BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Weekly Challenge! - Explosive Weaponry Ruleset

Hi Guys! In this post we are exploring on another Splinterlands ruleset. The ruleset we are focusing on is Explosive Weaponry.

In an Explosive Weaponry ruleset, all units gain the Blast ability.

Units with Blast ability will cause damage on the targeted unit as well as immediate surrounding unit to the target. The additional damage to the surrounding units is equivalent to main damage divided by 2, rounded up.

Units with Reflection Shield ability can absorb Blast damage.

Lets take a look at a Guild Brawl Silver match with Explosive Weaponry as one of the ruleset. The battle restrictions are:
Fog of War, Rise of the Commons and Explosive Weaponry with a max mana of just 16 (Original is 15 but I get extra 1 mana for this match due to Home Advantage). All splinters are allowed in this battle. The Video for the Full Battle can be seen here:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_eAGYGfeJi4gAqCkLUtNr&ref=genming

Splinter	Mana Cost	Position	Reason
Tarsa	4	Summoner	The biggest problem I have with the rulesets in the match was the combination of Explosive Weaponry and Rise of the Commons. This combination means I can't use Reflection Shield units like Tide Biter or Venator Kinjo. There are other units with Reflection Shield but they cost way too much mana for this 15 mana match. In the end I decided to go with something new and chose Tarsa for a Fire splinter setup.
Radiated Scorcher	1	1st	Radiated Scorcher was meant to be a cannon fodder. If it can land a hit before it die, the Scatter ability could be a huge plus. However Scorcher is rather slow so chances of it landing a shot was not high.
Venari Heatsmith	3	2nd	Since I can't use any unit with Reflection Shield in this battle, Venari Heatsmith was my next best cheap unit to use for buffering. This is because Venari Heatsmith has a very good armor and health for a 3 mana unit and it also has Void Armor.
Moxian Rebel	4	3rd	Moxian Rebel was added for its Weapon Training ability. It will give +1 magic attack to the non offensive power units that I intended to place at its side. I purposely chose magic attack because it can't be dodged unless the opposing unit has Phase.
Krash Wanderford	4	4th	Krash Wanderford was my main unit in this whole setup and it was placed in the last position. It is a non offensive unit that has very high speed at 7. It also has Swiftness, which gave +1 speed to my team, and Bloodlust. Once this unit starts to get kills, it would be very high to kill it off unless facing a magic attacking lineup. There are 2 reasons why I placed it at the last position. Firstly it has the speed and Thorn ability to guard against sneak attacking units. Second reason was to give it time to get some kills and grew more powerful.
Total Mana:	16

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Opponent Lineup:

My opponent surprisingly went with a Fire lineup as well with a level 2 Jacek as the summoner. Jacek gave +2 speed to my opponent lineup and this looked very bad for me even before the battle started. With my opponent using Jacek, I was at a disadvantage on speed and speed was extremely important in a Explosive Weaponry ruleset.

End of Round 1:

The match started well when my Krash Wanderford killed the opponent's Furious Chicken right off the bat. This gave +1 to all Krash Wanderford's stats thus making it even faster and able to hit harder next round. However that was the only bright spot as the rest of my opponent's lineup was faster and my Radiated Scorcher was killed off easily. In fact, my lineup at the end of round 1 was looking bad as other than Krash, every other units were dying.

End of Round 2:

By the end of Round 2, I had lost all my units except for Krash Wanderford. My opponent, on the other hand, still had 4 units alive. Things looked a bit bleak at this point. Although I knew my Krash Wanderford will gain a kill on the next round, I had no idea if it would be enough.

End of Round 3:

My Krash Wanderford got its 2nd kill this turn and its speed grown to 9. Unfortunately it didn't manage to dodge the 2 ranged attacks and was closed to death by the end of round 3. Luck wasn't on my side thus far.

End of Round 4:

At round 4, my Krash Wanderford got its 3rd kill and its speed grown to 10. It then dodged the attack from my opponent's Sarius, which if hit would had cost me the match. With the miss though I won the match because Krash will killed off my opponent's Lava Spider on the next round and Sarius wouldn't be able to attack at the first position.

End of Round 5:

As expected, Krash got its 4th kill in round 5 and my opponent's last unit Sarius couldn't hit back because it was a ranged unit sitting now in the 1st position.

End of Round 6

Krash Wanderford won the match for me ending with 6 magic attack and 12 speed. To be frank I hardly use this unit but if used right it can be such a beast.

KEY STRATEGY
My strategy was to place Krash Wanderford at the back and grow it into a beast by giving it some magic attack.

OTHER STRATEGIES
The most common strategy to use in an Explosive Weaponry ruleset is to use unit with Reflection Shield. Another very common strategy though is using Martyr units as the buffer unit, if mana allow. This is because Martyr units will die from Blast and in return boost the surrounding units with +1 to their stats.

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.
Our guild link is https://splinterlands.com/?p=guild&id=07ab9325eea386c3570db41f53fd991e78806485&tab=