Welcome back to our Weekly Battle Mage Secrets!
This week, we are featuring the Holy Protection ruleset.

Holy Protection:

• All units gain the Divine Shield ability which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0.
• Divine Shield will be re-applied when a unit is Resurrected.
• Blast damage will remove Divine Shield.

Holy Protection, or the Lorna Shine ruleset is a strong one to have but the ruleset itself levels out the playing field since both parties are able to take advantage of it. Please also note though that the ability does not stack so if you bring a Lorna Shine to this ruleset expecting double the Divine Shield, you'll be in for a disappointing match so avoid it completely.

Synergies
Resurrect	This is one of the best abilities you can use to synergize with Holy Protection. Every time a unit gets resurrected, the ability returns as well. Having a resurrect build can prolong the longevity of your units.
Void Armor	In line with the Divine Shield / Resurrect combo, adding in a Void Armor will increase durability of your units even further. Remember, when resurrected, unit's health is reset to 1 so having Void Armor lets you tank more hits after the Divine Shield is used up.
Heal / Triage	The topper for this whole synergy list is a heal - whether tank heal or self heal, as well as Triage. It becomes a nasty combination to use that can increase how long you survive and outlast your opponents.

Counters
Blast	One way to counter Holy Protection is to get rid of it as fast as possible. Blast helps immensely with that as it spreads the damage around so you can break the Divine Shields on multiple units potentially per turn.
Snipe	In line with the blast ability, if you can include a Snipe in there, you can target the backline and remove the shield early, too. No blast is still ok because you still take out the backline faster.
Taunt	Taunt rounds us out for counters. Having a Taunt protects your units for a longer time provided your tank can soak up all the damage. Having to tank that has Divine Shield to help mitigate first hit damage is also very helpful.

This week's feature is from a tournament match in Diamond League. Rulesets are as follows:

• Tis but Scratches
• Holy Protection
• Close Range

This one is unfortunately a low mana match so we'll have to make adjustments as most of the items in our synergy/counter list are unavailable.

Round 1

I opted to go with a life leech and heavy hitter back line with a Crypt Beetle tank with the Shield ability. I do have a double Poison combo which could be a game changer.

Enemy opted for the Cursed Windeku Thorns/Heal combo which is usually very potent in low level matches. They also added in a max level Dr. Blight which is very scary due to Poison and Scavanger on top of that.

Round 2

I get lucky with a first hit Poison proc on the Windeku so that at least increase my chances of getting it out the way but that pesky Heal is causing issues.

Round 3

I'm able to down the Windeku with just enough damage and Poison damage to remove it while also getting my own Crypt Beetle removed. The next problem is going to be the Dr. Blight with the extra health but if I get a Poison tick in, it might be all I need.

Round 4

I did get a Poison tick in but the 4 damage of the Soul Strangler is more than enough to make quick work of the Dr. Blight. Round 4 isn't needed anymore but since we have Divine Shield on, it tanked one more hit and got us to round 4.

Results

GG! This was a bit scary when I initially started because the Cursed Windeku / Dr. Blight combo is very potent and luckily I had enough damage to get through them all.

That's it for this one and see you next week!

Full battle here.

Images provided by Splinterlands in game and via Weekly Battle Mage Challenge post.

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