Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge - Keep Your Distance 2 - Modern Champion Ranked

Hello everyone! This is my second entry for this week's Battle Mage Secrets Weekly Challenge with the Keep Your Distance rule set!

Keep Your Distance is a rule set that doesn't allow monsters with Melee attacks. It's a restrictive rule set. That's my least favorite type as they can create very uninteresting games combined with other restrictive rule sets. However, this isn't as restrictive as others, so it's certainly not the worst. You can play magic and ranged monsters. As for strategies, since there's one less type of attack, you can focus on defenses against the 2 types of attacks. Void and Shield still have the same value because getting rid of melee doesn't narrow this down but Silence and Headwinds or Return Fire and Magic Reflect can work together in creating very good defenses or counteroffensives. One strategy that works well in this is Grimbardun Smith plus Lily Shieldpaw. Nowadays it's risky to go with this combo because Venka destroys it. However, if melee monsters are not allowed, you can be sure you won't be facing any Venkas.

This game also has the Reverse Speed and the Aim True rule sets. The top player opted for Brewmaster Abraxas. They went with the Weapons Training combination of Grimbardun Smith, Moxian Rebel, and Lurking Puffer, The bottom player decided to go with Immortalis. They also went with a Weapons Training combination, but a different one. Lurking Puffer at level 5, Moxian Rebel, and Chaos Agent. In the last slot, they also had Acid Shooter.

This is one of those weird games that can only happen with restrictive rule sets and low mana cap. The top player could only damage the opposing Lurker by 1 damage per turn from Grimbardun Smith but there was also the chance of Poison from their own maxed-out Puffer. The bottom player can't damage Grimbardun Smith, until they get rid of the enemy Puffer. In round 1 the bottom player Poisoned Moxian Rebel and the top player didn't stick the Poison. In round 2, the bottom player hit the Puffer triggering the Poison again. The top player was not able to Poison. In round 3, the top player was able to hit the Poison, in their last chance. In round 4, the bottom player is only facing a 9 HP Grimbardun Smith. They hit for 2 damage for 3 rounds, until Smith is able to kill the Rebel. Chaos Agent can hit for 3 more before Smith is able to kill it, so the bottom player wins. It was a very lucky game for the bottom player with the right targets for Scattershot and always triggering the Poison while avoid Poison themselves.

What do you all think about Keep Your Distance? Do you have any interesting games or strategies for it? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading!!