Battle Mage Secrets - 14 Misses On This Common Card!

The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Counterspell ruleset this time! This means all units receive the magic reflect ability at the start of the battle. Enemy units that attack with magic receive damage back. It's not always easy to get the specific ruleset, but if you play hard enough, you definitely can find one! This time I was lucky enough to have one - woohoo!

So here's the interesting battle that I encountered.

Anyway, I thought it would be still be interesting to introduce some useful cards and show how their strengths can be maximised especially with a particular ruleset. In this post, the featured card is a Death Common card, Pelacor Deceiver! And I have been using the Gold Foil version!

To be honest, Death has many strong tanks, including the recent likes of Harklaw and Cursed Windeku. It was tough for Pelacor Deceiver to find a place in any type of Death setup... But then came along, Astral Entity and Venari Marksrat. These two cards managed to complement Pelacor Deceiver very well, allowing him to be boosted 4 Melee damage, 6 Speed and 10 HP for a Gold Foil Level 3 copy. With Dodge (from Astral Entity) and his own Flying ability, that makes it extremely hard to hit. As such, these 3 cards are one of the best 14 mana teams!

As usual, here's the lore for Pelacor Deceiver for your reading interest:

Many centuries ago, the Pelacor followed the prophet, Edalus, on what has become known as the ‘Exile.’ They followed him into the Mountains of Fire surrounding Mount Praetorous. For generations they lived alone in these mountains, hidden away. They were taught to worship the sun and moon gods, Solaki and Lunaki, deities dreamt into existence from the bones of Edalus’ dead parents and his zealous mind. The scriptures read that the two Gods were carried into the heavens upon pieces of consecrated land, torn from the World to raise them high, so that their worshipers would always look up to them and forever be beneath their great heavenly power.

On the darkest night of each year, Edalus would invoke rituals that would change the bodies of his people. Drawing upon the dormant power beneath the mountains, he caused angelic wings to sprout from their backs. This change was permanent and, in fact, most Pelacor offspring inherited the appendages from their parents.

When Edalus finally passed away, ancient as he was, there was infighting between the people as to who should lead. Fractures in their harmonious way of life started to appear, and two very definitive factions arose. One worshiped the brother God, Solaki, and the other worshiped the sister God, Lunaki. So began the ‘War of the Sons and Daughters’, where Pelacor fought against one another, a rivalry that still continues to this day amongst some.

When the magic veil over Praetoria and the Mountains of Fire fell, and the Chaos Legions invaded, the Pelacor decided they could hide away no more. Believing that the Chaos Legion would turn upon their floating Gods next if they conquered the Splinterlands, they began their ‘Great Descent’ into the lowlands, determined to fight this new threat that had arrived upon their world, and joined with the Lowlanders armies.

---

Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

Astral Entity is the perfect summoner for this ruleset combination because with Counterspell, Magic cards are unlikely to appear and this allows Astral Entity lineups to take advantage of the Dodge ability. With Rebirth in play, Astral Entity's Resurrect ability allows for 1 more extra resurrection.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Venari Marksrat	3

Venari Marksrat takes the tank position, with the aim of capitalising on triple Martyr boosts from Rebirth and Resurrect, and potentially boosting the adjacent card 3 times.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Pelacor Deceiver	5

The card to be potentially boosted by Martyr 3 times would be Pelacor Deceiver. Pelacor Deceiver is an extremely strong when partnered by Astral Entity, because of his 4 speed and Flying ability. Adding on Dodge ability, this makes him extremely hard to hit.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Corpse Fiend	0

Corpse Fiend comes in as a filler card in this low mana battle, which is extremely important for this Rebirth battle, because it helps cards with Scavenge ability.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Riftwing	4

No Rebirth battle would be complete without Riftwing. With cards going down twice, Riftwing's Scavenge ability takes full advantage of these additional HP. Even 1 additional HP coming from Astral Entity's Resurrect.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Venari Bonesmith	4

Oh dear a Magic card? I wanted to mix it up a little here, and given Venari Bonesmith had Life Leech, the Counterspell will just offset the Life Leech and there's no suicidal damage.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Ravenhood Warden	4

Ravenhood Warden has Protect ability, which boost the entire team with extra Armor. With Counterspell ruleset in play, the extra 2 armor would be extremely handy.

---

• Pre Battle: When the lineups showed up, I wasn't sure I could win this because there were just too many Sneak cards and my opponent also opted for the Venari Marksrat tank strategy as well. One thing for certain, my plan for the triple Martyr boost won't materialise.
  

• Rounds 1-2: This battle is going to be extremely long so let's go 2 rounds at one go! My backline was badly hunted and all 6 cards remained on the board thanks to Rebirth.
  

• Rounds 3-4: I think both teams were stuck because our tanks were Venari Marksrat but after 4 long rounds, there was some progress. I managed to take out the opposing Venari Marksrat. Nothing much changed with the main beneficiary being Riftwing, busy clocking all the Scavenge HP.
  

• Rounds 5-6: I quickly found myself in trouble after 6 rounds, with just 3 cards left while my opponent maintained 5 cards. All eyes on Pelacor Deceiver, who received double Martyr boosts and clocked 1 miss this time.
  

• Rounds 7-8: Pelacor Deceiver delivered 2 x 4 Melee damage in these two rounds with accuracy and received 3 misses. It's still 3 cards vs 5 cards and I only have 1 attacker, while my opponent has 4.
  

• Rounds 9-10: The lone Pelacor Deceiver clocked another miss, making it to a total of 4 misses received. It was a session of huff and puff and it had to take out the opposing tank twice. Down to 3 cards vs 4, but my Riftwing is fighting for its life.
  

• Rounds 11-12: Pelacor Deceiver clocked its 5th miss of the battle but Riftwing has gone down. With just 4 HP, another big hit would be costly.
  

• Rounds 13-14: The opposing cards all missed Pelacor Deceiver, making it a total of 8 misses now! Pelacor Deceiver continues to deliver to 4 Melee damage per round and it was brute force going through this battle with Rebirth.
  

• Rounds 15-16: Another 4 misses on Pelacor Deceiver for these two rounds by the opposing Tenyii Striker and Uraeus. 12 misses in total now! Suddenly, there is some hope!
  

• Rounds 17-18: The opposing Tenyii Striker goes down and another 2 misses by the opposing Uraeus on Pelacor Deceiver! The miss counter reaches 14!
  

• Rounds 19-20: And we were done! 14 misses on Pelacor Deceiver in total!
  

If you are interested to watch the battle, you can find it here.

---

Post Battle

Did my strategy work? I was always confident of the trio combination, Astral Entity, Venari Marksrat and Pelacor Deceiver. But I didn't expect the battle to go to 20 rounds!!! My strategy didn't go according to plan, with my backline absorbing the additional Resurrect, but we had enough defensively to outlast the opponent. The protection of armor, and the scavenging from Riftwing, all held the backline for longer than expected. And I guess that's the beauty of the gameplay in Splinterlands - it's so unexpected and fun at the same time!

What's the Battle Mage Secret? Pelacor Deceiver has re-established himself as one of the strong tanks in the Bronze and Silver leagues.

So that's all I have! What are your takeaways from this battle? Feel free to comment below, as I am always keen to learn and improve!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

---

If you are interested to sign up to play Splinterlands, my referral link is here.