>Before the chaos gate opened, the towered city of Darkholde was peaceful and quiet. Situated in the cold, Blackworth mountain range, it was presided over by a long-standing noble family and governed by Baron Kutziq Neculai. If the citizens knew the truth about their governor, then maybe they wouldn’t have been so loyal, but the Baron’s tastes were sated with great restraint and he truly did care for them, taking only what he must and never more than he had to. For Kutziq was a vampire, a race as ancient as the stones they’d used to build the city. A man who loved his people in many ways, including their unique flavour.
>
>The soul strangler is a creature of nobility, of good stock and incredible wealth. They live in lavish opulence, wearing the finest attire and moving in the most sophisticated of circles, often engaging with the high born from other cities and enjoying intimate gatherings that last for days.
>
>However, when this vampire chooses to hunt, they take on whole new guise, almost shifting their form to become more accomplished for the chase. Pointed ears extend refining their hearing and their eyes change colour affording the ability to see in the dark – their preferred time to hunt. Long fangs grow from their mouth and vicious talons sprout from their fingers. But what you can’t see in either form is the power they hold within their mind, an ability to attack at a spiritual level when they eventually find their adversary, squeezing the very life from them; a ranged attack that if not avoided, will have devastating consequences.<br><br>
> - *from Splinterlands official monster lore*
#### Stats & Abilities
**SOUL STRANGLER** is one of the hidden gems in the Chaos Legion Death Splinter. This monster doesn't gained abilities until its max level. Very few uses this cards since aside from having no abilities, it also has a lower mana which most of the time hard to fit in usual line-up.
**SOUL STRANGLER** has a ranged damage of 2 at its initial level and can reach upto 4. It's health ranged from 2 to 4 as well, while its speed can go from 2 to 3. Given this card is a 3 mana only, those stats are above the average.
At max level, it gained the **POISON** ability. Although Soul Strangler is a Vampire, I was hoping for atleast **Life Leech** ability but It seems we already have the monster card **VAMPIRE** with the Life Leech and Flying ability. Getting a similar vampire card with the same ability might not be good plan.
|**Abilities:**||
|-|-|
|https://d36mxiodymuqjm.cloudfront.net/website/abilities/ability_poison.png| **POISON** : Attacks have a chance to apply poison, which does automatic damage to the target at the beginning of each round after the poison is applied. <br><br> The chance to inflict *POISON* is 50% when the monster with *Poison* ability hits the target monsters, regardless if they inflicted a damage or not. <br> A monster with *Poison* status takes 2 damage at the end of each round. These damage won't be reduce by armors or abilities that reduces the damage like Shield or Void. <br><br> **Countering Poison:** <br> Best way to counter *Poison* is by using abilities like **Immunity** or **Cleanse**. **Immunity** allows the monster to not be affected by any negative status while **Cleanse** removes the negative status effect of the friendly monster in the first position. <br> Death Splinter is known to specialize in inflicting negative status or debuffs, including *poisoning* its enemies.|
#### Summoner Compatibility
<div class="pull-right"> <img src="https://d36mxiodymuqjm.cloudfront.net/cards_by_level/chaos/Thaddius%20Brood_lv1.png"></div>
For now, *DEATH* Splinter has only one Summoner from the Chaos Legion. We still don't have any news for the Legendary Summoner for Death but I'm guessing it will be a huge one. Death Summoners are more of inflicting debuffs to enemy monsters and reducing their attack damage. I don't see a Summoner that stands out from the rest if we are talking about the compatibility with our monster, Soul Strangler.
<br> **Thaddius Brood** reduces the magic damage and health of enemy monsters. This Summoner is good against magic line-up
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<div class="pull-left"> <img src="https://d36mxiodymuqjm.cloudfront.net/cards_by_level/untamed/Mimosa%20Nightshade_lv1.png"></div>
**Mimosa Nightshade** is a legendary Summoner which focus on inflicting Affliction status, reducing ranged damage of enemy monsters by 1 and also providing Void ability to friendly monsters.
