pelacor Deceiver 2 times so that's great.
- Round 7 - I have lost my Lira the Dark while the enemy has lost their Molten Ash Golem.
- Round 8 - the enemy Countess Sinash has finally fallen and the enemy Almo Cambio is also very close to going away for good.
- Round 9 - I still have my 3 Monsters while the enemy is left with their Tinderlock who has popped Last Stand.
- Round 10 - all that's left for my undead guys to do is to hit just once the Tinderlock and end the battle with a victory.
Well this was definitely a fast but fun battle, and an entertaining way to showcase the Lost Magic ruleset. See you next week with another exciting post related to the brand new Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!
Over and Out,
