Splinterlands Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge - Soul Strangler

about 2 years ago

INTRODUCTION
Hi all, it was a roller-coaster ride for my Splinterlands life in the past couple of weeks. Mostly, there were times I was busy with my work and there were a few occasions that I have all the time in the world to play. Nonetheless, it's good to find free time to write about the Splinterlands SHARE YOUR BATTLE Weekly Challenge.

When playing the game, I stayed with the WILD Format as it gives me more versatility in selecting the cards for every match. Having a wider selection of cards provides players more challenge and a venue of experimentation what cards fit well with other cards, in any or a specific ruleset(s).

Before I delved in into the main topics of this post, let me share my rewards that I got in the most recent season. I finished at Gold III and had 58 rewards chests. I got a Merhampir Gold Foil but the greatest thing is that I received four (4) Chaos Legion packs. These will be good additions to my existing card collections.

THE CARD

Soul Strangler is a rare Death monster card and is part of a Chaos Legion. It has a cost of three (3) mana and has a ranged attack of two (2). At level five (5), it will acquire the SNARE ability. At its maxed-out level of 8, it will have an attack of four(4), speed of three (3), and a health of four (4). At that level, it will also acquire the POISON ability. For this post, I have used a Level 1 card.

Pros and Cons

The big plus for this card is its cost. For only 3 mana, you get a monster with a range attack of two (2). That's massive, especially for low mana battles and the LITTLE LEAGUE ruleset. Dhampir Stalker may be a popular range-attack monster for the Death splinter but if you're limited with mana, Soul Strangler is a good alternative. Also, recently I noticed that the Death splinter now boasts of low mana cost, magic attack monsters. Life Sapper and Venari Bonesmith are just two of them. But if you encounter a NO MAGIC ruleset, this can be a great go-to card. At its maxed out level, the POISON ability can be a big game-changer.

I think the main weakness of this card is its attack. Being a range-attack monster, it will be limited (as per normal) to be on the back slots, unless of course you have the CLOSE RANGE ruleset in the match. It also doesn't have any armor at all, so it can't easily be wiped out by the EARTHQUAKE or NOXIOUS FUMES ruleset (at least at Level 1)

General Strategy

I am in the WILD format and the beauty in that is the challenge of what my opponent may use is much broader.

The rulesets for this battle is AIM TRUE and NO HEAL. With my opponent's battle history, I know that he/she/they may use a Life splinter deck again for this match. While a TAUNT + REPAIR + TANK HEAL combo is not possible because of the NO HEAL ruleset, there's a big chance that the same setup will be used, and it will be mainly composed of range-attack monsters.

I am not quite sure though if he/she/they will use General Sloan as the summoner, as it was Tyrus Paladium that was used in previous battles. I will assume it will be General Sloan this time, so I need to at least counter the buff for range-attack monsters or at the very least, minimize the amount of damage those cards will deal to my team.

With the same assumption above, unless my opponent will use Portal Spinner, most of the range-attack monsters will attack my tank monster first, and giving it an extra layer of protection will help.

As for my offense, I just need to create a team that will deal enough damage to the opponent's tank monster (assuming that Shieldbearer will be used again) to kill it, even if a monster with REPAIR ability is used. With that, I need to use a combination of attacks, including magic attack monsters to deal directly with the tank monster's health. The NO HEAL ruleset makes it sure that the tank monster won't be able to recover from those damage. That leaves me with the armor to deal with (as it will be restored every round because of the REPAIR ability of another card - battle history says it was Armorsmith that was used.

I know I will have a big advantage if my opponent will use Tyrus Paladium, given the combination of cards that I have in mind for my team. But if my opponent chooses to use General Sloan as the summoner, I am still 50-50 for the outcome of the game. Regardless of the opponent's summoner, I hope I made the right selection of my cards.

Let's now proceed to my line-up.

The Lineup

Summoner - Thaddeus Brood

Slot 1 - Harklaw
Slot 2 - Scavo Hireling
Slot 3 - Revealer
Slot 4 - Magi Necrosi
Slot 5 - Venari Bonesmith
Slot 6 - Soul Strangler

Explanation of the lineup

I used Thaddeus Brood for my summoner because of the minus 1 (-1) health to my opponent's monsters. I was actually tempted to use Zintar Mortalis at first but with my assumption that my enemy will use mostly range-attack monsters, Zintar's melee-attack debuff won't be much of use. I rather decrease my enemy's monsters' health to go for a quick kill.

For my tank monster, I chose Harklaw for its SHIELD ability. That will reduce the melee and range attack by 1 which is a good thing. Even if the opponent will use General Sloan as its summoner, it will just even the increase in range-attack because of its SHIELD ability. I also chose HARKLAW over the more-popular Cursed Windeku because of its armor (which the Windeku doesn't have), which brings me to the next member of my team.

In the second slot is Scavo Hireling. I had this in conjunction of why I chose Harklaw over Cursed Windeku. As I anticipate that Harklaw will be receiving most of the enemy's attacks, Scavo will be at least safe from other attacks and most importantly, it will restore some of Harklaw's armor during its turn at every round.

I mentioned previously that I am using magic-attack monsters to deal damage directly to the opponent's health. First in those set is Revealer, which is on the 3rd spot. It's KNOCK-OUT ability can also prevent the opponent's tank monster to deal in a round that the ability has been dealt with, on that monster.

On the 4th slot is Magi Necrosi. I love using this card for its SNIPE ability. I know this won't be much of use in the early rounds (because of the enemy's TAUNT ability) but as long as the Shieldbearer is out, it can start damaging a few monsters at the back.

Completing my trio of magic attack monsters is Venari Bonesmith. Aside from its magic attack. its LIFE LEECH ability will work well in this match as I know it will be able to gain some health (in the early rounds) before it will be the subject of attack from the enemy (unless of course the enemy has monsters with SNIPE and/or OPPORTUNITY abilities). This trio of magic attack monsters will ensure that the enemy's tank monster will last for at most three rounds, because of the direct magic attack damage.

Last but not the last is our featured card... the SOUL STRANGLER. Again, the cost for this creature is just good. I get a range-attack (2) monster for just 3 mana. It will help in dealing additional damage to enemy monsters to complement with the magic attacks.

Let's now proceed to see the match-up.