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Ahoy, it is time for my latest Battle Mage Secrets post.

This week the featured ruleset is Going the Distance. When this ruleset is active ONLY Monsters with Ranged attack can be used in battle. So having some Monsters with high Armour stats and/or the Shield ability can be really good. Options to reduce your opponents Ranged damage is also really great. You could also opt for the Return Fire ability to reflect some of that Ranged damage back to your opponents. A way to deal with your opponent having Return Fire could be to bring a Monster with the Triage ability to heal your backline.

You can recognise the ruleset with this icon.

The battle I'm sharing is from the Tidalring Modern Novice Invitational Tournament. Against the player schach.

Here is a picture of our initial lineup.

Battle Rules

This battle had a 48 Mana Cap. The Fire, Water, Death and Dragon Elements were available to choose. The battle had 3 rulesets which were:

• Fire & Regret: All Monsters have the Return Fire ability.
• Going the Distance: Only Monsters with Ranged attack may be used in battles.
• Are You Not Entertained?: One additional Gladiator card may be used in battles.

Here is a link to the battle if you want to check it out: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_oBQoVsguiQvXlq0wCC6n&ref=athunderstruck

Battle Lineup

Earlier I mentioned that you could try to go with the Return Fire ability to reflect some of your opponent's damage back to them. Well in battle's case we had it as a ruleset where all Monsters get the Return Fire ability xD Quite the combination with Return Fire and then only being able to pick Ranged attackers xD

I decided to use Lily Shieldpaw as my Summoner to have the Triage ability from my Summoner. Since Water is available I'll combine it with Wave Brood to redirect damage to my backline as the Triage would then heal the Wave Brood.

Up front I brought Drybone Raider because she has Melee+Ranged attack and is thus allowed here with her Dual attack typing included Ranged. She also has Double Strike so two Melee hits.

Then I have Venari Marksrat, which I hope will eventually die from Return Fire to be able to give a Martyr buff to Drybone Raider and possibly to Tatiana Blayde.

I just mentioned Tatiana Blayde, who is next in my lineup. We were able to bring a Gladiator so I brought her to have some Ranged damage and when Drybone Raider goes down she could deal some Melee damage in her place.

Then I have Runic Skyclaw with high Speed, Flying and also some Armour to use for quickly dealing extra damage to my opponent's Backline through her Snipe ability. Hoping to combine that with the Return Fire to get some of the Backline taken out quickly.

With Wave Brood at the end of my lineup for the Taunt ability and trying to heal it with Triage I was now left with almost no Mana. Still enough to sneak in Naga Assassin though with some high Speed, hoping that her 1 Ranged attack could help make a difference.

Battle Analysis

Ah it seems my opponent chose to use Conquerer Jacek. That could be a bit annoying for me! He gives his whole team the Scattershot ability, meaning that they will just target my Monsters randomly. Rendering my Taunt from Wave Brood completely useless! At least I still have the Triage ability!

My opponent brought Ranged damage reduction from the Headwinds ability on Ash Mirage.

Every Monster has the Return Fire ability from the ruleset, so I guess I'll just briefly mention that they take damage when they attack without always saying that it is because of Return Fire.

Round 1

The battle starts with Runic Skyclaw dealing 2 damage to Firecaller and losing 1 Armor.
Ash Mirage attacks my Wavebrood for 2 damage and taking 1 damage.
Tatiana Blayde attacks Ash Golem for 1 damage and taking 1 damage.
Lava Launcher attacks and kills my Venari Marksrat and loses 2 Armor.
Venari Marskrat triggers its Martyr ability. Giving +1 Melee, +1 Ranged, +1 Speed and +1 Health to my Drybone Raider and Tatiana Blayde, and also giving +1 Armor to my Drybone Raider.
Naga Assassin attacks Ash Golem for 1 damage and taking 1 damage.
Tinderlock takes away 3 Armor from my Drybone Raider and takes 2 damage.
Drybone Raider attacks Ash Golem 2 times with 3 Melee damage each for 6 damage because of Double Strike.
Ash Golem destroys Drybone Raider's Armor and takes 1 damage which causes it to die.
My opponents Venari Marksrat hits Drybone Raider for 1 damage and takes 1.
Wavebrood attacks Firecaller for 1 damage and takes 1.

That's the end of the first round. Here a picture of our current lineups. Which includes the end/start of round Triage from Lily Shieldpaw to my Wavebrood.

