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The theme for this week's challenge could perhaps easily be mistaken for one of the characters synonymous with the Marvel Universe nowadays. I'm sure lots of people will nowadays be familiar with the phrase "I Am Groot". 😉

Well, just like how, beneath the cute facade of Baby Groot, lies the masculine Vin Diesal who voices him. Similarly, this creature, while looking small and docile, actually packs a lot of power in any deck!

I present to you — the SPIRIT HOARDER. 🪄🎪🩸

Granted, it is a docile looking creature, but the gnarled staff it carries, with branches twisted into a series of synchronised 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.

🪄🎪🩸From Splinterlands Lore on the Spirit Hoarder🪄🎪🩸

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The Spirit Hoarder is a Legendary Neutral card released during the Chaos Legion expansion. I'd daresay it's the mainstay of MANY decks. At LEVEL 1, it has 1 ⚔️Magic ATTACK⚔️ and 1 🏃🏻SPEED🏃🏻, with 0 🛡️ARMOR🛡️ and 3 ❤️HEALTH❤️. It has the TRIAGE ability. It's summoning cost is very low at 3 🧪MANA🧪.

These stats alone make it seem like the Spirit Hoarder is really fragile and useless. It can barely do any damage and it will probably die in 1 or 2 hits. It's saving grace is it's low mana cost. But is that really true? 🤔

The Spirit Hoarder's true strength lies in it's TRIAGE ability which allows him to heal your backline units. That makes him very useful against any abilities or rulesets which targets units that aren't the main tank. I would consider this card to be in the HIGHEST TIER of cards for the NEUTRAL splinter! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

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The release of this Chaos Legion edition card has given the Neutral splinter one of the strongest support units around. With such a useful ability and at such a low mana cost, not to mention it's status as a neutral unit, the Spirit Hoarder is a staple for every deck!

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📊Card Stats by Level📊

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As we can see here, the main purpose of the Spirit Hoarder is primarily as a Support for the team. Stats wise, almost none of it improves even at higher levels, leaving it needing to be protected at all costs! At levels 2 and above, he gains DISPEL AND BLIND, turning him into an even more useful Support unit! Being able to clear any buffs from the opposing units it hits and causing all opposing melee units to miss 25% of their attacks makes this fragile creature an extremely dangerous unit if left alone. 💪

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📝Important Rulesets Rundown📝

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Here, I detail the list of combat rulesets that may affect the Spirit Hoarder.

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	🤔💭✅❌🤔💭❓❓❓
	👍🏻 his attack will never miss
	👍🏻 Gives itself more protection.
	👎🏻 Loses it's abilities
	N.A
	N.A
	👎🏻 Non-Flying units will take damage every turn.
	👍🏻 Low HP units benefit the most from this.
	👍🏻 Allows him to target the weakest units.
	👎🏻 Only Even cost units allowed.
	👍🏻 Will do even more damage.
	👍🏻 Units lose their SNEAK and SNIPE abilities.
	👎🏻 No healing abilities.;
	Situational. Could add more damage if the opponent's front unit is stunned
	👍🏻 Improve it's own survivability
	👍🏻 Melee units cannot be used.
	👍🏻 Units more than 4 mana cannot be used.
	👎🏻 No Legendary units allowed.
	👎🏻 Magic units cannot be used
	👎🏻 Gives melee the positional attack advantage enjoyed by ranged/magic
	👎🏻 Will die in eventually even though it's high HP will allow it to outlast most units.
	👍🏻 Only Odd cost units allowed.
	👍🏻 Slow and fast units attack speeds are reversed.
	👎🏻 Only Common cards allowed.
	👍🏻 Doesn't really depend on Summoner abilities
	👎🏻 Enrage always works out well for DPS units
	N.A
	👍🏻 All it's abilities stay intact
	👎🏻 Allows melee units to attack the backline.
	👎🏻 No Neutral units allowed.
	N.A
	👎🏻 All units lose their armour.
	👎🏻 Only Melee units can be used
	👎🏻 Magic attacks hit armor instead of bypassing it usually

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⚔️🛡️My Battle Showcase🛡️⚔️

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Let me present a battle I fought recently in which I used the Spirit Hoarder. My opponent used the LIFE splinter against my LIFE splinter! 😱

This was a battle between two exact same factions! By some quirk of fate, brother was pitted against brother. Who would come out victorious at the end of this struggle? 👼🏻 VS 👼🏻

At first glance, it would seem like we were both evenly matched. Our levels were similar as this was a battle from a Novice level tournament! 🤣

• BOTH of us used not just the exact same splinter, but our Summoner choices were exactly the same too. It was Lorna VS Lorna!

• Our unit choices also had some similarities with both of us opting for the Stitch Leech and Venari Crystalsmith in our armies.

• Where I was concerned was the opponent's focus using SNEAK attacks to target my vulnerable backline.

• Given this minor differences in power, would I still be able to win?

