Giant Roc Takes Flight ~ Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge

I dread the Earhquake ruleset in Splinterlands.

It persists throughout the entire battle. And each monster gets two physical damage at the end of every round. Its damage is not as terrible as the unblockable Poison damage on Noxious ruleset, because Earthquake exempts monsters with the Flying skill. You could also offset the health damage with armor or the Shield skill.

But though there are several ways to overcome it, I still dislike it a lot. The ruleset sort of forces you to use specific types of monsters (and summoners) that substantially limits a player's strategy options. I even prefer to battle with Noxious more because you can at least use Cleanse to clear away the Poison status.

Giant Roc breaks free from Earhtquake's grasp (and some more monsters)

Giant Roc gains a time in the limelight for this week's Share Your Battle Challenge. I grumbled a bit about the Earthquake ruleset since the battle I'd be sharing today includes such condition. Coincidentally, our featured monster fits the ruleset well since its Flying skill nullifies the effects of Earthquake.

These are some of the Fire Splinter monsters that have been gifted immunity from Earthquake's damage. Giant Roc is amongst these select few.

And although these monsters are unable to nullify the ruleset's damage, their Shield skill at least halves the damage to one:

My Team Composition

The battle has a 25-mana limit and the Earthquake ruleset. The Fire Splinter is one of the active teams, so Giant Roc gets to soar for this upcoming match.

I assigned these three as my main fighting force, hoping that their Flying or Shield skills make them last until the last round.

I debated whether I'd include another Flying type monster, Flame Imp or the non-flying Goblin Shaman. Flame Imp has a decent two-point magic attack, but I went with Shaman because its double debuff has always proven very handy in my past battles. Lastly, I added a Kobold Miner with two-mana cost as a filler. These two cards will at most last for two rounds of -2 Earthquake damage.

The Battle

I feel a bit bad for my opponent since they have been stacked up against my almost peak-level monsters (with respect to the Silver Leagues) while they only got level ones. Also, most of their team's physical attacks will get nullified by my Serpent Soldier's shield. So it's likelier that the ruleset knocks my team out rather than the opponent's attacks.

Due to the huge level difference, the battle feels one-sided and unexciting. However, I still chose to showcase this specific fight since it's only during the Earthquake ruleset that our featured Giant Roc gets to really shine.

By round two, after the first wave of earthquake damages hit, both sides' forces are still mostly intact. All flyers and one lucky frog-fish hybrid still have full health points.

But not for long. By round three, the ones left standing are all Flying-type monsters. Plus that one frog-fish monster. At this point, my win is in the bag. You can view the complete battle here.

To End

Is Giant Roc a good card to play? Mostly, no. You'd probably want it only when you need Flying monsters for Earthquake ruleset. But for most matches, the five mana cost can be better used for other monsters.

But oh, my dismissal of Giant Roc is from a Silver League player's perspective where common monsters are capped at Level 5. If you are on Gold or higher, you have a chance to unlock Giant Roc's third skill -- Trample. With that shiny new skill, it becomes a much more formidable monster who can potentially launch double attacks from the second position.