Centauri Mage, the Snipe Counter - Share your Battle Weekly Challenge

This post is part of the SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge - Centauri Mage.

The Centauri Mage

LORE

The magic of the Centauri people of northern Anumün is so secretive that it is a wonder their Mages make any demonstrations of their powers in the Mount Mox Arena at all. The audiences are always thrilled to see their magic attacks, especially at dusk and sunset, when they create a chillingly beautiful (and deadly) green light show. Not only does this magic rain green fire onto the enemy, but with proper concentration from the Mage, it also refortifies the defenses of the friendly team. Among the Centaurs, those who practice these ancient ways of magic are extremely rare. They spend most of their time close to Kron, protecting him from all the wild creatures outside his Citadel.

CARD DETAILS (Level 1) Mana Cost: 7 Edition: Reward Rarity: Rare

Magic Attack: 1 Speed: 3 Health: 9 Special Ability: Return Fire (When hit with a Ranged attack, Monsters with Return Fire will return reduced damage back to their attacker. The damage returned is equal to damage of attacker divided by 2, rounded up)

The Strategy

Not many monsters in Splinterlands have the Return Fire ability, and the Centauri Mage can use it at level 1, without having to level up the card. So let's use this ability in our favor.

The Return Fire ability is really strong because it allows the monster to be used to counter enemy monsters with Snipe. The Snipe ability is the one that allows the monster to attack enemies that are NOT in the first position and are 1) Ranged, 2) Magic, or 3) have no attack.

In other words, Snipe is how enemies will kill the monsters in your backline: the snipers are able to "ignore" your frontline tank and attack directly your (usually fragile) units.

That's where the Centauri Mage comes into action. As a Magic monster, she'll be targeted by enemy Snipers. But she's not fragile: she has 9 Health points, allowing her to stay alive even after receiving several attacks. Not only she'll be able to sustain the incoming damage, but she also will return damage to the enemy Sniper monsters due the Return Fire ability. Your opponent wants to attack your backline, but YOU will be the one damaging his!

The ideal position for the Centauri Mage is as the first Ranged/Magic/Non-Attacking monster of your team, but behind the Melee cards. This card sequence allows her to attract the enemy Snipe attacks, fullfiling her role as the protector of the rest of your backline.

The Battle

Link to the Battle

Due her high mana cost, the Centauri Mage will usually be played on high-mana matches like this one (46 mana).

The Centauri Mage was placed on the second place, behind our strong tank Unicorn Mustang but in front of our three more fragile ranged units (Gargoya Devil, Venari Seedsmith and Mantoid).

And, as you can see, the opponent also played a Mantoid, the popular neutral-monster with 2 Ranged Attack and the Snipe ability. We'll be able to see the Centauri Mage in action!

While our own Mantoid was free to attack the enemy's Venari Crystalsmith, a monster meant to be protected in the backline while healing the frontliner with her "Tank Heal" ability, the opponent's Mantoid ended up attacking our Centauri Mage, a monster that we fit on the team for this exact role: the Mantoid won't be able to kill the Centauri, and will receive damage from the Return Fire.

The battle was a Success! We had four different monsters (Unicorn, Centauri, Gargoya and Venari) attacking the enemy's Shieldbearer; and, while he's a very strong card with 4 Armor and 10 Health, he wasn't able to sustain all this damage. After the tank died, the rest of the opponent's team was quickly dispatched.

Conclusion

The Centauri Mage is a high-mana monster and, because of this, isn't a very versatile card: it'll be difficult justify using her on low-mana matches, in which you'll mainly be using cheap (2-5 mana) monsters.

But she has a powerful, yet specific, role to fulfil: in high-mana matches, she's the ideal card to counter Snipe enemy monsters, absorbing lots of damage while being able to deal extra damage on the snipers due the Return Fire ability.

And, if you're a very experienced player, a Level 5 Centauri Mage also has the "Repair" ability: while she's protecting the rest of your team, she'll also be able to repair the Armor of your monsters. Neat, isn't it?

Thanks for reading this Battle Report, and until next time!

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