How to deal with Hill Giant

Hill Giants live in the Talus Bluffs on the outskirts of the volcano known as the Mountain of Ash. They are nomadic people that travel from hilltop to hilltop following herds of deer and cattle. Though they are intimidating, Hill Giants are typically more far more inquisitive of other cultures and seek to learn from them rather than attack. However, if they need to defend themselves, they attack by ripping boulders from the ground and are able to hurl them up to a mile. The people of Praetoria are glad to have them on their side against the Chaos Legion.

HILL GIANT is one of the monsters release under the Chaos Legion edition. It is a melee monsters with low mana cap and high health. This monster become more deadly after reaching level 6 as it now gains a STUN ability.

Stats and Abilities

Stats:

HILL GIANT is a melee attacking monster with an intial damage of 1 upto 3 at max level. It has a very low speed of 1 that can go upto 3 at max. It doesn't have any armor to protect it from physical attacks. One good attribute of HILL GIANT is its health. It has a 6 HP at its initial level and can go up to 9 at max level.

Abilities:
	STUN: When a Monster with Stun hits a target, it has a chance to stun the target causing it to skip its next turn.

A monster with STUN ability has a 50% chance to stun the target monster. As long as the attack hit, regardless whether it deals a damage or not, will trigger the chance of stunning the targeted monster. A stunned monster will be unable to attack or use ability during its turn. Since this is more of a chance, I would say it is risky to take your chance of winning by relying or hoping that your opponent monsters will always be stunned, as the outcome may differ depending on the RNG of the game.

Although for me, this is still a good ability as it can take away turns from your opponent, with a 50% chance. If you are fighting against monsters with high health regeneration and the only way to prevent them from using their ability is to stunned them. This ability can turn things around if luck is on your side.

Monster Compatibility

HILL GIANT in lower leagues like Silver and below are mostly used as a pseudo tank (secondary tank) to absorb damage since it has high health. In low mana battles especially in LITTLE LEAGUE ruleset, this is one of the choices for a tank or first position monster.

In higher league, it is still used similar to how it was used during lower league. But the good thing is that when this monster reach at level 6, it gains a new ability which is very crucial in some situations.

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• Monsters with KNOCK OUT ability
  KNOCK OUT ability has an effect of dealing double damage to monsters that are stunned. This means that in order for KNOCK OUT to be useful, we first need to deploy monster with STUN ability so it has a chance to trigger the KNOCK OUT effect.

HILL GIANT is from Earth splinter which means only Earth, Neutral and Dragon monster can be use simultaneously with this monster.

Goblin Dartling is the most common partner as it also has low mana requirement, which is the likely scenario where you would want to deploy HILL GIANT as tank. Gloridax Magus from Dragon can also be a good partner for standard ruleset. Depending on the ruleset, you can still partner it with Oaken Behemoth, Eleven Defender and or Disintegrator.

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• Monsters with STUN ability
  STUN ability has only 50% chance of success. In order for us to increase those chances, we can use multiple monsters with the same ability. As the saying goes, the more, the merrier... I mean more entries, more chances of winning!!!

From Earth splinter, the Spirit Shaman and Iza the Fanged are the more likely a good combo for Hill Giant since both has 4 mana requirement. Again, perfect for Little League ruleset or just for small mana cap battle.

From Dragon Splinter, I would go for Twilight Basilisk as it has also low mana. Even though it is a melee monter, it has a Reach ability which can still attack even at the second position, right behind Hill Giant. Lightning Dragon and Dragon Jumper both can attack from the backline so I would say its also a high chance to combo it with Hill Giant.

For Neutral monsters, Dwarven Wizard and Cyclops can be pair with Hill Giant. Golbin Mech and Chain Golem maybe more suitable in medium to high mana battle as the tank compared with Hill Giant. Gremlin Blaster is more of a bit tricky as it has low HP compare with Hill Giant. We may use this monster in ruleset that allows melee monsters to attack from the backline since it is not very suitable to be a tank due to its low health.

Summoner Compatibility

In terms of the compatibility for the Summoner, I don't see any special or worth mentioning since I normally used it as a pseudo tank, or tank for low mana cap battle.

Most of the time, Obsidian will be used as the Summoner especially if you are playing in Modern format, or if incase you are playing in a Chaos Legion only fray in guild brawls. If you picked Obsidian, definitely you will select Magic attacking monsters like Goblin Psychic, Regal Peryton, Queen Mycelia, and Mycelic Slispawn as main damager.

