really nice potential if positioned right - my reason to play Life Sapper in Splinterlands

YES, I (and you the reader) are in for another round of Splinterlands' share-your-battle challenge.

This time it is about another monster I have mixed feelings towards. The Life Sapper, I actually think it could be a really good card. If only it was part of another Splinter! :D

As always my reports are on Silver league in particular. Here you encounter unleveled bcx1 monsters, for the most part.

But one step at a time! What is it that makes me feel positive towards the Life Sapper?
-1 point of magic attack for the cost of 3 mana is already not too bad! (Usually it is more like 4 mana for 1 magic attack).
-Initiative of 2 is better than a lot of other "cheap" monsters.
-But most prevalent is its ability: Life Leech! If given the right position the Life Sapper can pump its health to infinity! ;)

Now a big flaw: Life Sapper's health is in dire need of some addition! 2 health without a shield stat or anything boosting defense makes him really vulnerable!

So what to do with this unit? -Let us look at one of my battles:
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_165ca1809227088682be5f9efa40df89&ref=jdike

I chose a Dragon summoner for this match, because in some situations I find them to be more powerful than the Death Splinter's own summoner. Then I had a wild mixture of melee and magic units in my setup. One melee unit aimed at the opponent's backline, as well. And the bulk composed of magic attack monsters. Life Sapper was among them and I had high hopes that he might leech some health and serve as secondary tank, too.

But my opponent's Deeplurker aimed straight for Life Sapper after my even weaker chicken unit had left the field.

So Deeplurker caught my Life Sapper and I already counted the whole fight to be a loss.

After all there were only 3 units of mine left and a lot more enemy units... so victory seemed to be out of reach for me.

Still my three monsters left made their way by cutting through the opponent's ranks and I WAS able to win!

In the battle shown above I wanted to emphasize on the role of where to place your Life Sapper.
Although my Sapper left the field early, I hope you get my point on Life Sapper's placement and its weakness: In a way it does not matter, your enemy might find Life Sapper anywhere. (If he has a monster with Opportunity ability!) ;(
So the main takeaway probably is: If you want to play Life Sapper you better make sure that he is somewhere safe!

My conclusion on Life Sapper sounds like it is a terribly weak unit, does it not? -Truth is that is why I mentioned earlier that I could think of Life Sapper as at least a very mediocre unit if only it would be in another Splinter!
Take Fire Splinter: Tarsa would boost its health by one to 3 overall health, enough to survive at least a round more!
Take Earth Splinter: Obsidian would boost its magic attack by one, making Life Sapper even more offensive and granting it the chance to leech even more health.
Take Water Splinter: Kelya would give him better initiative (=higher chance of evasion) and some protection against melee which would further increase its chances of surviving the first round.
But that is not the way things work in Death Splinter! ;)

Another thing to boost Life Sapper might be a supportive ruleset like Equalizer because it directly "heals" its greatest weakness which is its low health!

Although I could not present you a sure win tactic using Life Sapper, I hope you got an idea of its strength and even more of its weakness, at the very least!

As always there was no Legendary Gold Foil card on my horizon, but you are very welcome to support my quest for a Legendary Gold Foil card by using my sign-up link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=jdike