Aadept at tracking their prey, then dispatching the target with a silent and perfectly-placed arrow from the shadows.

Hello Splinterlands Community!

Welcome to another Share your Battle Weekly Challenge featuring the half-vampire, Dhampir Stalker from the death splinter. Dhampir Stalker is a rare card which possess a great power.

For those who are new to my post, I usually post information which is related in the Silver League Modern Format.

Half-vampire, the Dhampir are faster and stronger than normal humans. Most have taken to a mercenary lifestyle, never quite welcome with vampires or humans. The Stalker is adept at tracking their prey, then dispatching the target with a silent and perfectly-placed arrow from the shadows.

🏹 The Stats

• Dhampir Stalker is a rare card which specialized in dealing high range damage. Looking at the stats, Dhampir Stalker do have a baseline range damage of 3 and a maximum damage of 5. He have a high health and a decent speed.

• Looking at the abilities, the True Strike is very important for the high range damage. This means that Dhampir Stalker cannot miss any target no matter if the speed is very high or the monster have the flying ability.

• Another ability which is the deathblow is only available starting from Gold league. This deathblow is pretty good as well especially if opponent monster is the only remaining which can deals a double damage.

• I think that this card is somehow undervalue because of the 7 mana cost and it lacks of close range ability.

• In my playstyle, I usually use Dhampir Stalker for a great damage. Just need to make sure that the tank monsters can hold frontline. Otherwise Dhampir Stalker would be just a waste of choice.

• Be careful to those monsters with headwind ability as well as summoner that reduce the range damage as reducing the damage of Dhampir Stalker means disabling this card use.

Combo Cards

In terms of summoner, I would say that any of the death summoner is compatible with Dhampir Stalker. Just need to be aware of the other death summoner such as Mimosa Nightshade and Contessa L'ament as both of this card decrease the range attack of Dhampir Stalker. Quix the Devious is also against this card.

Card	Advantage
Quix the Devious	Quix the Devious is a legendary dragon summoner which reduce 1 speed and 1 range attack towards the opponent. Be careful on this summoner as this might impact Dhampir Stalker performance.
Ilthain	Ilthain is a summoner against range monsters. He provides a return fire ability to all allied monsters in which each attack of Dhampir Stalker will return back some damages
Mimosa Nightshade Contessa L'ament	Both Mimosa Nightshade and Contessa L'ament on the other hand is against Dhampir Stalker or any other range monsters due to their debuffs in range damage. If an opponent is using any of this summoner, then Dhampir Stalker performance will be affected which mainly focus on the offense.

In terms of monsters, there is no direct relation with Dhampir Stalker but I believe that most of the monsters in the death current line-up are okay with Dhampir Stalker. I will only list down some monsters that I think are a good tank where Dhampir Stalker could focus on the offensive part while below monsters are defending the frontline or redirecting some attack.

Card	Advantage
Cursed Windeku Arachne Thug	I included both Cursed Windeku and Arachne Thug simply because these two can be use in the first and second position to defend the frontline. Cursed Windeku provides a massive damage including a thorn and a high health while Arachne Thug in the secondary position supports Cursed Windeku dealing damage and acted as a secondary tank even though its health is not that high. With the help of these two monsters, Dhampir Stalker could survive longer (except if the enemies focus on the sneak attack) and deals a massive range damage.
Riftwing	Riftwing is also a great decoy for monsters with snipe in order to redirect snipe attack. Besides that it can avoid range attack and deal a back fire damage. The scavenger ability would further increase the survivability of this card.
Pelacor Deceiver	I usually use Pelacor Deceiver in the back to basic ruleset because it only cost 5 mana and high health. This is a very good choice of tank for back to basic ruleset.
Night Ghoul	The newly introduced monsters from the Rift Watcher Edition which does have a taunt ability. This taunt protect Dhampir Stalker in any harm as long as it is not scattershot attack. If a high mana match occurs, Cursed Windeku and Arachne Thugh could be in the frontline while Night Ghoul in the rear to taunt other attack. Dhampir Stalker is place in the backline in order for them to foucs the damage in the frontline.

Favorable Ruleset

There are quite a lot of ruleset that Dhampir Stalker is applicable however, below are the ruleset that I think the most suitable for Dhampir Stalker

Ruleset	Benefits
Back to Basic	Dhampir Stalker with the range attack is great in back to basic especially if you are focusing on the range damage the team can output as Dhampir Stalker can provide a 3 to 5 range damage per attack.
Close Range	This ability is normally needed by a high damaging range unit because it will become useless when it is position in the frontline at the end game. Dhampir Stalker being one of the high damaging range unit that do not miss greatly benefit on this ruleset.
Fog of War	No any worry for a sneak attack when a fog of war ruleset appears. Dhampir Stalker is built in this condition wherein he can focus on the damage on the frontline without worrying any attack from behind. A great tank must hold the frontline to attain maximum performance from Dhampir Stalker.
Unprotected	Armor is the main weakness of a range attack, no matter how powerful the range attack is as long as there is a 1 armor, it will not damage the health directly. With the unprotected ruleset, Dhampir Stalker attack is directly towards the health.

There are other rulesets that are good with Dhampir Stalker such as Keep Your Distance and Odds ones out.

