Battle Mage Secrets Weekly challenge... and a giveaway

Another week has passed, which means one more giveaway... and one more weekly challenge! It was getting hard to find a battle with this week's prompt, but finally appeared. Maybe it's just randomness, but it's not one of the more common rulesets for me, for sure! Here it is:

With this ruleset, only ranged cards can be used. And unlike last week's prompt, this one drastically changes our options and there's a ton of possible strategies to consider:

• using summoners that provide shield and cards with shield have an advantage, as well as cards/summoners with repair ability
• piercing ability is a good counter to shields
• cards with double attack types, such as melee/ranged or magic/ranged can be used, providing more options
• choosing cards that can attack from the frontline are also very important, since most ranged attackers can't attack in the first position

Considering all this, there are quite a few good options and strategies to use here, depending on the available splinters: a fun ruleset! And in my chosen battle, two more rulesets came along:

The two more rulesets were fabfour - only 4 cards could be used; and holy protection - all cards have the divine shield ability.

The divine shield would make all cards immune to the first attack, and the fabfour ruleset in a game with high mana (41) would allow me to use more high mana cards.

My strategy and lineup:

• Conqueror Jacekw as the summoner: the scattershot could help in case the opponent had a taunt card, and the piercing ability would help a lot in a ruleset where shields have a big advantage, given there are no magic attacks
• Tinderlock as tank: a high mana high health card, that can attack from first position; used it here mainly for the high HP
• Lava Launcher: big ranged hitter with 5 attack, and a lot of shield; here in second position because it ccann perfectly fit the tank position after tinderlock falls, and the scattershot combined with the piercing and stun could be handy in clearing some of the backline cards.
• Molten Ash Golem: slow card, but decent attack and high HP, with the added bonus of being also able to attack from tank position
• Countess Sinash: my main damage dealer, tucked in last position. The blast ability is very handy to clear the divine shields in first round, and the 4 ranged piercing blast attack was bound to make a lot of damage.

My opponent chose another great summoner for this ruleset, Kelya: extra speed and shield to all cards! And in first position, a melee/ranged card, war chaang. Naga windmaster in second position had headwinds, debuffing my entire team; next, the crustacean king provided extra shield to all cards and tank heal, while the backline card, swamp spitter, had repair to keep those shields up; a very good strategy, but in disadvantage here given the lower level of the summoner and cards compared to mine.

At the beginning of round two, my countess causes affliction on my opponent's tank, preventing heals, while also damaging the naga. At this time, my tank already had really low health. And shortly after, he was gone:

But lava launcher took its place, and shortly after tank was destroyed, and naga followed.

From there, only with crustacean king and the spitter, it was a nearly sure win, especially since all my remaining three cards were almost at full strength.

And mid round four, only swamp spitter remained, a helpless target in first position. You can see the full battle here!

I've seen a ton of very creative strategies with this ruleset, such as using possibilus as the summoner and using a double ranged/melee card to strike from second position; it's one of the cool things in Splinterlands, there is plenty of room for imagination!

Do you have a favourite strategy in this ruleset? 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 @mxm0unite, two in a row! The Gem Meteor is going your way!

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

The Chaos Orc!

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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!

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