The Real Threat of Shadowfey Sheik

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

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^{The tips and possible advises in this article are designed for Bronze League, in which I am in right now.}

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Shadowfey Sheik is a strange but powerful unit that grows stronger the longer a fight lasts. With magic damage, Flying and Life Leech, he can stay alive while slowly building more health and becomes a late game threat. His Painforge ability makes every hit and every burn become an advantage instead of disadvantage which is a unique trait Shadowfey Sheik have.

What makes Shadowfey Sheik fun to use is how flexible he feels in battle. He does not need to have high level to be a threat because even on low levels, his health keeps scaling as the fight goes on with his Life Leech ability. Even in a Standard battle with no special rules, his kit naturally rewards smart positioning as long as you can keep him alive for a long time.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Shadowfey Sheik's best stat is his magic damage. While it isn't strong and is only 3 magic damage, that still works really well with his abilities. Life Leech needs to damage the enemy health to work and magic damage bypass armor directly attacking health. Affliction needs to hit the opponents first to have a chance of applying and magic damage never misses. This is perfect for both of his abilities.

Life Leech is Shadowfey Sheik's best ability. This increases his max health everytime he strikes and opponent's health. You can combo this with a lot of abilities like Heal or Tank Heal and it complements Painforge a lot. Painforge can increase his damage when it gets friendly fired and that increases Life Leech's stolen max health in return.

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💊 Abilities 💊

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Flying: [Defense] Non Flying monsters that attack this card has their maximum hit chance reduced by 25% during that attack.

Life Leech: [Stat Modifier] When this monster damages an opponent's health, increase their max health by half the damage.

Painforge: +1 power when damaged by Poisoned or Burning, or hit by an ally.

Affliction: [Negative Status] Opponents attacked by this monster has a chance of getting the Afflictioned status. Afflictioned monsters cannot be healed and unaffected by the effects of Heal, Tank Heal and Triage.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Modifier	Description
	Noxious Fumes	All monsters on the board are given the poisoned status at the start of the battle. Poisoned monsters take 2 damage at the start of every round.: This modifier constantly applies poison at the start of the battle which can trigger Painforge when Shadowfey Sheik takes damage at the start of the next round and every round after that. Even while losing health, Life Leech helps him recover the lost health over time while also increasing the damage because of Painforge. The longer the fight lasts, the more value he gains from both abilities.
	Earthquake	All non-Flying monsters on the board takes 2 melee damage at the start of every round: Shadowfey Sheik completely avoids Earthquake damage because of his Flying ability. This gives him a huge advantage while enemy monsters slowly lose health because of the difference in abilities. It allows him to stay alive longer and stack Life Leech safely from the modifier's danger.
	Heavy Hitters	All monsters do double damage to opponent's monster that has Stunned status: Shadowfey Sheik does not have Stun, so this modifier works best when paired with another monster that can apply it. Once enemies are stunned, Shadowfey Sheik’s growing damage from Painforge becomes much more deadly because stunned units take double damage. This needs very specific setups but once you cleared the conditions, it's a very scary modifier for Shadowfey Sheik.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Rank	Abilities	Description
		Reckless: [Debilitation][Damage]Each successful attack also deals 1 damage to adjacent allied units. Tips: Reckless damages nearby allies which can trigger Painforge if Shadowfey Sheik is affected by ally damage. This turns a downside into an advantage. It helps him get more damage which means he also gets more Life Leech to get any damage to his health back.
		Triage: [Support] At the start of this monster's turn, restore the friendly monster's health, that is not on 1st position, by 1/3 of its max health. This ability will prioritize the monster with most damage to its health. Tips: Triage keeps Shadowfey Sheik alive while poison or burn is active. Staying alive longer means more chances to gain health from Life Leech and more damage to gain from Painforge. Triage and any form of heal also scales from max health so eventually Shadowfey Sheik gets more health back than the damage given by poison or burn status effect.
		Blind: [Stat Modifier] [Negative Status] As long as this monster is alive, all opponent monsters get Blinded status. Blinded monsters have reduced max hit chance of 15%. Tips: Blind increases enemy misses which works well with Flying's evasion. Missed attacks mean Shadowfey Sheik takes less damage while still attacking every round. This helps him safely grow stronger over time. This is also a good combo by placing Shadowfey Sheik on the last position to block potential Sneak attacks.

