Let's go to the Battle Mage Secrets of the week, for today we have the Close Range rule, this was the rule that I suffered the most to get a victory, I spent about 3 days hunting for this, and when it came I lost the match 😭, I think it was my bad luck, without further ado let's go to the post!
🌟 CLOSE RANGE 🌟
| Rule | Description |
|---|---|
| CLOSE RANGE | Ranged attacks may used in the first position in battles. |
Close Range is an interesting rule, because it eliminates the biggest problem of units that attack at a distance allowing them to attack in the first position, surely you have already had this unit in the frontline and had to watch it being slaughtered without being able to do anything 😅, that is, when this rule appears you will not need to worry about this problem and can even be placed as off-tank, because some are very resistant 😀.
Even if all ranged units gain the Close Range ability they are still much more fragile than traditional tanks, so it is not good that they reach the frontline, I usually use this rule more as a bonus than to make a whole strategy around it.
I have separated below the best and worst skills to use with this rule.
Best Skills
| Abilities | Nome | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Weapons Training | Very interesting this ability, and here would be no different, there are several cards without damage that are resistant, with this you can position the trainer in the middle of them, thus having one more off-tank and one more DPS 😃. |
 | Headwinds | Great chance that the opponent will bring a unit with ranged damage to take advantage of the close range, so this skill will almost always have at least 1 target 😁. |
 | Return Fire | Same as Headwinds, because the high chance of having ranged attacks in the match and reflecting some of that damage is quite interesting. |
Worst Skills
| Abilities | Nome | Description |
|---|---|---|
 | Close Range | Completely unnecessary, because all cards already have this skill due to the rule, if you are thinking of placing a unit only because of this skill it might be better to look for another option 😄. |
⚔️ My Team ⚔️
| Card | LineUP |
|---|---|
 | Summoner : My favorite, its bonus will serve to absolve at least one hit from the earthquake, and will still protect my units against magic damage thanks to the Weak Magic rule. |
 | Tank : A very offensive Tank with plenty of armor to take advantage of the Weak Magic rule, it can overwhelm an entire team when enraged. |
 | Off-Tank: Simple unit that causes a strong magic damage, I think I was wrong to put it as off-tank, at least it has a medium HP, so it can withstand some hits. |
 | DPS: One of the best hunters in the game, if after attacking the opposing unit is still alive, its poison ends the job 🤣. |
 | DPS : I don't like this card much because of its random targeting, but I'm using a good hunter that will probably go after whoever it hits, plus it's pretty tough to use the Close Range rule. |
 | DPS: Two hits of 3 damage, it needed nothing more, it already has the close range, but it is here for his offensive ability anyway. |
 | DPS/Suport: Good damage and also repairs armor, something very useful in matches with the weak magic rule, it will help the tank a lot and is resistant enough to withstand several rounds with earthquake. |
🤜The Battle 🤛
Analyzing the match: My opponent didn't want to take advantage of the Close Range bonus and came up with a team with a lot of magic damage, Kelya's armor will be very effective, along with the ninja turtle that fixes them, the biggest difficulty will be getting past the tanks, but the random damage followed by Deeplurker can clear the back line before I get past them.
Round 1 - Very intense start to the game, all my attacks were towards the Mycelic Slipspawn that ended up being killed by Deeplurker's attack, nothing different after that.
Round 2 - The first wave of the earthquake passes, but no units die, in the middle of the round my Axe Master knocks out Alvar, and almost at the end my DeepLurker takes another victim and takes the Goblin Healer out of the game, I now have a good advantage in the match.
Round 3 - Finally, the victory arrived, the second wave of the earthquake passes and again kills no one, with the enrage bonus DiemonShark gets an incredible 8 speed making it the first attack in the round, eliminating the Pelacor Mercenary early in the round, but falls soon after by Regal Peryton, almost at the end of the round The Ninja Turtle and Deepluker knock out the last two opponent units giving me the victory.
🎊 Conclusion 🎊
Close range will generally be an optional rule, it's hard to make a strategy around it, because naturally you will want your attackers at a distance far away from the frontline, most of them are very fragile. The cool thing is to make your line-up without fearing that this kind of damage will arrive in the first line considering this rule as a nice bonus for them, I think this is the best move to make with this rule 😄.
Game Link: Splinterlands
Battle Link: ZALLIN Vs. OOMRNICEOO
Image sources: https://splinterlands.com/ and @freeztag/splinterlands-or-art-contest-173-or-a-free-to-use-splinterlands-divider