Battle Mage Secrets - Demented Sharks Are Here To Stay!

The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Up Close and Personal ruleset this time! This means only units with melee attacks can be used. 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 one of the older cards, Demented Shark!

Till this day, Demented Shark still has a place in my lineup because of its Inspire ability. Not many cards at Bronze and Silver leagues have Inspire ability so Demented Shark is extremely precious when there are Melee battles.

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

Sharks are incredibly resilient in the wild of the Outer Ocean. Because of how recklessly and indiscriminately they throw themselves at prey, they are often marred and damaged by those they attack, who possess unseen (and often horrific) defenses. One of these creatures of prey that sharks continue to foolishly attack in the wild is called the edgefish, whose scales are sharp like blades of steel. Another is the genus Coelomomyces, a group of aquatic fungi creatures that when attacked, lay spores inside the brains of larger fish. Several weeks after the spores are laid, small, treelike fungus begins to grow from the sharks’ heads. This causes the sharks to completely lose control of themselves and fall into a perpetual blinding agony of rage. This is how the monsters known as Demented Sharks are born, and when they find their way into the inner sea of ΛZMΛRÉ, no Mer is safe.

---

Battle Type & Team Lineup

Position	Card/Level	Mana
Summoner	Kelya Frendul	4

Kelya Frendul is my go to summoner for my Water lineups for most of the battles because the armor and speed boosts are applicable to any kind of lineup.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
1	Sea Monster	8

Sea Monster is one my most reliable tanks because its self-healing ability makes it very strong.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
2	Demented Shark	6

Demented Shark is picked for its Inspire ability, which is very crucial for this Up Close and Personal ruleset where it's an all Melee lineup!

Position	Card/Level	Mana
3	Disintegrator	7

For a similar reason as Demented Shark, Disintegrator is chosen for its Demoralise ability, which hopefully will reduce my opponent's damage output.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
4	Kulu Mastermind	9

Cards with Opportunity are great in this ruleset and who else but the most qualified card with this ability, Kulu Mastermind! An extremely strong hitter and a high HP!

Position	Card/Level	Mana
5	Deeplurker	6

Kulu Mastermind is joined by Deeplurker, which is another strong card with Opportunity ability. I wouldn't be surprised if this card were in my opponent's lineup.

Position	Card/Level	Mana
6	Venator Kinjo	2

Mana runs out and we just have enough to slot Venator Kinjo, and hopefully a little contribution from him goes a long way.

---

• Pre Battle: When the lineups showed up, I was a little apprehensive when I saw my opponent use a Level 4 summoner but fortunately, the cards weren't crazy high levelled. Quite a few similar cards in both lineups so it's a 50/50 fight.
  

• Round 1: Kulu Mastermind and Deeplurker partnered to take out 1 card and I have a slight card advantage after the warm up round.
  

• Round 2: My opponent's Serpent Of Eld was proving a tank to handle but the Opportunity hits continued and it was 6 vs 4.
  

• Round 3: My Demented Shark finally got hunted down by the opposing Kulu Mastermind but my team finally cleared the extremely tough Serpent Of Eld. 5 vs 3 and it's definitely looking good.
  

• Round 4: A stalemate in this card as my team came face to face with the strongest card on the board, i.e. my opponent's Level 5 Coastal Sentry.
  

• Round 5: Round 4 was indeed the calm before the storm as all the hits started flying in this round. Both teams lost cards and I was almost done for the win!
  

• Round 6: And we were done!
  

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

---

Post Battle

Did my strategy work? Against a tough lineup, I believe my strategy worked as I picked the right cards for the ruleset. One card with Inspire ability, one card with Demoralise ability, another two cards with Opportunity ability, and they all made the differences.

What's the Battle Mage Secret? Demented Sharks are the kings of Melee fights!

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.