This guide is the fifth in a series I am writing to give beginners an easy way to reach 1000+ MMR and beyond. You can use these tips to either reach Silver I very quickly, or to compete for top 20 bronze to earn seasonal DEC rewards.
I will explain all of the cards that you should get to be fully equipped for 95+% of rulesets using the life splinter. Every time you play life, if you have level 2 or 3 of all these cards, you'll be able to build an S tier meta build in Bronze.
The idea is simple: Rent level 3 copies of all the common cards, level 2 of the rares/epics, and level 1 for the legendary cards. These are the highest levels for Bronze.
Summoners
Tyrus Paladium
This card is the best summoner for life splinter IMO. The other option at 3 mana offers +1 health, and +1 armor is generally stronger than that since it will block any melee attack for only one damage. Overflow damage will be ignored (unless they have piercing) which is a big benefit compared to +1 health.
Monsters
Bila the Radiant
Bila is the biggest version of the 2 damage leech life magic user. Fire Splinter has Zalran Efreet, Death Splinter has Ancient Lich, and the Life splinter has Bila the Radiant.
In general, magic damage along with leech life is a very strong combo. Bila is a bit expensive at 8 mana, but that just means you save her for high mana rulesets. Once you have 34+ mana to work with, Bila is a very powerful option.
Cave Slug
Opportunity has always been one of my favorite effects in the game. Ever since I was slaying the bottom range of Bronze league with my first ever Splinterlands purchase, a golden level 3 Serpentine Spy, I've loved it.
Cave Slug is a bit expensive at 5 mana. You should save it for medium or high mana rulsets. When it works though, it's so good - 3 melee and opportunity is a powerful combo.
Clay Golem
Every class has its anti-magic card. For Life splinter, that card is the Clay Golem. If your opponent is abusing magic strategies on every game they play, use the golem and shut them down.
Divine Healer
This is an essential card for most life strategies. You want to use the Divine Healer to keep your frontline tank alive while your other benched monsters can take advantage of synergies.
Almost every strong life build utilizes heals. Use this card!
Herbalist
Make sure you have this card available specifically for rulesets where your monsters are all poisoned. This is a simple "get-out-of-jail-free" card in those rulesets to protect your frontline monster.
I wouldn't use Herbalist in most other rulesets. Save it for the poison situations.
High Priest Darius
An expensive bruiser utilizing magic damage, high priest Darius only has one drawback and that's six health for ten mana. You need a LOT of mana to make use of this card. I might only use it literally in 99 mana rulsets... Nonetheless, probably a good card to have available if you can.
Luminous Eagle
Three melee damage in combination with reach and flying is a great combo. As with many life monsters, this card has relatively low health for its mana cost and needs to be synergized with other monsters to get proper value.
Combine this card with a melee boost from the Silvershield Knight and it can be very powerful.
Sacred Unicorn
A self-healing tank bruiser with seven mana, this card is very powerful if you can keep it alive. Boost its armor or health as much as possible and support it with heals from the Divine Healer.
Silvershield Knight
This is the card that makes a lot of the other Life Splinter monsters make sense. Boosting melee attacks by one is a very powerful effect -- it's the entire reason Fire Splinter's Malric Inferno is so good -- and turns a lot of other life splinter cards from decent to amazing.
You'll want to utilize Silvershield Knight as one of your primary support tools when building synergistic life teams for the bronze league. Boost attack on Cave Slug, Unicorn, Eagle, Clay Golem, etc etc etc and destroy all opposition.
Silvershield Paladin
This card has the shield ability, greatly reducing all melee damage it receives. That means you should have this card for any rulesets that mandate melee monsters -- either the melee only ruleset, or either the no-magic-monsters rule or no-ranged-monsters rule.
Whenever melee monsters are forced, use this card to defend yourself.
Truthspeaker
Giving two extra armor to all allies, this card is insanely good to great synergy value for cards like Sacred Unicorn, Cave Slug, or Luminous Eagle.
At this point in the list you can see how the combinations are the key -- Truthspeaker, Silvershield Knight, and Divine Healer provide the support that allow your other monsters to stay alive and defeat the opposing team.
Warrior of Peace
This card is quite expensive considering it has no attack. I don't use it very much, but I've lost to it enough times that it merits inclusion on this list.
Use the demoralize ability to reduce opponents' melee attack by one, then provide defensive buffs and heals to your own frontline monster so your opponent can never break through. If used properly, this card can shut down opposing melee strategies.
Conclusion
Life Splinter is the most difficult splinter to use effectively in my opinion. I tend to use it less than the other classes.
The thing about Life in Splinterlands is that it requries good synergies and smart building, but this is much more difficult than other classes. It's relatively easy to build huge aggro with Fire or Water splinters, and easier to create defensive builds with Death or Nature splinters.
Some players crush with Life. I don't think it is useless by any means. I do have to be honest that it is my least used splinter, and one that I wouldn't recommend to new players. Consider Life an experimental splinter for now, pending some new discovery where I figure out how to use it properly.