Magalli's "BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge!"

It's time for another Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge!
This week I will talk about the Briar Patch Battle Rule:

As you can read all the Monsters receive the Thorns Ability:

The Thorns ability is an interesting ability that discourages the use of Melee Attack Monsters because they will take damage back after each successful Attack.

Furthermore, the Riftwatchers expansion has introduced a new ability, the Amplify ability that will increase the efficiency of the Thorns ability:

The first and logical solution to avoid this reflected damage is to avoid using Melee attack Monsters, but there are some exceptions:

Those Monsters with the Reflection Shield ability are able to perform a Melee attack without taking damage back:

So, in theory, those are the best Monsters to use IF there's a need to use Melee attackers Monsters.

To complete the analysis is important to highlight the presence of Monsters with the Amplify ability, an ability that will increase the reflected damage:

So to summarize, in the case of the Briar Patch Battle Rule:

• Avoid using Melee attack Monsters.
• If you have to use Melee attack Monsters, try using Monsters with the Reflection Shield ability.
• If you own Monsters with the Amplify ability consider using them to maximize the reflected damage.

One last note, the Monsters with the Shield ability will take half damage from the Thorns ability because it is physical damage so they could be an excellent "emergency solution":

Now that we explored every Briar Patch's Battle Rule aspects let's see my battle:

Both I and my Opponent chose to go with the Death Summoner Thaddius Brodd that is, considering the available Elements, probably the best choice thanks to its debuff in Health and Magic Attack stats.

My Opponent having a level 4 Summoner was able to use more powerful monsters than me and chose an interesting line-up, a Melee Attacker Tank in the first line with the Void Ability (the Monster takes reduced damage from Magic attacks), another Tank in the second position with the Demoralize Ability (all my Monsters had the Melee Attack reduced by 1), three Ranged Attack Monsters and, in the last position, another Melee Attacker with the Sneak Ability to focus on my last line Monster.

Honestly not a really good choice, because all its Melee Attack Monsters were vulnerable to the Thorns ability.

On the contrary, I chose to use no Melee Attack Monsters relying on three powerful legendary Monsters, two Magic attackers as Tanks (thanks to their ability and Stats), and one amazing Ranged attacker able to hit twice and randomly thanks to its abilities Double Strike and Scattershot:

The Djinn Muriat and the Usut attacks were canceled by my Opponent's Summoner's debuff in Magic attack and by its Tank's Void ability, but Raa was practically unstoppable:

After the first round, while my Opponent's Monsters were damaged by the Thorns ability, my Monsters were pretty safe except my first liner which received practically all the damage.

After the second round, my Opponent's line was decimated while mine was practically untouched, in fact, I won before the end of the third round:

It is important to highlight another Monster in my team the Ravenhood Warden that thanks to its Protect ability gave all my Monsters an important +2 in Armor stat to better resist Physical Attacks:

Excellent new Soulbound Reward card.

Final Considerations: In this battle, the difference has been made by the Monsters' abilities and not by their levels, even if my Opponent was able to deploy higher-level Monsters my better choices lead me to victory. In Splinterlands a good strategy is always rewarded.

Best regards,
Magalli

P.S. my referral link is: https://splinterlands.com?ref=magalli

Posted using Splintertalk