For this community engagement challenge we were challenged to pick rule sets we love are hate and how we cope with them or why we love them. For this post I'm going to talk about briar patch and even stevens.

How to prepare?

Briar patch means that every unit who hits with a melee attack takes two damage, unless they have deflector shield in which case, they do not. Many of my usual strategies weren't an option for this match since only three splinters were active, however, lots of mana. I'm personally really enjoying the higher frequency of high mana matches this season. Brair patch punishes melee units so focusing on having ranged and magic is key. I tend to have one high health melee unit to act as a tank but otherwise magic and ranged it is. The other thing to consider is that you're opponet will do the same, this means ability like silence and headwind may effect more units than in other matches. Shield, void and void armour are always good, but in the brair patch rule set shield halves the damage a unit takes, void helps deal with the amount of magic being tossed, and void armour helps a unit last longer against magic since the magic attacks have to get through their armour. The last thing I like to do with any of the retaliation rulesets is have a unit with amplify. This increases the damage from 2 to 3, which means that with shield they still take 2. With life splinter out I can't just use Bella and ignore it. I had initially considered cryptic since both life and water were active, however many of my favorite cards weren't allowed due to even stevens.(Arcane weaver for one.) After spending half the prep time with cryptic I went with Kaylia.

My line up

Archon		Minus one magic to reduce magic damage, and exacute to up my damage. What's not to love?
Frontline line tank		Endless ape makes an excellent tank. With high health a bit of armour and scvanger it takes a fair bit to take him down. I also didn't want an elf in the front line to avoid taking tons of brair damage
Postion 2		This was my secondary tank. The close ranged meant he can attack from position 1 without taking thorn damage.
Position 3	content2	This is a staple in my deck. Two magic damage and gives everyone a speed boost. A bit suishy with the five health but ah well.
Position 4		I wanted this fantastic card both cause it does nice damage, but it also has amplify. This means when my units get hit they take 3 damage. Which means that folks with shield still take 2 damage. plus he's got a a decent amount of health.
Position 5		I love this guy. I put him in the second last position since he can take significant damage protecting whomevers behind him. Blind is also great since a miss = no damage. And wingbreacker I didn't expect to be helpfull but you never know what someone's goint to show up with.
Position 6		Arcane skinwalker is just a super versitile card. I didn't really think of anyone else that would add a ton so two more magic with a chance of exacute, why not. I could have switched this guy and Fenmoor but this way if fenmoor ends up in the front line and falling Skinwalker can still attack while the reverse is not true.

My opponents line up

We've got some solid cards in here. Slade as a tank is rarely a bad choice. He's beefy, does solid damage and has a pretty high rate of not being hit with dodge + 4 speed. Warborn Shaman does 3 magic which is rare, and they've got void armour so they can take more magic damage. Captain fellblade has two attacks and stealth so being in 3rd position won't stop them from using melee. We've got archer koi next, which means armour damage will gets repaired. Which means Slade will stay up longer, same with the Shaman. Behind that is chaos battle mage with three ranged and piercing. Which is a pretty high damage card. Taking up the lead is the giant alpine skink. Which I thought was an odd choice as that means they'll only be able to do damage when they're the last one standing. I think the logic my opponent had was that thier shield would protect them enough when attacking that this beefy unit should be able to finish off what's left. I however would have put him in second. So Lets see how the the battle unfolds. With all buffs and debuffs active their captain fellblade and battlemage are still the fastest units other than Lord Thanlor. And the shaman is the slowest. With the 15% miss thanks to blind I got a decent chance of dodging some attacks.

Partway through round one the combination of Throns from hitting endless ape and magic attacks has taken out slade. The skin walkers exacute does the final bit of damage. But not before he reduces my endless apes attack to one. Captain fellblade has also taken 3 damage thanks to thorns + amplify.

My endless ape is holding one, just barely. He did dodge a blow from the koi. I honestly didn't expect him to outlast Commander Slade. Thorns from hitting the arcane Skinwalker takes out Captain Fellblade. Amplify is doin't it's job.

The next to fall is my endless ape. The chaos battle mage with their impressive 3 damage does enough to defeat him. So now it's the Quillion's turn to be a tank.

A few more blows exchanged and the shaman is down(final blow to the arcane weaver). The Quillion took out the archer koi's armour, only for it to get it back. But with only two health it goes down to Lord Thanalor at the start of the next round.

And a few more blows the battlemage goes down. They can't attack from the front row and since my only melee unit is already down I'm not taking any thorns damage.

Then the giant alpine skink finnally has a chance to attack and misses.

And is quickly taken out by my magic units who do not care about the shield ability. If you want to watch the battle unfold check it out here https://splinterlands.com/battle/sl_a87562b2f35d94108c564a36d543f5b7?ref=artofkylin My take away from this fight Unit line up is incredibly important. While it wouldn't have made the difference between victory and defeat if the battlemage and the skink had been swapped the battlemage would have gotten more attacks. It's also important to take damage like thorns into account as it really adds up when everyone has it from either a rule set or a summoner(tofu for example gives everyone thorns). A unit with two magic would have been much more effective then Captain fellblade due to lasting longer. The last bit of advice, get a wide variety of cards since conditions like even stevens can make your go to cards not an option. comment rewarder is on and anyone who shares their strategy or favorite unit(s) for brair patch gets an upvote!

pvmihalache