Target Practice: Showdown of Snipers

Greetings, battle mages!

I am eagerly waiting for the end of the Splinterlands season with my 40 chests already collected. Before we get to open those and enjoy all the rewards we still have some battling to do. This week Battle Mage Secrets challenge is featuring the Target Practice ruleset.

This means that all the ranged and magic units are provided with the Snipe ability. Monsters with Snipe will now be targeting ranged, magic or passive units who are not in the first position.

In addition to that, in this example battle we also have the Armored Up ruleset meaning every monster will have 2 armour points added to their stats.

To be totally honest, it took me some time to figure out how the Snipe ability works and how to play the ruleset with everyone now having it. So, let's find out what kind of a team I managed to put together to tackle this challenge!

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My Team

ALRIC STORMBRINGER is my go-to summoner in so many different scenarios but he is a definite choice for Armored Up battles. As the armour of the enemy is boosted, there's no point in banging our heads against it if we can penetrate that with magic! That's where Alric's only summoner buff, the +1 magic boost comes in handy.

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Some time ago I bought this gold foil CRUEL SETHROPOD as I noticed I was clearly missing a low-mana small tank unit.

Not sure how cruel he is but Sethropod can be dangerous with its +2 melee attack. Costing only three mana points, it brings in some value with 3 armour and 4 health points.

Hopefully, those defensive stats will be enough. The good thing is that because of the Target Practice ruleset, some of the pressure is directed elsewhere and the Cruel Sethropod might just hold its position.

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Since everyone has the Snipe ability these days I thought it would be a good idea to bring along VENARI MARKSRAT.

Even though he doesn't bring that much offensive value to our team, his strength lies elsewhere. As there's an increased chance of attacks now landing on other monsters than the one in the first spot, I decided to use that to my advantage.

So if and when the Marksrat takes that fatal blow, it will activate his Martyr ability which will increase all stats of adjacent monsters. That will include Cruel Sethropod(if it is still alive) and the one I'm going to introduce next...

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RIVERBOAT CAPTAIN is a very important piece of my offensive strategy.

Even on level 2, this magic monster has pretty impressive stats. His attack will be obviously boosted by Alric making him a formidable foe even without his ability.

Blast ability is especially dangerous in a battle with Armored Up and Target Practice rulesets:

• It will ignore armour and send shrapnels to adjacent monsters
• Because of Target Practice and Snipe, the Riverboat Captain won't be targeting the tank unit but another one in the middle. This will add another target monster who will suffer from shrapnels. And yes, these too will ignore armour.

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ICE PIXIE is a fragile little creature and one magic hit can easily take her out.

However, she now has some extra protection against melee and ranged attacks because of the Armored Up ruleset. She will also benefit from her speed(3) and Flying ability.

In this battle, I placed Ice Pixie in the middle where she can perform her attacks from a relatively safe place.

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SPIRIT HOARDER is a healer unit but he won't be healing the monster but instead some other creature who has taken the most damage - this includes himself.

A monster with Triage is in my opinion an excellent choice for a Target Practice battle since the pressure to the tank unit is off and other monsters are more in danger.

Just like Ice Pixie, Spirit Hoarder is a little weak when it comes to health and that's why I have surrounded him with other, less important units.

Speaking of those, TORRENT FIEND is merely here to fill an empty spot and I'm not counting on its contribution that much.

Still, it could offer some protection to Spirit Hoarder by giving its own life in a case enemy should have Sneak monsters.

There you have it, planned to perfection. Now let's take a look at what we are up against!

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Entering The Arena

Just like me, my opponent chose to enter this battle with Water Splinter and Alric as a summoner. Among their squad, there are a couple of passive monsters with Kelp Initiative there to mitigate the Snipe effects.

They have also awaked the Spineback Turtle, an ancient tank monster with Thorns ability and plenty of armour and health. To our fortune, it doesn't pose that much of an offensive strength.

Musa Saline on the other can be a problem. In addition to Scavenger ability, this monster has also the Shatter ability which could pave way to their Pirate Captain.

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The Battle

So, we are up against a fellow Alric Stormbringer and their interesting line-up including both old and new friends.

As always, you can watch the whole battle HERE or/and continue to read my exciting battle report below to find out if my strategy worked.

ROUND 1

Right at the start of the first round, they did the very thing I was secretly hoping for - destroyed Venari Marksrat. This triggered the Martyr ability which boosted the stats of Sethropod and Riverboat Captain.

Now it was our turn. With a little help from Ice Pixie, Riverboat Captain unleashed his powerful Blast attack toward the Kelp Initiative. Already weakened Kelp was toast, and the Chicken got roasted too. The only side effect of this devastating attack was that their Musa Saline now grew stronger.

ROUND 2

In the second round, Musa Saline was indeed in a vengeful mood and not only damaged the Riverboat Captain but also shattered his armour to pieces. However, the Captain was still alive and wasted Musa while also causing some additional damage to those next to him.

Ice Pixie then destroyed their Venari Wavesmith but that deed was immediately paid back as Pirate Captain killed our Captain in the famous duel of The Two Captain's Showdown.

ROUNDS 3 & 4

Ice Pixie who had been on fire for this whole battle strikes first and removes the Pirate Captain. It was now only the Spineback Turtle versus our remaining four monsters.

Even though the Turtle managed to do some damage with Thorns and its basic attack, the game was set. Cruel Sethropod survived, as did the Torrent Fiend who had been just following this battle from the sidelines. It was now Ice Pixie's job to finish this once and for all.

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Conclusion

I believe my strategy worked almost exactly how it was supposed to. There could be many takeaways from this battle but the two I'd like to mention are the strategic use of Martyr and Blast ability.

A monster with Martyr can be placed between the first and the second monster as you can count on them attacking there. This will obviously maximize the effect in comparison to the Martyr monster being in the first or the last spot.

If this is a defensive measure, then the use of Blast is an offensive one. A monster with that ability will also attack the second spot monster causing maximum damage. If you wish to protect against this, you could use a monster like Venator Kinjo who has the Reflection shield preventing him from taking Blast damage while also protecting the adjacent monsters.

Thank you for reading, until next week!