Hi everyone! It's time for the weekly Battle Mage Secrets challenge and the challenge this week is the Close Range Ruleset.
About the Ruleset
Close Range
The Close Range ruleset states that "Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battle". This means that ranged monsters won't be useless once they reach the first position, and that can make a difference between winning and losing.
Battle Ruleset(s)
Details of my battle with this ruleset is as follows.
Only the Fire, Water, Death and Dragon Splinters can be used
Mana Cap: 36
Format: Modern
Cards & Line Up
Summoner
vs
Summoner: Quix the Devious - This reduces the Speed and Ranged Attack of the opponent’s deck by 1.
 |  |  |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |  |  |
| Position | Name | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Venari Marksrat | I placed it in position 1 for it's Martry ability, to give Djinn Chwala additional stats. |
| 2 | Djinn Chwala | It is the main tank, has high health and shields and has the Thorns ability, which will help reduce the health or shield of melee attackers. |
| 3 | Carnage Titan | It has the Reach and Double Strike ability, which will help to take opponents down faster. It has a pretty decent amount of health and shields too. |
| 4 | Dhampir Stalker | It has 3 Range attack, and has the True Strike ability, so it doesn't miss and is great even if it hits position 1 in this ruleset. |
| 2 | Uraeus | It's here to attack the backline and shield Dhampir Stalker a little from backline attacks |
| 3 | Corpse Fiend | It's 0 mana cost and here to take the first hit from backline attacks. |
Strategy
The ruleset here meant that Ranged monsters can be used in position 1, so there's no real disadvantage in using any type of cards in this ruleset.
My strategy was to opt for high health and high shields, with a high damage output to take out the first position. With this strategy in mind, I chose to use the Dragon and Death Splinter as they have the monsters I need to carry out this strategy. As such, I opted for the Venari Marksrat in the first position to give Djinn Chwala +1 to all stats upon its death.
The opponent used a different strategy, using a mainly Magic based attack, and beefing up his shield, and augmenting it with heals. I think it would have worked well if his cards were a little higher leveled. Fortunately for me, the combination of Carnage Titan and Dhampir Stalker took out the opponents cards fast enough without allowing the heals to take place, and that allowed me to win.
Thoughts on the Close Range Ruleset
As the Close Range ruleset allows ranged monsters to attack in the first position, the best strategy is use a combination of high health tanks and high damage ranged attackers. This will help remove the advantage the opponent has if he beefs up his shields, by being able to bring down the shields fast. It also works great with the Going the distance ruleset, where you can only use ranged monsters. It will allow your ranged monster to attack in the first position, especially if you don't own any with the Close Range ability.