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^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

Since the modifier for this battle is Standard, I had the freedom to do what I want. I drafted the best team I can find that is available for me and the strategy that I think would work in this battle.

Lineup

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^Reklah

Reklah is a Rebellion archon with Summoner Tactics, a mechanic where you can choose to either give -2 max health to up to 2 monsters on the board or give Deflect ability to up to 2 monsters on the board. I used the -2 max health on the two opponents, New Beluroc Aegis and Conclave Tracker for the reasons I will say on the battle section.

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^{Nim Guard Captain}

I honestly want someone with a Shield ability because I have a Taunt unit in this battle with supporting Corrupted Healing. This means all magic damage will be redirected to that monster making this monster's Void ability slightly useless at the start. However, he's the best I've had at during this battle so I added him as my frontline.

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^{Warborn Shaman}

Both a good damage dealer and tank. Void Armor contradicts the Corrupted Healing because Arachne Weaver won't be able to heal him unless his armor is broken and expended. Still, a good tank and ability against all damage types.

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^{Shadowfey Sheik}

I placed him in the middle because I want him to stack health first before my first two monsters die. Shadowfey Sheik's Life Leech ability allows him to get some max health everytime he attacks. This complements Arachne Weaver's Corrupted Healing a lot since Shadowfey Sheik can keep stacking max health negating the Corrupted Healing's negative effect of reducing max health by 1 every heal.

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^{Gravebrand Warlock}

No ability but high 3 magic damage. That's his main purpose in this lineup since I don't deal a lot of magic damage. I wanted another big damage except for Warborn Shaman.

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^{Arachne Weaver}

Linchpin of the team. Corrupted Healing is bad on long battles because it reduces all the monsters that get healed by 1 max health each time they get healed. On the other hand, Corrupted Healing heals everyone except for this monster at the same time. As long as Arachne Weaver is alive, he can keep the team alive.

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^{Umbral Elemental}

Has 2 magic damage, decent health and Taunt. I like to combo him with a healer monster to delay and keep the game a little longer. He's important so Arachne Weaver won't be targeted by any monsters with Opportunity ability killing him early.

^{Edited in Canva Pro.}

In this battle, everyone is basically acting and treated as a tank except for Arachne Weaver. Except for Nim Guard Captain, everyone here is a unit that aims to deal damage as well. I did use Reklah's -2 health on Conclave Tracker and New Beluroc Aegis. The reason for Conclave Tracker is that the enemy has Kha'zi Conjurer which has Incendiary debilitation. It gives his units burning that deals 2 damage and spreads. Conclave Tracker has 4 health and the -2 makes this health down to 2 which means he'll die in 1 round if the burning spread to him. The -2 health on New Beluroc Aegis is also to speed up his death.

^{> > Click here to view the full battle < <}

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Shadowfey Sheik stands out as a damage dealer that gets stronger the longer a battle lasts at max level. His Flying keeps him safe from Earthquake while Life Leech slowly boosts his health as he deals magic damage. Painforge ties his whole kit together by rewarding any kind of damage he takes from allies or status effects letting his attack grow over time which creates a loop in his kit and stats.

He works best with modifiers and abilities that apply poison, burning or shared damage, since these trigger Painforge and speed up his power growth. Noxious Fumes, Earthquake, and Heavy Hitters all complement his kit when paired with the right teammates, especially ones that can apply Stun or Blind to opponents. Even in a Standard battle with no modifiers, Shadowfey Sheik still provides strong value by providing consistent damage that can scale into a late-game threat if needed to be.

Overall, Shadowfey Sheik is not meant to be a front tank but a late game carry that thrives in longer fights. With the right support and smart positioning, his stats and abilities can grow over time and take over the game. Even on low levels, he can still provide good advantages with just Life Leech ability. Just make sure that you pair him with a healer like Arachne Weaver to maximize the max health he gains from Life Leech.

• This post is an entry for Splinterlands Social Media Contest.
• Animated Banners and Dividers are edited in Canva Pro.
• Other sources that I do not own are cited under their respective photos.
• Some of the fonts used are from instafonts.io

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