This week's battle challenge involves the Radiated Brute! The Radiated Brute is a Fire Melee card that in my opinion, is extremely powerful. With the Chaos Legion Fire Summoner, Tarsa, any melee monster that can attack from the backline is critical to a strong deck.

Radiated Brute Highlights

At Level 1, Radiated is decent when paired with Tarsa. It has the Reach ability in the Silver levels and below (Level 5 and below) which is a strong ability for melee. Health isn't a major concern since it can sit behind your tank. However, the 1 speed can be a problem. I'd recommend using a Level 2 at minimum to gain a little bit of speed. At Level 5, it is a much more manageable but obviously you'll need a leveled up summoner to go along with it.

	Reach : Melee attack Monsters with the Reach ability may attack from the second position on the team
	Enrage : Has increased Melee attack and Speed when damaged (Multiplier x1.5 rounded up)

Since I play in Silver I, my max level for the Radiated Brute is Level 5. It doesn't gain any new abilities but it has 3 attack, and 3 speed. With Tarsa, that become 4 attack!

So when do I use the Radiated Brute?

• Medium mana battles with a strong tank. I typically use Fineas Rage in the #2 spot but if I didn't have one, Radiated Brute would definitely take its place.
• Anytime you're looking to concentrate damage to the frontline is a good time to use this card.

Today's Featured Battle

In today's battle, I went with the Fire Summoner, Tarsa, against an Obsidian powered Earth team.

Battle Ruleset

• Target Practice : All Ranged and Magic attack Monsters have the Snipe ability.
• 21 Mana Cap
• All splinters are available

Strategy Highlights

• Target Practice
  • Since all Ranged and Magic attacks target melee monsters last, that meant my frontline tank would only get hit by melee. This makes me want to play something with the shield ability or with armor upfront
  • If my opponent goes magic or ranged, I can possibly bait them into attack some "throwaway" monsters like Furious Chicken
  • Using Kelya with Djinn Oshannus in the 2nd position was considered since he would defend well against Magic and his fast speed could possibly dodge some ranged attacks
• 21 Mana Cap
  • With a fairly low mana cap, I didn't want to use Djinn Oshannus who costs 8 mana
  • The Fire Deck with Tarsa and also the Death Deck with Thaddius Brood are great at these levels

My initial thoughts were to use Kelya with Djinn Oshannus in the 2nd spot. He has Void which reduces Magic damage and with high speed and armor, he would be able to take a few hits (or dodge) before dying. With only 2 Magic damage, however, he isn't particularly strong and this strategy felt a little too defensive for a low mana battle.

I ultimately decided on Tarsa because of her +1 melee buff. At 21 Mana, there are plenty of low mana Fire monsters that become excellent attackers with Tarsa.

The Lineup

	Tarsa : Fire Summoner that gives all friendly monsters +1 Melee Damage and +1 Health. This is one of my favorite summoners because she can make an entire lineup of okay cards, great. This is especially important in low mana battles where low mana monsters need more attack or health (or both)
	Antoid Platoon : Excellent low mana tank because of the Shield ability and armor. It is susceptible to Magic but with Target Practice ruleset I wasn't extremely worried about Magic taking it out immediately
	Radiated Brute : I placed it in the 2nd spot since Reach allows it to attack from this position. If the tank gets taken out, Radiated Brute would be able to hang on for a bit since it would have 6 health
	Furious Chicken - Placed here to essentially absorb one of my opponent's ranged/magic attacks
	Serpentine Spy : With the Furious Chicken taking the first hit from a non-melee monster, I felt that the Serpentine Spy's 3 speed would allow it to take out one of my opponents monsters quickly, potentially an attacker, with the Opportunity ability
	Tenyii Striker : With the Sneak ability, he can take out the backline which is usually where you can find low health Magic/Ranged attackers. If my opponent also had sneak, I hoped that his high health and decent speed would keep him alive for a few rounds

Let's Battle!

• My opponent had a decent line-up but seemed to be expecting me to go with heavy Magic or Ranged which was apparent by the use of the Failed Summoner as the tank. If I had gone with a Magic attacker, they would have targeted the Failed Summoner first, causing them to take some Magic Reflect damage.
• Because I went Melee, my faster monsters were able to easily take out their un-armored monsters
• The placement of the Furious Chicken worked wonderfully as it sacrificed itself to take a 3 damage Magic attack

Did it work?

Yes! I was able to perfectly counter my opponent get walk away with the victory. One weakness that I can see is that it's weak against armored monsters. If my opponent had used Kelya, it's likely that I would have had a much tougher time pulling out the win.

Final Thoughts

Radiated Brute is a strong, low mana monster that can be leveled up to become an excellent attacker for a relatively low price. At $0.06/BCX a max Silver level would cost me $3.60! I'll definitely be looking to accumulate more of these so that I won't regret it later if it becomes a much more expensive card.

Thanks for reading!

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