Secrets in the Briar Patch

Here's the ruleset for this week's battle

The focus for this week's challenge is briar patch. All monsters having thorns means that monsters with melee attacks will take 2 damage whenever they connect.
The easiest way to avoid that downside is to attack with something besides melee. With magic attacks or ranged attacks avoiding thorns, it's reasonable to expect that your opponent will also use magic or ranged attacks.
Melee attacks being unexpected can give them advantages. There are monsters with melee attacks that get around thorns partially or completely. The shield ability reduces thorns damage by one. Reflection shield eliminates that damage completely. It's worth remembering that some monsters deal a lot more than 2 damage in the first place.

The aimless ruleset means mayhem. Monsters attacking from the back line with ranged or magic attacks could hit anything. Because it's paired with the briar patch that means mayhem from everywhere.

The unprotected ruleset takes away armor from all monsters and the abilities from summoners or other monster abilities that would normally add armor have no effect.

The unprotected ruleset is advantageous for monsters with ranged attacks and melee attacks, but the low mana cap is probably better for magic.

All things considered I think that magic attacks make the most sense here.

Here's the starting frame for this battle

Here's a link to watch it play out. I think it helps to consider how it might play out before clicking rumble.

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_7a67a4c1e69868f877799777f05ea52c&ref=

Let's talk about my lineup.

Summoner: Bortus

I thought that magic fit this ruleset best and chose to debuff my opponents magic attacks as a counter.

Tank: Djinn Oshannus

I went all in on magic. The void ability means that the already debuffed magic attacks might be doing 0 damage. Oshannus' magic attack is also very reliable.

1st position: Ice Pixie

Fast flying reliable magic damage. You couldn't ask for more at 2 mana.

2nd position (and in this case my rear tank): Torrent Fiend

This is here to soak up a hit which could come from anywhere in the aimless ruleset.

Did we win?

Yes. My opponent went for the unexpected with melee attacks and their enraged Forgotten One did some serious damage, but it wasn't enough when they kept taking thorns damage.

What will I try differently next time?

I was very happy with my lineup for this battle. Having a tank healer tends to work great with some of these low mana caps where your opponent may not be able to get through your tank. I think that Obsidian with Failed Summoner and Goblin Psychic may have worked great against my water lineup, but it would have been destroyed by my opponent's Forgotten One.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the upvotes, reblogs, comments and follows. I'll see you in the game. I hope the updated format that I'm using is helpful. Feel free to share any specific feedback in the comments.