The Death splinter isn't really my favourite splinter to play due to the lack of a dedicated healer in my deck. The only self-healing monster in my deck is a little weak and underpowered compared to what I can field in the other splinters... and so, the Death splinter tends to be a little overlooked when it comes time to choosing a team to play.

However, this weekly card feature made me take another look at the Death splinter. Apart from the lack of a decent tank (which I can replace with Lord Arianthus), the real downside is the lack of healer monster. However, the amount of debuffs that you can apply to the enemy team is pretty awesome!

The Card

The Screaming Banshee is a card from the original Alpha/Beta decks, and I've been lucky enough to have a level 4 version in my deck for quite some time. A magic monster with the pretty awesome blast skill, it is a glass cannon with little health to back up the collateral damage that it can cause. Thankfully, it is a low mana monster to play... which does make it quite viable in the low mana battles. In higher mana battles, it is better to go with something that will survive longer than a single round... a reflected magic attack will kill this monster!

The Battle

In this featured battle, we only had the no-melee battle condition along with a relatively low mana limit. This takes the sting out of the Death summoner debuff (affecting melee monsters) but it meant that I could probably get the Screaming Banshee out into the battlefield and see if it was as fun as I remembered. Meanwhile, the rest of the team would have a heavy focus on magic and debuffs!

Leading the pack and making the assumption that the enemy team would also focus on magic damage was my Phantom Soldier. A decent magic sponge who will debuff the enemy magic attacks whilst Voiding some of the damage taken as well. The Screaming Banshee would take the second line position to try and cause some damage before likely going down in the first or second round. The 2 Health Points really don't promise much in terms of longevity!

Next up was the Fallen Spectre, a great debuffing card which would blunt the attacks of any opposing Ranged monsters (and melee.. but no melee monsters in this battle!). Finally, bringing up the rear, is the Twisted Jester... the best low mana card in the Death Splinter lineup. This would be my main damage dealer and would hopefully gut the enemy line-up from within using the Snipe skill.

In the first round, the Screaming Banshee did manage to survive the first hit due to the Headwinds debuff. Every hit counts when you only have 2 HP! Meanwhile, the blast radius of the magic attack took out the next monster, laying open the Haunted Spider for next round's Sniping! Thankfully, the Haunted Spider also missed my Phantom Soldier... I hate that poison!

The second round sees the Haunted Spider go down. It might not seem like much, but if the blast from the Screaming Banshee didn't open up the Haunted Spider to sniping, then it might well have poisoned my lead monster. Unfortunately, 2 HP is not enough to survive to the end of the second round... and the Screaming Banshee goes down before firing off the second salvo.

However, the game is over by this point. The enemy lead monster will go down in the third round, leaving the ranged Centaur helpless in the first monster slot.

Conclusion

Although it might not appear that the Screaming Banshee did that much in this battle, that single kill that it managed to land the killing blow on made the difference in opening up another enemy monster to sniping attacks. This significantly reduced the potential for damage from the other team onto my lead monster. With all the secondary monsters behind my tank being so weak in health, everything depended upon the Phantom Soldier taking as little damage as possible!

The Screaming Banshee... I love the magic blast... but it is just so fragile. I can see it being a great play in the Equaliser battles when the mana limit stops you from playing some of the more powerful monsters. However, in most battles... just the reflection from a magic reflecting monster will take you down! It's a gamble to play...

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=64169071441a4ff26c5f293ae76d81b68a1e024f&ref=bengy

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