The Challenge
This week's Battle Mage Secrets challenge focuses on COUNTERSPELL! Monsters with Magic attack would be troubled by this special ruleset since cards would come armed with the Magic Reflect ability at the beginning of the battle. With this set of rules, all magic damage would be returned to the offender and deal decreased magic damage (about equal to half of magic damage dealt).
Players would often decide not to use Magic-type monsters under these conditions because doing so would result in needless self-inflicted damage. One of the most irritating fighting scenarios, though, is when the Wands Out ruleset is also in play. This would then mandate that all players exclusively utilize monsters of the Magic-type for the battle. The only saving grace for such situation is that you know your opponent is also in a similar plight 😅
Here are some of the abilities which I personally feel have great synergies when playing with the COUNTERSPELL ruleset. Therefore, do look out for monsters with these abilities when setting up your team and hopefully they would bring you the victory!
Reflection Shield - Prevent any reflected damages.
Amplify - Increase the returned magic damage by +1.
Void - Reduced the returned magic damage by -1.
The Battle
In my alt account, jimbei, I was somehow able to engage in the mentioned irritable fighting scenario 😵 To get right into the action, the battle link can be found here. Otherwise, do read on as I go into more detail regarding the lineup and fight.
First up, let us run through the ruleset. We have Wands Out, which forces all players to only use Magic-type monsters. We also have Are You Not Entertained ruleset, which allow the use of an additional Gladiator card. And finally, the main highlight of this challenge, the COUNTERSPELL ruleset that was discussed earlier on. With the combination of Wands Out and Counterspell ruleset in a single game, we should expect the match to conclude pretty quickly 😁 A relatively low 19 mana capped battle with only the Fire, Life and Dragon Splinter available.
Summoner, Quix The Devious - Because I don't have a better summoner accessible in this situation, I chose Quix the Devious for this match. The +1 Melee/Range from Tarsha/General Sloan respectively are useless in this ruleset as only Magic-type monsters are playable. Both Conqueror Jacek and Grandmaster Rathe are not mana-efficient summoners for low mana capped battle as they each cost 6 mana which will then leave me with only 13 mana for the remaining lineup. Therefore, selecting Quix the Devious with its -1 Speed attribute was my best bet.
First Position, Void Dragon
Void Dragon was picked as the main tanker in this battle due to its Phase and Void abilities. Phase ability allow the monster to escape being hit by Magic attacks using the same hit/miss calculation as for Melee and Ranged attacks. With its high speed (complemented by Quix -1 speed to opposing monsters) and Flying ability, it is definitely a solid tanker in this scenario. Also, the Void ability would prevent heavy damages suffered from opposing Magic attack as well as the reflected Magic damages due to the COUNTERSPELL ruleset!
Second Position, Dax Paragon
In this set of rules, having the Amplify ability is essential because it adds extra damage to all reflected Magic attacks on opposing monsters. Therefore, Dax Paragon landed a spot in our team selection here. The Affliction ability, which will prevent opposing monster from healing, is an additional upside to using the Dax Paragon.
Third Position, Time Mage
Due to Time Mage low health and high Magic attack, using this monster here is always going to be a double-edge sword. It may not be the most ideal monster to use but it still landed a spot in the team selection for its Slow ability which would further increase the efficiency of the Phase ability that Void Dragon has.
Last Position, Sola Ranjell
Not a card that could be normally use in the ranked battles but was able to make the team this time round as we have the Are You Not Entertained ruleset which allows the use of a Gladiator card. Having the Tank Heal ability here is pretty useful since it could only improve the survival rate of the Void Dragon. The Bloodlust ability once activated when defeating any opposing monster would have been sweet too if that happens 🤔
The Analysis
Seeing the opposing lineup before the start of the battle, I immediately knew I was in trouble. Despite the fact that the opponent is fielding an under levelled team for the Champion League, the sight of Oshuur Constantia got me worried.
When choosing Void Dragon and Dax Paragon, both teams had fairly similar ideas, but the opponent's Oshuur Constantia proved to be too much for my team to handle. With its Resurrect, Reflection Shield, and Tank Heal abilities, Oshuur Constantia is unquestionably the true MVP in this battle.
My strategy in keeping my tank, Void Dragon, alive succeeded, but it ultimately failed once my backline was decimated by their self-inflicted wounds 😭
No shame in losing here since I felt that I have already played the best team I could, what do you guys think? Do share any tips here on how I could possibly improve and maybe win this battle! 😝
If you made it this far, I sincerely appreciate your time and value your encouragement. Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions so that we can discuss about other strategies. Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=ak08, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
Are you interested in reading some of my future writings? Don't forget to follow me! In the meantime, here are some of my most recent blogs if you'd like to view them:
Social Media Challenge - A battle analysis, featuring the
ClOSE RANGEruleset but focuses more on the monster's abilities!Battle Mage Secrets - A battle analysis, featuring the
ClOSE RANGEruleset!
All banners, dividers card and battle images used in this article are open source and obtained from the Splinterlands team or made by @flauwy. Do check out his link for other amazing designs!