The "Share your weekly Battle" theme of this week is Giant Roc. You may not know but Rocs are pretty important fantastic beasts. I want to share a little bit more about what are Rocs and why are they so impressive. Let's start!
First of all, let's try to understand what is that pink bird carrying an elephant? Let's be honest; I'm not a big fan of the artwork of splinterlands but still, they are not just scrabbling things. This depiction of the roc is pretty accurate.
In Wikipedia, it says: "The roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey in the popular mythology of the Middle East."
This illustration was drawn by the 19th century illustrator Edward Julius Detmold. Pretty awesomei right?
In the 13th century, Marco Polo (as quoted in Attenborough (1961: 32)) stated:
It was for all the world like an eagle, but one indeed of enormous size; so big in fact that its quills were twelve paces long and thick in proportion. And it is so strong that it will seize an elephant in its talons and carry him high into the air and drop him so that he is smashed to pieces; having so killed him, the bird swoops down on him and eats him at leisure.
The merchants break the roc's egg, Le Magasin pitoresque, An episode from the 5th voyage of Sinbad the Sailor in the "One Thousand and One Nights". Illustration from "Les Mille et une nuits", par Galland - Paris, 1865.
Elephant Carried Away by a Roc after design by Stradanus, 1590
Ok, after all this literature and myths I want to share another great Roc from my memories. I don't know how many of you know about late 20th century games but my first real game with good graphics was HOMM3(Heroe of Might and Magic 3)
The roc is the fifth-level creature of the Stronghold faction in Heroes of Might and Magic III: The Restoration of Erathia.
It can be recruited from the cliff nest. The roc can be upgraded to the thunderbird.
Rocs and thunderbirds are the only flying units available at Stronghold towns.
As a quick, flying unit, the roc is great for striking the enemy's weaker points. It is too weak to last long on it's own against large forces.
Now, enough history! Let's talk about the Giant Roc.
From far away, a Roc may be mistaken for a normal bird, but once it comes closer its true size can be appreciated. These massive birds never stray from the Burning Lands, most likely due to the warm ground and favorable nesting conditions of the uninhabitable wasteland of The Unknown.
The card itself is alpha/beta and it's pretty useful I guess. It starts with a pretty earthquake-resistant flying ability (duh, of course!) and reach with a not so bad 2 speed and 4 health. Then it adds trample at level 6.
| Level 1 | Level 6 | Level 9 | |
|---|---|---|---|
The prices are also down like all the other cards right now.
Now you know your card. Let's check out some battles. First my battle in this CL meta world. I'm doing it right now and sharing even if it's a loss. It's a Silver 1 match.
Well, against a Thaddius Brood death team, I lost the match.
That's ok, going against these new decks is hard. Also, it's like playing chess against Deep Blue when you play against a Bot. But it's a good thing to play against a bot, I don't really understand the bot-haters at all. When I beat a bot it's means that I play too good :) Here is the battle link!
What went wrong is Cursed Windeku! I hate/love this card :)
Ok, don't really feel sad about that loss. But I want to share other matches where Roc gets a win. So I'll share you the matches from Splinterlands Famdom It's a great place to see the potentials of cards. Not so up to date but still nice!
Here is the matchs list:
First, a bronze league match:
Well, I must say that is not a very strong opponent but still you can see how important is a reach character!
Second is a silver match:
ok, ok! Yodin Zakui, duh! But I won several matches against Yodin, he's not a god!
Here's a fair diamond league match: Malric to Malric!
Battle link
I think you can make use of any character with the right circumstances but I have a bond with the not so Giant Roc (using Giant as an adjective is wrong in the first place since Roc itself is already a giant bird, but if you picture a Roc carrying a battleship than that would be a Giant Roc, am I make myself clear!)
And also thanks to the curation team that gives their time to read these articles.
Share and spread the love of Splinterlands!
