Hello there, this is my entry to the latest "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or learn more about the challenge, click here. This week we must formulate a strategy with the Holy Protection ruleset.
RULESET: Holy Protection
With the Holy Protection ruleset in action, all units gain the "Divine Shield" ability which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0.
Holy Protection is an interesting ruleset as the first damage received will be reduced to zero. We can use this to our advantage and use units with resurrect ability so every time the unit resurrects it can take one more hit. Also, using extra armour is a good idea in this ruleset. I prefer filling all the available monster slots even if you have to use two weaker units instead of one as both will benefit from that first attack reduction and it will be advantageous for you. Having a unit with Blast is a good idea too.
Let's see how this ruleset affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle. This is an older battle but it is good for me to teach how this ruleset can be used in our favour.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
It was just a 32-mana cap battle and had the 'Holy Protection' ruleset that grants the 'Divine Shield' ability to all the units on the battlefield.
Only 'Water', 'Earth' and 'Death' elements were active during this battle. I had 32 mana to work with so I could afford to use a strong tank at the front. I went with the Earth element and used Obsidian as my summoner which increased the magic attack of all my mages by 1.
I used the Chain Golem as my tank. It is an impressive attacking unit dealing 3 melee attack damage and comes with good health and a lot of armour on its own. Its shield ability makes it a good tank and you will see how much it helped this lineup during the battle stage.
Spirit Hoarder was placed in the second position in my lineup. It comes with a 'triage' ability and can help in healing the friendly backline. I preferred low mana cost units which would utilize all my available slots and this was a mage too so it would take advantage of the summoner buff.
In the third position was Doctor Blight, another similar stats to the previous one but comes with more abilities. It just costs 4 mana and wouldn't take damage because of its 'Camouflage' ability. Also, it has chances to apply affliction to its target making them unable to be healed in the battle. This is extremely effective against strong and beefy tanks with healers.
I needed a unit that could support my Chain Golem and heal it up so I used the Goblin Psychic as it comes with 'tank heal' ability. Not only that, it deals 2 magic damage on its own and is a powerful striker. No wonder it comes at a 6 mana price tag.
Queen Mycelia was another important piece in my puzzle as it gave 2 extra armour to all the friendly units which is extremely efficient against melee and ranged attackers. And it only costs 4 mana so it was an easy choice for me.
Last but not least was Uraeus, another melee attacker dealing 2 melee damage and costing just 3 units. I placed it in the last position just to shield the Queen Mycelia which seemed like a more important unit in this lineup. It only comes with 2 health points but attacks from the end of the enemy lineup because of its 'sneak' ability.
Now that my lineup was set, it was time for battle.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube.
My Strategy
This was just a 32 mana cap battle but it was an unrestrictive ruleset so I could choose my units with some freedom. I went with a balanced approach focusing both on attacking and my defensive capabilities.
Half of my work was done by the tank, Chain Golem, at the start of my lineup which soaked so many attacks and would take less damage from melee and ranged attacks because it has the Shield ability. It still needed more support from my other units and Goblin Psychic played the role of support healer in this lineup.
I used a lot of units with relatively lower health just to not use beefy units and leave some slots left out. I wanted to use smaller units and fill all the slots so I could take advantage of the ruleset.
This strategy, as you will see, worked in my favour and gave me a good win at the end.
My opponent used the Pembrook Nymph as their summoner which they used just to use a Gladiator unit in their lineup. The gladiator unit was Isgald Vorst and they used it in the second position after their Djinn Oshannus. If the gladiator units stay for much longer and get a few kills early it gets out of hand and can win the game single-handedly.
Round 1 saw the demise of my Uraeus, they had 2 units to attack my backend rather than the front end and I was not prepared for that and didn't put enough defensive units at the back.
But my Queen Mycelia's 'protection' ability saved the day and by the end of round 2, their tank was deleted off the battlefield.
Healing played a good role in this battle, my opponent had no healing units on their lineups while my Chain Golem was getting healed out after each round.
Until round 4, it looked like an even battle but after that, my opponent's team collapsed losing one after the other.
My Chain Golem was still standing like a boss at the end. The synergy between him and Goblin Psychic was very powerful. I got an easy win at the end of this battle.
Conclusion
Holy Protection is an interesting ruleset which makes the game longer and can severely affect the outcome of the game. Having multiple weaker units to go through rather than a few beefier units is a good strategy.
Another good strategy for this ruleset is using units with Resurrect as the resurrected units will have the Divine Shield ability to reply to them and this can be a real pain. Using extra armour along with resurrect is a good strategy too which makes the opponents use even more attacks if they are not using magic attackers. So, I prefer using magic attackers in this ruleset.
Let me know which one you prefer in this ruleset.
Thanks for reading...
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Note:
- Text dividers are from freeztag.
- Card images are from @splinterlands.
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