Battle Challenge with the Hill Giant!
Hi guys
and welcome to this weeks Battle Challenge with the Hill Giant. I'll show you my battle and talk about my strategy and card choices.
Let's go!
The Card
Hill Giant is an earth splinter melee card from the Chaos Legion edition. He excels as a tank for low mana or little league battle, because of his cheap mana cost and high health. As you level him up he also gains the Stun ability which is always nice to have. His slow speed makes it hard to hit attacks against faster targets, though.
Price wise he's extremely cheap right now.
While some newer players might think he doesn't look like much, he's an absolute must have for those low mana battles, as you can use the rest of your mana for damage, while his high health buys you time to pick off the opponent.
The Ruleset
The Line Up & Strategy
My go to magic team is Obsidian, so this is who I picked for my summoner. Hill Giant as a very cheap tank, with yet enough health to take a few hits. Behind him we have magic attackers, where I go with health and speed first. This way Slipspawn can take a few hits when Hill Giant dies. Usually you would put Regal Peryton at the back, because he has a better chance of dodging sneak attacks, but since it's Back To Basics and there aren't any, I put the slowest and most squishiest monster at the very end of the line up. This way, if Peryton gets to the first spot and will be attacked, he has a better chance of getting off an attack before he dies, due to his high speed.
Other than that there's not much to talk about. In short: Get as many magic attackers as possible and buff their attack.
The Battle
Round 1
My opponent went with a Mylor team, with a big tank, some ranged attackers and a chicken at the back. Either it was a bad programmed bot or they didn't check the rulesets, because 1) Chicken in the back only helps against sneak attacks, which there aren't any in Back To Basics. 2) Mylor is only strong against melee and since there's only one monster that can attack with melee in this ruleset (the tank), chances some one is playing a lot of melees are very low and Mylor is therefore very weak. They did bring strong ranged monsters, however as soon as their tank dies they won't be able to attack. The tank is another mistake in my opinion, because it usually has Shield, which makes it very strong, but again not in Back To Basics.
Round 1 goes exactly as I anticipated: We both kill off each others tanks. Mine only cost 3 mana, where his cost 8, though!
Round 2
This is how round 2 starts off and you can see right from the start, that my opponent isn't in a good place. Their main damage dealer Mitica Headhunter can't attack from the first position, where as my Slipspawn can.
Because I'm faster I also manage to take out the Mitica, pulling the Vampiric Blossom into first position, before it even gets to attack this round. I then easily tank the 2 magic damage from the Kobold.
Round 3
And that's it already. I go first with all my monsters again, taking all of theirs out one after another to take home the victory!
Conclusion
This was a great example to showcase the strength of Hill Giant. A cheap tank that allowed me to use my mana for damage dealers and wipe out my opponent. He's especially strong in Back To Basics in Silver and Bronze league, because he doesn't have any abilities there yet. To really make a point, both tanks this game did the same job and lasted the same amount, only that mine was 5 mana cheaper.
To be fair my opponent submitted a pretty bad line up considering the rules.
Overall I have to say that Hill Giant is a must have. It's one of those cards that are not too flashy and can't win you games by themselves, but that are absolutely key in low mana matches. You always need a tank and this one is the best low mana tank for earth in my opinion. Couple that with his ridiculously cheap price right now and you have a must buy!
Disclaimer
None of this is financial advice. This content is for educational purposes only and might fall out of date as both Splinterlands and the Crypto Market in general are subject to constant change.
Referrals
Thanks to Carrie Allen for the amazing Markdown Tutorial Hope you enjoyed the read. Have a great day and until next time! Pinkman45
and to Chris Roberts for this Thumbnail Tutorial
Background Thumbnail image is from Pexels
Free image editing software used Canva
Check out my 5 tips for new players series: Part I, Part II, Part III
Check out my Bronze league strategy guides: Part I, Part II
Thanks for sharing! - @alokkumar121
