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Card Highlights #43: Giant Alpine Skink

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Don't taunt the alligator until after you've crossed the creek.
by Dan Rather
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I initially overlooked this unit since I have a very strong lineup that already works. The Giant Alpine Skink proved itself to be a valuable unitand works great as a tank as well. I initially thought that this unit was not as good due to the high mana it requires to use but after careful review, I would say that my view changed quite significantly on the positive note. If you are curious of my new assessment on this Rebellion unit, continue reading below.

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Lore

Alpine skink are mostly found in the pine forests of the Northern Highlands and up to the alpine zone of the adjacent Agniavas. These enormous lizards grow to over six meters in length and have a thick, armored hide and preternatural agility.
They make their dens in rocky cracks and crags and emerge to feed on plants, mountain goats, and other beasts… as well as the occasional adventurer who wanders too close.

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^{For full lore of this card, visit this website:
https://next.splinterlands.com/card-detail/666/regular/13?tab=lore}

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Buy and Rental Costs

You have two ways to get Giant Alpine Skink. First, you can get him through the Glint Shop Common Packs or from the marketplace for $0.12 each. It's quite expensive for a common card due to the lack of supply due to the costy unlocking process.

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Renting isn't a viable thing right now. It is inefficient since you only have an option of renting a level 2 for 9.99 DEC per day

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Card Stats

Giant Alpine Skink has surprisingly good stats. It has high damage and health but also has high mana to use. The abilities are surprisingly good as well but I don't see anything special.

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Card Effects

Shield

Reduced damage from Melee and Ranged attacks

Shield is a good ability for tanks as it halves the damage for both range and melee attacks.

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Phase

Magic attack can miss this Unit (using the same hit/miss calculation as for Melee and Ranged attacks)

Due to Giant Alpine Skink's high speed, Phase is effective as an alternative to protect him against magic attacks.

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Stun	When a Unit with Stun hits a target, it has a chance to stun the target causing it to skip its next turn

With the large jaws, any enemy bitten by this giant creature will have a chance to be stunned and skip their turn. It's a strong ability as long as you have the luck to consecutively activate it.

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Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths
Giant Alpine Skink's strength comes from his high damage, health and great abilities. Due to these factors, he can be used as a tank in a lot of situations. He is particularly strong when your enemies focuses on using range and melee attacks due to the stats speed combined with his Shield.

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Weaknesses
One glaring weakness of Giant Alpine Skink is the high mana to use him. While some would argue that 8 mana is not that high, his mana is comparable with Diemonshark and I would then argue that Diemonshark is a stronger tank due to his great armor. The difference though is Diemonshark is an offensive tank like The Kraken, while Giant Alpine Skink is a defensive tank much like Baakjira.

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When To Use

Up Close & Personal

Only Units with Melee attack may be used in battles.

Since in this rule set, only melee units can be used, melee units with Shield are very strong. Giant Alpine Skink fits that exact description.

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Heavy Hitters

All Units have the Knock Out ability.

There are very limited stuns in the game and having it on a unit with high speed is really good as this prevents your stun unit from missing their attacks.

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Rise of the Commons

Only Common and Rare Units may be used in battles.

Since Giant Alpine Skink is a Common unit, he can be a good substitute to Diemonshark if you don't have him at higher levels. Giant Alpine Skink is also just a common unit, which means you can level up him easier.

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When Not To Use

Equalizer

The initial Health of all Units is equal to that of the Units on either team with the highest base Health.

While Giant Alpine Sknk is still very viable in this rule set, it may give you a disadvantage if your enemies focused on low health units with amazing attacks like Possessed Pippet.

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Broken Arrows

Ranged attack Units may not be used in battles.

If your enemies cannot choose range units to use, then they would instead have a higher chance to use either melee or magic attacks. While this may come to your advantage, since magic attacks can attack from any position, many players, including me, tend to choose magic attacks over melee attacks. Shield cannot protect Giant Alpine Skink from these attacks.

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Reverse Speed

Units with the lowest Speed attack first and have the highest chance of evading attacks.

Because Giant Alpine Skink has high speed, this rule set may backfire on him. Phase will also be of no help in this scenario as Speed will be applied to magic attacks due to phase and units with magic attacks normally has low speed.

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Battle Sample

^{https://splinterlands.com/?p=battle&id=sl_38a4f6af5084b20228306b1a1390b05e}

This was a tough battle. Due to the combination of Deeplurker's Demoralize and Giant Alpine Skink's Shield, this negated Quora Towershead's melee attacks. Since my Giant Alpine Skink doesn't have Phase yet, he has to shoulder the magic attacks through his health but that worked well.

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Final Thoughts

Giant Alpine Skink is a unit that I thought was weak at first until I review him in depth. This is a normal occurrence where in paper, a unit seems weak but once you see the different possibilities of what they can do, your opinions might change.

Once I got Giant Alpine Skink to at least level 5, where he gets his Phase ability, I might start using him more than Diemonshark since I only rent Diemonshark.

I can see a lot of great potential from this unit and I think he would just get better as we get better and better summoners that would have good compatibility with this newest tank.

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If you have suggested combos or questions, feel free to comment it down below.

If you are planning to play and is inspired by my post, please consider using my referral link: https://splinterlands.com?ref=kpgamingch

I do not own any of the photos in this post. All credits goes to:

• Splinterlands
• Peakmonsters
• Canva
• Giphy