Mylor Crowling will be the used when only melee monster is allowed to be used due to ruleset restriction, or if you feel your opponent will used an all melee line-up mainly because of their daily focus.

Scarred Llama Mage maybe the best summoner to partnered with Hill Giant for Earth splinter. This summoner gives Hill Giant an additional 2 HP which is great especially if you have other monsters with Tank heal ability to sustain HILL GIANT when used as a tank.

For Dragon Summoners, most of the time I used Daria Dragonscale if I want to go for an all melee deck. If not, Drake of Arnak is also a good one since it provides all allied monsters with Armor, something Hill Giant does not have. Quix the Devious is a summoner you will pick if incase you think your opponent will use ranged attacking monsters, or if the Speed is crucial in the match. Byzantine Kitty for me is the best Summoner, especially if it is a high mana battle. The problem with using Kitty is that it is very pricey if you want to rent this card.

Ruleset Compatibility

Rules
Little League - Only Monsters & Summoners that cost 4 Mana or less may be used in battles.	HILL GIANT only requires 3 mana compare with the other tanks from Earth or Neutral splinter. It has one of the highest health for low mana monsters.
Heavy Hitters - All Monsters have the Knock Out ability.	Knock Out is the best combo ability for STUN. Knock Out will only work if the target monster is stunned. With this ruleset, HILL GIANT will have both the STUN and KNOCK OUT ability, giving him a chance to deal twice the damage when attacking stunned monsters.

FEATURED BATTLE

Opportunity for Commoners...

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_603e5909b4af8e4d8418b970dffde3db&ref=jpleron

With Equal Opportunity, this gives our featured monster HILL GIANT a chance to attack from the backline. We don't have to worry about absorbing the attacks since this will be taken care of Mycelic Slipspawn with the used of Taunt ability. It also has a high health compare with other monsters in my deck so it will not be attack since Opportunity ability prioritize monsters with low health. Our summoner is only at level 4 so HILL GIANT will be limited to level 5 only, without the STUN ability.

Best Defense is Offense

https://splinterlands.com?p=battle&id=sl_f02cbdb63ffeb903183685ce4bd149fe&ref=jpleron

This was a battle of greatest defense. My opponent uses LORD ARIANTHUS with VOID ability and MAGIC REFLECT to counter magic damage, while also having SHIELD and THORNS ability to counter Melee damage. This was the perfect defense specially with the Broken Arrows ruleset (Ranged monster is not allowed to be used). He even partnered it with Queen Mycelia with an Amplify ability to increase the damage from Thorns and Magic Reflect. Scavo Hireling was also deployed to repair the armor provided by the Queen Mycelia's Protect ability. This was really a great defense especially if your attacks was focused on the first position monster.

Unfortunately for him/her, I used Dhampir Infiltrator with Sneak and Double Strike ability to eliminate those backline monsters. After eliminating Queen Mycelia, Scavo Hireling, and Twilight Basilisk, Hill Giant and Dhampir Infiltrator dealt a 1 damage per attack and dies from the 2 damage from Thorns. After both Hill Giant and Dhampir Infiltrator was eliminated, Void Dragon with 1 Magic damage does zero damage to Lord Arianthus. Luckily, Void Dragon also has the Void ability which makes the magic reflect damage also zeroed out.

The battle ends in round 22 where Lord Arianthus dies from fatigue since both Void Dragon's attack and Lord Arianthus's reflect deals zero damage. I survived due to higher health.

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Take Aways:

1. Hill Giant is a good card to invest and level up as well. At lower leagues or level, it is not much of an attacker but rather more on absorbing damage with the help of its high HP.

2. For low mana matches or with Little League ruleset, is it great to consider using Hill Giant as it can give you enough tankiness and at the same time a chance to stunned enemy in higher leagues like Gold and up (assuming you level up this monster as well).

3. Stun ability is a great utility when used properly. You just have to make a good combination to further utilized this effect. As I mentioned earlier, stunning monsters can turn a lossing battle to a win. Much like winning because your opponent's attack missed. With Stun, your opponent not only missed their attack but also missed their turn. That's a big difference especially if the stunned monster has abilities that activates during their turns like healing, armor repair, and/or cleanse.

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