Splinterlands Community Engagement Challenge: Unsung Heroes - The Importance Of True Strike

It's been a while since I did a Community Engagement Challenge and when I saw that this week's theme was Unsung Heroes, I thought why not give it a shot?

There are in fact many cards that are unsung heroes but I thought I should introduce a card with a unique ability. That's Dhampir Stalker! Dhampir Stalker is Death Ranged card - at level 1, it deals 3 Ranged damage and has 5 HP, which is already pretty decent for a 7 mana. The underrated ability of this card is its True Strike ability, which means every hit will be 100% accurate. This is especially important in battles where opponents use card with high speed to score misses from the hits, but with Dhampir Stalker, you can be assured that the 3 Ranged damage would go through! The only downside I would say applies to all Ranged cards, which is they are unable to deal damage from the tank position.

What's more amazing is the current card trades around USD 0.02, which makes it a very cost effective card to pick up if you don't have it.

Before we go further, here's the lore for Dhampir Stalker and you should take a read too!

Half-vampire, the Dhampir are faster and stronger than normal humans. Most have taken to a mercenary lifestyle, never quite welcome with vampires or humans. The Stalker is adept at tracking their prey, then dispatching the target with a silent and perfectly-placed arrow from the shadows.
From his perch atop the dock master's building, Vilak observed the commotion below. There on the docks, crooked and bleeding among the fishing boats and merchant ships, was the corpse of a male. Tanned skin. Brown beard. Dirty clothes. Lifeless eyes staring up at the night sky.

Surrounding the victim were four of the city guards, each stumbling about, peering behind crates and waving their arms. Clueless idiots, all of them.

Vilak did not move, but simply breathed deeply. The scent of salt, kelp, wood, ale, piss, and...ah. There it was. Blood.

Although only half vampire, his ability to track even the faintest hint of blood was as dependable as that of a full Nocturni. His crimson eyes slowly moved their gaze to the southern district where the blood scent led.

His target had taken a black-fletched arrow to the gut. Vilak had taken care to avoid major arteries. It was critical that the target survived long enough to answer a few questions. Unfortunately for the lone dock worker who rushed to help, the target was not eager to be the subject of scrutiny. The flash of steel and a quick slash across the neck sent the dock worker sprawling backwards, clutching his throat.

The target had then stumbled away from the docks and into the city.

Vilak shouldered his bow. Pulling his hood low, he smiled grimly and slid down the side of the roof.

It was time to hunt.

---

Using a recent battle to illustrate, here's how I lined up my cards together with Dhampir Stalker. With only Common and Rare cards allowed, this was the best chance for cards like Dhampir Stalker to shine. The death deck has a strong deck of Common and Rare cards like Cursed Windeku and Dhampir Stalker, and our featured card slots in behind like what most Ranged cards would be positioned.

Round 1: My opponent probably made a mistake to use a Taunt card and that meant Dhampir Stalker took full advantage and dealt 6 Ranged card, and now both teams were equal with 5 cards each.

Round 2: A tough round as my Sand Worm was struggling with the speed difference but Dhampir Stalker was trusted to continue grinding the hits.

Round 3: Cursed Windeku was extremely strong at the front while Dhampir Stalker dealt the third hit this battle.

Round 4: 3 misses for Sand Worm but we were still doing okay. We still had all 5 cards and as the battle dragged on, Dhampir Stalker continued to pound the damage.

Round 5: We were almost done. Cursed Windeku finally went down but it was enough for us to get a good advantage in this battle.

And after 7 long rounds - Victory!

You can view the battle here.

So to sum up:

In my opinion, Dhampir Stalker is an extremely strong card with True Strike because 100% accuracy is so important in close battles. Any misses or bad luck with the probability chance might make a difference between a win or loss. For long battles, Dhampir Stalker also does well because it's a guaranteed 3 Ranged damage per round. And its 5 HP means it can fend off weak Sneak hits as well.

That's all I have! Let me know if you have any thoughts too!

As always, thanks for reading and have a pleasant day ahead!

---

If you are interested to sign up to play Splinterlands, my referral link is here.