I would say that the Spirit Hoarder was DEFINITELY the MVP of this match, having played a big role in turning the tide of battle. It's TRIAGE ability allowed it to keep my backline healed up throughout the battle which resulted in me outlasting my opponent event if he seemed to have superior firepower. This allowed my units to turn the tide of battle. 😱

This ensured that the other units could eventually wear down the opponent until victory was achieved! 🏆🏆🏆

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LINK TO FIGHT WITH MY SPIRIT HOARDER

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👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️LINEUP CHOICES👯‍♀️👯👯‍♂️

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1st CARD SLOT

The Xenith Monk takes the role of the Main Tank in the first slot here. It will be the most important role since the backline will fall if the Main Tank goes.

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2nd CARD SLOT

The Time Mage occupies this slot. His main role is to speed up my entire team via the debuff on my opponent with SLOW. Should the Main Tank fall, he will step up to take over the tanking duties.

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3rd CARD SLOT

The Stitch Leech occupies the 3rd slot. It is my SNEAK DPS designed to take out vulnerable units in my opponent's backline.

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4th CARD SLOT

The Spirit Hoarder occupies this slot. It TRIAGE ability will heal every unit other than the main tank and will greatly enhance their defensive survivability.

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5th CARD SLOT

The Light Elemental occupies the 5th slot. Safely protected in the backline, it's task is to deal Magic DPS from relative safety due to it's frail nature.

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6th CARD SLOT

The Venari Crystalsmith occupies the final slot. Placed right behind, it's main role is to heal the tank and also provide a small bit of ranged DPS.

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⚔️🛡️Battle Action Report🛡️⚔️

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As you can see, both of us fielded VERY SIMILAR decks! We used the EXACT SAME splinters AND summoners. Our choice of units were where we differed in strategy. My opponent leaned slightly towards mainly physical dps units, while mine had half the team being magic.

👼🏻LIFE👼🏻 VS 👼🏻LIFE👼🏻

My opponent used the Pelacor Conjurer as his main tank in the first slot. This is as good a choice as any for a tank. At just 2 mana, it has FLYING and a decent amount of HP.

His next slots was occupied by the Sunkai Harvester which was probably his backup tank. It could also contribute to the DPS via it's REACH ability.

The next 2 slots were filled with a pair of SNEAK attack units to take out my backline.

His last 2 slots were the Venari Crystalsmith with it's HEAL and the Truthspeaker with its PROTECT ability granting 2 armour to the entire team.

Overall, I would say this was a pretty decent lineup.

My choice of the Main Tank was the Xenith Monk. He is a perfect candidate for such a task, having a good amount of HP for his mana cost. 💪

The 2nd slot was filled with my Time Mage who did a bit of Magic DPS but was there mainly for it's SLOW debuff on the opponent's team. This would give me a speed advantage.

My 3rd and 5th slot was filled with my "main" melee and magic DPS units. While the 4th and 6th slot held the Spirit Hoarder and Venari Crystalsmith. Combined, their HEAL and TRIAGE would keep both the front and backline alive!

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The battle started out with all our units just duking it out pound for pound. It was a mid mana game with 32 mana as the limit. The rulesets were LITTLE LEAGUE.

• The 1st wave saw both sides clash together with not much to show for it. Considering we both picked Lorna with her DIVINE SHIELD ability, barely any damage was done.

• Round 2 started off very differently with the opponent's Pelacor Conjurer dying. My own Venari Crystalsmith in the very last slot came very close to death too surviving the round with just 1 HP left due to the relentless assault of his SNEAK units.

• Round 3 saw his backup tank fall too, with his Truthspeaker also dying to my SNEAK attacking Stitch Leech. My own Venari Crystalsmith was healed up again thanks to the Spirit Hoarder's Triage. 😍

• It was ALL OVER at this point as I had gained a huge numerical advantage on the battlefield. All that was left was to mop up whatever units the opponent had left. All the while, TRIAGE and HEAL kept restoring the health of my units both in front and behind. 💖

Talk about doing WAY MORE than it was supposed to!!! 😱🤯🥳 All I expected from the Spirit Hoarder was for it to heal some damage as a Support unit should. Yet it did more than that and kept my backline healer from the brink of death multiple times!

It's TRIAGE ability really shone through in such a setup against a team that had prioritised SNEAK attack units. By negating their damage with healing for my backline, I managed to outlast them and eventually turned it into an insurmountable lead.

Surely that made it the Man of the Match for this battle, punching way above it's weight!

Well as you can see here in this GIF of my battle, the results were pretty good! 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

This was truly an eye opener! 😁🏆

Slowly, but surely, I wore down the opponent's team and the match was won handily. My team selection proved to be the edge I needed to eventually overpower my opponent. 💪🏻

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🔮🔮🔮Hindsight is 20/20🔮🔮🔮

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Would I have done anything differently? 🤔 This might have seemed like a match that would prove to be a challenge at the start because of how strong my opponent seemed to be. However, with my dominant VICTORY, IF I had to use the same cards again, there would be no better lineup than what I had already used for the match. Any other combination MIGHT have resulted in a loss for me. I'm really satisfied with the results against such a worthy opponent. 🏆🥇

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💭🧐💭Ending Thoughts💭🧐💭

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I definitely can appreciate the Spirit Hoarder and it's strengths. This is one of those cards which are very strong if surrounded with the proper team. The role it brings to the battlefield will give a player the edge in squeezing out every tiny advantage to get the win. 👍🏻

For any players looking to try out the Spirit Hoarder, I hope this article has given you some insight into its potential. 😉

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