Aimless Blast
Hello, battle mages!
This is my first entry for the new Splinterlands challenge called Battle Mage Secrets. Replacing the old Battle Challenge in which we focused on a certain monster, the new one is about rulesets and how well(or how poorly) they are used.
Aimless is a ruleset giving the Scattershot ability to all monsters on both teams. It will add a lot of luck to the battle and in my opinion, is a ruleset that can put the underdog at the top if a lucky strike should take out the opponent's key monster. Also, the fact why I like this one so much is because Aimless battles are usually really fun!
I have to admit that to find an Aimless battle good enough to write about I had to do some grinding but I think I finally found one. But first, let's take a look at my strategic plans and the team.
Entering The Arena
Looking at my opponent's battle history I was pretty sure they would go with Life splinter although there was a chance they'd use Death and Thaddius Brood. Life seemed more possible and I based my strategy on that.
Their recently played battles revealed their favorite tank unit being the annoying Shieldbearer who normally will draw fire to itself using the Taunt ability. The funny thing is that since everybody now has a Scattershot ability, Taunt has no effect whatsoever.
A Mana cap of 35 was just optimal giving me the opportunity to choose the exact monsters I want to demonstrate one cool thing. That is to combine the Aimless -ruleset to using the Blast ability. No matter what happens, this should be fun! Let there be magic - let there blast!
My Team
The good old ALRIC STORMIBRINGER! This grumpy-looking geezer has been my favorite summoner since the early days.
He is relatively cheap compared to some of the new summoners costing only 3 mana. His buff is to add a +1 attack to all Water splinter magic monsters.
Even though I have him only on level one which means some of my monster's levels are reduced, I still think that the benefits of the buff are worth it in some cases because there is a variety of great magic monsters on the waterside.
In this battle, I'm going to use his buff to maximize the upcoming Aimless/Blast -damage.
KELP INITIATE falls in the category of "cheap non-attacking monsters that can be sacrificed".
By paying only 2 mana I'm getting 5 health and 5 speed. I'm putting Kelp in the first position hoping it will be able to dodge some of the enemy attacks using the speed it has and therefore winning some time for the rest of the team to do their thing.
Since this is an Aimless battle in which everybody is just firing where ever, I think Kelp might have a pretty good chance to survive this time...
In retrospect, I could've put DJINN OSHANNUS in the tank position and replaced Kelp with an Ice Pixie for example but nevertheless, here he is!
As fast as Kelp but with twice as much health, Oshannus also has a powerful base magic attack of 2. After Alric's buff, he's gonna be a force to reckon with offensively.
In addition to that he can also defend his ground using the Void ability reducing opponents' magic attack damage.
Even though tank units don't play that big part in Aimless -battles, Oshunnus will be a great replacement in case Kelp should fall.
Now, this is really something! Just yesterday I pulled this fellow out of a daily chest and who could be a better guy for a battle with Aimless -ruleset?
You see, RIVERBOAT CAPTAIN has a Blast ability which can be extremely lethal in a battle like this. Imagine him firing random magic shots in the middle of the enemy back-line where they thought they could hide the most vulnerable units!
Thanks to Alric, this captain now has 3 points of magic attack and those adjacent to the target will suffer -2 too!
He is rather slow(Speed 1) but good things always come to those who wait.
I'm really counting on the fact that I'm facing a Life splinter team with lots of ranged monsters so to protect my guys I brought VENARI WAVESMITH with her Protect ability. This will provide +2 Armor to all my units.
Not the healthiest, not the fastest, and not the most dangerous on level 1, Wavesmith can still do some harm thanks to the +1 magic she'll be getting from the summoner buff.
More Blast - more fun!
Even though SCAVO TECHNOMANCERS magic isn't as strong as the Riverboat Captains, he also has the Blast ability to increase my chances to hit the sweet spot - right there in the middle.
Just like the Captain, Technomancer is very slow so we'll have to wait a bit for the fireworks.
DEEPLURKER is this chunky not very attractive fish with a deadly melee attack of 3. It's lacking some speed but can probably take a hit or two with a total of 6 health points.
That is one of the reasons I put it in the last spot - to counter the enemy Sneak attacks. Another reason is the Opportunity ability that will make him target the weak even though I'm not sure how it works with the Aimless -ruleset.
Now you've met the gang so it's time to check out who we are up against!
Opponent Team
As I suspected, my opponent indeed chose the Life splinter with Shieldbearer and his Taunt ability which we will ignore in this battle. However, there still are monsters in their ranks who might be posing a potential threat.
First of all, they have a Time Mage on the squad who has already slowed down my monsters. This will give quite a few of their units an advantage which could be crucial in this kind of battle.
50% of their monsters are ranged units that will gain a +1 attack thanks to the summoner General Sloan.
One of these monsters, Pelacor Arbalest, will attack twice in a round with his Double-strike ability.
And just like us, they are also protected by armor provided by the Truthspeaker. Gladly the only monster who has to deal with that issue is Deeplurker.
That is the enemy and this is the starting point for this epic battle. Now let's close our eyes and fire away!
The Battle Between Two Guys Who Love Boats
I just realized that my opponent has the Lone Boatman in their squad so this is turning out to be a sailor vs. sailor, epic naval fight. To find out which one sunk watch it below or click this link to watch it on Splinterlands, or/and continue reading to my battle report.
ROUND 1
Earlier I mentioned the opponent having a certain advantage because of the Time Mage and the Slow ability. Still, Djinn Oshannus was the fastest on the battlefield, and surprise, surprise he took out the root of all evil - the Time Mage.
Now that their advantage was gone Venari Wavesmith and Deep Lurker got their speed back and the Wavesmiths scattershot immediately destroyed their Pelacor Arbalest. Things were looking pretty good for us.
It was the opponents' turn now and their next two attacks landed on Deeplurker, the last spot monster who took those hits like a fish.
The fish itself managed to reduce the armor of their tank unit and after that, it was the moment I was waiting for - time for my blast monsters to step up. Scavo Technomancer hit exactly where it hurts and destroyed Thruthspeaker reducing armor from the remaining enemy units and hurting both Shieldbearer and Lone Boatman.
Right after that the Riverboat Captain hit Portal Spinner with a devastating blow sending shrapnel into Boatman who in addition to being lonely was now also dead.
ROUND 2
The crazy first round was such a showcase of Aimless -ruleset and Blast-ability combined that it left little to tell the future generations about the second round. Shielbearer was now standing tall and proud only to find out that everyone behind him had evaporated into the thin air.
After three attacks it was Riverboat Captain's honor to send him away too and the battle was over.
Conclusion
My strategy did not only work, it was crushing. Playing with Aimless is such fun and I cannot wait to reach Silver league to get another ruleset and hopefully get to play more aimless battles.
It will be interesting to figure out new tactics with it, how to combine different abilities with Aimless, and how to counter it. For now, monsters with Blast seem pretty damn good with it but abilities such as double strike and magic reflect would also be great. Oh, and surely Trample would do some harm too!
The marine gnome sighed and clucked his tongue. “Didn’t think so.” He leaped back onto the deck. “Ready the cannons! Let’s show these landlubbin’ pirates how it’s done.” Explosions echoed up and down the river and through the surrounding forest as thick smoke erupted from the cannons of both ships. - Riverboat Captain's Lore
Besides really liking the Aimless -ruleset, it kinda introduced me to Riverboat Captain since I found a very good use case for him. Even without the ruleset, I think this monster has earned a place in my Water magic family as a solid option.
Until next time, thank you for reading!
Credits:
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Other pictures are screenshots from Splinterlands
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