Sometimes the strongest piece in the match is not the one dealing the most damage, but the one making the enemy weaker. I seen plenty of fights where a small unit quietly became stronger when left unchecked. It’s like when you’re in a race but carrying extra weight, even a small handicap can make a huge difference over time. A well-placed Ashen Cindergrim can win the match before the enemy even realizes what happened. It’s kind of like running a long race while someone secretly adds weight to your pack. You might not notice right away but step by step, the disadvantage builds up until it’s too late. That’s what debuff units like Ashen Cindergrim do best. They make the fight unfair without the opponent realizing until their line is already falling apart. I think that’s why matches with this unit often feel slower but more controlled like the enemy's world is slowly caging in. A full leveled Ashen Cindergrim can turn a normal fight into an easy grind where only your side has the advantage to finish strong.

Lore

Becoming an ashen cindergrim takes discipline, endurance, an affinity for magic, and years of brutal training.

But once forged, they bring fire and fury to the battlefield, scorching foes, unraveling enemy spells, and grinding down resistance with smoldering, relentless force. Wounded by poison or friendly fire, they only grow stronger, alchemizing pain into power.

https://splinterlands.com/card-detail/765/regular/14?tab=lore

Stats

Ashen Cindergrim is a low-mana magic unit that can help you control enemy magic damage while dealing with your own. Ashen Cindergrim can control the amount your enemy magic attack while still dealing a good damage. With Silence, it reduces magic attacks allowing your team to survive longer, making it a flexible unit for many situations. While Ashen Cindergrim is not very durable, you can pair it with tanks to protect him or archon's abilities to boost damage, then it becomes a strong value card for only 4 mana.

Abilities

Icon	Name	Description
	Opportunity	Units with the Opportunity ability may attack from any position and will target the enemy Unit with the lowest health.
		is a match because since Opportunity prioritizes lower health units first, it would be better with Weaken which reduces the enemy's health further. Weaken acts as an extra damage before the battle even starts. With this ability, you just need one health down to kill your enemies.
		is a counter because it allows units to evade magic attacks. Opportunity loses its impact when their units just dodge every attack they get. It doesn't mean that Phase makes Ashen Cindergrim useless but with Phase on the target unit, it makes Ashen Cindergrim's work a little bit harder.

	Painforge	+1 power when damaged by Poisoned or Burning, or hit by an ally.
		is a match because Poison damages everyone but those with Painforge can turn the battle into a race where its damage can increase quickly. I usually add Lorkus's Life Leech with this combo to counter the decrease in health with the evergrowing damage from Painforge and Poison.
		is a counter because unlike the poison from Noxious Fumes rule, the damage from Earthquake does not trigger Painforge. The Earthquake rule will just damage them without giving any benefit.

	Silence	Reduces the Magic attack of all enemy Units by 1.
		is a match because similar to Demoralize and Shield, Silence lowers enemy magic power and Void helps decrease this further. It's a good combo against magic-heavy teams.
		is a counter because Silence reducing the enemy attacks also means they get less damage from any Magic Reflect. These two abilities work in opposition with each other making them bad abilities to have on one side.

Good Rules to Consider

Icon	Name	Reason
	Noxious Fumes	All Units start the battle Poisoned.
		Painforge is really strong in poison matches, as it enables the Painforge passively. With the damage it gets everytime the poison ticks, Ashen Cindergrim also get higher attack. Just be mindful that the poison damage still applies and your units with Painforge still gets their health lowered each round. It would be best to have units or archons support him to make sure Ashen Cindergrim outheal the poison damage.
	Equalizer	The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.
		The Equalizer rule helps Ashen Cindergrim survive longer with the extra health while still supporting the team with debuffs as he deals consistent magic attacks. In cases that you have units with better damage though, they should be prioritized over Ashen Cindergrim but he's still a good pick if you don't have the extra mana to spare.
	Little League	Only Units & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles.
		At 4 mana, Cindergrim fits perfectly and brings value in this very limited rule. There's not a lot of strong units that has 4 mana and below so Ashen Cindergrim is a good pick in this rule. Even at lower level, his attack does not go down so Ashen Cindergrim is a good pick even if it's just for the extra damage.

Bad Rules to Think Twice

Icon	Name	Reason
	Earthquake	Non-flying Units take 2 Melee damage at the end of each round.
		Non-flying and low health makes Ashen Cindergrim fragile here. Painforge also does not gain any benefit when taking damage from Earthquake rule.
	Counterspell	All units have Magic Reflect (returns 50% of magic damage to attacker, rounded up).
		In this rule everyone gains Magic Reflect which is bad for Ashen Cindergrim because he has magic attack. On top of that, Ashen Cindergrim also has Silence ability that reduces the enemy's magic attacks reducing the Magic Reflect damage as well.
	Back to Basics	Units lose all abilities.
		Without abilities, Ashen Cindergrim is just a 2-magic attacker with weak stats. He's still useful but not so much with stats alone. He's still a good pick with only 4 mana but better to get another if you have mana to spare for a stronger, better stat unit.

Battle

Link to battle

This battle may look tough at first glance since, on paper, I seem to be on the weaker side. Most of my lineup relies on magic attacks while the enemy’s units gain Void from the Dwarf Bloodline through Enemy Fithe Bladestone's Bloodline Dominion. Even with that clear disadvantage, my team’s synergy and strategy still came out on top and secured the win.

Images were taken from Splinterlands, made in Canva, drawn in Krita and animated in Photoshop.

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