Greeting Battlemages!

This week, we will have a look at the nemesis of Magic monsters: Counterspell!

The ruleset: Counterspell

The Counterspell ruleset gives the Reflection ability to all monsters. That means that all magic attacks will be returned with damages. Magic attackers will take half the damages they inflicted (rounded up).

The obvious way to play around Counterspell is to avoid all magic monsters altogether. But it's not that simple.
Monsters with Void can mitigate or even negate the magical reflection. Djinn Oshannus is a good example. In that case, having a monster using magical damage gives an edge by passing through the Armor.
Also, with sufficient healing, a magical team (with Obsidian for example) can be powerful enough to laugh at the Reflection and destroy any Melee/Ranged team that focused on Armor.

The battle

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_ypEnAoAit5oqyIEwTiq8&ref=engilhramn

The battle is played at the Daratrix Modern Bronze Beginner Training. Well, I guess it says it all! Bronze league level, Modern set: Untamed and Chaos Legion cards.
It is opened to Water, Earth, Life, Death and Dragon. It's mana cap is 43 and the rulesets are:
Wands Out: only Magic monsters allowed
Counterspell: all units have the Reflection ability
Target Practice: all units have the Snipe ability

Tricky one, right? No problem, I'm tricky too!

The lineup

So what to do?
Usually I like Djinn Oshannus with the Counterspell ruleset: his Void allows to negate the effect of Counterspell. Nothing better for an ennemy anticipating melee and loading on Armor. But Kelya Frendul gives not much benefits with Wands Out.

So I went with...

Summoner: Bortus! 1 Malus for ennemies Magic attacks, that will makes the Djinn almost invincible!

First position: Magi of Chaos, not so tanky, Nerissa Tridawn would have been better here, but well, in the moment you know, mistakes can be made...
Second position: Djinn Oshannus! That will be a nice Snipe target with his Void!
Third position: Spirit Hoarder, he won't live long because of the Reflection, but he will heal the backline for sure!
Fourth position: Nerissa Tridawn, the magical damage dealer of Water
Fifth position: Water Caller, she's so Stunning, and might always be useful!
Last position: Venari Wavesmith, because well, there was a free spot

My opponent went with an Earth team and picked:

Summoner: Lobb Lowland, oh no, do you see her coming?
First position: Regal Peryton
Second position: Scavo Technomancer, well, Explosion doesn't go well with Reflection
Third position: Queen Mycelia
Fourth position: Runemancer Florre, with Magic and Ranged attacks
Last position: Quora Towershead, damn it: Melee and Magic attacks, and Heal! She wins matches by her alone...

Round 1

The first round went as planned: the enemy units targeting the Djinn Oshannus, only to hurt themselves with the Reflection, and my Djinn staying unhurt!
So far so good and already two ennemy monsters left the field: Scavo Technomancer and Queen Mycelia. Only remain at the back the two "beasts", and what beasts!

Round 2

So the first to be sniped is Runemancer Florre. She's weakened slowly but surely, but most of all, the ennemy'a attacks are rendered ineffective against the Djinn's Void. Brilliant! On top of that, Regal Peryton also leaves the battlefield!

Round 3

Did you notice the detail on the capture above that is game changing? Yeah, Quora has been stunned! No healing for you, Miss!
Both Magi of Chaos and Runemancer Florre are killed, and it will be decided between Quora against all my team.
Wait, what! Bloodlust! Spirit Hoarder is down! And the Reflection still triggers the Bloodlust, oh that's bad!
Bloodlust again! Bye bye Venari Wavesmith!
Hopefully, Water Caller still manages to Stun Quora again!

Round 4

I'm glad Quora is stunned. I don't want to find out if her Healing was enough to flip the game. Oshannus and Nerissa will kindly dispose of her now.

Takeaway

So, how did I win? With luck? Yeah, I guess so... Quora is so powerful, I was lucky she was stunned twice in a row.

But you also saw that monsters with Void give a real advantage in these conditions.

For me, the biggest lesson though is the reminder that Reflection/Thorns can trigger Bloodlust. Now imagine the match above, with Quora in second position and a Spirit Hoarder behind to ensure her healing... That would have snowballed out of control very quickly...

That being said, see you on the battlefield!