"This is a nightmare! I should not be here!" the captain screamed and lose its poise. He watched in horror as his company being slaughtered and feasted by the Cursed Windeku. He was in a mission to bring reinforcement when an ambush by the Chaos Legion jeopardize his cause.
A feeling of regret and guilt engulf him as he was the only person managed to survive. He was kneel there frozen and unable to move. There suddenly a stream of blue line slowly spread into the plain of fallen soldier. He watched a sentient figure walked slowly into himself. It was Spirit Hoarder! The entity who scavenge the soul of the fallen one. It walked toward the captain.
"Now Begone! I've done my part to lure bring these soldiers souls as your feast!". Spirit Hoarder stare at his eyes, the eyelids slowly narrowing down. It stuck the sharp tip of its wand into the captain's chest.
"No! No! You promised me to unbound my souls and let me join the Chaos Legion". But his scream is fading away as his souls fling away into the orb of the wands.
Legendary card could be somewhat an intimidating card in the first sight. Some of them started with better parameter, but most of them started with more abilities than most cards. But the most intimidating aspect would be the high price needed to attain these cards.
Most Legendary card would be a high mana card, but Spirit Hoarder is unique for it cost only 3 mana. But for a 3 mana card, Spirit Hoarder started with only fair parameter while possessing only 1 ability. Spirit Hoarder is a Neutral Splinter, and like most other Neutral Splinter card, their weaker parameter is somehow designed to compensate their deployment flexibility. But still we expect this card to deliver its best tactics. So let's see what we can dig deeper about this card!
Pros & Cons
 |  |
|---|---|
| 1. Spirit Hoarder started with an average parameter. Although the card only have 1 speed, the 3 health is fair and the 1 magic damage is somehow powerful, considering its very rare to have magic cards costing less than 3 mana. | 1. The fair amount of parameter with no further growth increase the risk of Spirit Hoarder being easily banished in higher league. |
2. Spirit Hoarder is a very tactical Support card. Its utility come so much from its abilities, which not only rare to get but also efficient in term of mana. The first ability, Triage, might be owned by other cards costing 3 mana or less (for example Angelic Mandarin, Khmer Princess, or Herbalist), but only Spirit Hoarder could possess it at Level 1. But the contrary with Blind, although this ability available in many other cards, Spirit Hoarder is one of few possess it at only 3 mana. | 2. The main liability of Spirit Hoarder is its speed. The 1 speed will reduce Spirit Hoarder act timing to the last order. This could deprive any momentum from Triage to heal cards before being totally banished, or momentum of Dispel to remove buff before opponent acted. |
*Reference for Archetype term : Striker --> Superior Damage / Tanker --> Superior Health / Ninja --> Superior Speed / Support --> A Lot Number of Abilities. |
Market Price Analysis
There's a difference in price trend for regular foil and gold foil. Regular foil have been moving in a downtrend, but the current price would be the mid price compared to the highest and lowest price in the past 180 days. Meanwhile gold foil have been moving in a slow uptrend. The current regular price is $5.60 while gold foil is $43.98. Counting the total bcx needed to reach the max level, regular foil will cost $61.6, while gold foil will cost $175.92. This price gap is quite wide and slowly become widening, and turning gold foil less affordable in the future. The price downtrend seemed to be contradicting with the rise price of the Chaos Legion packs. With this pulling pack become more expensive, direct purchase on regular foil might be preferable both for battle or investing.
Progression Analysis
There isn't much to talk on Spirit Hoarder progression steps. No particular status gaining growth except for the magic damage addition on the max level. The is a very powerful growth considering its very rare to see magic cards with less than 3 mana while having 2 damage (although there's Ice Pixie from Untamed editions which cost 2 mana while having far better speed and even armor). Other than this, the card only gained 2 additional support abilities, they are Dispel and Blind. In my opinion, the effectiveness of these abilities is questionable, since they are found easily in other cards, and some of them also cost 3 mana only.
I somewhat expect Spirit Hoarder to possess Scavenger ability, living up to its name which feasting on the soul of the dead being. At the end, it's somehow difficult to weight all the progression steps whether they are worth for the cost to level them up.
