This weeks Battle Mage Challenge is about the Super Sneak rule.

Splinterlands tells us the following about the Super Sneak rule:

All melee units gain the Sneak ability. 

    Refer to the ability override chart below.

Super Sneak gives all melee units Sneak, which allows them to attack the backline regardsless of where they are positioned. The ability override chart refers to the order of priority between Sneak, Opportunity and Reach (which is in the order I've listed them here). Therefore, any melee unit that has Opportunity or Reach will still attack the backline unit in this rule.

Super Sneak is a melee favored rule. Melee units are generally stronger than ranged and magic units, and this rule removes their main disadvantage, namely that they can usually only attack from the frontline unless they have Sneak, Opportunity or Reach.

Incompatible Rules

(Fog of War, Keep Your Distance, Melee Mayhem, Equal Opportunity, Going the Distance, Wands Out)

Desirable Abilities

Thorns, Shield, Inspire, Demoralize, Protect, Rust, Retaliate, Piercing

The most relevant abilities are those that affect melee damage in one way or another, either by increasing/decreasing damage, providing armor, removing armor or returning damage to melee attackers.

Advantaged Summoners

Desirable Monsters

Disadvantaged Monsters

My Battle : Super Sneak battle

My battle had the following configuration: Modern Diamond league. 23 mana, rules: Super Sneak, Even Stevens, Holy Protection. Splinters: Dragon, Earth, Life.

This match is at pretty low mana, and with a set of splinters in the Even Stevens rule that did not make running a melee setup that attractive. Life has a few good melee monsters that can be used here, but there are some good alternatives in magic and ranged setups here. Divine Shield makes it slightly more attractive to play a full lineup than a smaller one with a few larger monsters.

My lineup

I chose to go for a lineup that did not include any melee monsters. Instead, I picked Quix the Devious and placed a Failed Summoner as my tank. In addition, I added two monsters with Protect, placed Naga Assassin in the back (the sneak target). Naga Assassin is often a decent tank against ranged or melee units due to its high speed and Backfire. As my final two units, I added Acid Shooter and Doctor Blight. Both these have Poison, which makes up for the low damage my team has in total.

Opponent's lineup

My opponent went for a Life setup with Camila Sungazer as their summoner. They used Pelacor Conjurer as their tank (similar thinking as my Failed Summoner). However, they used several melee monsters, including Chaos Knight for Inspire, Vruz for Martyr and Vulguine who has Dodge and Enrage. Finally, they added Time Mage who has Rust and Slow, and Doctor Blight next to Vruz to get a lot of value from the Martyr if it triggers. This lineup looks very strong.

Battle progress and Result

Apart from the Time Mage and Vruz, I have the speed advantage here. The battle starts by Naga Assassin missing the Pelacor Conjurer, Vruz hitting the Naga Assassin Divine Shield, and then the Time Mage attacking the Failed Summoner, popping the Divine Shield, and losing its own shield from the Magic Reflect. Next, my Tower Griffin and Acid Shooter attacks. Acid Shooter luckyli hits the Doctor Blight, popping the Divine Shield and adding a Cripple stack. The Chaos Knight and Vulguine successfully hit the Naga Assasin. Finally, the magic attackers try their best. My Opponent's Doctor Blight cannot miss the Failed Summoner, but now the Magic Reflect combined with Amplify is enough to kill the Doctor Blight. My units simply miss the Pelacor Conjurer, but Queen Mycelia also restores some health to the Naga Assassin with Triage.

In round 2, my Naga Assassin misses the Pelacor Conjurer again (Flying), and takes some damage from Vruz. Then the Time Mage attacks the Failed Summoner, kills it, but also dies from the Magic Reflect. This removes Slow and Rust and so now my team gains a big boost. My remaining ranged attackers both hit the Pelacor Conjurer, and Acid Shooter applied Poison. With 2 speed, my magic attackers now attack. Doctor Blight hits, while Queen Mycelia misses. Then its the melee attackers turns. Vulguine misses and takes a Backfire hit, while the Chaos Knight lands the hit and clears the armor from Naga Assassin.

In round 3, the Pelacor Conjurer dies from Poison, Naga Assassin clears the Chaos Knight's Divine Shield and then takes damage from Vruz. Acid Shooter hits Vruz but does not trigger Poison and my remaining units hit the Chaos Knight. Finally, Vulguine kills the Naga Assassin and Chaos Knight hits the Divine Shield on Queen Mycelia.

In round 4, all my units hit the Chaos Knight, but in the middle of that Vruz and Vulguine take strikes on the Acid Shooter into the Divine Shield and armor. The Chaos Knight dies.

Now the game is pretty decided. I have two remaining magic attackers, and Doctor Blight has stacked up a lot of health. Event though Vulguine is also quite tanky and has high attack due to Enrage, it will take too long to go through my remaining units, in particular because I still have Protect. Round 6 starts like this:

and in round 7 the game ends in my victory. Great effort by my opponent, but the combination of Amplify and Magic Reflect, which killed both Doctor Blight and Time Mage, really made the difference for me here.

Alternative lineups

Lux Vega:

Mylor Crowling

Immortalis

I hope you found this post interesting. If you did, you might also enjoy my other content.

Battle mage challenges

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Best of luck in Splinterlands!
Kalkulus

Battle Mage Challenge: Super Sneak. Strategy, My Battle and Alternative Lineups