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## Another Novice Cap Match - Featuring Brawls
Back at it this week featuring another battle. This time I am off playing in the novice cap matches in my guilds most recent brawls. This gives some good insight to those who are just starting out, or those who are assigned those brawls for their guilt. Let's take a look at the match I picked to share this week.
## Weekly Challenge FLAGULON REINE
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**Edition:** GLADIUS
**Rarity:** LEGENDARY
**Element:** WATER
**Attack:** MAGIC
**Abilities:** BLAST
**Abilities:** BLOODLUST
**Health:** 6
**Speed:** 2
**Attack:** 2
**Reasons Why I like it**
After seeing this match played out, I knew I had to feature Flagulon Reine. It's such a great card, especially for the water splinter. Having two magic damage as a base, with blast and bloodlust means it has a real chance to stack up its stats before it makes its way to the first position. It has great health starting out at 6:00 that will hopefully be added on to as it knocks out some monsters. Blast is such a key ability for magic and it really makes it stand out.
## The Matchup
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https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sm_4JG252SJi2Fxj7SHm6IY&ref=senstless
**MANA:** 30
**Ruleset:** Keep Your Distance: Monsters with melee attacks may not be used.
**SPLINTERS:** Fire, Water, Earth, Death
## Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts
That's a lot to take in. The 30 man of rule set will mean it is a little tougher to build your lineups as many of the cards we will want to play are going to cost somewhere in that 8 to 12 mana range. The fact that there are no mailing monsters will only add to the struggles since the the tank position will be a struggle to figure out. It's many of the melee monsters that have a combination of shield, void, and armor that make them tough to get through. Most of the not attacking, or magic cards that can be a tank don't have as much behind them in terms of health and abilities like void and armor and shield
I fully anticipate this match to be focused mainly on magic since there's no life to play the ranged attack boost, and both earths and water are good choices to play magic
- **Summoner Kelya Frendul**
Chose to play the water approach for magic. While a non-traditional lineup at least in modern it is very sneakily heavily loaded with magic and anti-magic cards.
- **First Position Baakjira**
Probably one of the main reasons I initially picked water. It's one of the few cards that has void and a massive amount of health. This means if they choose to play magic of Earth and likely to counter a significant amount of it with my tank.
- **Second Position Nerissa Tridawn**
I wanted to have a heavy hitter, and base level three magic attacks seem to be pretty good, even if it was reduced down to two by Thaddeus
- **Third Position Merdaali Guardian**
I figured that adding a tank healer to two cards that had a base 11 and 9 health was actually really good and would most likely allow my monsters to stick around much longer. Sometimes it's hard to get through those tanks without heel but with getting healed each round I'm hoping they never get knocked out
- **Fourth Position Flagulon Reine**
Put it here to try to protect it as much as possible. Without melee monsters the ability for sneak attack is significantly limited so I feel pretty safe. I'm hoping it has a chance to really build and add some stats before it moves up to the first position
- **Fifth Position Igor Darkspear**
Used this here too use up the rest of my mana. It's got good speed and health just in case they have a sneak card or two.
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### Opponent Lineup & Match Play
- Summoner Thaddius Brood - not surprised to see the magic counter play. It seems like a solid approach and still likely sign ups.
- Riftwing - probably one of the overall better tank cards for death unfortunately it's not great against magic give it as limited health.
- Chaos Agent - a second not attacking card which seems odd but without having melee monsters sometimes it's tough to fill out a roster
- Soul Strangler - solid choice with two range tag damage, the only down that is be very limited health of two
- Whistling Damon - is a great looking card. Honestly having well-rounded stats of speed attack plus sniping bloodlust means it could be impactful.
- Raa - really it's a coin flip. If it happens to attack the cards with the lowest health first and knock them out then it could be a game winner. If it happened to by chance say attack Flagulon or Merdalli guardian been knocking out in the first round it could be very typical to overcome. If it instant attacks my higher minute cards and it will not do very much
- Life Sapper solid choice for the last card as you hope it gets many attacks to build up his health before moving to first
Overall I'm feeling pretty confident with my lineup primarily because I feel like I have heavy hitters with a healer. It really depends on Raa
### Round 1
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Round one starts off with a blast for me, literally. My second attack is by Flagulon Reine in the blast takes out chaos agent. This is my first bloodlust and it starts to build up my stats. Is the rest of the ground plays out the additional armor from Kelya helped deflect some of those range tax.
### Round 2
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Since Flagulon Reine got a speed boost from blood lost it now attacks first to start round two and secures yet another knockout giving it another stab boost. It's starting to become something that we difficult to meet. Has the wrong place out so I continue to get lucky playing against Raa most of the attacks have been inconsequential.
### Round 3
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Honestly before round three starts I can already tell I'm going to win. There's no way for them to get rid of my first two cards let alone deal with the fact Flagulon Reine keeps piling on stats and will likely didn't do so. In fact since it starts to round to do its speed it gets to add on another stat. It's up to doing for magic damage has eight health, and has six speed. It alone can now win.
### Round 4
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Technically there is around 4:00 but it's not worth adding any commentary. Other than the fact that Flagulon Reine actually knocks both of them out with its attack to start to round and it ends up having a base of six magic attack, 8-speed, six armor count and 10 health that is truly devastating for any lineup. It can single-handedly with blast now working entire team.
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### Thoughts - and Chances to Win Again
Well I initially thought that my chances to win might not be so high, and might be much more dependent upon how Raa attacked, it appears I was wrong. The additional armor stat boosted from Kelya it's really helped. And having those lower mana cards in the front of the lineup where I started stat boost through bloodlust Flagulon Reine was just too much to overcome.
It's no surprise that almost every time I play brawls and I'm able to play water, I find myself entering Flagulon Reine into the lineup and hoping for something just like this where it ends up being a ridiculous amount of damage and splash each turn.
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~~@senstless
#sbi-skip
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