DHAMPIR STALKER : DEATH IN SILENCE

Pros & Cons

Dhampir Stalker is one of few choice you have for powerful Ranged card in Death Splinter. It has not only high damage, but also fair health and speed for its survival. It also strategical as it has 2 abilities. And more it's a Rare category card which make it more accessible for all players. Without further ado, let's see the pros and cons first:

1. Dhampir Stalker's is a risk-averse card. Its status are balanced either as a Striker or a Tanker, no particular stats are too low or too high. 3 damage are common damage for 7 mana card. 5 health is enough to withstand 2 - 4 sneak attack. Speed might be a little bit low, but it's no issue cause once reach Level 2 it will grow to 3.	1. Deathblow is only effective if opponent formation made of single powerful high-mana card, and other row are left blank or filled but with less powerful card. Meanwhile since Dhampir Stalker have a 7 mana cap, it would often be deployed in medium and high mana cap (higher than 20 mana cap). At this capacity level, usually most player will deploy formation with full row filled and have more balanced mana between cards. This cause Deathblow triggered less frequently.
2. True Strike make this card a powerful counter against card with high speed, Blind ability, Flying ability, and Dodge ability

Market Price Analysis

Both regular and gold foil price have been in a downtrend. As per this posts made, the regular price is $0.1 and the gold foil price is $1.38. Thus the regular-gold ratio is quite high at around 1:14. In addition there's great fluctuation in gold foil price, as the price could reach $1.8 and could be as low $1.20. While regular price are more stable by not deviating more than 10%. With all this fact, in my opinion purchasing regular foil card would be better.

Progression Analysis

Starting with balanced stats, Dhampir Stalker also grow in a balanced manner. Stats growth are rotating starting from speed, health, and then damage. The cycle happened again at Level 6 and up to Max Level. Speed growth might be underutilized as accuracy are no longer important with True Strike ability. But the speed growth is still better compared to the growth gained on health. Damage growth are very valuable, unfortunately it need the damage growth are achieved rather late as Level 4 and Level 8. Deathblow ability are a small intermezzo at Level 5, because of it's utility as have been explained before.

Rulesets To Be Watched

Ruleset	Strategy
	No explanation needed. True Strike will be useless in Aim True ruleset.
	In Earthquake ruleset, expect your opponent to use card with Flying ability. Dhampir Stalker are best at shooting down those birds. But remember to sustain health from Earthquake damage each round. Bringing Triage ability might mend some of the damage.
	With Fog of War ruleset, Dhampir Stalker can take position in the last row with no concern over ambush from Snipe and Sneak abilities. With this.

Here's one of my battle experience with Dhampir Stalker in my formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle have 28 mana cap, with Counterspell and Earthquake ruleset. For my formation, I used:

Summoner : Thaddius Brodd
1st Row : Cursed Windeku
2nd Row : Chaos Agent
3rd Row : Carrion Shade
4th Row : Tower Griffin
5th Row : Dhampir Stalker
6th Row : Ever-Hungry Skull

My opponent formation:

Summoner : Obsidian
1st Row : Mycelic Infatry
2nd Row : Regal Peryton
3rd Row : Venari Spellsmith
4th Row : Goblin Psychic
5th Row : Mycelic Morphoid
6th Row : -

Thaddius is the best counte-summoner against Obsidian, which make my formation got the upper hand. The fact my opponent use Obsidian are questionable, because Counterspell ruleset will give magic card hard times. I tried to balance between using Flying card to counter the Earthquake ruleset and Tanker card to delay the fight into longer round. Therefore I picked Cursed Windeku for its huge 10 health. Ever-Hungry Skull at the last row seemed a good choice, not only for its a Flying card, but also its armor can protect against Sneak attack.

Round 1 run very well. The combined attack of Windeku and Dhampir break down Mycelic armor. The health debuff cause magic card caused Venari to stand with 1 health, and of course Venari own attack become its own killer.

Round 2 started and Earthquake roll out. My formation still got the upper hand as only Chaos Agent fall down, while opponent Mycelic and Goblin is perished.

Round 2 continues. Mycelic missed it attack, only Peryton managed to hit Windeku. Windeku and Dhampir continue with its combined attack and left Mycelic with only 1 health.

Round 3 started and earthquake roll again. Mycelic is eliminated and Windeku left with 1 health left. Peryton strike and destroy Windeku. Although my formation still stand with 4 card, the outlook are not good. Dhampir was left to 1 health. Should Carrion fall, Griffin will take first row and unable to attack. While I still have Skull on the last row, with only 1 health it will be a sure lost against Peryton. But at the end, it was Dhampir's True Strike ability which null Peryton slick speed and make the finishing blow.

Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?

Based on my battle experience above, it's Summoner selection which make the major difference in victory. But Dhampir really shine off with its damage crushing Mycelic's armor and its True Strike ability save the day by bringin down Peryton. There's a great concern that Dhampir might get ambush by Sneak ability. To mitigate this, I place Ever-Hungry Skull as protection. But this cause divide over mana allocation, as less mana available for front Tanker card.

Do you like DHAMPIR STALKER? Why or why not?

Dhampir Stalker still become my favorite choice for ranged card. There's few ranged card available in Death Splinter collection to fill the back-row. I will usually use magic card instead. Since Dhampir Stalker costing 7 mana, it's a primary choice for high mana cap battle, where there's spare mana to be used.