Share Your Battle Challenge - Peaceful Giant

In this week's Splinterlands Share Your Battle Challenge, we have been tasked to fight a match using Peaceful Giant. Peaceful Giant is a neutral monster that doesn't have any attack powers, but has high health which allows him to easily absorb damage and protect the other monsters on your team. Best of all, he is included in the starting set, so anyone can use him in a battle.

Lineup
This match was played with 30 Mana available and the "Healed Out Ruleset" which meant that all healing abilities were removed from summoners and monsters alike. In first spot I decided to put Peaceful Giant. My thinking was that since Peaceful Giant doesn't have an attack (normally) I would put him in first spot so he could absorb damage from the enemy. While he was taking damage and protecting my other monsters, I would have a lot of ranged and magic monsters to attack from the rear of the formation and slowly overload my opponent. Although Sleeping Giant normally doesn't have an attack, I used Mylor Crowling so that all my monsters got the "Thorns" ability. Although this didn't give Peaceful Giant an attack per se, it did give him the ability to deal damage back to the opponent each time he was hit with a melee attack.

Although Peaceful Giant has a high amount of health, I realized that he was still likely to be taken out of the battle at some point, so in second position, I put Unicorn Mustang. Normally I like to play a monster with "Reach" in second position, but I also like having at least one strong melee monster on my team, and thought that Unicorn Mustang would be the perfect fit even if he wouldn't be able to attack for the first few rounds of the match.

In third spot, I placed Centauri Mage. Centauri Mage is a strong monster that has very high health as well as the "Return Fire" ability which allows it to deal damage back when it is hit with ranged attacks. Even better, it attacks with magic which allows it to fight from any position.

In fourth spot, I played Creeping Ooze. Creeping Ooze is a great monster that can de-buff the entire enemy team giving them a -1 speed penalty, but also serves as a great buffer monster that keeps my ranged monsters from reaching first position and being unable to attack.

In fifth spot, I placed Furious Chicken. As many of you know, this is one of my favorite monsters because it costs 0 Mana to play, but can still absorb damage from the opponent's team. It is a "free" (in terms of mana) way to protect your ranged and magic monsters and keep them from moving into first position.

In last position, I placed Mantoid. Mantoid is a ranged monster that has relatively high health combined with the Snipe ability that allows it to target ranged or magic monsters that are not in the first position. I don't normally play Mantoid in my matches, and prefer Goblin Chariot instead, but decided to give him a little bit of time in this match just for the Snipe ability.

The Match
When I first saw the opponent's team, I wasn't sure how the match would go. I saw that they had a lot of strong monsters, but once the battle began, I saw the advantage that each of my monsters has with the Thorns ability. Every time one of my monsters was hit with damage from a melee attack, they attacked back with Thorns which meant that my monsters could deal damage both as they were attacking and defending. Unfortunately, Peaceful Giant was taken out of the match very soon, but not before being able to deal some damage and give my other monsters a chance to attack from a position of safety.

I was glad to have played Unicorn Mustang because my opponent played a lot of magic monsters. Once Unicorn Mustang moved into First Position his "Void" ability protected him from the attacks. At the end of the day, my team was able to carry the victory.

Evaluation of Peaceful Giant
To be honest, I don't really play a lot of monsters like Peaceful Giant. I know that the high health pool and relatively low Mana cost makes them great buffer monsters, but sometimes I feel like I am wasting Mana by playing a monster with no attack. That being said, the whole point of the share your battle challenges is to try new strategies and methods for playing the game, and I am glad that I had the chance to try a different plan for this match.

Although I wouldn't want to play Peaceful Giant "as is", combining his high health with the Thorns ability is a winning combination in my opinion. It allows him to both absorb damage from the enemy and protect my other monsters while also dealing a bit of damage himself. I used to feel like playing him was a waste of Mana, but after trying this challenge and seeing that he can be a valuable asset, I might have to give him a little bit more time in my lineups.

Conclusion
As always, it is great to take part in the matches and be a part of the community. If you haven't tried Splinterlands, I'd encourage you to check it out. It is free to get started playing, and if you decide you like it, you can later upgrade by purchasing the Summoner's Spellbook which gives you the ability to earn rewards, precipitate in completionism, and earn crypto from your gaming experience. Also, feel free to check out my battle replay here.

Thanks for reading
All images belong to Splinterlands.