Welcome everyone 👋, I'm back again with a new post for the Splinterlands Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!

What is Splinterlands?

Splinterlands is an online collectible card game using blockchain technology. Every card in the game is owned as a non-fungible token (NFT) and is traded using similar features to cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum. If you’ve ever played collectible trading card games like Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon or Yu-Gi-Oh!, you’ll find a similar experience, but through a web browser and blockchain wallet.

This week, the ruleset we have to introduce for this challenge is the Lost Magic ruleset, which prohibits the use of monsters that have magic attack in the battles. Also, monsters that have two types of attacks that include magic, cannot be played . So only melee, ranged and non-attack monsters will be able to enter the battlefield.

Personally, it's not my favorite ruleset, but I don't dislike it, so it's okay.

There will only be 3 monsters available that have the following abilities: Forcefield, Last Stand, and only 2 monsters with the Resurrect ability, since most with these abilities are magic monsters.

Against Melee!

Demoralize	Enemy melee monsters will lose -1 melee attack, but not less than 1.
Thorns	Melee monsters take 2 melee damage when they attack a monster with this ability.

Against Ranged!

Headwinds	Enemy ranged monsters will lose -1 ranged attack, but not less than 1.
Return Fire	Any damage made to the monster with ranged attacks, will return half the ranged damage back (rounded up) to the attacker.

The Shield ability in this ruleset is pretty good, monsters with this ability take reduced damage from melee and ranged attacks by 50% (rounded up), except attack 1 which deals 0 damage.

To protect your ranged monsters from the Return Fire ability, you can use ranged monsters with the Reflection Shield ability, as they take no damage from that ability, and it protects monsters from the Blast ability too.

Now let's analyze a high-ranking battle in the Champions league, Wild format:
Adonisabril vs Bubke!

In addition to the Lost Magic ruleset, the Trample ability can trigger multiple times per attack if the Trampled monster is killed. And all monsters will self-resurrect with 1 health and their base armor, once per battle due to the Born Again ruleset.

The first player, Adonisabril, decides to choose Lir Deepswimmer as his summoner. He will give the Return Fire ability to all his friendly units. On top of that, all his allies will gain +2 armor. And finally, he will give the Blind ability to the enemy units, having a 15% chance of missing their attacks.

In the frontline position, The Kraken, a powerful monster, curiously has a 4 in all its stats. And it also has 4 abilities, starting with the Taunt ability that forces enemies to attack it , if they are able to. It also demoralizes enemies, reducing their melee attack by -1. If Kraken is not at full health, it will receive a 50% bonus melee attack and speed due to its Enrage ability. And lastly, it has a 50% chance to attack its attacker, if it is a melee attack due to its Retaliate ability.

In the second position, Kelp Initiate, a support card that will remove the negative effects on the friendly unit in the first position each turn. And it will heal the friendly backline unit that has taken the most damage by a third of max health, each turn.

In the third position, Merdaali Guardian, another support card, it will restore one third of the max health of the friendly unit in the first position. And will repair the armor of an ally that has taken the most damage each turn. And finally, it will increase the health of all friendly units by +1.

In the fourth position, Crustacean King, like its friendly ally Merdaali, will restore the health of the frontline unit each turn. And it will give +2 armor to all its friendly units.

In the fifth position, Deeplurker, a sea monster that will attack the enemy monster with the lowest health. Its presence demoralizes enemy melee units, reducing their attack by -1. Aside of that, Deeplurker's attacks have a 50% chance to apply Poison to the enemy target, causing them to lose -2 health at the start of each round.

In the last position, Naga Windmaster, the last ranged unit in the lineup. Reduces the ranged attack of all enemies by -1. It will also destroy the target armor's when it attacks thanks to its Shatter ability. And like its adjacent ally, it also has the Poison ability.

The second player, Bubke, also uses Lir Deepswimmer as his summoner.

His lineup is exactly the same as his opponent, but in different positions. And except for a different monster, which is Baakjira, who is in the second position, it takes reduced damage from magic attacks by 50%. It also reduces the speed of all enemies by -1, and increases the health of its friendly allies by +1. And lastly, it will restore one third of its max health each round.

Note: All monsters can self-resurrect once.

Round 1-3:
Some monsters were damaged but none were defeated in these rounds.

Round 4:
The Kraken (Adonisabril), defeats Bubke's Kraken.
Deeplurker (Bubke) destroys The Kraken (Adonisabril).

Round 5:
The Kraken (Adonisabril), destroys the resurrected Kraken (Bubke) for the second time.

Round 6-10:
Deeplurker (Adonisabril), destroys Merdaali Guardian (Bubke) twice.

Round 11-12:
Deeplurker (Adonisabril), destroys Deeplurker (Bubke) twice.

Round 13-18:
Deeplurker (Adonisabril), destroys Crustacean King(Bubke) twice.

Round 19:
Deeplurker (Adonisabril), destroys Baakjira (Bubke).

Round 20:
The Kraken (Adonisabril), destroys the resurrected Baakjira (Bubke).

Round 21:
Kelp Initiate (Bubke) is destroyed by Deeplurker.

Round 22:
The resurrected Kelp Initiate (Bubke) is destroyed by the Fatigue effect, ending the battle.

Watch on Splinterlands

Both players had a very similar idea. Only with the exception of one monster in their lineup, which decided the outcome of the battle.

This time, Adonisabril's Naga Windmaster helped more than Bubke's Baakjira despite being a legendary card and costing more mana. It didn't make much sense to put Baakjira in the second position, when the main strategy was to defend the Kraken so that it wouldn't be easily defeated. And it only provided -1 speed to the enemies and +1 HP to its allies, which was not enough.

On the other hand, Naga Windmaster destroyed the enemy's armor each time it attacked, which helped a lot, since the Kraken's armor was very important. Due to healers and armor repairs primarily for the Kraken, the battle lasted quite a while, ending in the round 22, with fatigue defeating Kelp, and thus Adonisabril won the battle with all of his units alive.