Introduction

A year ago, as a novice, I realized that high mana battles are where you can take all your heavy hitters with a few that can hide in between, while the low mana battles were only about heavy hitters—no hiding monsters. I defined hiding monsters as those that did not have attacks or did not have strong attacks. I guess I saw the Peaceful Giant as one that cannot be taken into a small mana battle ever.

But hold on. We are already talking strategies. Let’s get to know the Peaceful Giant. The Peaceful Giant is a kind of card that is akin to a sponge. It can soak attacks from the opposition and numerous at that. What it does is that it allows friendly monsters to continue attacking the opposition without themselves getting attacked. Why? Because they can hide behind the Giant.

Wow, I never realized that the Giant was carrying an elephant. 😊

Anyway, if the Giant could survive one or two rounds of attacks, that team stood a good chance of winning. About six months back, a certain group of cards was introduced,, which attacked twice the amount when landing attacks on a non-attack monster. These ensured that cards like the Giant did not survive long. That was an interesting game plan, and those using the Giant had to figure out what more they could do to prolong the Giant's life.

There are few strategies. Like for example, taking in a summoner which could provide armor. Also, a tank healer which could heal the Giant every round. In fact, if you have the Byzantine Kitty, the newest legendary summoner, you are rest assured that the Giant is healed every round. Now imagine the Giant, some armor, a healing monster, and a healing summoner like the Byzantine Kitty, and you would have a never-dying solution. The Giant may probably stand double attack monsters too. 😊

Anyway, let’s get to see the Giant in battle. But before that, how about getting to know Splinterlands first. So, let’s go.

What Game is Splinterlands?

Well, it is one of the earliest blockchain-based collectible games. Though I started playing the game relatively late, I should have had gotten going early in hindsight. Anyway, no need to despair. There are so many opportunities no matter when you start.

Splinterlands is a digital card game that allows you to collect, trade, battle, rent, and even earn on the cards. It is one of the most generous games that I have seen where cards, potions, Dark Energy Crystals (DEC. Cryptocurrency) are given out every day to thousands of players for just playing and winning daily quests. And there are tournaments that you can play or guilds that you can join.

Just to give you an idea of how lucky you can get in Splinterlands - read my story of getting cards worth $327 for buying few packs worth $20 only.

Got Cards Worth $327 for $20

And this is just a small number. I have witnessed people getting uber-expensive cards in their pack and selling it for as high as $6500. This means the game has interested buyers for your cards too. In fact, there is a whole Splinterlands marketplace.

Now, if all that interests you and you want to try out the game, then I am leaving a link below for you to join.

Scroll down, quick. 😊

Peaceful Giant | Smiling Gentleness

No matter how much you level up with the Peaceful Giant, you don’t get any abilities, armor, or attacks. The only thing that you do get is health. And a lot of it. If that is the case, why would we use the Peaceful Giant?

Well, we use it for the purpose I said we would. A giant attack soaker. Not only that, think of the no-melee-attack rule. Since there would be no melee tank, the Peaceful Giant would form an obvious alternate tank. The only question then would be, could the Giant be accommodated into the team. It all depends on the gameplay and the player. If you ask me, I would still find it difficult to take the Giant into small mana battles.

Mind you, since the Giant costs only five manas, it can come into a small battle. But if it can’t attack, it would be wasting one position of attack. That, again, is my opinion, based on taking such monsters to battle.

Anyway, the strategy would be well-understood if there is a battle that can be seen. So, let’s take a look.

The Peaceful Giant in Battle

This is the ideal game for trying out the Peaceful Giant. A 99-mana battle allowed me to try out heavy hitters while reserving the first position for the Peaceful Giant. Make no mistake, the Peaceful Giant can and only take the first position for effective use. There is no other place where it fits.
The only other place where it can be is in the second position during the blast rule. That again, assuming the first position is taken up by a taunt monster. Get that? The taunt monster will attract all attacks to itself and hence more blasts in the second position. So, the Peaceful Giant would be a good one to sink all those blast attacks.

Anyway, onward to this battle.

The Face-Off

There you go. That’s how my face-off with the opponent looked like.

You know these are the kind of battles which you know you have in your kitty. The opponent does not take advantage of the high-mana cap provided. What he/she has done is filled the six positions with monsters with high health. But that does not work because few of the monsters cannot attack from their position while the others have a weak attack.

