Weekly Battle Challenge: Centauri Mage

This week's battle challenge features the Centauri Mage. According to the lore, the Centauri Mages "spend most of their time close to Kron, protecting him from all the wild creatures outside his Citadel." Today we'll see whether they can live up to that reputation. But first...

The Card

Centauri Mage is a 7 mana Earth monster. At level 1, she has a 1 damage magic attack, 3 speed, and 9 health. More importantly, she has the Return Fire ability, allowing her to fire back at anyone who hits her with a ranged attack. She can be quite useful hiding behind a tank where she can shoot back at enemy monsters with Snipe or Blast. Or with her high health, she can also hold the front line on her own against enemy archers.

At max level, Centauri Mage gains 1 more health and speed, and 2 more damage, making her much more effective at taking down the enemies. However, she also gains the Repair ability, allowing her to restore armor to the ally who needs it most. With this ability, you most likely don't want her to be on the front line, but to sit back and help repair the armor of a real tank. But should that tank fall, Centauri Mage is ready to step into that front line role and wreak havoc on the enemy team herself.

The Battle

Here we had a 24 mana battle with Keep Your Distance (no melee monsters allowed). Based on my opponents' history, ranged enemies seemed likely, so I brought in the Centauri Mage with Llama-Kron, plus a lowly Chicken to add one more body to the field.

My opponent did indeed bring a lot of archers to the table, led by Bortus, who would unfortunately reduce my team's magic damage. Most concerning were the Axemaster, who could deal 6 damage per turn, outpacing Kron's healing ability, and the Crustacean King, whose heal might keep me from reaching the biggest threats in time.

Our chicken died immediately, as expected, bringing our Centauri Mage to the front line. This meant she was no longer a target for the enemy Narwhal and Pirate Captain, whose Snipe ability meant they would go for Kron instead. Because of this, our Mage was able to survive long enough to take 3 hits from the enemy Axemaster, retaliating for 2 damage each time to eliminate the biggest threat on the field. The Mage herself would die to the next snip from the Crustacean King, but she was able to fulfil her destiny; her noble sacrifice ensured the survival of her leader, Kron.

Perhaps enraged by the loss of his loyal follower, Kron stepped up to take her place and unleash his fury on the enemy team. Bortus did his best to suppress Kron's magic, but Kron prevailed in the end, smiting the enemies one by one until none remained. Kron and the Citadel would live on, but not without the sacrifice of one brave Centauri Mage.

Final Thoughts

Centauri Mage is a powerful magic attacker, but in my opinion, her true strength is her return fire ability. Under the right circumstances she can singlehandedly take down the greatest threat to your team, as seen in this battle. Hopefully Chaos Legion will introduce a compatible monster with Amplify to make this ability even stronger. But until then, I am sure that Centauri Mage will continue to hold her own against the enemy archers.

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