Hello! Today, I will be writing a slightly shorter post, in which I'll talk a bit about the newest airdrop that just came to us a few days back. The reason it's short is that I am, sadly, quite ill and do not have much energy to write a longer post - I also missed two days of posting, which sadly means my streak is over.

So in this one, I'll just go over Spirit Hoarder, because it's an incredibly interesting monster to me. I will first analyze the card itself and then go over its implications for Silver league, as well as what cards and decks it could slot into and has synergies with.

Spirit Hoarder

I'll just start off by saying that this is my favourite airdrop card so far - I am not sure it's the strongest (though it does feel like it's top 3 at least!), but it's capable of great things.

Looking at its raw stats, it's already alright - paying 3 mana for a magic attacker with an ability is alright, especially when it has enough health to survive some collateral damage. Its speed of 1 can be a little worrisome, as that can lead to being too slow to act sometimes, especially against powerful Opportunity monsters such as Deeplurker.

The ability that Spirit Hoarder has at level one is Triage, which already makes it very interesting. Very few monsters have Triage at bronze level, so it can definitely find a tournament niche, but it gets more abilities as it levels up. Dispel can be great for dealing with annoying buffs like Inspire or Swiftness, which is a great addition. At Silver level, it is an incredibly powerful addition to any deck. Its main strength lay in its low cost, the Triage ability, as well as simply being a magic attack monster, which is the most versatile attack type.

Above silver, it gets Blind and an extra point of attack. This makes it even more versatile, as it now has some sort of an offensive potential, while also working well against non-magic compositions due to the Blind ability.

Synergies

There are a few synergies I'd like to mention when talking about Spirit Hoarder. Let's start by getting the most obvious ones out of the way: Obsidian and Alric. The +1 magic from these summoners is one of the best buffs in the game and Spirit Hoarder - as a cheap magic attacker - fits those teams like a glove. Its Triage ability also provides some protection against singular Sneak or Snipe attackers. That also applies to Delwyn Dragonscale.

The more interesting synergy for me is the one that Spirit Hoarder has with backline tanks such as Wave Brood or especially Mycelic Slipspawn. Using this combination, you can ensure that the Triage ability will not go to waste. This strategy can be pushed even further by playing a Tank Healer and spreading your heals between frontline and backline - say with a combination of Unicorn Mustang, Mycelic Slipspawn, Goblin Psychic and Spirit Hoarder.

Closing Words

Overall, I find this card to be versatile and powerful, able to fit into many strategies. I don't think I've lost a game with it yet (although that is just thanks to the 10-ish game sample size with it) and I had fun fitting it in both Earth as well as Water teams. My favourite way to play it in Silver is with Mycelic Slipspawn - and I wish I had Queen Mycelia to be able to use that team to full potential.

All the images are screenshots from Splinterlands, while the image in the thumbnail is the Splinterlands banner from the SPL facebook page.