Greetings, battle mages!

I was really struggling to find a battle in this week's Splinterlands Battle Mage Secrets challenge. I had a couple of Counterspell fights but they weren't that interesting(read: I lost). I was already giving up and preparing to wait for the next one until my activity in Brawls saved me!

Entering The Arena

I was just casually browsing the market when a pop-up notification appeared on the screen telling me I was attacked by the opponent. I had already entered my teams to 8 brawls and obviously didn't remember what kind of strategy I had chosen for this one, nor did I remember the rulesets.

The first thing I saw was the opponent summoner which to my shock was Ilthain against my General Sloan. Shocked because Sloan indicates that I had probably chosen a lot of ranged monsters and Ilthain will give her monsters the Return Fire meaning that every time the enemy units are hit with ranged attacks they'll return fire automatically.

Still, there were many factors affecting the outcome so this was far from over.

Next, I was shown the line-ups of both teams and before pressing play I checked out the opponent monsters, analyzed my choices, and tried to figure out the effects of the three rulesets:

The Mana Cap was 55 so even though there was only one playable splinter, Life, there were plenty of monsters for both teams to choose from. In the opponent ranks there were a couple of unfamiliar ones to me.

The first one I've never met(or paid attention to) was CORSAIR BOSUN, a quite strong melee monster with Reach and Reflection Shield abilities.

This looks like a good choice for a Counterspell battle since the opponent, like me, will probably avoid using magic monsters so the strong armor(5) comes in handy.

HUGO STRONGSWORD is a gladiator unit with Bloodlust and Shield. Another great choice for Counterspell battle - has good armor and is also protected by the Shield ability.

In normal circumstances, these two would be pretty hard to knock down but gladly, there are noxious fumes in the arena.

My Team

As for my team, I certainly didn't expect to face Ilthain so I went all in with ranged attack power boosted by GENERAL SLOANS +1 buff.

My choice for the tank unit was URIEL THE PURIFIER mainly because of his health(10) and armor(6). These two stats would help him to take some damage caused by the opponent as well as the fumes. His Flying ability and speed(3) could perhaps help him to dodge some of the attacks too.

HERO OF THE BEYOND was placed behind Uriel to serve as a backup tank if Uriel should fall. He can still operate in the first spot because of Close Range ability. More than that, he has a good amount of health(8) and armor(2) - both good stats in Counterspell & Fumes battle.

EVANGELIST was chosen to bring some heavy firepower having a ranged attack of 3 and when boosted by the summoner buff, makes her a true offensive threat.

In a short period of time, WAR PEGASUS has become one of my favorite Life splinter monsters. It's very fast(4) and hard to hit cos of its Flying ability. The best thing about this card is the Shatter ability that I use to break the armor of the opponent tank clearing the way for other ranged units.

Just like Evangelist, PRISMOLOGIST will also offer some heavy firepower with her ranged attack. Using the Blast ability she will also send ricochets toward adjacent monsters. A very good ability to remove Divine Shields for example.

However, Prismologist wasn't probably the greatest choice for the Fumes battle because her health is only 4 meaning she'll be around for only two rounds. By choosing her I was probably betting that the battle would be over before that.

So, my choices were probably not that great considering the opponents' summoner buff and the rulesets but I think I made one good choice - an excellent choice in fact!

GELATINOUS CUBE is a Beta set monster that I owned multiple copies of and just recently decided to upgrade to level 3.

I put the Cube in the last spot to face the possible opponent Sneak monsters. It has a good amount of health(10) to take an attack or two and suffer from the fumes too.

In Fumes battles the casualties are piling up pretty fast and this is a good thing for the Cube - because of its Scavanger ability it'll gain +1 health each time a monster dies on the battlefield. I was counting on that ability to make the Cube gain health more than he loses from attacks and fumes.

The Battle

To find out how it ended up click here or/and continue reading the highlights!

ROUND 1

As I suspected, it was suffering heavily from the Ilthains Return Fire buff. While my backline took some major hits because of the buff, meanwhile I managed to do some Counterspell damage to their Captain Katie who was the only magic monster on the battlefield.

ROUND 2

Their tank unit which had suffered quite a lot in the first round, was the first casualty as the fumes kicked in. Corsair Bosun was now on the front line and got his armor shattered by War Pegasus. Captain Katie and Hero Of Beyond destroyed each other using counterattacks while a ricochet of Blast killed my Evangelist. They were soon followed by Corsair Bosun.

The Cube couldn't be happier.

ROUNDS 3 - 5

The fumes killed even more monsters from both sides and the Cube was now huge having 15 health points. Uriel The Purifier didn't have enough time to recharge before the fumes got him too.

The lonely Hugo Strongsword was now in the tank position. Before suffocating to death from the fumes, the last thing he saw was the overgrown Gelatinous Cube. Soon Hugo would be reunited with his friends inside the Cube.

Conclusion

Before and during this battle my feelings went from disbelief to the joy of victory. Leaving out the magic monsters was obviously a good choice and while I was sure I was gonna lose when I saw I was matched against Ilthain, I managed to turn this one around by making a game-winning pick - The Cube.

This actually thought me a lot. I shouldn't be afraid of the most powerful summoners when a single, unexpected, monster can prove to be even more powerful when "the stars are aligned", meaning I have taken full advantage of the rulesets, abilities, and buffs.

My opponent was perhaps focusing too much on the Counterspell ruleset and by disregarding the Fumes, they made a fatal mistake. While the effects of Counterspell can be lethal, the Fumes respect no one. Except for the ones with Immunity.

Thank you for reading!

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Credits:

Thumbnail background image made with Canva
Other pictures are screenshots from Splinterlands
Links LeoGlossary: Splinterglossary