Hello there.

Today I'll share my battle under the Briar Patch ruleset. But first, I will share some of my thoughts regarding it. With this ruleset, all monsters have the Thorns ability. When a monster with the Thorns ability gets hit by a Melee type attack, 2 physical damage is dealt back to the attacker. The Thorns damage is ignored by monsters with the Reflection Shield ability, and is enhanced to 3 damage with the Amplify ability. Since it is a physical type of damage, the Shield ability halves it, and it damages armor. The Thorns ability also triggers from the Armored Strike attack.

I made this meme in https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

Comparing Thorns to Magic Reflect and Return Fire, I think it is a bit unfair that it can only deal 2 damage, instead of the scaling damage of the other two. I guess Melee already has a lot of disadvantages so it evens out. But because of this low damage, Thorns isn't that big of a deterrent to using Melee monsters in this ruleset. In fact, monsters with Enrage can take advantage of this to activate their Enrage while still in the back line.

Melee Gladiator monsters also aren't hampered by this ruleset. If they have armor, getting a kill will let them refresh their armor, and pretty much ignore the Thorns damage. But of course, most players will try to avoid the damage altogether and just use either Ranged or Magic monsters. In the end, the other rulesets will help determine what type of strategy one should use and expect.

Without further ado, let's get into the battle.

The Ruleset

This was a tournament battle, so it was a Bronze battle with Briar Patch, Close Range, and Ferocity Rulesets. A 25 mana battle is on the normal amount, and only the Life element is available. I can think of different strategies so I will try to counter as much as I can.

Because of Close Range and Briar Patch, a Sloan team with a lot of Range monsters is obviously a strong option. That would have been the end of it, if it wasn't for the existence of Ilthain which has Return Fire, and counters Sloan. This dynamic was definitely a headscratcher when Ilthain was released. It actually reminded me of the Alric and Bortus interaction. Franz Ruffmane is the third expected option, and it has a lot of good Gladiator cards to choose from. Marisol can be good against Sloan because of its speed. Katie can be good against Ilthain, and Ajax Lightfoot is a cheap gladiator that can take advantage of Close Range.

The Lineup

For me, the three summoners are like Rock, Paper, Scissors. Sloan beats Franz, Franz beats Ilthain, and Ilthain beats Sloan. The Close Range ruleset makes Sloan very powerful, but since this is a tournament, I expect my opponent to have Ilthain and will probably use that. I'm going to take a risk by trying to counter their counter, and use a Franz + Katie team. I add Albahoo Forester to at least still have a Return Fire, and just have a lot of support monsters to try and make my Katie stronger, while also buying time.

I made this meme in https://imgflip.com/memegenerator

The Battle

Link to the Battle

---

The Matchup

I called it correctly. My opponent decided to go with an Ilthain team. An Epic monster at level 2 enables the use of Rare monsters up to level 3. They had Pelacor Conjurer as the front tank, they have a Corsair Bosun that has Reflection Shield at the second position. They then used two 2 heal monsters, Meriput Magician and Venari Crystalsmith. Their team is definitely trying to counter a Sloan setup with all that sustain.

---

End of Round 1

It wasn't perfect, but so far so good. My Marksrat missed its attack but I am dealing good damage to the back line. Albahoo surviving is buying a lot of time, and their Venari Crystalsmith is already close to dying, while my team is still full HP.

---

End of Round 2

Katie wasn't able to kill the Crystalsmith and get a Bloodlust stack since it died from the Return Fire. This is why Franz can be good against Ilthain. The +1 armor can prevent a good amount of damage from the enemy and buy so much time. Katie on the other hand is wasting no time targeting the backline.

---

End of Round 3

My Crystalsmith finally landed a hit against the opponent's Conjurer. It is also just in time, since it lowered the HP down to 4, which is the lethal damage that Katie can deal. Their Bosun is still healthy, but with a minimum of three attacks before it can face my Katie, this battle is over.

---

End of the Battle

I will have to say that I was surprised that I countered their team perfectly. They had a slightly greed team that consisted of two healers which was perfect if I was going front to back. But since I used a Snipe monster, I was able to go around their strategy completely. I find it rather funny that my Marksrat was never able to hit any of its attack.

The Result

---

Conclusion

In tournaments where there are additional limitations on top of the Rulesets and banned elements, I try to make it a point to look at the possible teams and imagine them fighting against one another. I will then choose the team which I think is best. For this specific battle, my opponent used a team composition that I was ready for. I honestly think they had a great team, but I just countered it and won the battle easily.