Hello, my dear Splinterlanders and Hivers,
How are you today? I wish you a great weekend full of fun and joy.

The Splinterlands team bought another 'Share Your Battle Challenge' and this week's featured monster is the SPIRIT HOARDER.

Like the previous challenges, I'll share my strategy, and team combination of the best battle I won this week using the Spirit Hoarder in my team.
I'll also share my thoughts about the usefulness of the Spirit Hoarder.

So, read on...

THE LORE

When the Chaos Legion opened their portals to begin the invasion of Praetoria, the great vortexes tugged at the edges of time and space, drawing in matter from other realms. These portals were so powerful that other beings were dragged through against their will, snatched from their own worlds. And so it was that the Spirit Hoarder found itself walking the lands of Praetoria. No one truly knows where it originated from, but the consensus remains the same: They wish the Spirit Hoarder would return and no longer blight the Splinterlands with its wicked presence.

Described as almost dryad-like in its appearance by the few that have lived to tell the tale, the Spirit Hoarder is a faceless creature aside from two large, yellow eyes. Its body is a deep green with tributaries of aqua blue running through its skin, converging into jagged dorsal vertebrae along its back, and the uneven ruts of its head almost look like broken wood jutting away from the otherwise smooth and serene outline of its body. The alien appearance of this creature makes it difficult to tell where it resided on its home world, and it is likely at some point in evolution its habitat was in water, but now it is clear that it makes its home on solid ground and is completely terrestrial.

Granted, it is a docile-looking creature, but the gnarled staff it carries, with branches twisted into a series of synchronized patterns, holds a sinister, spinning orb of power. It is a mystic force, the likes of which has never been seen before. This is the Vault of Spirit Hoarders and the one true source of its power. If one were to look at the orb closely enough, they would see the tormented spirits drifting inside, desperate to be free of the anguish prolonged by their eternal prison. What makes the Spirit Hoarder so utterly terrifying, though, is the indifference in which it stalks the land. The Spirit Hoarder cares not of the source of souls it takes, with both Praetorians and Chaos Legion having fallen victim to its obscene harvesting.
The fighting lasted long through the night and into the following day. Skirmishes had broken out along the flanks of the two armies, amidst the rear guards and between pockets of fleeing troops on either side. It was a complete blood bath. History would no doubt have it recorded as one of the greatest battles since the Chaos Legion’s invasion.

....

The Spirit Hoarder had heard the clashes of steel and the screams of the dying far away in the sea cave where it had been sheltering from the inclement weather. The delicious sounds enticed it away from the warm fire that crackled and spat at the damp driftwood, tempting it to seek out the delights of the distressed and wounded cries.

The first bodies the Spirit Hoarder encountered littered the beach, broken and bloody. It moved through them, one by one, hunting for any that still might be clinging to a thin thread of life. It eventually found one.

The wounded soldier looked up at the bile-slickened lips of the Spirit Hoarder. “Get away from me…” he coughed, blood frothing at the corner of his mouth.

“Come now, you’re almost free of this ruined shell,” the telepathy of its voice came with an awkward inflection as it still struggled with the foreign tongue.

The soldier's eyes widened in recognition, and he tried to crawl away. “Leave me to my God, demon… I will not let you take my soul.”

The Spirit Hoarder stepped on the edge of the soldier’s cloak, preventing him from moving any further. It then thrust the tip of its staff into his forehead. The mists parted from the spinning orb held within the wooden stave and a crisp blue light reached out toward the soldier’s face, demanding his attention as the lifeblood continued to seep from his body. “I can feel your life force ebbing away and it is truly delectable.”

It watched him with large yellow eyes, unblinking as the man’s feeble struggles and groans weakened. “Give it all over to me and I promise your spirit will live on forever.”

His body relaxed as it finally gave up. The Spirit Hoarder shuddered as his spirit passed fully into the orb. His essence would live on, it was true, but in complete agony. The Spirit Hoarder felt no guilt in keeping that piece of knowledge from him. It only added to the wonderful torture of it all.

