HELLO to all Splinterlands readers of my humble blog.👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻 Welcome to week 48 of the new iteration of the Splinterlands Weekly Challenges (at least, if I haven't miscounted so far, yet. 😜).

For any old Hivers/Splinterland players who've just come back and are confused, fret not! Even with the name and format tweaks, right at it's core, battles are still the foundation of these posts.

In this week's edition of Battle Mage Secrets, we are making a Superhero team! Well, at least this sounds awfully similar to the Fantastic 4! However I don't think Mister Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The Thing are going to be joining us in Splinterlands any time soon. 🤣

No matter! I present to you the ruleset — FAB FOUR 4️⃣

The game's description of FAB FOUR is as follows: "Up to four Units can be used."

This ruleset really turns the tables on those with a huge array of cards and gives the advantage to a small specialised team. Instead of being able to field a full team of 6 members, you are now limited to just FOUR!

There is no place for fillers here and every card chosen must pull it's own weight. Who will you pick to be your elite forces in such a situation then?

I will take advantage of this ruleset in my battle showcase today to show how 1 of my units in particular becomes a lot stronger than one would expect with FAB FOUR. Introducing the card, XENITH MONK.

Xenith Monks created the Xenith Scale, a society devoted to enlightenment, knowledge, and the protection of others. Xenith Monks focus on expanding their minds to become more self aware and strive to achieve pure balance in all things in order to understand and comprehend Mana and its impact on the Splinterlands.
The code of the Xenith Scale focuses on the art of healing, shielding, and directing the flow of Mana.
Be a shield to those in need.
Be a guiding light in the darkness.
Be a helping hand to the weary.
Be an unmoving scale, balanced as all things should be.

From Splinterlands Lore on XENITH MONK

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Xenith Monk is a Rare card released during the Chaos Legion expansion. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️Melee ATTACK⚔️ and 3 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 6 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the HEAL ability. It's summoning cost is 4 🧪MANA🧪.

At first glance, this looks like a really bland unit. It does not have any standout stat in particular and it's attack and defences are on the rather low side. However, what is often overlooked is it's ability to influence one particular stat in the game — HEALTH! It's HEAL ability serve one purpose and one purpose only. That being, to keep itself alive.

This could make all the difference if the battle comes down to the wire where the slightest advantage is the fine line between victory or defeat! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻 This is definitely what I'd consider game changing! 😱😱😱

⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

Let me present a battle I fought recently in which the ruleset FAB FOUR was in effect. My opponent used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Tarsa from the FIRE splinter as his main pick, while I also used the Chaos Legion edition Summoner Tarsa from the FIRE splinter. 🔥 VS 🔥

At first glance, it would seem like I was at a distinct disadvantage.

• This was a ruleset which favoured units who could hold their own.

• My opponent was using an extremely strong defensive combination against my pure melee team with this Antoid Platoon's SHIELD ability and the Scavo Hireling's REPAIR ability!

• This gave his entire team a huge increase in raw defensive power.

• If I could not take down his tank, my entire armour would soon be decimated by his SNEAK attacking units.

I was honestly expecting this to be a really bad matchup for me 😜🤣. This was a team who had an innate advantage in this ruleset. His team had one purpose only and that was to keep his tank line as formidable as possible. Would I be able to turn the tide of battle against such an opponent then? Victory or defeat would lie in the small details.

I would say that the ruleset FAB FOUR was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played it's role in turning the tide of battle. The advantage it gave my team resulted in me outlasting my opponent in this battle. It definitely provided the edge that I needed to overcome my opponent.

This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

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LINK TO MY FIGHT

👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

1st CARD SLOT

The Xenith Monk is chosen for this slot. He plays the role of the Main tank perfectly with his great stats. His good health stats and the HEAL ability will also allow him to have much longer staying power on the battlefield. This allows all other units to be kept safe until he is taken down.

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2nd CARD SLOT

The Uraeus occupies this slot. It's main role here to be the main DPS for the team via it's SNEAK ability. It will also fulfil the role of the backup tank should the main tank fall.

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3rd CARD SLOT

The Serpentine Spy fills this slot and it's main role is to add to the DPS of the team with it's OPPORTUNITY ability to take down the weakest unit.

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4th CARD SLOT

The Clockwork Aide fills this slot. It's role is to buff the team with it's SWIFTNESS ability to allow them to attack faster and possibly score a few dodges with a superior speed stat.

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5th CARD SLOT

NIL

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6th CARD SLOT

NIL

I hope you're starting to see the pattern here in my team setup. 😉

⚔️🛡️Battle Action Report🛡️⚔️

As you can see, both of us fielded very similar units in our matchup. We even used the same splinter and the same Summoner! Even our units were mostly melee based! 😱

🔥FIRE🔥 VS 🔥FIRE🔥

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My opponent used the Antoid Platoon as his tank in the 1st slot which was a VERY good choice. With his great defensive stats and the SHIELD ability to reduce melee attacks dealt to itself, this is a unit which will protect it's entire team until it falls.

The Uraeus occupied his 2nd slot. This is a unit which can kill off any vulnerable unprotected units in the backline with it's SNEAK ability. It would likely also be the backup tank after his main tank falls.

His 3rd slot was occupied by the Scavo Hireling with it's REPAIR ability. This would ensure that his units would continually be topped up if they lost any armour.

The last slot was occupied by the Golbano Soldier. This was another assassin type unit with both the SNEAK and AMBUSH abilities to take out the backline.

All in all, I would say that the opponent picked a really strong team.

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The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a high mana game with 48 mana as the limit. The rulesets were COUNTERSPELL, LITTLE LEAGUE & FAB FOUR.

• The first round saw both our sides launch a flurry of attacks. Both teams took a lot of damage trading blows, especially with SNEAK attacks flying all over the place. 🤣

• The opponent started off with his Golbano Soldier launching an AMBUSH attack before the battle even started. Thankfully, my Clockwork Aide took the blow thanks to it's massive armour and position in the backline.

• When it was finally my turn to attack, the Serpentine Spy took out the opponent's Golbano Soldier in return, this removing a potent threat.

• The second round saw my Serpentine Spy taking out the opponent's Scavo Hireling. This meant that his team had lost it's defensive advantage.

• My Xenith Warrior was still keeping up with the damage taken in the front thanks to it's HEAL ability always bringing him back from the brink of death!

• The third round saw the opponent take out my Clockwork Aide but he lost his last remaining DPS unit, Uraeus, soon after.

• It was all over for the opponent now as I eventually mopped up his entire army. 💀💀💀

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected was for the FAB FOUR ruleset to give me a slight advantage. Individually, on their own, my units were all frail units which could be easily taken out. However it ended up being the entire reason for my win! By capitalizing on the ruleset, my units were able to deal their damage thanks to the Xenith Warrior protecting them all! The opponent simply could not handle all that at all.

Well as you can see here in this video of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match ended up with me inflicting a crushing defeat. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a disadvantage at the start but I ended up winning handily. IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

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I definitely can appreciate the ruleset FAB FOUR and how it changes the dynamics of usual gameplay. This is one of those rulesets which can be turned into a huge advantage if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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