Battle Mage Secrets - Sand Worm Shines In Reverse Speed Battles!

The theme for the current "Battle Mage Secret" challenge is Reverse Speed ruleset this time! This means units with lower speeds will attack before units with higher speeds and attack accuracy based on speed will also be reversed. 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 Common card, Sand Worm!

Sand Worm has 1 speed and 5 Melee damage and Sneak ability. While strength is its damage, its speed is also its downfall because misses will be plenty. The only situation that it is usable in my opinion would be Reverse Speed battles which is this week's featured ruleset!

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

Huge Sand Worms have always lived in the desert of Draykh-Nahka, but with the recent uncovering of the various Untamed Prophecies, they have mysteriously grown even larger. They have also become more wild and free, somehow discovering how to escape from the Sands of the Dragon Splinter. Although it has never been witnessed, biologists believe that the Worms have learned how to swim. If they have indeed learned to burrow through water like sand, the Splinterlands will suffer greatly from their proliferation. In Mount Mox battle, Sand Worms can swallow monsters of nearly any size with no need to chew. They can even snatch fliers directly from the air, extending out of the ground even higher than the arena walls.

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Battle Type & Team Lineup

Being unable to use my favourite Water lineups, I opted to go with a Fire lineup, using Eternan Brune, which gave me the option to use a second Gladius card in this brawl.

Fire Melee cards tend to have slower speed, which is good for a Reverse Speed battle... But the tricky part about Gladius cards is Bloodlust, which disadvantages their attack accuracy if activated. Well, Gorth is a brilliant Melee fighter regardless so I still opted to go with him.

No issues with big cards given that we have a huge quota for mana. Chimney Wallstop is selected as the secondary tank, also a Gladius card, and a very strong card with Reach ability.

Molten Ash Golem stands out for having just 1 speed, which is the most ideal attribute for this Reverse Speed battle. Having 10 HP is a big boost to protect the backline here, with the damage not so much of a priority.

Sand Worm is just made for only Reverse Speed battles. At 1 speed, it would likely miss most of its hits in normal battles but in Reverse Speed battles, it's the star! Having 5 Melee Sneak damage is enough to wreck havoc in opposing backlines.

I threw in Disintegrator hoping to cause some reduction in damage to my opponent's lineup. Given that Magic cards cannot be used, it's a 50% chance that my opponent would go for Melee cards. After all, Disintegrator has 1 speed too, which is ideal for this battle.

Ettin Spearman is a card that I hardly use because he only has 1 speed, but there you have it, it's the best opportunity to use him in Reverse Speed now! Having a bulky 8 HP helps protect the backline from any Sneak hits.

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• Pre Battle: I have the higher levelled cards in this case compared to my opponent, who had just all Level 1 cards. Quite a few similar cards so let's see how the battle plays out.
  

• Round 1: It was a challenge fighting against the Living Lava/Disintegrator combination. Fortunately, most of my cards including Sand Worm have big damage to absorb the reduction.
  

• Round 2: Both teams lost their tanks in this round. Sand Worm claimed its fight kill but triggered Martyr for my opponent.
  

• Round 3: Chimney Wallstop proved to be very tanky after activating Bloodlust as my team continued to maintain the one card advantage after 3 rounds.
  

• Round 4: Chimney Wallstop and Sand Worm both got their 2nd kills of the battle. That's 2 Bloodlust for Chimney Wallstop! And we were almost done!
  

• Round 5: And we won!
  

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

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Post Battle

Did my strategy work? While my opponent didn't give me a close fight, I stuck to my carefully thought out strategy and lineup, and executed my plan accordingly. It's always a joy to use cards like Sand Worm.

What's the Battle Mage Secret? Sand Worm is the trump card in Reverse Speed battles!

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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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