This week's Battle Mage Secrets challenge features the Wands Out ruleset! Wands Out is one of those rulesets that severely restricts which monsters you can bring into battle. In these fights, you can only bring along monsters with a magic attack. That means that not only can you not use your cards that only have a melee or ranged attack, but also that any monsters with no attack at all are ineligible. To top it off, magic is one of the less commonly seen attack types, which means that you can very easily only have a few options when it comes to picking out your team of monsters. In this battle I will be showcasing a couple of monsters (and a summoner!) that really shine in this ruleset.
As I just mentioned, Wands Out limits the selectable monsters to ones with magic attacks. While this does leave the possibility of monsters with dual attacks, for the most part this means that we will only have to worry about magic attacks. This gives us a golden opportunity to stack as much anti-magic on our team as possible, while also loading up as much damage as we can squeeze in.
If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup? Read on further!
First up: the ruleset. Of course, we have the Wands Out rule, which means that only monsters with a magic attack are selectable for this fight. We also have Heavy Hitters and Equalizer, which give every monster the Knock Out ability and give every monster on the battlefield health equal to whichever monster has the highest base total. In addition to those rules, there are also some fairly restrictive lineup restrictions - we have 4 splinters to choose from which isn't so bad, but we are also limited to an incredibly low mana cap of just 12. This is particularly impactful due to Wands Out, since magic attackers tend to cost a little more than their physical damage counterparts.
With the Wands Out ruleset, one of my first thoughts was to go with a water splinter team and use Bortus, who is excellent for magic attackers. However, the low mana cap meant that it would be better to use an earth summoner. At least when it comes to my particular deck, the earth splinter has a wider range of cheap magic attackers than water does. This is even more important in this battle because of the Equalizer ruleset, which encourages the use of as many cheap monsters as possible. Obsidian is a fine summoner option for this situation, since that additional point of magic attack is very useful in Wands Out.
Djinn Biljka is a monster who seems to be tailor made for this ruleset. Djinn Biljka's Void ability cuts any magic attacks in half, and due to Wands Out we know that most (if not all) of the enemy damage should be magic. Djinn Biljka's low health is usually a red flag, but that weakness is negated in this fight thanks to Equalizer. So for just 3 mana we get a bulky magic attacker, whose attack gets boosted up to a very respectable 3 points of damage thanks to Obsidian's summoner buff.
My second (and final) monster was Regal Peryton. Regal Peryton's high speed (and Flying ability) are not quite as impactful in Wands Out battles, but they still mean that Regal Peryton is likely to be able to get the first attack off each round. And just like Djinn Biljka, Regal Peryton has a magic attack of 2, boosted to 3 by Obsidian.
With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the battle situation I am encouraged by what I see. My opponent has selected a team combination which is ordinarily very powerful in Wands Out battles - Bortus and Djinn Oshannus. Bortus debuffs magic attacks, while Oshannus reduces them even farther with his Void ability. Oftentimes that can be enough to drop a lineup's damage output all the way to zero! Luckily for me, my team's pair of 3 damage magic attackers both have attack stats which are high enough to get through those double debuffs. And with Equalizer in play, my team has twice as much bulk as the enemy lineup.
After the first round of battle my team is making slow, but very clear, progress. The enemy Djinn Oshannus is taking 2 damage per turn, while my Djinn Biljka is taking just 1. And since everyone has the same health it is fairly obvious how this battle is going to turn out.
It took quite a few rounds, but in the end it was simply a matter of math. By the beginning of round 5 the opposing Djinn Oshannus was on its last legs, while my Djinn Biljka still had half its health remaining. Game over! And again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.
My strategy for this battle worked out perfectly. My Biljka was able to win the battle of the Djinns thanks to having a greater cost efficiency and enhanced health from Equalizer. After all, it is often easier to win a fight when it is two against one!
Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:
The Hard Counter - Battling with Melee Mayhem! - A Splinterlands battle analysis, featuring Melee Mayhem!
Splinterlands Economics: Causation - A look at causation, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Splinterlands Economics: Ceteris Paribus - An introduction to the concept of Ceteris Paribus, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands!
Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!
All images used in this article are open source and obtained from Pixabay or Unsplash. Thumbnails borrowed with permission from the Splinterlands team or made in Canva.