Introduction

This week a deep dive into Oppress. This ability that has gained in usefulness since the weapon training ability is more meta now a days.
Most of the time i do not specifically select oppress unit, but with rebellion adding a lot of weapon training is see them more on the battlefield.

Ability

Oppress does double damage when attacking an enemy that has no attacks or is buffed by weapons training."

Note: 100% Chance of activation upon successful attack

Official ability information from splinterlands: List abilities

Synergies / strategy

Abilities benefits

Weapons Training - If you expect your opponent will be using the weapons training ability you will have some units with no attack therefor Oppress becomes very useful.

Snipe - at times, opponents may place units with no attack in the second position to draw sniping fire. Rebuke these efforts with Oppress!

Ruleset benefits
Target Practice - All ranged and magic attack units have the snipe ability. If your opponent is likely to use a non-attack unit paired with weapons training, oppress will double the damage dealt.

Be aware with these rule sets
/ / Melee Mayhem/Going the Distance/Wands Out - these rulesets disqualify units with no attack, using an oppress unit useless.
So here it is

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Select / favorite

Mine Oppress unit that i own currently:

I have to say for this one i needed to look at my statistics. I did not have a immediately this is my best and most used Oppress unit.
So here are my most use units:

And my best performing Oppress units:

For me this was surprise i did not expect Pyrewatch Devil to appear in the list. In my head there are only two units on the list that i would select based on the Oppress ability and those are : Magi of Chaos and Vampiric Blossom. If i have to choose between them i would go for Magi of Chaos because of the magic attack i use way more often.

Example Battle

Lets have a look at a example battle where the Magi of Chaos shines

Strategy

With this battle melee units can attack from everywhere sometime is want to the opposite and select magic instead of strong melee unit that normally only attack in the front position. Its a medium mana cap battle so some strong magic unit will appear on the battle field.

Rulesets

Melee Mayhem:
All melee unit can attack from any position. Note that taunt still controls where they will attack first.

Tis but Scratches:
Every unit will gain the cripple ability. Meaning every attack will reduce the max health by 1. With this be more careful with choosing healing units, but often the damage that is done is more so you still can heal up a unit.

The Lineup

Summoner

Card	Reason
	As stated i want to go for all magic play so every unit get boosted with +1 magic

Units Lineup

#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

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Regal Peryton (lvl 8)
I expect my opponent will choose melee unit that first will go after my taunt unit.
It will do 4 magic damage

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Magi of Chaos (lvl 6)
Another strong damage dealing unit. In this case the oppress might be useful if my opponent uses a non attacking unit or in the second position a non attacking unit that is boosted by weapons training. a strategy is see more often these days.

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Queen Mycelia (lvl 4)
Heal my backline taunt unit to keep it alive. Also when melee units are used the extra 2 armor is good to have.

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Spirit Hoarder (lvl 4)
Second backline healer try to out heal the damage, ignore the cripple is a bit of risk

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Djinn Biljka (lvl 4)
Another strong unit 🤞 my opponent does not use any blast units then its quickly dead but afte my taunt unit is killed it has camouflage to protect himself

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Mycelic Slipspawn (lvl 8)
Important unit in this strategy. most of my unit are pretty squishy so this needs to be kept alive for long enough by my healers. so the other can do there massive damage.

The Battle

Reference

Link to the battle:
Link to battle

Rounds

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Start :

Analyze the battlefield. Nice to se a non attacker unit and the front unit is quickly dead with my magic play. I assume my opponent thoughted it would face melee unit only. This it the reason for sometimes choose something differently
My opponent also expected that i played a sneak unit so he protected its back with a thorn and heal unit. that unit will still be attacking because of the melee mayhem but is not that dangerous anymore.

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Round 1:

My unit where so slow that i attacked last which killed my Mycelic Slipspawn before it could be healed at all. That is a mistake from my side. Forgot about the speed.

The the Magi of Chaose came and did 10 damage to the Riftwing instant kill nice...

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Round 2:

Also I got some weak units left but my opponent has only one unit left that will be killed 11 damage that i will do next round.

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Round 3:

There it is vicotry.

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Conclusion

This battle shows how powerful an Oppress unit can be against a non attacking unit. Still its a bit of gamble because you are never 100% sure that you opponent will choose a non attack unit. Therefor i will often not only select this unit because of the Oppress but also the other abilities and Oppress is the bonus.

Also nice about this battle is that sometime do something different then expected many players expect melee units with the rule set melee mayhem. Therefor in this battle i choose magic.

Previous ability strategy posts

Below you will find references to the other ability strategies / analysis posts.

Ability	post
Affliction	Ability post: Affliction
Amplify	Ability post: Amplify
Backfire	Ability post: Backfire
Blast	Ability post: Blast
Blind	Ability post: Blind
Bloodlust	Ability post: Bloodlust
Camouflage	Ability post: Camouflage
Conscript	Ability post: Conscript
Close Range	Ability post: Close Range
Cleanse	Ability post: Cleanse
Cripple	Ability post: Cripple
Deathblow	Ability post: Deathblow
Demoralize	Ability post: Demoralize
Dispel	Ability post: Dispel
Divine Shield	Ability post: Divine Shield
Dodge	Ability post: Dodge
Double Strike	Ability post: Double Strike
Enrage	Ability post: Enrage
Flying	Ability post: Flying
Forcefield	Ability post: Forcefield
Fury	Ability post: Fury
Giant Killer	Ability post: Giant Killer
Halving	Ability post: Halving
Headwinds	Ability post: Headwinds
Heal	Ability post: Heal
Tank Heal	Ability post: Tank Heal
Immunity	Ability post: Immunity
Inspire	Ability post: Ispire
Knock Out	Ability post: Knock Out
Last Stand	Ability post: Last Stand
Life Leech	Ability post: Life leech
Magic Reflect	Ability post: Magic Reflect
Martyr	Ability post: Martyr
Opportunity	Ability post: Opportunity
Oppress

That's all for this week hope you enjoyed reading this ability strategy/analysis. See you all on the battlefield.

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