Something Lingers in the Shadows: Using Shadow Snitch in Battle!

This week's Share Your Battle challenge features Shadow Snitch! I don't play with the Death splinter very often, so even though Shadow Snitch is in the starter set, I haven't gotten to use it very much. In fact, when this challenge first came out I went and took a look at my battle history - out of my most recent battles, I had chosen a Death summoner exactly once! This week's battle challenge should be a learning experience.

Shadow Snitch is a melee monster in the death splinter. At level 1, for the somewhat low price of 4 mana you get a 5 HP to go with 1 attack and speed. While this does sound a little underwhelming, it also has reach so it doesn't have to sit at the front and just take damage all day. It does seem to have potential as a secondary tank, which is how I'll be aiming to use it.

If you wanted to jump right to the action, the Battle Link is right here. Want to hear some more about the lineup and my strategy? Read on further!

First up: the ruleset. This seemed like a good ruleset for Shadow Snitch because it fits perfectly into the Little League (4 mana cards or less) ruleset. I also like that the only available splinters were Earth and Death - I can easily choose an anti-magic summoner to counter the most common Earth splinter composition (i.e., Earth magic).

Shadow Snitch is in the death splinter so we'll be choosing a death summoner. I went with Thaddius Brood because he is a great all-around summoner in the Death splinter. My hope was that my opponent would choose an Earth magic lineup, and that Thaddius would not only cancel out their summoner bonus but also also knock off a point of their monsters' HP as an extra bonus.

I started my team off with my primary and secondary (or "off") tank. Xenith Monk was the biggest tank I saw that fit into my mana budget with 6 hit points. Our guest of the week, Shadow Snitch, was right behind it with 5. Importantly, Shadow Snitch's Reach ability let it attack over my Xenith Monk so my lineup was able to output twice the melee damage!

Next came some magic damage. Death Elemental and Life Sapper both put out a small amount of magic damage with useful abilities - Death Elemental could potentially Snipe off some of my opponent's useful monsters, and Life Sapper's Life Leach can allow it to provide some extra tanking if the battle goes on for a while and it has some time to get rolling.

I filled out my lineup with a bit of extra melee damage in Parasitic Growth and Uraeus. You may notice that between the Snipe, Opportunity, and Sneak abilities I was kind of taking the scattershot approach and trying to hit a little bit of everything in my opponent's lineup. This is usually not a good idea. However, my hope was that the combination of Little League cost restrictions and Thaddius Brood's -1 to health would result in some very low health enemy monsters.

With the lineup set, it's off into battle! When I see the selected teams I am hopeful - I correctly predicted that my opponent would choose a lineup heavy on Earth splinter magic. The back of their lineup looks awfully squishy, and once Thaddius' debuff kicks in some of them will only have a single hit pount. I feel pretty good about my tanks at the front too, they are roughly as durable as my opponent's pair of tanks, and I have a small advantage in that both of mine can attack at the same time thanks to reach.

When the battle begins there are no big surprises - I'm able to start working on my opponent's back line and take out the Khmer Princess and Elven Mystic almost immediately. My frontline duo of Xenith Monk and Shadow Snitch is doing a commendable job too, holding up well and giving as good as they're getting. The opposing Goblin Thief is becoming a slight cause for concern though - 2 sneak damage per turn can start adding up!

round 2.png

Luckily I was able to end the battle quickly before more damage was done!
One more round and we're already almost finished - I did lose Uraeus to that pesky Goblin Thief, but I've taken out my opponent's back line and still have all of the rest of my monsters left. Again, if you wanted to see the whole battle for yourself, you can see it right here.

My strategy of having dual tanks hold the front while my assorted lineup of indirect damage takes out the opposing back line weakened by Thaddius worked out perfectly. Shadow Snitch did an awesome job of off-tanking and my motley crew of snipers, sneakers, and opportunists did the rest.

Shadow Snitch really shined in this ruleset. Good tanks at 4 mana cost or less are tough to find, and with Shadow Snitch you get a decent one that even works from the second spot of your lineup. It is a somewhat narrow use case, but Shadow Snitch is in the free set of cards so it doesn't cost anything to use. I'll be sure to keep it in mind the next time I'm playing Death splinter!

Thank you so much for reading all the way to the end. Interested in seeing some more of my writing in the future? Be sure to give me a follow! In the meantime, if you'd like to see some of my recent posts:

Splinterlands Economics: Competitive Advantage - An overview of the concept of competitive advantage, and how we can apply it to Splinterlands.
Welcome to Struggletown, Population - Me: Using Feral Spirit in Battle! - Last week's battle challenge, featuring Feral Spirit!
Splinterlands Economics: Sunk Cost - An introduction to the concept of sunk cost, and how it relates to Splinterlands.

Thinking about giving Splinterlands a try but haven't signed up yet? Feel free to use my referral link right here: https://splinterlands.com?ref=bteim, and be sure to reach out to me if you have any questions!