In The Turtle:
I don't see a DSM used in a turtle very effectively very often. And most turtle games are played under rules in which DSM's just plain aren't allowed, so I won't go into too much depth here. The DSM can be used effectively in a turtle setup, as a defensive unit being used in sort of a way to counter an enemy's armour, but even better is to use him with a furgon, and rush in to un-stone your opponent. If you manage to accomplish this, then your dsm starts to pwn their units which are way outta their way and no extra armour and you're pressuring their side while they're taking a beating on your side. Main thing is, never use this in a turtle with another pyro, then you're just wasting unit spaces.
In The Rush:
Alrighty! The DSM in the rush is one of the more effective sets it can be used in. The idea here, is have your dsm up in the front line, so that the first turn he can attack, he gets a hit in on some important units, like a scout, mud, knight or scout, mud and dragon, and then you either retreat him back to protect him, or don't move him at all. Analyze the situation and see which would be better for you. Now, if you can move your units to either make it a bad move for them to go after the dsm (cause they'll be losing 2-3 units for just the dsm) then that's the best option. This means you don't move your dsm and he recovers in 2 turns and fires off another devastating cross. You can usually accomplish this with the combos of Poison Wisp + Dsm + Mud Golem, or Dsm + Beast Rider + Mud Golem. But, and this is the more common case, if you can't protect him to live in the front line, just send him backwards, if you have a knight behind your dsm then you can retreat him in behind the knight and avoid scout direct fire on your precious Dsm, as well as any dragon that may try to take a whack at him. So let's say you get first turn, and you can't move your dsm. What do you do? The answer is whatever you can, it's a rush. If you have a beast rider, you probably want to use that to get a hit in on a couple of units at once (provided this won't kill the Beast Rider in the process) and then the next turn you'll be able to add a whole new level of damage with the Dsm that will cause them to fear for their units lives. And finally, bring in the mud golem to clean up. Another strategy I've seen is using a poison wisp set, where the wisp would normally be used to kill the cleric, but it can't in this game. So they use it first turn to poison some units, then bring in the Dsm and severely damage the units that were just poisoned (most likely out of poison by now). But the key is to bring in a mud golem next and mud quake around, causing utter destruction to scouts. And if they waste even one turn healing, your wisp lives to poison something else and you can repeat the process later.
In The Anti:
The Dsm in the anti setup is probably the best place for it. How you use it, is simply have it up front, and hope for a same sides game. Use it the first turn you can, and then retreat it back into your set, if you have some sort of pocket *a setup of units which it can walk into to be surrounded by friendly units on all sides* to retreat it into, even better. In the turns following, try and wreak as much havoc as possible. Use your scouts, muddy (mud golem), knights, beast rider, golem ambusher, whatever you have to make them play on the defensive instead of going after that Dsm. Then, when 3 turns are up, bring him back up and attack again. This time, he'll most likely die, but that's when you get to unleash your dragon on their weakened units, and pick them off. If you didn't get to keep them on the defensive, and they invaded your setup but didn't kill the dragonspeaker mage, try and keep it alive, and use it to take out any units that might be charging in. Listen, this thing has 27 power, unbloackable, and the potential to hit 5 units at once if it's by itself, so you better use it as often as possible, and as effectively as possible. One of the strengths of the dsm is it's ability to take out knights quickly. Since most of the time people line their knights up to form a knight wall, the dsm can deal 20 damage to each in one turn. Then bring in the mud golem, hopefully get a spot next to two knights and do 11 damage. They're both at 19 and the next time your dsm comes up, he's gonna lay on the hurt again, if they healed, mud quake again and the knights are toast, as well as anything else you might've been hitting.
In The Bomb:
The Dsm's original home, the bomb setup. Let's start out by saying a bomb is a setup comprised of mostly magic units with high recovery, and unblockable attacks. It's meant to rely on completely overwhelming the enemy with firepower and rely very little on strategy to get the job done. The reason why the dragonspeaker mage is at home in this setup, is because of the dragonspeak effect, which transfers the dragon's attack power to any pyromancer on the field as well as the Dsm. If the point of this setup is to overwhelm your opponent with unblockable firepower so most of their units die off the bat, and you can just use a knight or 2 with the dragon and scouts to finish the job, then you'd better do just that. Use your pyromancers as often as possible and try not to put the dsm anywhere it'll be killed near the start, because the other units won't be near as effective without it.You can use a mud golem, poison wisp, pyromancers, dsm, dark magic witch (dmw), whatever you want in the bomb, but I'd reccomend a cleric, as well as a 2 scouts and at least one knight, lurking around in the back of your setup to be in charge of cleanup. Now, where should you put your dragon in all this mess? You're probably thinking near the back to protect it so that you can keep using your dragonspeaker mage to it's best ability. But you'd be wrong. The dragon is strongest up front, in any setup, rush, anti, turtle, or bomb. The point is, if you're using a dsm, then the minute he dies you have a powerful dragon right in the heat of the battle ready to obliterate a scout or knight, whatever you can. Use the dragon as often as possible too, 28 attack power should not be wasted.
