Welcome back to our Weekly Battle Mage Secrets!
This week, we are featuring the Keep Your Distance ruleset.

Keep Your Distance:

• Units with melee attacks may not be used.

• Use Phase, Void, Void Armor, and Magic Reflect to counter magic attacks.
  Use Headwinds and Return Fire to counter ranged attacks.
  Units with 2 types of attack (which include melee) cannot be used.

Keep Your Distance is the Opposite of the Melee only ruleset but this ruleset allows the use of those with no attacks which can be a game changer in your matches. Synergies and counters are partially covered and suggested but let's dig in a little deeper at what other synergies and counters we can potentially use.

Synergies
Piercing	Piercing synergizes well because there will be a good chance your opponent uses armor related buffs so regardless if you use ranged or magic, you'll still go through he armor and deal good damage.
Scattershot	Scattershot is a good one to have if you can insert it. There aren't a lot of Sneak and Opportunity monsters that are ranged or magic so there is a high likelihood that some glass canons will be introduced in the opposing lineup. Scattershot can potentially deal with them early but do take note of the randomness of it.
Blast	Blast is also a very strong addition if you can have it. Extra damage would be ideal and not a lot of non melee monsters have reflect shield. Getting that extra damage in will help you get a win faster.

Counters
Slow	Slow can be quite underrated but it can be a big difference maker in these types of games. There is a tendency that only a few monsters have higher HP. If you can get all your hits in before the opponent starts theirs, you can potentially kill a few before they even get a chance.
Rust	We mentioned earlier that there is a high likelihood for opponents to use Armor related abilities like Protect and Void Armor. Having Rust in your lineup will make it easier for you to bypass their armor completely and deal straight damage.
Amplify	The description mentions counters like Return Fire and Magic Reflect. If you can insert an amplify in your lineup, you'll be dealing a lot of extra damage and can sway the match in your favor.

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

• Keep Your Distance
• Lost Legendaries
• Noxious Fumes

This one is a bit hard due to the Noxious Fumes ruleset and there aren't a lot of cleanse or Immune monsters out there.

Round 1

Enemy opted to go with a Tarsa with the Scavo Chemist to have Slow, Headwinds, and Cleanse. It's a good triple threat and tanked by a Chaos Agent with Dodge, Phase and Backfire. Just this header alone is strong enough. I opted to go with the Gelatinous Cube as my tank for Scavenger, Heal and Void which makes it a very reliable front line.

Round 2

Round 2 has me at a deficit as my Earth Elemental takes a tumble due to the snipe and poison damage. Opponent still has room for 2 rounds of damage in before succumbing to poison.

Round 3

Round 3 begins after all poison ticks hit and I'm down to just my Gelatinous Cube. It's now a race of damage vs my heal.

Round 5

As mentioned earlier, enemies only had 2 rounds of damage in and they all go down due to poison. Scavo Chemist is the land man - er, Chemist standing and it's a 1v1 but I have heal on my side so that's a wrap.

Results

GG! I mentioned that monsters with no damage can be included in this ruleset and can potentially make or break the match and that is exactly what happened in this one. Can't underestimate no attack monsters like Gelatinous Cube and Almo Cambio as they bring a lot of utility and versatility in matches like these.

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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