BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! - Going the Distance Ruleset

Hi Guys! In this post we are exploring on another Splinterlands ruleset. The ruleset we are focusing on is Going the Distance.

In a Going the Distance ruleset, only units with ranged attacks can be deployed. Headwinds and Close Range are two very important ability to use in this ruleset.

Lets take a look at a Wild Silver ranked match with Going the Distance as one of the ruleset. The battle restrictions are:
Going the Distance and Tis But Scratches with a max mana of 53. Only Fire, Water and Earth splinters were allowed in this battle. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_77e7f6a7c0858107b1732e25ef993661&ref=genming

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Eternan Brune	6	Summoner	As I don't have the Earth summoner, Fernheart, I narrowed down to just Fire and Water summoner in this battle. If I used Kelya as the summoner I would go with Swamp Spitter as the repair. I however decided to go with the fire summoner, Eternan Brune instead as Eternan would removed -2 armor from opposing lineup and thus neutralizing Kelya's +1 armor bonus. With a fire team I can also deployed Ash Mirage, which has the Headwinds ability that will reduced all opposing ranged damage by 1. This ability was extremely important as Going the Distance ruleset means we can only used ranged damaging units.
Molten Ash Golem	6	1st	Molten Ash Golem was my tank simply because it has Close Range ability and a high health. Close Range allowed my Molten Ash Golem to be able to attack from the first position.
Lava Launcher	9	2nd	Lava Launcher was my second tank and also major offensive unit. It has Close Range as well with good armor and high ranged attack.
Ash Mirage	7	3rd	I placed Ash Mirage at the third position behind my two tanks. Hopefully my two tanks can hold the line throughout the battle.
Supply Runner	6	4th	I added Supply Runner here in the lineup for its Swiftness ability. Being able to move first was important to me in this match as I wanted to hit the enemy first before getting hit. If my opponent went with Keyla, I would faced a speed disadvantage so I need all the speed I can get.
Countess Sinash	8	5th	Countess Sinash was here for the Swiftness ability as well. Countess Sinash also has Opportunity and can pick out weaker opposing units at the back.
Tinderlock	10	6th	Tinderlock has Close Range ability as well but I placed it in the last position because of its Last Stand ability. In case the worse happened and Tinderlock is the last unit standing, it will get a 50% boost to all its stats.
Total Mana:	52

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Opponent Lineup:

My opponent, not surprisingly, went with a Water splinter with Kelya as the summoner and of course Swamp Spitter was also in the lineup. Supply Runner was also in my opponent team meaning my opponent had a lot of speed in the lineup.

Another important thing to note here was there were two units in my opponent lineup with Double Strike ability. Double Strike ability would works well in this match because of the Tis But Scratches ruleset. Tis But Scratches gave Cripple ability to all units in the match. Units with Double Strike and Cripple would thus be able to cripple enemy unit two times per round!

End of Round 1:

Round started with me reducing all enemy ranged attack by 1. This was huge as it greatly reduced the amount of damage my tank would faced. This was followed up with me throwing all my attack on the opponent's Wave Brood, which was a second tank with Taunt. My team managed to kill off the Wave Brood right near the end but my first tank was also dying due to the numerous attack it was facing.

End of Round 2:

I immediately lost my first tank at the start of Round 2. Thankfully my focus on speed paid off and my Lava Launcher was abled to kill off my opponent's Drybone Raider before it can launched its double attack. I was also abled to kill off my opponent Supply Runner in this turn and that further slowed down my opponent. However my second tank was dying as well and so was my Ash Mirage.

End of Round 3:

Speed was what won me this round. I quickly killed off the enemy Swamp Spitter before it can even repair its own armor. The opposing Sea Stalker also missed its attack which would otherwise have kill my Ash Mirage. I then killed off the opposing Axemaster and now my opponent had no unit it can attack as the Sea Stalker can't hit from the first position.

End of Round 4:

I won the match in round 4 fairly easy. To be frank I thought my opponent lineup was very well planned. There was definitely more thoughts given to the other ruleset than what I put in. In fact my entire thought was focus on Going the Distance ruleset and kinda forgotten about the Tis But Scratches ruleset.

KEY STRATEGY
My strategy was to use my Kraken to draw all the enemy attacks and use healers and repairer to keep my Kraken alive. The strategy worked like a charm as the opponent didn't have enough firepower to break down my lineup.

SUMMARY
Close Range and Headwinds are probably the two most important abilities to look at when it comes to Going the Distance ruleset. You really want your team to be still able to hit from first position while taking as little damage as possible.

Another possible strategy which I sometimes used was to put a Martyr unit at the first position and then put Drybone Raider in the second position. This way my Drybone Raider's stats would get boosted the moment the Martyr unit died. And since Drybone Raider has melee attack as well as range, it can still dishes out damage in the first position with its now boosted melee attack.

To any new players who wish to explore the world of Splinterlands, do feel free to sign up with my REFERRAL LINK 😊.

My guild, The Guild of Kingshaven, is also actively looking for new members. The guild is currently battling in tier 3 and is able to get very decent SPS and Merits from brawl competition. If you are able to fight at least in Silver and above league and is committed to do your brawl battles, do feel free to apply or contact me direct.
Our guild link is https://splinterlands.com/?p=guild&id=07ab9325eea386c3570db41f53fd991e78806485&tab=