I just had an interesting low-ish mana battle victory with a no melee monsters rule set, in which I play Contessa and death and my opponent played Dragon (Carla) and Death.
I may have the names wrong, but I'm sure you know which summoners I mean!
I agonised a little over playing four ranged attacks, it felt like too many, but it worked.
My only other options with Death were magic cards, but they all felt too vulnerable against reflect.
As it turns out my opponent played some of the cards I deselected - I'd thought about The Cube, but ruled him out because of vulnerability to ranged attacks, and I'd thought about Screaming Banshee, but I'd ruled that out because of vulnerability to reflect, with low health.
Turns out I was right - my opponent's Cube fell to my ranged attacks pretty quickly, thanks to affliction sticking in R1, and my opponent's magic attacks tore themselves apart on reflect.
And Contessa - handy -1 to ranged too!
Quite a nice combination for this rule set and low mana - Contessa and death with lots of ranged!