In my quest to continuously grow my deck after landing Lord Arianthus, the next big legendary monster card that was missing was the Spirit of the Forest. A speedy, tanky range monster with abilities that buffs the rest of the battle's friendly monsters. Unfortunately, with all these positive benefits, the negative is that it is a very pricey card. It took me about four weeks of hustling with a couple of the active splinterlands traders on the splinterlands discord channel to finally land a level 3 Spirit of the Forest for about $35.
However, as with the previous post I did on cheaper alternatives to Lord Arianthus, are there more affordable alternatives to Spirit of the Forest?
What makes Spirit of the Forest so sought after?
A range monster must have a high attack, and the Spirit of the Forest doesn't excel here as it only has 2 range damage at level 1 and 3 range damage at max level. But where it does excel is in its speed and the healing buffs it applies. To begin the search for potential alternatives, I will use the following combinations and look for cards that meet the criteria at the lowest level:
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Flying, Snipe
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Protect
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Tank Heal
Protect, Tank Heal
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Flying, Snipe
For this combination, Spirit of the Forest is 1/6th of the price of the Royal Dragon Archer.
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Protect
Silvershield Sheriff is 15 times cheaper than the Spirit of the Forest, with double the damage!
Range damage 2+, Speed 3+, Tank Heal
There is no alternative to Spirit of the Forest in this category.
Protect, Tank Heal
The Truthspeaker is the cheapest alternative at 25% of the price of both the Crustacean King and Spirit of the Forest.
Conclusion
After spending the time doing the research and analysis, it's seen why the Spirit of the Forest is such a unique card that demands a high price. I debated with myself to determine which is the cheapest alternative. If we go purely by the lowest price, then the Silvershield Sheriff is the clear winner, and it does double the damage, albeit at a slower speed. But what makes the Spirit of the Forest special is the healing buffs it applies to the friendly monster, and therefore I decided to go with the Truthspeaker as the choice for the cheaper alternative to Spirit of the Forest. Yes, its controversial as its a no attack card, but its role is to apply those healing buffs to increase all friendly monsters' survivability. And at $8.39, its a quarter of the price of the Spirit of the Forest.
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