BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge- Briar Patch
What´s up Splinterlands Players The current challenge is about the Briar Patch ruleset. It equips all monsters on the field with the thorns ability. To counter that threat I went for Magic and Archer monsters which won´t take damage from thorns unlike melee monsters. In the battle I will present to you below, I chose to go with 1 Magic monster, 1 Archer and 1 Healer.
Rulesets in Combat: Super Sneak and Thorns
Description of the ruleset of Splintercards
(Source quotes:https://www.splintercards.com/rulesets.php?rs=28)
All Melee attack Monsters have the Sneak ability.
When hit with a Melee attack, does damage back to the attacker Has an upper cap of 2
Mana 18
Team selection options: Fire, water, earth and dragons
As a summoner I chose Kelya Frendul Level 2 
With additional speed and armor for all my monsters Kelya is one of the strongest 4 Mana summoners. As the experienced Splinterlands players among you know speed is often a game deciding factor. The additional armor also offeres good protection against melee attackers and archery monsters. This additional protection is quite helpful when you expect sneak attackers like in this ruleset.
First Position Djinn Oshannus Level 1 
I put Oshannus first since he can absorb lots of damage with his 10 health. He also has 5 speed (6 with the summoner boost) which makes him very unlikely to get hit very often. In addition he has the void ability which absorbs one magic damage. All of this makes him a pretty strong main tank for my set-up, which is hard to take down.
Second Position Merdaali Guardian Level 1 
I put this one in the second spot since usually the middle is the safest position and I wanted my healer to survive as long as possible. With a Mana cost of only 3 it is quite cheap and serves perfectly to fill up the health of Oshannus in the front.
Third Position Angelic Mandarin Level 2 
I decided to close my line-up with the Archer. The choice was kinda obvious to me since it puts up a pretty solid backline defense with his 6 health for only 3 Mana. Not only that. He can also deal 1 additional damage to the front of the opponents team. Considering that the ruleset gave all melee monsters the sneak ability I just had to go for this card. Opposing team: Summoner Kelya Frendul Level 1
Watch battle: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_26e88df66d7e4d642871867d69a764d7&ref=olf-the-ripper
As you could see, it was a sweaty battle with an equally strong opponent. My opponent must have had similar thoughts during the team selection. If he had started with an opportunity monster in the back, it might have looked a little different, since he could have killed my healer that way. But the way it went, we both kept healing our Oshannus in the front, until our healers died from fatigue damage. Both our card selections seemed to be a pretty good choice for this ruleset. Thanks to the void ability of my Oshannus his Ice Pixy didn´t deal damage at all. Sadly my backline Archer also wasn´t able to have much impact on the battle. In the end it was Oshannus vs. Oshannus and both died at the same time from fatigue damage. If he had picked a monster without void for the front, my chances of winning would have been much higher. Let´s see if I can win the next battle with the Thorns ruleset :)
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