Lore

In the caverns of the Deep beneath the towering peaks of the Daigenloft Mountains reside a colony of deep gnomes and a grove of arboreal shadites who have formed an uneasy alliance. If one is attacked, the other is sworn to defend. The deep gnomes’ arborists are responsible for nurturing and maintaining this alliance. They prune the shadites, diagnose diseases, and implement treatments. In exchange, the shadites offer their fruits and leaves, which serve as both sustenance and components for magical spells.

Stats and Abilities

The Dark Arborist is a rare Death Splinter reward card. It's a magic damage reward card that debuffs the enemy melee attackers, reducing their damage by 1. At level 3, it gains the Magic Reflect ability and at level 4, it gains another magic damage making it a useful card in certain rulesets and a nice addition to your deck. At max level it gains another debuff ability, Void.

This card may find its niche when you anticipate that your opponent will play melee cards or if you want to debuff his tank. It can also be useful in Wands Out ruleset where only magic units maybe used because of its Void and Magic Reflect abilities.

Sample Battle

My Team

In low mana battles, I would pick the Death Splinter. This is because of Cursed Windeku who is a very good tank at only 6 mana. In this battle, I built my team around supporting my tank. In second position is Shadow Snitch, also great in low mana battles. The rest of the team, I picked Dark Arborist to debuff the enemy while doing 2 magic damage, Ravenhood Warden to provide armor to the team and Wierding Warrior to amplify Windeku's Thorns while also shattering the enemy armor. In the last position I placed The Halfling Refugee who would be great in absorbing damage from enemy sneak attackers.

The Opponent

My opponent has the higher level summoner and units. His Cursed Windeku is level 6 giving it a 1 extra health advantage over mine. However, it's melee damage was reduced by my Dark Arborist and my Wierding Warrior amplified my Windeku's Thorns damage. My opponent's Wierding Warrior was a lower level and did not give such buff to his tank.

The Battle

My opponent's Windeku was eliminated in the first round and once it was gone his other units followed.

link to battle: https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_6c28d26d8d9165f020bb887cd656ce10&ref=logen9f

Conclusion

The Dark Arborist has useful abilities in its kit that will give you options and flexibility when playing certain rulesets. It may not be a meta card but it has its niche in low mana battles and in situations when you want to debuff the enemy.

Image Credits

The cover image was AI generated using Night Cafe. The rest of the images were from the Splinterlands game.