Death is my favorite splinter. Not always the easiest to play, but I think it's the most fun.

Life, Water, and Earth sometimes feel like "easy mode" because they have easily accessible healing and armor buffs. No doubt about it. The extra survivability gives those splinters an edge.

However, Death can be surprisingly effective, particularly against those who have grown accustomed to playing and playing against the same splinters (Life, Water, Earth). They're like..."Huh? What just happened? Why am I dead?!"

Let's start off with the summoner. Zintar sucks, but unless you have a Jarlax or a Crypt Mancer...then what can you do?

If you have a Crypt Mancer, then that's the guy to use. No doubt about it. I use Crypt Mancer even on the low mana cap fights. The 5 mana is still worth it.

Haunted Spirit is definitely one of the best tanks in the game. Swap him out for Skeletal Warrior (or Cocatrice) if it's a really low Mana Cap or if there's no way the enemy team will be using Magic Attack (ie, "Up Close and Personal" combat rule).

Don't bother with Animated Corpse, Undead Minotaur, Screaming Banshee, or Dark Enchantress. They all suck.

You probably shouldn't use Vampire or Phantom Soldier either. But those are maybes. They can be useful in specific situations. But use sparingly. Like almost never.

Your "go to" characters will be Skeletal Assassin, Haunted Spider, Undead Priest, and Twisted Jester.

To support those characters, you'll use: Undead Archer, Corrupted Pegasus, Centaur, and Creeping Ooze.

Depending on the combat rule, you'll swap out one of the support characters for Spineback wolf or Lord Arianthus. Maybe Lord of Darkness if it's the combat rule where melee can attack from any position (and you have a super high mana cap). It can be fun tossing the big guy in the very back.

I realize I'm painting with very broad strokes, but hopefully it helps.