The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Maneuvers ruleset this time! This means units with melee attacks gain Reach. Armored Strike is a melee attack. Sneak and opportunity override reach.

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 Epic Death card, Trapp Falloway!

Even at Level 1, Trapp Falloway is already a very strong and usable card. With 4 Melee damage, getting Bloodlust is very easy, and it rules the Little League fights like a king. The only issue with this card is the squishy HP which isn't a problem if the Bloodlust chalks up quickly. That said, one card to be wary of would be Cursed Windeku within the same element, or any tank with Thorns, because that would hurt Trapp Falloway really badly.

As usual, here's the lore for Trapp Falloway for your reading interest:

The small and weaselly creature called Trapp Falloway never looks as though he fits in among the Gladiators of Mount Mox, but time and again he proves everyone wrong. Trapp was delivered to Praetoria on a cargo ship from the Dark Eternal city of Galzur and though he is not a Dark Eternal himself, he fights alongside the warriors of the Death element. He cannot be trusted. Many times he has been thought dead upon the rocky ground, only to jump to life and plunge a concealed knife into an enemy's weak point with shocking and sudden precision at the last possible moment. He never seems to run out of knives, and he has been known to beg for mercy when he secretly knows that none is necessary. He wears a hood to conceal a bald head covered with unsightly growths. Through his hood, his yellow glowing eyes can always be seen. Gladiators he has defeated in combat remember two things about Trapp for the rest of their days: those eerily glowing eyes, and the taunting screech of his voice, which reminds one of an ironil lynx clawing and scraping at the cliffs as it begins to fall into the depths of the Great Pit Racchsa.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Astral Entity	6

With Snipe in play for the ruleset, it's a good opportunity to make use of Martyr ability and the best summoner for this purpose would be Astral Entity because it has Resurrection.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Pelacor Deceiver	5

Pelacor Deceiver used to be an average card but it has become extremely strong under Astral Entity because it now has both Flying and Dodge, and that's 50% chance of missing already.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Trapp Falloway	4

Trapp Falloway is very squishy but because this battle allows for Reach, it sits in the 2nd position, allowing it to deal damage and hopefully get some Bloodlust along the way.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Venari Marksrat	3

Venari Marksrat takes the 3rd spot for the target to be Sniped, and hopefully with Resurrection, Martyr will be triggered twice to adjacent cards twice.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Revealer	4

With Legendary cards out of selection, Epic cards rule the world now. Revealer takes up the last adjacent card spot because its strong Stun ability.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Life Sapper	3

Life Sapper comes in because the mana quota is pretty tight and it should do fine.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Ravenhood Warden	4

Ravenhood Warden is almost my default card at the backline because the Protect ability is so useful for the entire team.

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• Pre Battle: My opponent put up a pretty defensive lineup with both Tank Healing and Repair in the lineup. Both teams also smartly made use of Venari Marksrat for the Martyr ability as well. Am confident given the strength of my cards so let's see!
  

• Round 1: Both teams triggered the Martyr ability as expected. Apart from that, both tanks were strong and held on firmly.
  

• Round 2: My opponent's choice for a defensive lineup hurt the team eventually as the backline was very weak in damage output. While the two tanks battled it on at the front, my team was taking out their backline easily.
  

• Round 3: It's quite amazing that the last card standing for my opponent is actually the tank. Haha. We are almost done here.
  

• Round 4: Short and sweet. No surprises here.
  

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

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? I won this time because my opponent didn't put on a very strong team, as well as being too defensive. Sometimes being defensive is useful if you can overcome the opponent, e.g. two healers, but such strategies usually have the downsides. I think my lineup was decent, with a good mix of cards with various abilities.

What's the Battle Mage Secret? Trapp Falloway is a card that I use quite frequently, especially for brawls, but somehow I almost never see my opponents use it. Do people use Trapp Falloway these days?

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!

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