It’s been a while since I last dove into the Splinterlands rulesets, and with so many new cards and abilities added over time, the meta has definitely shifted. So I figured it’s time to revisit a few of them—starting with one of the more deceptive ones: Fog of War.

What is Fog of War?

Fog of War
Units lose Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity.

That means all those classic snipe attacks and sneak assassins are taken out of the equation. Your backline is a lot safer.

But here’s the twist: Scattershot still works, and some melee tricks are still viable. Don’t sleep on flank-style teams just yet.

Melee Still Has Play

While most melee monsters rely on Sneak and Opportunity to bypass the frontline, Reach gives your second-position monster the chance to shine. If you're using a summoner or ability like Flank or Charge, you can turn that into a real advantage.

So yeah, your opponent might expect magic and ranged spam in a Fog of War battle—but surprise them with a melee-heavy comp that actually works.

🧠 Ability Synergies & Strategies

Let’s go through some ability combos that work really well with this ruleset:

Reach / Flank / Charge
These melee abilities still allows melee in the second slot to attack. With newer summoners and monsters enabling these abilities, you can build a solid front-line melee squad.

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Magic Reflect / Return Fire
Since most melee sneak options are gone, your opponent may lean heavily on ranged and magic units. That’s the perfect time to punish them with Return Fire and Magic Reflect. Think Pelacor Conjurer or Djinn Muirat—both can do serious damage just by absorbing attacks.

Scavenger
With no Sneak or Opportunity around, your backline is less exposed. That makes it safer for units with Scavenger to sit back and quietly power up as monsters fall. Monsters like Venari Seedsmith and Iza the Fanged shine here—and both also bring some nasty extras like Poison and Stun.

Poison
Speaking of Poison—since direct damage from Sneak/Opportunity is reduced, poison becomes a sneaky (pun intended) way to rack up damage over time. Cards like Venari Bonesmith and Soul Strangler are excellent for this. Not to mention they’re both ranged/magic, which fits the expected lineup.

⚠️ What to Avoid

Camouflage
It’s less useful here. Normally, Camouflage protects key backline units from Sneak/Snipe/Opportunity. But those are disabled, so this ability loses some of its value. Still, it can be useful for stalling if the unit has high utility otherwise.

Strategy

In this medium to high mana battle, I went for a mixed approach—bringing both melee and ranged units. While Fog of War limits sneak and snipe, I still included a strong melee presence up front to soak damage and deal with blast effects. To keep things unpredictable, I also added some Scattershot units to pressure the opponent’s backline randomly and break up any defensive setups.

Rulesets

Fog of War:
Units lose Sneak, Snipe, and Opportunity

Need for Speed:
You can only summon units with 3 or more speed.

Explosive Weaponry:
All unit will gain blast damage.

The Lineup

Archon

Card	Reason
	Since i play modern again manually this is my only maxed archon so i choice it when even i can love this summoner the extra boost in melee and magic just wow.

Units Lineup

#1	#2	#3	#4	#5	#6

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Anyu Huntswoman (lvl 3)
It in the front because of the flank so my second unit will receive reach (and that unit has deflect.

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Grimbardun Fighter (lvl 6)
Important unit with the deflect that should withstand any blast damage.

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Drybone Bowdog (lvl 6)
The ambush make it hit before the actual battle is started and the scatter shot is a risk but with explosive weaponry very useful :)

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Chaos Adjutant (lvl 8)
Again scattershot this time with poison try to poison as many as possible

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Inept Healer (lvl 2)
You quessed it another poison unit only this one does it when it dies.

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Ujurak Elder (lvl 10)
And last but not least the unit with divine shield so everybody has one protection against the pesty blast damage.

The Battle

Reference

Link to the battle:
Link to battle

Rounds

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Start :

My opponent brought a heavy-hitting melee unit with Rage, aiming to smash through my frontline quickly. It’s definitely a threat, especially since my team is made up of more units overall—but most of them are on the lower health side. If I lose my tank too early, things could fall apart fast.

That said, I think I can manage. The real wildcard? My opponent also included a Burn unit, which can backfire pretty hard. It spreads damage to nearby allies, and in this case, it might end up doing me a favor by helping clear out his own backline. Fingers crossed!

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Round 1:

This round was already a bit of a mess—some major RNG pain, and not exactly in my favor.

Nidhogger’s Execute landed hard with that double attack, instantly putting pressure on my frontline. On top of that, the Rage ability kicked in, and it was hitting like an absolute beast with 4 damage per strike. Brutal.

But hey—I’ve still got some firepower left. If my Poison can start doing its job, things might start tilting my way. And let’s not forget—my units have Life Leech, which helps them gain some health back with every hit. That small sustain might just keep me alive long enough to turn this around.

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Round 2:

Ouch, that one stung—for both sides.

My opponent is now down to just one unit, and it’s Poisoned, which means it’ll take an extra 2 damage over time. That’s a nice little bonus for me. But it’s not over yet...

That last unit still has Rage and Execute, which is a dangerous combo. If any of my monsters drop to 2 HP or less, it can swing twice and wipe them out before I can react. Those 4-damage bombs are no joke.

Still, it’s 4 vs. 1 now. As long as I don’t let that beast go on a rampage, I should have this in the bag.

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Round 3:

And there it was—Execute triggered again! Thanks to Rage, my opponent’s monster got in two strikes, and yeah… that hurts. But the good news? It’s now down to just 2 health.

I still have three units standing, and my frontline tank—Lorkus—is sitting comfortably at 9 health, thanks to all the Life Leech it stacked up from earlier rounds. That ability really paid off here.

So yeah, this one’s pretty much a done deal. Just one more round to wrap it up and seal the win.

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Round 4:

and there you already have it poison did kill him... Victory!

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Conclusion

This was a fun battle that really shows how even under Fog of War, you can still make a melee team work—especially if you use the newer abilities or go with a balanced mix like I did here.

With a bit of planning (and some Life Leech luck!), it’s totally possible to surprise your opponent and pull off a win, even when typical melee tactics are disabled.

Hope you all enjoyed reading this battle post! Let me know your thoughts and strategies in the comments—I’d love to hear how you approach Fog of War!

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That's all for this week hope you enjoyed reading this battle report. See you all on the battle field

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