Hello fellow Splinterlanders! Been away from the writing scene for quite a long while. Been too preoccupied with lots of life's inflection points.

In today's post I will be writing about the Life Sapper, a death splinter monster.

L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽

Edition: CHAOS
Rarity: RARE
Element: DEATH
Abilities: Life Leech at level 1, Redemption at level 8





A low cost 3-mana card that packs quite a punch with +2 magic attack at level 4 onwards

Abilities	Description
	Monster's health increases each time it damages an enemy Monster's health in proportion to the damage dealt. Reminds one of Dr. Blight's
	When this Monster dies, it does 1 damage to all enemy monsters. The damage dealt is Melee and follows normal rules of melee attacks

This is a new section, since I like writing. I thought of giving a whirl at writing a short lore for the card.

This rarity of a monster can be found to at times be lurking in the realms of humans especially in areas where the border between the undead and the living thins. Occasionally spotted in crypts, cemeteries and dark forests, life sappers absorbs the energy from living beings, all in the hope of restoring their ghostly half to their once living embodiment. Though there have not been any instances where a life sapper is able to fully recover and resurrect themselves once more to roam in the land of the living. Or perhaps they are already in our midst. Who knows?

DO NOT USE Life Sapper for the following ruleset:

Ruleset	Why
	The low health and low attack makes the life sapper good fodder for attacks. With opportunity, attacks will be zooming in on the life sapper.
	Too low health will die in 1st round or 2nd.
	Can't be used
	Can't be used

USE Life Sapper for the following ruleset:

Ruleset	Why
	This will give the low health monster a boost in its survivability if the health is boosted!
	Moderate speed not too bad to be used
	Cheap card for little league for sure
	Being a rare monster this is suitable
	3-mana is odd
	Blast + life leech will enhance the effects of life leech
	Useful for magic attackers as everyone gains armor
	Magic and ranged attacker party
	Magic and ranged gain snipe so this is useful

Let's move on to the battle, the ruleset for my battle is ________

Ruleset	Description
	No armor ability is active, therefore this is a disadvantage to cards with heavy armors.
	All cards have the knockout ability which does double damage when stunned

Based on the following ruleset and mana I will be using not so expensive cards in terms of mana and add some stun ability to make use of knockout.

Summoner: Zintar Mortalis

This summoner reduces melee attack by 1. Based on my analysis this opponent does like to use melee attackers

1st Position: Cursed Windeku

A level 5 card that has thorns and healing ability. This card does not rely on armor so does not have any drawbacks from this ruleset. Also it has substantial HP to begin with

2nd Position: Phantom Soldier

I am going with a level 3 phantom soldier, it has flying so might be useful as an off tank, and my death deck is usually weaker against magic, so the silence will be super useful

3rd Position: Revealer

This card has stun. So this will be useful to create scenarios for the knockout effect. I should level this more in future.

4th Position: Venari Spellsmith

A neutral card that is super useful to combo with thorns with it's amplify

5th Position: Life Sapper

I chose a level 4 which is economical yet touching the +2 magic attack for increased life leeching. If knockout is applied, I will get more life leech out of this

6th Position: Twisted Jester

This beta oldie which is always nice to use. Snipe with +3 ranged is always a nice attack.

Round 1:

Let's look at the lineup. The opponent is using the life splinter, with Peakrider as the summoner. Many high level cards and few sneak attackers. The +3 armor from the summoner will really be tough for melee and ranged attackers but thanks to the ruleset, the armor buff is not active. Also I have quite a number of magic attacker. In the first round, feral spirit from the opponent's deck hit my jester squarely, plus another hit from stich leech almost killed my jester if not for Zintar's debuff. The opponent's Lunakari Mistress hits my tank and cripple his life points.

It's now my turn and my Phantom soldier and life sapper takes turn to hit the enemy's tank. Twisted jester took aim at Divine Healer but could not kill it this round. Cursed Windeku hit Uriel hard, and revealer managed to stun Uriel, thus doubling the attack of Venari spellsmith.

Round 2:

In the second round, my jester was killed by Feral Spirit. Life Sapper survived the hit from Stich Leech with only 1 health left. Lunakari Mistress once again cripple Cursed Windeku, and hits it. Stunned Uriel was not able to survive the doubled +3 magic attack from phantom soldier and is quickly removed this round. All thanks to the knockout ability. Gargoya scrapper was killed by the join attack from life sapper and cursed windeku. If not for the void ability, gargoya scrapper would have been killed in a hit. My leftover cards, Venari and Revealer both attacked stitch leech but the damage was healed way by divine healer

Round 3:

In the 3rd round, life sapper was not able to survive the attack from Feral spirit. Stitch Leech was hit by the thorns damage, greatly reducing the its life. The onslaught continues and cursed windeku is able to deal the killing blow on stitch leech. Divine healer is also subsequently taken out by the Spellsmith and Revealer thus removing the slow debuff

Round 4:

In round 4, victory is close. Feral spirit attack is not able to take out venari spellsmith. A quick double team from Phantom Soldier and Cursed Windeku took away Lunakari Mistress. Revealer was not able to stun the speedy Feral Spirit this time round, though some of its HP was taken off.

Round 5:

In this last round, victory is simply achieved from the massive thorn damage when speedy feral spirit attacked Cursed Windeku.

A sweet victory from an opponent with much higher level cards!

L͓̽I͓̽N͓̽K͓̽ T͓̽O͓̽ B͓̽A͓̽T͓̽T͓̽L͓̽E͓̽

In this battle only death splinter is available and since monsters lose all ability, the life sapper is a good card to use plus other ranged and magic attackers. With a 16 mana cap, the cheap life sapper comes in super handy

Quite a neat victory as half of my lineup survived.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Is it cheap?

For a level 1, yes, it's only 0.15 per card. I like it more when it is level 4 at least, so it's around 25 cards. The reward from this post can go towards buying one probably since I am currently still renting.

What do I like about Life Sapper most:

I like Life Leech and the Low Mana Cost (3)

What I do not like?

If it has an armor for instance that would be quite useful

Alternatives for Death Splinter

Venari Bonesmith can be a good alternative as it only takes up 4 mana and it has poison. However it needs to be at least level 6 to have a higher magic attack (+2) for a better life leech ability.

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Credits

Splinterlands for the source image and Canva for the bountiful elements (background, animation, logo design) to use. Credits also to @Flauwy for the death divider used in this post.

Thanks for spending the time to read through my post!

Most of the rewards from the upvotes will be reinvested back to better my decks in game and to continue renting great cards, and collecting SPS!