Rulesets To Be Watched
| Ruleset | Strategy |
|---|---|
 | Additional armor would be a great additional layer of protection for Spirit Hoarder against any melee or ranged attacks. |
 | Spirit Hoarder are useless without its Triage or Blind abilities active. So best to avoid this ruleset. |
 | Blast damage could easily creep into the peripheral cards of any Tanker cards. With only 3 health available, it would be too risky to have Blast damage burn Spirit Hoarder health in 2 to 3 rounds. |
 | Having act timing inverted into earlier order have ambivalence effect on Spirit Hoarder. Dispel would work better to prevent any buff before opponents act; but Triage which triggered for the 1st round would bring no benefit if there's no damage been done. |
WATCH BATTLE
Here's one of my battle experience with Spirit Hoarder in my formation. https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_91606e3962aac48e3cea51847e7cd273&ref=kid.miniatures for the battle link. The battle has 33 mana cap, with Explosive Weaponry ruleset. For my formation, I used:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Thaddius Brood | 2 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Bone Golem | 1 | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Crypt Beetle | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Melee | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Death Elemental | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 3 | Magic | 1 |
| 4th Row | Magi Necrosi | 1 | 6 | 4 | - | 4 | Magic | 2 |
| 5th Row | Spirit Hoarder | 1 | 3 | 3 | - | 1 | Magic | 1 |
| 6th Row | Dhampir Stalker | 2 | 7 | 5 | - | 3 | Ranged | 3 |
My opponent formation:
| Position | Card Name | Level | Mana | Health | Armor | Speed | Damage Type | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Summoner | Drake of Arnak | 1 | 4 | - | - | - | - | - |
| 1st Row | Unicorn Mustang | 1 | 8 | 10 | - | 4 | Melee | 3 |
| 2nd Row | Mycelic Morphoid | 1 | 1 | 2 | - | 1 | Melee | 1 |
| 3rd Row | Failed Summoner | 1 | 2 | 4 | - | 2 | None | - |
| 4th Row | Regal Peryton | 1 | 5 | 6 | - | 5 | Magic | 1 |
| 5th Row | Goblin Psychic | 1 | 6 | 3 | - | 1 | Magic | 2 |
| 6th Row | Child of the Forest | 1 | 3 | 2 | - | 5 | Ranged | 1 |
There's a mana handicap on this battle with my opponent utilize only 29 mana, 4 mana short from the max cap. I bring an anti magic formation, consist of Thaddius as summoner with its magic debuff and Bone Golem with its Void. Meanwhile the rest of the back row made up of magic card with Snipe ability and Dhampir Stalker as powerful damage dealer. Crypt Beetle isn't my favorite card, and I still find difficulty to utilize it. But with the remaining mana, I pick Crypt Beetle just as expendable secondary Tanker.
My opponent bring the typical Earth Splinter magic formation. The formation is lead with Unicorn Mustang, which surely a bad news for my magic cards. The remaining card in the back row are cannon fodder, except for Regal Peryton and Goblin Psychic, which be the main damage dealer.
Round 1 opened by Child of the Forest and Regal Peryton launching their attack. Although the attack barely damage the target, the blast damage slowly chipping some of my cards. Magi Necrosi follow up a counter attack against Failed Summoner, leaving it with 1 health remaining while killing Mycelic Morphoid. Death Elemental follow with additional Snipe against Failed Summoner only to be taken down by the magic reflection. Slowly but sure, the blast damage have left Regal Peryton with only 3 health left.
The battle then take a quick turn with the bigger boys hitting their target. Bone Golem and Dhampir Stalker both hit Unicorn Mustang and deal 2 blast damage against Regal Peryton. By the end of the turn my formation already left with 4 cards remaining, but my opponent left with 3 cards remaining.
Between Dhampir and Golem, Spirit Hoarder interfere with its act. Although its damage against Mustang become void, the blast damage managed to chip 1 health from Regal Peryton. Then Spirit Hoarder perform Triage against Magi Necrosi, healing 2 health.
In Round 2, Magi Necrosi make another excellent performance by hitting Goblin Psychic, and killing two birds by one stone. Now its Unicorn Mustang solely facing against 4 standing cards. Mustang and Golem duel each other, but Mustang outmaneuvered Golem, and able to avoid its attack. Magi Necrosi exposed to the blast damage and received 2 damage. But for the 2nd time in consecutive round, Spirit Hoarder came to aid with its Triage, bringing Magi Necrosi back to 3 health.
By the start of Round 3, Unicorn Mustang put its last resort by taking down Bone Golem. But Dhampir Stalker which already draw its arrow, release and put Mustang to its demise.
CONCLUSION
Did your strategy work? What will you try differently next time?
Spirit Hoarder managed to survive until the last round. The 3 health looks small, but quite enough to withstand the barrage of blast damage. Spirit Hoarder didn't deal much damage, as the main Tanker possessed Void. But it should be highlighted that Spirit Hoarder perform Triage very effectively to mend Magi Necrosi health. After Beetle Crypt fallen down, Magi Necrosi sustain much blast damage coming from the attack hitting Bone Golem. I could imagine without the Triage effect, Magi Necrosi would fallen down in the 2nd round, and then its almost impossible to score kill on Goblin Psychic and Child of the Forest. Triage become a savior and game changing factor in this battle.
Do you like SPIRIT HOARDER? Why or why not?
I emphasize the significant importance of Triage possessed by Spirit Hoarder. Spirit Hoarder is the only card to own this ability on the Bronze League. Triage are very important in mid and high mana cap battle, since the number of recovered health would scale up with the max health parameter. And while in most battle, players would split up attack between front row and ambush attack on back row; Triage could slow down any incoming damage toward the back row and pull the fight into the long run.