Welcome to another Weekly Challenge, this time with the Life Sapper.
This Challenge was done in the Silver League and with my own cards and also, against opponents at my level.
About the Life Sapper
Life sappers are in between life and death. One side of their body is ghostly while the other is alive and well. They are neither fully living nor dead. They feed off the energies around them, and simply being within view of a Life Sapper will make you feel sick and weak. They siphon energy from their victims, slowly weakening and sickening them while simultaneously healing themselves.
I usually tend to reject cards with one point of Magic attack, and the Life Sapper was not the exception. This Rare card, despite it’s low Mana requirement, which is attractive, seemed harmless to me in battle, since all of it’s stats are low, power, health and speed. Besides, it’s Life Leech ability was never very appealing to me.
However, playing both in the Bronze and Silver Leagues, I encountered many players/bots, who assembled some surprisingly effective teams with the Life Sapper, so I decided to try it up. It worked; despite it’s weak attack, the Monster prove effective when wearing down the opponent’s tank and resisting slightly more than the average Monster, thanks to it’s Life Leech effect.
Currently, I own a level two Thaddius Brood, so I’m able to use a level two Life Sapper, which has one more point of Speed, which is a very good improvement, at least for me, since Speed is quite important in my style of play.
The negative aspect of this card is, of course, it’s weak Magic attack, which considering the many cheap tanks with Void out there, makes this card completely useless, so we have to be aware of cards like Djinn Oshannus or the Unicorn Mustang and many more, that are common currency in the lower leagues.
In conclusion, I don’t have many positive nor negative feelings for this card; it’s effective if your opponent doesn’t use a tank with Void.
Fog of War: Monsters lose the Sneak and Snipe abilities.
Water & Life Splinters not allowed.
Mana cap: 19.
Lineup & Analysis
Since Life, my strongest Splinter, was not allowed, I chose to play with Death, my second strongest. Besides, my opponent had a preference for Fire, so I felt comfortable with the Fog of War ruleset, which diminishes the capacities of Tarsa quite a lot.
As always, the Cursed Windeku, when playing in the lower leagues, tend to be my first choice, because of his Thorns effect.
Both the second and the third positions were dummies for the Serpentine Spy, which I knew it was coming.
And both the Venari and the Life Sapper served the same purpose; take advantage from the time gained by the first three for them, to build up their health and take down enemy Monsters.
The strategy worked great. I managed to predict the Serpentine Spy and take down the rival team with my Magic cards as expected.
Armored Up: All Monsters have 2 Armor in addition to their normal Armor stat.
Little League: Only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or les may be used in battles.
Only Death & Dragon Splinter allowed.
Mana cap: 20.
Lineup & Analysis
With the very few options the ruleset gave us, what else am I going to use but Death. And both the Armored Up and the Little League ruleset reassured me that Magic Monsters were the best option here, so:
As a tank I chose the Xenith Monk, a card worth getting at level two, since it can heal itself and, in the Little League ruleset makes a big difference. Besides, it’s a Neutral card.
Since the Venari has one more Health point than the Sapper, I always position him first. Sometimes the Sapper can be a fast victim of Snipe, especially at level one.
The Life Sapper, of course, not only for the Challenge, but as a cheap Magic attacker.
And the last Magic attacker, the Revealer, whose Stun effect proved very useful in this short battle, because it gave the Xenith Monk an extra round.
In last position the Chaos Agent as layer of protection against Sneak.
Although my opponent had more attack power, he seemed to ignore the “Armored Up” rule, which slowed down his attacks, compromising his victory, so my election of Monsters was much better.