Round 2

Tatiana Blayde can go first now because the Martyr put her Speed to 6. She uses that opportunity to kill the Firecaller, while taking 1 damage. That kill triggers her Bloodlust ability giving her another +1 Ranged, +1 Melee, +1 Speed and +1 Health.
Killing my opponent's Firecaller triggered its Martyr ability giving +1 Ranged, +1 Speed, +1 Armor and +1 Health to their Lava Launcher.
This extra Speed causes Lava Launcher to attack next, dealing 4 damage to my Drybone Barbarian and losing 2 of its Armor.
Runic Skyclaw deals 2 damage to Ash Mirage and loses 1 of her Armor.
Ash Mirage attacks Drybone Raider for 2 damage and taking 1 damage.
Naga Assassin hits against the Lava Launcher's Armor dropping it by 1 and she takes 1 damage.
Tinderlock attacks my Wavebrood for 3 damage and takes 2.
Drybone Raider attacks and destroys the Armour on Lava Launcher. Then she tries to do a 2nd Melee attack against it with her Double Strike ability, but she misses!
Venari Marksrat tries to attack my Tatiana Blayde but it misses.
Wavebrood tries to attack Lava Launcher but also misses.

That's the end of the 2nd round. Here is a picture of our lineups now.

Round 3

Tatiana Blayde attacks Lava Launcher for 3 damage and takes 2 damage.
Lava Launcher attacks and kills Drybone Raider, taking 2 damage from the Return Fire.
Runic Skyclaw attacks and kills Ash Mirage, taking 1 damage to her Armor which breaks her Armor.
Now the Headwinds ability is gone from my opponent's team. Which lets my Tatiana Blayde and Runic Skyclaw gain 1 Ranged attack back.
Naga Assassin kills the Lava Launcher, but gets trapped in the Lava as the 1 damage she takes from Return Fire also kills her.
Tinderlock attacks Wavebrood for 3 damage and takes 2 damage.
Wavebrood kills Venari Marskrat while taking 1 damage back.
Venari Marksrat triggers its Martyr ability giving +1 Ranged, +1 Speed and +1 Health to Tinderlock.
Tinderlock now being the last one standing on my opponent's team triggers its Last Stand ability, going to 6 Ranged attack, 8 Speed and 8 Health.

Right at the end of the round too! So let's see how that plays out next round. Meanwhile here is a picture of our lineups.

Round 4

Well that Last Stand actually causes Tinderlock to be faster than Tatiana Blayde unfortunately for me. As I really wanted to see Tatiana Blayde kick some ass here!
Instead Tinderlock goes first and since he now has 6 Ranged attack instead of 3 he instantly kills Tatiana Blayde, while taking 3 damage back from Return Fire.
Runic Skyclaw can't do anything now that she is in the first position.
Wavebrood tries to attack Tinderlock but misses.

That's the end of that round!

Round 5

Tinderlock manages to hit my Runic Skyclaw, he did not care for her Flying ability at all. Hitting her means instant death as she had 6 Health and well the Tinderlock has 6 Ranged attack. He does take 3 damage from Return Fire while doing this so he's now down to 2 Health.
Wavebrood got mad to see Runic Skyclaw die and against all odds (well 30% chance to hit), it damaged Tinderlock for 1 damage taking 1 damage back.

Well that is the end here though. As Tinderlock will damage Wavebrood for 6 damage which will leave Wavebrood alive. While Tinderlock will suffer 3 damage from Return Fire and thus killing itself on trying to kill my Wavebrood. GG!

Was My Strategy Successful?

Well my Strategy didn't completely turn out as I had hoped. Because I used a combo of Lily Shieldpaw and Wavebrood to redirect damage and get Wavebrood healed every turn from Triage. My opponent used Conqueror Jacek though and that Scattershot ability he gives to all Monsters on his team rendered my Wavebrood useless.

All in all the Triage did still help because of it Wavebrood was mostly at full Health when he came into first position. Leaving him with enough Health to survive a direct hit from Tinderlock and watching the Tinderlock kill itself in the process because of the Return Fire ability.

Bringing Drybone Raider was a great idea for the Double Strike Melee attack damage.

Conclusion

Just like Drybone Raider it was fun to bring Tatiana Blayde. Only downside is that when Tinderlock went into Last Stand he ended up having 1 Speed more than her so she didn't get to enjoy attacking the Tinderlock.
Earlier in fight my opponent's Venari Marksrat tried to hit Tatiana Blayde but missed. If it didn't end up missing then Tatiana Blayde would've gained a Bloodlust because it would've died from her Return Fire and then she'd have the extra Speed to be able to go first. So it's a bit too bad that didn't happen xP Since I won though it's all good.

A pretty fun matchup here with the Return Fire and Ranged attackers only! Also a good team comp from my opponent, as you can see it was a pretty close game. GG!

That's it for my Battle Mage Secrets challenge this week. Thank you for reading!

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