Poison and Affliction status are a perfect combo. With Affliction, you can prevent the monsters to be healed and with Poison, you deal continuous damage. The only problem is that both of these status effect can be removed by using **Cleanse**.
Since **Soul Strangler** is a ranged monsters, there's a big chance that ranged monsters will be available and advantageous in that battle due to battle rules. For example, it a battle ruleset where melee monsters are not allowed, then having Mimosa Nightshade to counter both Ranged and Magic monsters will be the perfect counter.
#### Ruleset Compatibility
|Rules||
|-|-|
|https://images.hive.blog/DQmUKDwvgdaThVijB5Sqt5gQAca3PcnNsoGQAzPufF94ncw/image.png|**LITTLE LEAGUE** - Only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles. <br><br> In this ruleset, we are limited to select a line-up from summoners and monsters with mana cap of 4 and below. This is one of the best time to choose **Soul Strangler** as it has only a 3 mana requirement with high damage upto 4.|
|https://images.hive.blog/DQmY2SsKthEcd7QwbLshKxNNrC8rucHirqiPDkQvkMjiSpJ/image.png|**CLOSE RANGE** - Ranged attacks may be used in the first position in battles. <br><br> **Soul Strangler** is a ranged monsters. The usual reason why we normally don't use ranged monsters is that once they are move to the first position, they somehow become useless since they cannot attack from that position. With this ruleset, it gives ranged monsters like *Soul Strangler* the ability to deal damage even when place at the frontline. We don't have to worry about the weaknesses of ranged monsters.|
#### FEATURED BATTLE
https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_b34050200025d35748485d7d24c05285&ref=jpleron
|Battle Condition ||
|-|-|
|Rule #1|Rise of the Commons: Only Common and Rare Monsters may be used in battles.|
|Mana Cap |28|
|Allowed Splinter|Fire, Water, Death, Dragon|
##### MY LINE-UP
In this match, the *Rise of the Commons* ruleset limits our monster selection. We are only allowed to choose from monsters with Common and Rare monsters. Earth splinter is not available so there's a low chance that we will see a heavy magic line-up. Life splinter is also not available so it means heavy ranged is not expected. Since Epic and Legendary monsters are not available, Dragon splinter is also less expected. Death, Water and Fire have strong melee monsters with Common and Rare monsters.
Summoner:
- **Thaddius Brood** : I opted to used Thaddius Brood Rathe to reduce the magic damage and health of enemy monsters. Since I planned on using Disintergrator to reduce the melee damage, partnering it with Thaddius Brood will also reduce the magic damage.
Monster:
1. **Disintegrator** - has the *Demoralize* ability that can reduce the melee damage of all enemy line-up. It also has the Trample ability that can allow this monster to attack again if the targeted monster dies from its attack. Expecting a heavy melee line-up is the reason why I opted to go with Disintegrator.
2. **Soul Strangler** - is a 3 mana monster with ranged damage. Although its a mistake on my side to place it on the 2nd position, it is a strong backline monster with 3 damage.
3. **Silent Sha-vi** - is a melee monster with Sneak attack. The Sneak ability will allow this monster to attack enemy backline monsters.
4. **Venari Bonesmith** - is a magic monster with both **Life Leech** and **Poison** ability. Having a Life Leech allows it to regain some health while the **Poison** allows it deal extra damage to enemy monsters.
5. **Battering Ram** - is a melee monster with *Opportunity* ability. It's only requires 2 mana so its well suited to complete the 28 mana.
6. **Life Sapper** - this monster also has the *Life Leech* ability. It can build up its health allowing to sustain any Sneak attacks from the opponent.
###### Take Away:
**Soul Strangler** is a great monsters that we can utilize in different battle ruleset or conditions. For low mana battles, Little League and even Back to Basic rulesets can be advantageous to use Soul Strangler.
---
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