HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to yet another week of the "new" iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges 😜.

For any old Hivers/Splinterland players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.

In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets, the ability to have great movements on the battlefield is the key to victory. Mobility has always been the forefront of war tactics and the enemy who is able to out manoeuvre his opponent will usually have a great advantage.

No matter! I present to you the ruleset — MANEUVERS 🏃🏻‍♂️🏃🏻‍♂️🏃🏻‍♂️

The game's description of MANEUVERS is as follows: "Units with melee attacks gain Reach."

This is a ruleset which adds an extra dimension to the game. Melee units which are usually only useful if they are in the frontline suddenly get the ability to also attack from the 2nd position. This turns them into very deadly DPS-ers.

Needless to say, we can definitely expect an increased chance of melee units, at least in the 2nd slot. We should prepare our Summoner/Unit choices accordingly. Clearly, anti physical type abilities will come in useful here. Armour also becomes a good stat to think about for the main tank. 😁

I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 1 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with MANEUVERS. Introducing the Summoner, ILTHAIN.

Pledged into service by the Silver Shield, Ilthain was a warrior trained in the martial arts. She spent her days working in communities and helping those less fortunate. At night, however, she acted on behalf of the Silver Shield to rid the land of the corrupt, using her unique abilities to bring peace to Khymeria by purging it of its lawless rebels. She became so well known among the people that when she passed on, thousands of mourners followed her body as it was carried to the Peace of Light Monastery and entombed within a great mausoleum.

From Splinterlands Lore on ILTHAIN

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Ilthain is an Epic card released during the Riftwatchers expansion. It has definitely found it's place in many Life decks given its availability and usefulness. It's effects on the battlefield are 🏃🏻+1 SPEED🏃🏻 and it grants the 🪞RETURN FIRE🪞 ability to all your units. It's summoning cost is, like all other Riftwatchers Epic Summoners, 4 🧪MANA🧪.

The stat buffs it gives are nothing out of the ordinary, so at first glance, she might look pretty bland. It would seem that in terms of firepower, this summoner does almost nothing to boost your team. However, in a defensive game, all her abilities combined makes this Summoner one of the strongest in the game!

All your units get a very useful speed boost with this summoner. But what makes her extra dangerous is when ranged units line up against her. With the RETURN FIRE ability, every single shot gets reflected back to their attackers and the tables will very quickly turn against your opponent. With Ilthain's ability to dominate against ranged units, she adds an unmatched level of battlefield control in the game.

This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱

⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset MANEUVERS was in effect.My opponent used the Chaos Legion Summoner General Sloan from the LIFE splinter as his main pick, while I used Ilthain from the LIFE splinter. 👼🏻 VS 👼🏻

This was going to be interesting. A clash of battles between the same splinters. Civil war amongst the forces of Light? The power of a Ranged Summoner against the Anti Range!

At first glance, it would seem like both of us were pretty evenly matched.

• We were both similarly levelled summoners.

• our unit levels were likewise similar.

• Our unit type choices were also pretty similar, with the both of us utilising a mix of melee, ranged and magic units. 🤯🤯

• Talk about a a fair fight. This battle would be determined on really fine margins indeed 🤣.

I was honestly expecting this to be a really even battle with losses on both sides 😜🤣. Who on earth would expect me to even inflict a total crushing defeat? Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.

I would say that the ruleset MANEUVERS was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.

This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

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LINK TO MY FIGHT

👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

1st CARD SLOT

The Shieldbearer is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats and the TAUNT ability allowing him to draw all attacks towards him. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.

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2nd CARD SLOT

The Corsair Bosun takes up the second slot. With his REACH ability, he is able to inflict his massive amount of damage even as a melee unit from this position. His REFLECTION SHIELD will also offer him added protection. With his high armour, he can easily take the place of the main tank as a backup tank too.

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3rd CARD SLOT

Adelade Brightwing occupies this slot. Her main role here will be her REPAIR ability keeping up the tank's armour. She also does pretty decent Magic DPS.

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4th CARD SLOT

Runemancer Atuat takes the 4th slot. He is a really tanky Magic DPS unit who is able to both deal and dish out damage. However, the main reason he is here is for his HEADWINDS ability. This reduces the ranged attack damage of all enemy units.

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5th CARD SLOT

The Pelacor Arbalest occupies this slot right behind the team. With his DOUBLE STRIKE, he is able to dish out a massive amount of ranged damage against any unit unfortunate enough to be targeted.

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6th CARD SLOT

The Disintegrator occupies the last slot. Although it is a melee unit, I've placed it right behind here to protect against any possible SNEAK attack units. More importantly, it's DEMORALIZE ability will reduce all Melee damage by the opponent.

I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉

⚔️🛡️Battle Action Report🛡️⚔️

As you can see, both of us fielded very similar units in our matchup. Both of us basically went for a mix of Melee, Magic and Ranged based attacks. We both used the Life splinter too! 😱

👼🏻LIFE👼🏻 VS 👼🏻LIFE👼🏻

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My opponent used the Shieldbearer as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his great tanking stats and the TAUNT ability, he makes a perfect tank.

The Luminous Eagle occupied his 2nd slot. With it's REACH ability allowing it to deal damage from that position, and its FLYING ability and stats making it a decent backup tank, this is another good choice.

This was followed by the Time Mage whose main purpose was probably to give the entire team a speed boost.

The rest of his team was rounded off with 3 ranged DPS-ers.

My choice of the Main Tank was ALSO the Shieldbearer who is perfect for this task. He has great tanking stats and the TAUNT ability to ensure that all the other units are protected.

Unlike my opponent though, I used the Corsair Bosun in my 2nd slot. He also has the REACH ability and decent armour to play the backup tank role.

Our support unit choices also differed in the 3rd slot where I went for Adelade's Brightwing REPAIR ability.

Unlike my opponent's heavier Ranged DPS focused team, I went for only 1 ranged unit in the form of the Pelacor Arbalest (which the opponent used too). Runemancer Atuat would be another Magic DPS and ranged attack debuffer on my team and the Disintegrator would provide the anti melee debuff in the last slot.

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The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a pretty high mana game with 52 mana as the limit. The rulesets were WEAK MAGIC and SPREADING FURY.

• The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks on both our Shieldbearer tanks who drew all the damage to themselves with their TAUNT ability. The difference was that while my Shieldbearer was taking damage from half his team, he was ALSO REFLECTING it back thanks to Iltahin's RETURN FIRE ability! 😱

• My choice of defensive units with their damage debuff units and REPAIR ability gave me the edge in survival as the opponent's Main Tank fell in the 1st round while mine was still standing. 💪

• Round 2 saw his backup tank, the Luminous Eagle, fall. Although my Shieldbearer was also taken out by the opponent's Pelacor Arbalest, he took him down together with him via RETURN FIRE. With nothing to protect him now, his unprotected Time Mage was also taken out.

• The game was wildly in my favour by now as the opponent seemed to be inflicting more damage on himself with every attack his units did. 😈

• It was all over for the opponent now I eventually mopped up his remaining units. 💀💀💀

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the MANEUVERS ruleset to give me a slight advantage. Individually, on their own, my units would face a huge disadvantage against an enemy which was higher levelled than me. However, thanks to the added potency of my attacks, I was able to turn the tide of battle! The opponent simply could not handle all that at all.

Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

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I definitely can appreciate the ruleset MANEUVERS and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those rulesets which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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