SOUL STRANGLER : GRIM KILLER

Pros & Cons

Everyone love some risk, but for those risk-seeker looking for the greatest reward, Soul Strangler are their soulmate. Soul Seeker are that rare card which cost only 3 mana for 2 ranged damage. But this superiority come by the cost of low health, low speed, and lack of abilities. So let's first see the pros and cons of this card:

1. High damage and low mana cost give make Souls Strangler the most effective ranged Striker.	1. Low health and speed make Soul Strangler susceptible to be destroyed by the start of the round.
2. Low mana also means Soul Strangler are quite expendable as cannon fodder.	2. Lack of abilities makes Souls Strangler somehow equitable to raw card (card with stats only).
3. Most of all, it's a very simple card, and less strategical consideration needed when deployed this card.	-

Market Price Analysis

As a rare category of Chaos Legion edition, Soul Strangler regular foil have a very stable price. As per this post made, the price for regular stand at $0.15, which deviation ranged between $0.11 up to $0.17. The gold foil price is also very stable. The price set at $1.73 which deviate between $1.40 up to $2.20. Since the current price of regular have been little bit higher, while gold a little lower, the regular-gold price have hit a low point of 1:10. This ratio is lowered compared to ratio any of previous card I've reviewed (although it still only cost 5 - 6 times regular BCX to gain the same level as gold BCX). Therefore in my opinion purchasing gold foil card would be beneficial.

Progression Analysis

Soul Strangler growth are the definition of glass canon. Damage as the primary stats grow fast which is at Level 3 and Level 6 (although there's a small setback on speed at Level 3). Speed growth is rather stagnant, but health growth is very significant. It's a good strategy to boost this card with health booster ability (Strengthen). With 4 to 5 health at level 7, Soul Strangler should be able to withstand at least single major attack. The ultimate growth would be the Poison ability at Level 8. This ability make a major damage addition, and also very useful to make two-way damage when facing high armor card.

Rulesets To Be Watched

Ruleset	Strategy
	True Strike ruleset will turn Soul Strangler from ballista into snipe rifle. Both are painful projectiles, but only had the bullseye accuracy.
	With low health, Soul Strangler will be an primary target for card with Opportunity ability. And now this ruleset just makes all things get worse.
	Posion ruleset will render Poison ability to be useless. In addition there's no way for Soul Strangler to survive from poison damage as well.
	Soul Strangler floating between 2 to 3 speed. This rather low speed would benefit a lot from Reverse Speed effect.

Here's one of my battle experience where I rolled in high stake high damage formation. Click Here for the battle link. The battle have 19 mana cap, with Reverse Speed and Lost Magic ruleset. For my formation, I used:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Damage Type	Damage
Summoner	Thaddius Brood	3	4	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Cursed Windeku	3	6	10	-	3	Melee	3
2nd Row	Soul Strangler	3	3	2	-	2	Ranged	3
3rd Row	Grenadier	1	3	1	-	2	Ranged	2
4th Row	Uraeus	1	3	2	1	2	Melee	1
5th Row	-
6th Row	-

My opponent formation:

Position	Card Name	Level	Mana	Health	Armor	Speed	Damage Type	Damage
Summoner	Thaddius Brood	2	4	-	-	-	-	-
1st Row	Cursed Windeku	2	6	10	-	3	Melee	2
2nd Row	Silent Sha-Vi	2	5	5	-	4	Melee	2
3rd Row	Uraeus	1	3	2	1	2	Melee	1
4th Row	-
5th Row	-
6th Row	-

My formation have the upper-hand as both of us deployed the same Summoner, but my Summoner have the higher level. This open opportunity for my formation to deploy Cursed Windeku and Soul Strangler at Level 3, where both card have gained damage growth to 3 damage. So my formation have a full scale arsenal, as combined damage from all monster reach up to 9 damage (compared to opponent which reached up to only 5 damage). But this come with a high risk situation. Two ranged card placed on 2nd and 3rd row, only next to the main tanker. They both have low health and low speed. My Cursed Windeku and Uraeus stand strong to keep both archer shoot down opponent?

I believed Reverse Speed instantly turned the favor of the battle. Both Uraeus strike each other, and then its Granadier and Soul Strangler turn. With both have higher speed than Cursed Windeku, both card strike directly into Cursed Windeku and deal major blow.

The blow give my Cursed Windeku a very advantageous position. Both Windeku exchange blow and both caught in Thorn damage. And the outcome could be predicted, opponent's Windeku fallen down. Now that Silent Sha-Vi lost it strategic position, it have to deal with Cursed Windeku directly, which only result with Sha-Vi got caught in Thorn damage.

By the start of Round 3, the fate has been sealed. Even if Grenadier and Soul Strangler missed their attack on Silent Sha-Vi, the Thorn damage from Windeku will be a sure death guarantee to both Sha-Vi and Uraeus.

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

The battle above show a very reckless approach in setting up formation. Imagine opponent have deployed a card with Opportunity ability. Then Grenadier will fall in 1st Round, and Strangler will follow next. It was Reverse Speed which save the day by putting my ranged into the earlier order. In term of damage output, Soul Strangler with its 3 damage really break the bones on large tanker such as Cursed Windeku.

Do you like SOUL STRANGLER? Why or why not?

For low and medium mana battle, Soul Strangler is one of my favorites cards. Not only for the large damage output, but also for its minimum mana cost. One beneficial thing about card with low stats is how any stats buff abilities would give the greatest increment ratio (take for example 2 health buffed by Strengthen would means 50% health increase).