Take note of these ruleset that could affect Dhampir Stalker performance:

• Return Fire
• Armored Up

🏹 The Battle and Outcome

I will continue to use this format for the battle as I think it is simple but detailed.

Battle

Rules of Combat

Modifications: Equalizer, Stampede
Mana Cap: 50
Playable Splinters: Fire, , Earth, Death and Dragon

In this battle, Dhampir Stalker is somehow a good choice because of the true strike as the opponent focus on the speed by using Quix to reduce the speed and high speed and flying monsters in order to avoid physical attack.

• Summoner: Thaddius Brood is my only summoner for death but I am not complaining as Thaddius Brood is versatile and can be use in different situation. THe magic and health debuff helps in this battle as 2 out of the 6 monsters magic attack has been affected.
• 1st Position: The first consideration I've made for this is that there is an equalizer wherein it is fine not to choose Cursed Windeku or other high health tank. I've consider Legionnaire Alvar because of the void armor which I do think that the opponent will use magic units. The health is boosted because of the ruleset and the armor is so high which is a good decision to be use as the frontline defense.
• 2nd Position: Followed by Arachne Thug to support additional damage in the frontline. Take note that we have the Stampede ruleset wherein Trample ability that Arachne Thug is enhance.
• 3rd Position: As mentioned, I am expecting magic unit so another monster that is against magic is use in the 3rd position which is Djinn Muirat.
• 4th Position: Then I use Lira the Dark for a good damage in the frontline and with the snare ability, it does not miss out any flying units.
• 5th Position: Dhampir Stalker is the main damager in the backline as it deals 4 range damage. An equalizer high mana match should have a high damaging monsters that all focus in attacking the frontline.
• 6th Position: Gargoya Devil in the last position as it does have the close range ability in which it can still fight when it is the only remaining monster in my unit. This gives a good chance to win the battle.

Let's do the battle analysis per round:

Round 1

Before jumping to the battle, let's have a quick analysis on the opponent's lineup.

As we can see in the line-up, the choice of summoner is good as it directly impact 3 of my monsters and decrease all speed of my monsters. The next thing that we can notice is that there are 3 flying units, and almost a high speed monsters. With this, the opponent is expecting a tons of physical damage which he thinks that his monsters can avoid those attack. Will his goal succeeds?

Now let's go to the match analysis.

As I've mentioned, with the equalizer ruleset one key thing in this match is that all of your monsters should have the same target. In the first round, it is very obvious that all of my monsters are focus on attacking Silent Sha-vi while there are 2 monsters from the opponent's which have snipe ability that is going to attack Djinn Muirat.

Watching the first round, the opponent succeeds on his plan to avoid physical attack as Arachne Thug, Gargoya Devil and Legionnaire Alvar attack missed. Good thing that Lira the Dark do have a high speed, Dhampir Stalker have the true strike ability and Djinn Muirat is a magic unit which all deals the attack in the first round defeating Silent Sha-vi.

Round 2

The battle continues but this time, the attack of my units do not miss. The snare attack from Lira the Dark is so useful in this round as the flying ability that Gargoya Devil have has been immobilized. The opponent's Gargoya Devil has been eliminated in this round and both Legionnaire Alvar that protecting the frontline and Djinn Muirat who's absorbing snipe attack are heavily wounded at the end of this round.

Round 3

Not looking good on the opponent side as Runic Skyclaw was position in the front disabling it from attacking.

Lira the Dark continues to use the snare ability removing the flying ability of the enemies. The team deal the first lost in this round as Djinn Muirat has been defeated. Arachne Thug triggers the trample ability and Dhampir Stalker continues to deal heavy damage in the frontline.

In this round, Runic Skyclaw and Ancient Lich has been defeated.

Round 4

One thing that I've think is that Ever-Hungry Skull position is not a good choice as it does not have any participation for the early 3 rounds. I would say it may give some difference if this is position in the frontline rather than being in the fifth position.

In this round, because of the heavy armor Ever-Hungry Skull have a very high armor, the team won't be able to eliminate the Ever Hungry Skull. Legionnaire Alvar has been defeated in this round. Lira and Dhampir Stalker continues their great performance.

Round 5

Ever-Hungry Skull armor has been broken in the earlier round and in this round the attack is directly to the health of Ever-Hungry Skull. The team defeeated Ever-Hungry Skull and will defeat Magi Necrosi in the next round.

BATTLE LINK

In my opinion, I won because of the following reason:

• My unit attacks the same target eliminating it one by one
• Djinn Muirat absorbs the snipe damage protecting Lira the Dark and Dhampir Stalker which are the MVP of this battle leading the offense.
• Lira the Dark snare ability and Dhampir Stalker true strike eliminates the flying and high speed monsters which can avoid a lot of physical attack.
• Some of the opponent's monster position is wrong.

🏹 Final Thoughts

Dhampir Stalker seems to be somehow undervalued card but I do think that this card is a pretty good rare card which deals a massive range attack with the true strike ability. It really wont miss which is pretty amazing. A tank that can hold the frontline is what he needs in order to maximize his performance in the battlefield.

Because of the 7 mana cost, he can be use in the middle to high mana capacity matchup.

How do you think Dhampir Stalker is?

Thank you for reading! See you in the next Share Your Battle Weekly Challenge!

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