I fought an interesting battle in Modern Diamond ranked. In this game, I used Warwall Juggernaut, and it was a very strong card. This is an epic Water melee unit. It costs 9 mana, has 4 attack, 5 armor, 12 HP, and 3 speed. Its abilities are Reach, Armored Strike, Painforge, and Amplify. Amplify is a nice extra, but it doesn't affect most matches. Same goes for Painforge, although this one can have some more utility. The real power of this unit resides in the Reach and Armored Strike combination. Having 5 armor naturally also helps! This is somewhat similar to Mantaroth. It loses several very powerful abilities like Repair, True Strike, and Blast, but Reach means it can stay in the second position and be a little better protected from attacks, so that the Armored Strike is more likely to stay at full power for longer. The card works well at any level, since it starts with Reach and Armored Strike. Later levels add more attack, armor, HP, and the other two abilities. For players on a budget, level 4 is a nice stop because it already packs a punch.

As for what works well with this unit, there's Protect, which adds 2 to its Armored Strike. Repair also helps keep it strong. You can also use Reckless or other means to damage your own units for an extra boost. This is a 12 HP unit, so taking a hit can be worth it. Any rule set or effect that takes away or nerfs armor is bad for it. 9 mana and Reach for a unit with 4 attack and 12 HP is not useless, but it's not good enough in most situations.

This game had the following rule sets: Fog of War, Melee Mayhem, and Lost Magic. It was a 46 mana cap game, with only Fire and Water available. I went with Gorgug the Endless and started with Commander Slade. I followed it up with Pirate of Eight and Taye Loreswift. For the last 3, I used Warwall Juggernaut, Mantaroth, and Bludgeon Hucker to increase their armor. They opted for Prunda Undervesch, and their first three units were the same as my last 3: Mantaroth, Warwall Juggernaut, and Bludgeon Hucker. Stampeding Calf and Steppe Stalker were next and they finished with Chaos Battle Mage.

Even though Commander Slade was the fastest unit on the field, they had the speed advantage on the rest of the team because of Steppe Stalker's Slow. Their Juggernaut hit both attacks, which took out all the armor and put Slade to just 5 HP. Thankfully, they missed the next few attacks, while I dealt some damage to their Mantaroth. I put it to 2 HP before it attacked Slade. Since it Repaired the Juggernaut, it only used the regular attack to take out Slade's armor that had been Repaired. When my own Juggernaut attack, it finished their tank and took out the opposing's Juggernaut's armor.

They dealt some more damage to Slade, putting it to 1 HP, before they started missing. My Pirate finished the Juggernaut, and they finally got my Slade. However, my next few attacks killed two more units and put the Stalker at a very low HP.

It was just a matter of finishing the game, and my team did it during this round.

I think we both had a similar strategy, but they were mostly playing as if the game didn't have Melee Mayhem. I don't know if that's the case, but it's what it feels like with Mantaroth in the first position and Juggernaut in the second one. They also used Stampeding Calf with Charge. This resulted in their hardest-hitting units taking a lot of damage early on, making them weaker. I do like the Stalker as it provides speed advantage.

What do you all think about this game? Would you have done anything different? Let me know in the comments! Thank you for reading!!