Let’s look at the opponent’s lineup. The first position is taken up by the Stone Golem, which can reduce melee and ranged attacks. The second position is baffling. It is taken up by Lord Arianthus, and you wonder if it is the ideal card over there. It, too,, is a non-attack card like the Peaceful Giant. So, why keep it in the second position? Anyway. The third position belonged to the Unicorn Mustang, which could do nothing from that position. So, again an opportunity lost. The Sand Worm was in the fourth position and the only one with a purpose and a solid attack. The next two monsters were magic attackers. Again, a lost chance. Why would I have two magic attackers with magic attacks of one? Should there be strong attackers? This only told me that I would be witnessing victory sooner than I thought.

My lineup saw the following cards:
Position 1: Peaceful Giant – To soak enemy attack, of course.
Position 2: Kron the Undying – For heavy magic attack and healing ability.
Position 3: Dragon Jumper – For strong opportunity melee attack
Position 4: Mushroom Seer – For strong magic attack and silencing enemy magic attackers
Position 5: Red Dragon – For magic and melee attack. From that position, though, only a magic attack was possible
Position 6: Cornelius – For ranged attack and self-healing. Ideally placed for the Sand Worm’s attacks.

So, if you noticed, all my monsters had a purpose at every position against the opponent’s monsters. I thought I might as well get on with the battle.

The Battle Gets Intense

I don’t think it was intense for me, but intense for the opponent for sure.

Near the end of round 1, the Stone Golem was about to be crucified. My strong attackers got the better of it. However, my Giant stood peacefully at the first position. The attacks from my side carried on unabated.

By round three, even Lord Arianthus was done for. In the meantime, my Dragon Jumper had already taken off the Sand Worm. So, there were no strong attackers left in the enemy camp. At this rate, I wondered if my Peaceful Giant would be standing till the end. 😊

The Battle Races to Conclusion

It was the Unicorn Mustang that finally took out my Peaceful Giant. But by then, the damage was already done to the opponent. I didn’t think that the opponent's monsters would take down even one more monster from my side.

I was right. Kron the Undying was refusing to die. And that was good enough for the rest of my monsters to finish the Mustang and the others. The final honors were left to the Cornelius to take off the Centauri Mage. As a parting shot, the Mage returned attack on the Cornelius,, which was nothing more than a scratch for the one-eyed monster. 😊

Do I Use the Peaceful Giant Often?

Rarely.

Like I said earlier, I used to take the Giant during no-melee-attackers rule but then I discovered many other non-attack monsters. The thing was that these non-attack monsters came with abilities and therefore were a better bet in battle.

Some of them are the Warrior of Peace, which has a demoralize ability at the base level, or the Gelatinous Cube, which gains health when a monster dies on either side. These are better suited for the battle than the Peaceful Giant. Even Lord Arianthus, which the opponent used, is a good replacement for the Giant.

For newbies, though, the ones who don’t have the Cube or the Warrior, the Peaceful Giant forms a good alternative.

Where Else Does the Giant Fit In?

The Giant can be useful in certain places. For example, if an armor rule is in place, the Giant could survive a bit longer. If there is a healing monster, it will work. Even monsters with resurrecting would do good for the Giant. These are cases where the Giant’s stay at the front can be elongated.

Also, when the health-equalizer rule is in play, we can take the Giant to ensure that all our monsters got health as high as the Giant. I know even the enemy would get that, but the choice of monsters would make the difference. If our monsters can attack hard, then the higher health would be more beneficial for us than the enemy.

How Does the Peaceful Giant Level Up?

The Giant must be the only one to have such a peaceful leveling up in the whole of Splinterlands. 😊

See that. No ability, no armor, no attack, just loads of health. So, if you really want you are attack monsters in the health-equalizer rule to gain the health of the level 10 Giant, then you can take it into battle. That’s the only place where I would love to see the Giant sharing its health with other friendly monsters. 😊

The Peaceful Giant | Too Peaceful For Splinterlands

In a game which talks about battle and fighting skills, the Giant comes as a peacekeeper (pun intended). He is just too peaceful for the game, and therefore, finds it hard to fit in. Despite that, we saw situations in which the Peaceful Giant could work well. So, yes, there is a chance. 😊

Try him out and have fun!

Want to Join Splinterlands?

You can click below and follow the link. All the best!

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Image Courtesy: Splinterlands