Hello there, this is my entry to the new "Battle Mage Secret Weekly Challenge!". If you want to participate or know more about the challenge, click here. There are still a few days left to enter this challenge. This week we have to formulate a strategy with the Counterspell ruleset.
RULESET: Counterspell
With the Counterspell ruleset, all monsters receive the Magic Reflect ability at the start of the battle. Enemy monsters that attack with magic receive damage back.
The Damage returned is equal to the damage of the attacker divided by 2, rounded up. Also, the amplify ability will increase this damage.
The Counterspell ruleset is very simple and easy to understand as all monsters which deal magic attacks will take half the damage back, rounded up. This makes the mages counterproductive in this ruleset and they should not be used here.
Also, placing a monster with Amplify ability in your lineup will increase the damage dealt but generally, all players stay away from mages during this ruleset so adding a monster with Amplify ability won't be effective anymore.
Let's see how this ability affects my lineup and how I strategies for the following battle. But first, let's focus on my lineup in detail.
My Lineup
This is my lineup for the battle
This was only a 13-mana cap battle but had 3 interesting rulesets:
Counterspell - All Monsters have the Magic Reflect ability.
Equalizer - The initial Health of all Monsters is equal to that of the Monster on either team with the highest base Health.
Armored Up - All Monsters have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.
Only earth and life element were active in this battle. This made the battle very restrictive and using only 13 mana is a challenge in itself.
I used the Mylor Crowling as my summoner which gave Thorns ability to all my monsters. Now only the ranged attackers were safe for my opponent.
I used the *Mycelic Morphoid as my tank. Although it only costs 1 mana and deals 1 melee damage, I used it to take the advantage of Equalizer ruleset which would increase the health of this monster so I get a good deal with just 1 mana and conserving my mana in this 13 mana battle was very important. It also came with the thorns ability which will be given by my summoner anyway.
In the next place, I used the Fungus Fiend, it was a zero-cost unit and worked perfectly for this low mana cap battle. I didn't expect much from this and it couldn't attack from the second position due to being a melee attacker but I used it as a way to slow down my opponent's attack rather than adding more attack power to my lineup.
Next was the Halfing Alchemist. This is another efficient unit costing just 2 mana and even having its own armour. It also comes with an interesting ability called Halving which reduces its target's attack in half.
In the fourth position, I used the Uraeus. It was a powerful melee attacker capable of attacking monsters from the back of the enemy lineup as it has the Sneak ability. It comes with an armour of its own as well. I was not worried about their health as it was going to be increased anyways due to the Equalizer ruleset.
Chaos Agent came next in my lineup. It was another cheap unit costing just 1 mana. I used this at the end of the lineup to protect myself from sneak attacks.
Last but not least was the Djinn Biljka, I know it is a magic attacker and I said you should not use magic attackers with Counterspell ruleset. But look at one of its abilities, Void. This ability reduces the magic damage taken by 1 so the return damage won't be effective unless the opponent used a monster with Amplify ability which should increase the damage.
Now that my lineup was set let's talk about my strategy for this game.
My Strategy
It was just a 13 mana cap battle but the Equalizer ruleset helped me and I tried to use the maximum units as I should not be caring about their health and just focusing on attacks.
I used the Mylor Crowling and it made the battle more restrictive for my opponent as now using both Melee and Magic attackers will be punished. Also, having only two active elements should make it worse for my opponent.
I was able to fill all 6 spots with just 13 mana and this was an important part of my strategy.
I will share my battle here, which I have uploaded to YouTube. Battle Link
Round 1
My opponent took the bullet and went with a heavy magic attack. It was a huge risk but I can understand what went into their mind. They must be thinking that they can overpower me with heavy magic damage and the returned damage will take much more time while they can wipe out my entire lineup. Well, it was a plan but a very risky plan.
It didn't work and the worse thing is they used a melee attacker as their tank which would now take thorns damage as well. What a nightmare for my opponent. Somehow everyone survived the first round.
Round 2
Round 2 was a nightmare for my opponent as well. Their plan did not go as they expected. However, they manage to take down one of my 6 units but their tank was also gone now and it looked bad for them. By the end of this unit, they had only 2 units with low while I had the entire army ready to attack.
Round 3
Round 3 was a lost cause and all of us knew what is going to be the result. They didn't last long in front of the entire army. It went all bad right from the start when they grossly evaluated the whole situation and used mages and melee attackers and got eliminated mostly by the returned damage. This gave me an easy win at the end.
Conclusion
I will be honest and say that Counterspell is one of my least favourite rulesets of mine. I love to use the mages and I can't use most of them if I get Counterspell. However, you can still use a few with Void abilities if you plan well and that will surprise your opponent.
Everyone should focus on all three attacks type and not stick with anyone and get predictable. If you become predictable then you won't last long in Splinteralands, just mix it up and learn to use every attack time effectively. This ruleset makes me want to learn more strategies without using magic attackers. It is a great learning opportunity for me.
Splinterlands is a popular NFT-based play2earn game. If you have not joined the game yet, then you are missing a lot of fun. You can join by using my referal link.
Note:
- Text dividers are from freeztag.
- The banner is from @splinterlands
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