This weeks Battle Mage Challenge is about the Target Practice rule.

Splinterlands tells us the following about the Target Practice rule:

All ranged and magic units gain the Snipe ability.

     Refer to the ability override chart.

All ranged and magic units gain Snipe, which means that they will target the first unit in the enemy lineup that has a ranged or magic attack, including units with double attack types such as Oaken Behemoth.

Target Practice matches has recently become a mind game related to Martyr buffs. Its easy to place a martyr unit in the Snipe target position, which easily trigger the buff on two units, and we can only easily dispel one of the afterwards. For this reason, it can sometimes be worthwhile to play full Sneak strategies or frontline focused lineups such as those played with Possibilus the Wise.

Incompatible Rules

Target Practice is incompatible with Fog of War, Up Close & Personal, Equal Opportunity and Aimless

Desirable Abilities

(Triage, Martyr)

I value Triage and Martyr highly in this rule because Triage will be sure to heal the target of any Magic and Ranged attacks, while Martyr monsters can be placed as Snipe targets to easily trigger the Martyr buff.

Desirable Monsters

Since Triage and Martyr are extra good, the following monsters are all those that have one of these two abilities (excluding Vruz, because while he has Martyr, he will not be targeted by Snipe )

Disadvantaged Monsters

The disadvantaged monsters are those which already have Snipe. Generally, abilities come at the cost of stats, so when all monsters gain Snipe from the rule, the ones that have it already will generally be worse choices than all the other cards. The following are all the monsters with Snipe:

My Battle : Target Practice battle

My battle had the following configuration: Wild Diamond league. 46 mana, rules: Healed Out, Keep Your Distance, Target Practice. Splinters: Death, Water, Dragon, Earth, Life.

This battle feels like a somewhat classical Keep Your Distance match, except that we have no healing. Target Practice means that the damage will be split between the frontline unit, and the Snipe target, while Healed Out makes Triage useless (which is normally good in Target Practice matches). There are plenty of splinters available, and since this is also a wild match, its very tough to tell what the opponent will play. Water, Life and Earth are my first choices, having mostly modern card.s

My lineup

I went for a setup with Quix and Water because there are two very good tanks available in the Water cards: Baakjira and Djinn Oshannus. Dragon allows us to play Chaos Dragon, which is a great card in Healed Out. Even though we cant heal, [Life Leech] still works, and having the Snare from Merdhampir is quite likely to be useful since Dragon will often be played at this high mana. My final two units were Angelic Mandarin, who I wanted for the Silence and Supply Runner which is just generally a very useful card.

Opponent's lineup

My Opponent went for a Dragon-Water combo too, but with Lily, which is somewhat strange given that we dont have any healing in this match. Baakjira up front, just like I did, and then Chaos Dragon behind that and then Doctor Blight. The last three units were Angelic Mandarin, Gem Meteor and Wave Brood. This setup would be effective had the Triage been possible to use, but for this match it does not look ideal.

Battle progress and Result

I have the speed advantage, and in Round 1, all my units start off by attacking the Wave Brood, including my Chaos Dragon. My rangers take a little bit of return damage, and after the barrage, both the Wave Brood and the Gem Meteor (who took some Blast damage) are down at 5 health. My opponent's Gem Meteor hits my Chaos Dragon, and the other units attack Djinn Oshannus. Oshannus manages to dodge Doctor Blight, which i'm quite pleased with, so that we dont risk getting hit by the Poison.

In round two, my first three attackers (Oshannus, Supply Runner and Angelic Mandarin) bring down the Wave Brood. Again we take some return damage, but its still not too bad. My Chaos Dragon has forgotten that it has Scattershot and targets the Opponent's Chaos Dragon (which is now the Snipe target, but my other units will attack Baakjira because of Lily's Camouflage). When its my opponents turn to attack, the damage is split among several units because of the Scattershot, and none of my units are particularly in trouble yet. Oshannus dodges Doctor Blight again.

Next round, my units begin to tear down Baakjira. After the full barrage, including a direct hit from the Chaos Dragon, it is down at 3 health. Unfortunately, my opponent's Chaos Dragon lands its hit on the Supply Runner, who dies, and I lose the Strengthen and Swiftness buffs. Oshannus however does a great job and dodges both the Angelic Mandarin and Doctor Blight attacks.

In round 4, the Baakjira dies, while my Chaos Dragon lands its hit on the Gem Meteor. The Gem Meteor lands its hit on the Djinn Oshannus, and the Chaos Dragon does some damage to Baakjira and Oshannus (through Blast). Once again, Doctor Blight misses his hit.

In round 5, my ranged attackers bring down the Chaos Dragon to 2 health, while my Chaos Dragon hits the Angelic Mandarin and finishes the Gem Meteor in the process. Oshannus is hit by the Angelic Mandarin and the Chaos Dragon Blast, but again dodges Doctor Blight.

Finally, in round 6, Oshannus ends the Chaos Dragon right away and my ranged attackers deal some damage to Doctor Blight. My Chaos Dragon can lay the finishing touch by blasting the two last units to oblivion and secures this victory for me!

Alternative lineups

Lux Vega (life)

Kelya Frendul

Quix the Devious (life)

Byzantine Kitty (earth)

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: Target Practice. Strategy, My Battle and Alternative Lineups