Battle Mage Secrets Weekly challenge... and a giveaway

Another week in the Splinterlands realm! Been trying to get my deck out of silver league in modern, and finally in silver I. I do find it odd how, after more than one month, I'll still battling mainly full maxed decks in this league; I would assume most of them would have gone way up, right? Oh well, I'll keep battling, and recently managed to face an opponent in this week's ruleset prompt for the weekly challenge:

Funny ruleset, this one: all monsters loose sneak, snipe and opportunity abilities; only scattershot works. This means unless scattershot is used, all attacks will fall down on the tank!

So this gives us a few options: one of them, is to rely on heavy scattershot to try and clear the opposite team, that might use weaker monsters in the backline with this ruleset. One of my favourite summoners is a must with this strategy: Conqueror Jacekw, the fire summoner that gives scattershot to all ranged and magic cards. Yes, randomness and luck play a heavier role here, but it's still a fun strategy nevertheless.

The other option is to use buffed tanks, that can take a lot of damage; abilities like void, shield, void armor are very useful here. Apart from a heavy tank, focusing on cards that can buff the tank help greatly, such as cards with protect ability, tank heal, or cleanse.

One tip that can help if you go for this second option: use a card with taunt! That will divert some of the damage from the tank, and can buy precious time for your damage dealers to do their job; add triage to help keep the taunt alive as well!

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Apart from this ruleset, the battle I chose had another peculiarity: very low mana cap!

Another ruleset in the battle, and funnily is one of the counters to the fog of war ruleset: all cards had scattershot ability!

With this mana cap, two options: choose more cards with low mana, that normally are weaker but together can do the most damage possible; or go with fewer, but stronger cards! And in this battle, me and my opponent chose opposite strategies!

My strategy and lineup:

• Kelya as the summoner: speed and shield come very handy in a battle that is likely to be short
• Diemonshark as tank: good melee attacker with retaliate and enrage; the 8 mana means it would be the only damage dealer in my team, but I hoped the strong attack would be enough, especially because of another skill: trample!
• Torrent fiend: only as a damage soak; given all cards had scattershot, I was hoping some would target the fiend, sparing my tank

My opponent went for the opposite strategy: Quix as the summoner, fiend in first position to soak damage, and then three more cards: pelacor conjurer, an awesome low mana tank, 2 mana but 8 HP; naga assassin, with speed; and venari crystalsmith, that provided tank heal and a decent ranged damage.

At first glance, I though I would lose this one: I had no heals, and should all cards hit my tank it would be 5 damage per round.

Trample was a sure bet here, and in the first round the fiend was eliminated and the trample allowed the diemonshark to hit the pelacor, clearing the divine shield.

My opponent cleared my tank's shield, but fortunately my fiend did its part and attracted some of the attacks.

And mid round 3, one of the ranged attacks triggers enrage, giving my shark 6 damage... which was what was left in the pelacor! The killed triggered trample, that cleared the naga, leaving a ranged attacked in tank position, hopeless: a win for me!

You can check the whole battle here!

I do consider myself lucky: in these battles, luck plays a big part, and my opponent's strategy was solid: a couple of misses or better luck in the scattershot, and the battle could easily go the other way.

What is you favourite in this ruleset? Buffy tank, or scattershot mayhem? Let me know!

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By the way, if you haven't joined a guild yet and you're a dedicated player, our guild Roaring Twenties is at level 10! If you're thinking about joining in, you can check the info on the guild page, or reach us on discord here to discuss membership!

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So, and who won this week's card?

Congratulations @steven-patrick! The Bramble Pixie is going your way!

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For this next giveaway, the card that will be switching hands is...

The Pelacor Arbalest!

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Rules:

No upvote, follow or resteem required. Just comment! Or even better, tag a fellow player! Winner will be randomly chosen at post payout; good luck everyone!

Still haven't joined Splinterlands? In what planet do you live in? Click the banner below and join the fun! (It has my referral link; you can go directly to the website if you don't want to use it; either way... join in! 😎 )