Share Your Battle Challenge

Giant Roc

Giant Roc, a card some, in fact, many, would argue is one of the worst cards in the game. This poor bird is going to be tough to use I imagine, but we're going to make sure we see Giant Roc do what he does best... which is... something. (look, he has a lot of solid competition)

First, some info on Giant Roc:

THEME	Giant Roc
Edition	ALPHA/BETA
Rarity	COMMON
Splinter	FIRE
Attack Type	Melee

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.

Giant Roc has one of the more complex ability spreads out of the Alpha/Beta Commons, ending with 3 Abilities in a fairly unique combination. His starting stats at Level 1, he has both Flying and Reach, with 1 Melee, 2 Speed, and 4 Health for nearly 5 Mana. Quite an expensive card for his stat spread, and this, largely, is the reason why many dislike him.

Level 4 is is a small power spike, where he gains +1 Melee and +1 Health from his original stats: Unfortunately, this doesn't do much in making Roc very competitive with other Reach attackers, especially the new ones.

Giant Roc gains Trample at Level 6, however, due to its low attack and rather low speed at this level, it's not much of a significant upgrade until later on.

At Level 8, it gains an additional Speed and +1 Melee, finally getting to a point where the card is getting solid, however, at this point, many other cards are simply more powerful. Giant Roc is usually facing an uphill battle of a poor mana to stat ratio.

His final stats at Level 10 are 3 Melee, 5 Speed, 6 Health, and Flying, Reach, and Trample.

He costs about $1 per BCX in his Beta variant

**LEVEL COSTS**
Level 4 costs about $13, this is where he gains **+1 Melee**
Level 6 costs $516, this is where he gains **Trample**
At Level 8, which costs about $ , he gains another **+1 Melee**
Max Level costs $1515 (based on 1 BCX prices)

*Keep in mind that higher BCX Cards come with discounts, this is the math for purchasing 1 BCX Cards, which you should NOT do if you're planning to level.*

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕊𝕦𝕞𝕞𝕠𝕟𝕖𝕣

Your options with Giant Roc come down to Fire and Dragon Summoners, with a good selection of each to utilize to make Giant Roc more powerful. We'll start with Fire: Tarsa and Plado Emberstorm with an honorable mention to Malric Inferno. Qid Yuff's Armor piercing is usually the best bonus for a Trample monster, but for Giant Roc, who's attack is frankly very low for a trample monster, he needs some boosts to his offenses more than armor piercing, which would only pierce 1 or 2 damage. Your decision here frankly relies on which one you own, and whether debuffs or buffs are the better option, as Emberstorm lowers health and speed, and Tarsa buffs health.

Dragons are a bit different:

Okay, so it's exactly what I regularly choose for tanks and position 2 cards: Kitty! Kitty really just amps up any Tank or Off-Tanks survivability through her speed boost, true strike, and heal, which really complements bulky, slow units such as the tanks and off tanks, so it's natural that I would recommend her each time.

As a cheaper alternative, Daria and Drake of Arnak will also work in either amping offense or defense.

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 ℙ𝕠𝕤𝕚𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟

Position 2
This is a reach attacker, it's best in Position 2, and frankly, only Position 2 outside of niche situations such as Melee attacks from anywhere (oftentimes which means a non-reach monster has better stats!)

ℙ𝕣𝕖𝕗𝕖𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

1. Armored Up is sort of a double edged sword, you gain more defense, but it also hurts Giant Roc's damage. This is not recommended at all though if a common Magic splinter is available (Water in Wild, Earth in Modern)
2. Odds allows the use of Giant Roc and eliminates the use of a few reach attackers who are even mana.
3. Earthquake is negated by Flying, making Giant Roc one of the 'better' Reach Attackers in Earthquake rounds, although its lack of damage and health compared to things like Finneas means that sometimes Finneas is still a better choice.
4. Reverse Speed is best when Giant Roc is low level, but becomes less effective at high levels, where it becomes not recommended.

ℕ𝕠𝕥 ℝ𝕖𝕔𝕠𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕕𝕖𝕕 𝕄𝕠𝕕𝕚𝕗𝕚𝕖𝕣𝕤

1. Little League prevents Giant Roc's use.
2. Evens = No Giant Roc!
3. No Abilities basically makes Giant Roc a tank, with much better options.
4. Poison: Giant Roc does not do well in poison due to its low health and position 2, relying on Triage, which Fire doesn't have much of at lower levels.

𝕋𝕙𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖 𝔸𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕕

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_ae86498db1d3288d292526e17c53f58f&ref=jakkal

Opportunity, Reverse Speed, 38 Mana, All Splinters Except Water

Look, I'll take any win I can get with Giant Roc. He was a glorious meat shield who gave me an edge. It gave my monsters a chance to really do some damage, and my Exploding Dwarf had just enough speed to really do some damage here before dying. I made sure to keep my attackers largely around the same health, so that Opportunity would not take out any crucial backlines, such as Tenyii Striker.

𝕊𝕚𝕘𝕟 𝕌𝕡 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕊𝕡𝕝𝕚𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕣𝕝𝕒𝕟𝕕𝕤 𝕟𝕠𝕨!

Wanna reach around your tank with a Giant Roc? Join me on Splinterlands and play with him. But uh... maybe don't buy him. I'm sorry I hate him guys <3

if you use my link, here:
https://splinterlands.com?ref=jakkal
I'll send you 100 DEC when you sign up and get a spellbook, (as long as you show up as referred) which should help you get started via renting! Also, feel free to message me, I can answer any questions, give tips, etc.