DM Home
Message Board
DM News Reports
Trading Card Game
Price Guide
Card of the Day
Duel Yammers - Fan Tips
Top 10 Lists
Tourney Reports
Featured Writers
JMatthew on DM
cecillbill's C-Notes
Hydromorph
Deck Garages
Dry’s Arsenal
Drizer's Dungeon
cecillbill's Dojo
Knives101's Lab
NFG's Garage
aka GDOG'S-VERSION
Spoilers
Base Set DM-01
Evo-Crushinators of Doom DM-02
Rampage of the Super Warriors DM-03
Starter Deck
Shobu's Fire Deck
Kokujo's Darkness Deck
Shadowclash Collector's Tin
Shadowclash of Blinding Night Spoiler
Survivors of the Megapocalypse
Disruptive Forces Decklist
Block Rockers Decklist
Duel Masters Starter Set (2)
Twin Swarm Deck
Hard Silence Deck
Promo Card List
Stomp-a-trons
Thundercharge
Epic Dragons
Fatal Brood
Shockwaves
Blastplosion
Thrash Hybrid
Video Games
Sempai Legends
Other
Staff
Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
Duel Masters
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman
|
|
Tom Rogers on Duel Masters
Ground
Giant
March 2, 2010
Hey guys! I'm back and this time I'm going to talk to a card
I haven't actually played yet.
Ground Giant
[quote]Set/Rarity : DM-13 Eternal
Phoenix Rare
Card Number : 14
Civilization : Nature
Card Type : Creature
Cost : 4
Creature Type : Giant
Power : 1000+
Card Text : This creature gets +2000
power for each civilization in the battle zone.
If this creature has more than 6000 power, it gains Double
Breaker.
Flavor Text : "Light and Dark joining
forces!? At this fact the proud giants trembled with rage."
Illustrator : Taro Yamazaki
Card art and information courtesy of the ccgdb.com/duelmasters
Collectible Card Game Database
The Basics
At first glance this card may look gimmicky, but he's really
a good choice. You're paying four mana for a one-thousand
power creature, which sounds a bit odd, but keep in mind he
counts himself for the Nature Civilization! So you're really
paying 4 for 3000 power with a likely chance at more
power "double breaker," because odds are you're not going to
be playing a mono Nature mirror match. At least, not during
the current state of things.
You're definitely going to be playing more colors (or at
least rainbows) to optimize this guy, meaning you can make
him have "double breaker" yourself. That's really cool,
because then anything that isn't Nature the opponent puts
into play is helping you do that faster! This gives you room
to do something neat like play a spell, since you'll be able
to break another shield with Ground Giant's new ability to
possibly compensate.
He's basically a fair body that turns into or comes into
play as a beatstick depending on the circumstances. And he's
very likely to end up as a beatstick in most of your games.
How This Affects The Game
More goodies for green! Nature's definitely one of the best,
if not the best color choice right now. It has Soulswap,
which is hands down the best spell in the game at this
point, Mana Nexus which is a worthy metagame call, and this
guy! Soulswap can even help him out by turning your
opponent's Nature creature into a weaker creature of another
civilization, essentially stealing the power and tacking it
onto your Giant!
This definitely puts a lot more difficulty on traditional
control, which tends to remove based on power in this
scenario. They're basically going to need to whip out those
Spiral Gates or Slayers they might've been saving
immediately before this guy does too much damage, or pray
for triggers. And those triggers might not be able to stop
him if he has enough power!
Against aggressive decks, he tends to be around for a while.
It becomes a game of weening his power while the controller
attempts to advance while returning it to it's previous
power status. This means Ground Giant will usually be the
last guy on his side of the battle zone until he dies,
unless removed by a spell -- and that's far less likely in
this match-up.
Ground Giant's pretty tricky against Rush, but he can still
work for you. Rush essentially has to consist of one
non-Nature civilization, giving him a boost, and you're
probably playing aggressively if this guy's in your deck.
You can save up for a shield-breaking symphony with the
right cards to defend yourself.
How This Affects You
If you're playing multicolor with Nature, this guy's
probably your main dude for the early towards mid game
scenario. Especially if you're able to bang out a dual civ
of two different colors before him. That means you have the
speed benefits of rush with the added stability and recovery
abilities!
Control should also look at this guy, because he can do a
lot of damage in a single swing. It might be interesting to
stock up on multicolor blockers and then hammer down this
guy as your finisher! Barring a tremendous amount of
triggers, the game can easily be yours in just a few short
turns.
Everybody's going to have to have a way to get rid of this
guy, though. Weather it's a trade with your own Ground
Giant, creature-based removal tactics which should be doing
well in this environment (Aqua Surfer, Rothus the Traveler,
etc), or more non-specific spells which can be played early
in the game, you're going to want more options than your
metagames where Ground Giant wasn't around. And with
multicolors on the rise, this guy is going to be around for
a while -- so prepare accordingly!
New cards definitely have a strong bearing on what's played,
even moreso when they coincide with the current metagame
trends. With aggressive strategies and the Nature
civilization being hot right now, Ground Giant is sure to
see loads of play. Better make sure you can deal with the
beatsticks coming down earlier than expected, or finding a
way to isolate him consistently!
|