BATTLE STATS AND ABILITIES OF THE SPIRIT HOARDER

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Before I share my strategy and the battle, let's talk about the stats and abilities of this card.

The Spirit Hoarder is a Legendary Neutral unit card from the Chaos Legion edition.
This magic attack card costs 3 mana to use in the battle which makes this card a low-mana-cost card.
Talking about the abilities, this monster has the 'triage' ability activated from level 1. Using this ability, this monster heals the friendly back-line monster that has taken the most damage.
On level 2 the 'dispel' ability is activated. Using this ability, when this monster hit an enemy, it clears all positive status effects on that enemy.
At level 3, the 'blind' ability gets activated. This ability makes all enemy Melee & Ranged attacks an increased chance of missing their target.

The card's stats also increase through levels as follows,
Level 1: 1 magic attack, 1 speed, and, 3 health
Level 2: 1 magic attack, 1 speed, and, 3 health
Level 3: 1 magic attack, 1 speed, and, 3 health
Level 4: 2 magic attacks, 1 speed, and, 3 health

How To Make Spirit Hoarder Useful In Battles

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As it's a neutral card and only costs 3 mana to use, therefore it's a must-use monster in low-mana-cap battles.
But it also has low health points, therefore one has to make sure to protect it from early attacks.
In the 'explosive weaponry' ruleset, this monster can heal the most damaged backline monster using the 'triage' ability. But it's most useful in the 'noxious fumes' ruleset where it not only heals the backline monster and keeps it alive for further rounds but also removes the 'immunity' ability of the enemy monster using the 'dispel' ability if the monster placed in the first place.
Apart from that, it can be beneficial in the 'equalizer' ruleset where it may gain higher health if any high-health monster is used in either team.
My preferred way to use Spirit Hoarder in the 'super sneak' ruleset, placing the Cornealus in the last position so that the enemy's melee attack monsters have a hard time eliminating it because of the double-healing, or putting a high health 'taunt' ability monster in the last position and combining with Spirit Hoarder.
I used the 'taunt+triage' strategy in the battle shared below.

THE BATTLE

RULESET

Mana Cap: 47
Rulesets:
Super Sneak: All Melee attack Monsters have the Sneak ability.
Reverse Speed: Monsters with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.
Active Splinters: Water, Earth, Life, Death, Dragon.

My Strategy and Team Setup

SUMMONER

Alric Stormbringer

Playing with a strong magic attack team is always my first preference and for this battle, I chose the Alric Stormbringer as I intended to use a magic attack-based team.

TEAM SETUP

It was a high mana cap battle, therefore I had plenty of room for choosing my preferred cards. Still, for the sake of this article, I choose a non-magic attack card, and turned out the decision was quite crucial from the winning point of view.
When building a team, I chose my usual ones, Djinn Oshannus in 1st position as a tank because of its high health and 'phase' ability.
Captain's Ghost is in 2nd position, and the Riverboat Captain is in 3rd position with 'blast' ability.
In 4th position, I placed the featured monster, the Spirit Hoarder. The Venari Wavesmith is in the 5th position and in the last position, I placed the Wave Brood with the 'taunt' ability.

My team is ready, let the battle begin...

Team Submission

Round 01

Round 02

Round 03 / 04

Watch the full battle in realtime - https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_0b00151ddaef6ce8b9c5c094927a7585&ref=furiousfighter

Key Points Of This Battle

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The battle was an easy win as my enemy was lower level. Still, the strategy I used, worked very efficiently.
I had 3 slow monsters, so they attacked first in the 'slow' ruleset. My magic attack team dealt heavy damage to the enemy team.
My enemy also used some high attack cards, but they were melee attack cards, and thanks to the Venari Wavesmith, +2 armor was a huge help.
Finally, the Wave Brood soaks all the attacks, and the Spirit Hoarder keeps healing it making it difficult to destroy.
Using this perfect strategy, I bring home a win.

And that's all for today, guys.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article. So, don't forget to keep me encouraged with your upvotes and comments.

Every week I share with you the strategy, and team combination as well as the gameplay of the good battles I fought.
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Until next time,
Peace.
Akash Kumar.

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