With the onset of Chaos Legion, Alpha/Beta cards were nerfed from the 'ghost' deck. As a result, since I am part of the Chaos Legion generation, (I joined September 2021) I don't have Giant Roc in my deck. But that's okay there's never been a better time to rent cards. With that said, I went to Peakmonsters and got me a Giant Roc for whooping .10 DEC per day lol. I think that's the lowest a card can rent for. If not it would probably have been less lol. Not because its a bad card. It's just that right now there are millions and millions of cards in circulation. If this game gains traction which I think it will, all these cards will be needed. I think the Splinterlands team did some projections and came to the conclusion that 15 million chaos packs was the right amount of cards. Now we just have to wait for more players. And they will! Lesss go!
Anyway, according to Splinterlands lore, "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." 1
Giant Roc is a common fire monster from the Alpha/Beta series.
At level 1, it has a mana count of 5 with +4 health, +1 melee,+2 speed, with flying and reach ability. These abilities allow it to evade non flying monsters with melee and range attack and can attack from second position.
Show me the Stats
At level one Giant Roc is a so-so card. For a mana count of five there are better cards out there. Its not very fast and it doesn't provide much of an attack. This monster is better once you level it up. At level six Its a little bit faster and offers the trample ability.
In conclusion this card is for niche use purposes. When there is an earthquake rule set it can become very useful as it has the flying ability. However, this card is not one of my preferred monsters as it is pretty slow and does not offer much of an attack. In fact, it is rarely used. I don't see any other use for it when there are better options out there. Though, one thing going for it, its a cool looking card. I wouldn't want to mess with it. I mean look at it, its carrying a big ole elephant. Imagine seeing one of those in real life. It would be both majestic and scary at the same time.
The Battle was a mana cap of 36 with enrage and no neutral monsters. Only fire, water, life, and dragon splinters were allowed. Below is my line up. I went with Pyre as my summoner for the extra speed. As speed kills in this game!
1. FINEAS RAGE:
Fineas rage is an excellent monster at position number to as it offers +5 speed, +8 health, and the reach ability. However, for this battle I decided to use him in first position, rather unconventional. See I wanted to attack first and use speed to my advantage. As my strategy for this battle was to win with Speed.
2. GIANT ROC:
I plugged in Giant Roc at position two because quite frankly that was the only logical place to put them in. Its reach ability would attack as Fineas Rage protected the front.
3. RADIATED SCORCHER:
Radiated scorcher is one of the better 1 mana count cards as it offer +2 health, and has some speed at +2. I put him in at position 2 simply as a decoy/meat shield. Should my oppent have snipe he would be the first to go while the rest of my better monsters attacked.
4. LAVA LAUNCHER:
Lava Launcher is an EPIC card and it is one of the better ones out there. It has plus 3 range attack. However it can attack from the front. Its +6 armor always comes in handy. And it too has good speed at +3. Since I went with Pyre as my summoner this card would become even faster.
5. FIRE ELEMENTAL:
Continuing with the theme of speed I put Fire Elemental at position five due to its low health count of 2. But its plus five speed and blast ability can be devastating. If you can keep this card alive it can do some serious damage.
6. EFREET ELDER:
Lastly, we went Efreet Elder, well because it has the last stand ability. It gains increased status if it the last one standing. I always put him last. I've tried protecting him before but its not worth it. You are better off rolling the dice and hoping he doesn't get outlasted by sneak attacks.
Did my strategy work? What will I try differently next time?
Speed KILLS. Yes my strategy certainly worked. The unconventional use of putting Fineas Rage first worked out beautifully as he was able to attack first even though my opponent also came with a heavy speed attack. It took a couple rounds for my team to get rid of their tank. But after a few misses and continued attack by Lava Launcher and Fire elemental I was able to get past the fron line and after that it was smooth sailing as their back line was quite frankly extremely weak. In fact last stand was never needed.
There's nothing I would try differently. This win was very satisfactory as it was speed vs speed. It just happened that my wise decision to go with Pyre as my summoner was too much for my opponent to overcome. Speed kills.
Do I like Giant Roc Why or why not?
I don't really care for Giant Roc even though its a cool looking monster. Its kind of slow and offers little attack. Its a decent card in earthquake rule sets or if you level it up. Otherwise, I wouldn't go out of my way to buy or rent this card.
As you can see it is very limiting, and in this battle I had to resort to an unconventional tactic of putting Fineas Rage as my tank to overcome some of its limitation. Thankfully my strategy worked out.
This concludes my battle challenge. I hope you enjoyed it and were able to learn a little bit more about Giant Roc and see how the card stacks up against the rest of the competition.
If you enjoyed my write up and want to talk strategy you can find me @hive.pizza in our Discord.
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