The Giant Skeleton has carved a unique niche for itself in Clash Royale history. With its distinguishable bone façade and devastating death damage capacity, this building-targeting melee troop has undergone an intriguing evolution. From initially being labelled “useless” to receiving emergency nerfs at the height of its powers, the Giant Skeleton’s checkered past is intertwined deeply with the game’s own maturation.
The Weirdest Giant and its Unique Abilities
Unlike the mainstream Giant which solely attacks buildings, the Giant Skeleton in Clash Royale goes after both buildings and troops. This anomaly earned it the “Weirdest Giant” moniker. The Giant Skeleton’s uniqueness lies in its death explosion which deals significant area damage. At its peak capacity, this bomb could dish out more damage than a Lightning spell across a wide radius.
Its strengths made the Giant Skeleton stellar on defense, capable of decimating swarms of troops like a Skeleton Barrel while also packing decent building damage. As top player Morten wisely stated, the Giant Skeleton’s purpose has always been clear – it fills in Clash Royale‘s rock-paper-scissors dynamic by acting as the “rock” to squish swarmy units.
Statistics underline the Giant Skeleton’s unique appeal. As the graph shows, the “Weirdest Giant” consistently enjoyed much higher usage rates, even close to 10x higher at points, than its more traditional cousin. Players were clearly more drawn towards exploiting the Giant Skeleton’s distinctive perks.
Notably, the birth of 2v2 game modes in 2017 brought the Giant Skeleton into vogue. Its capacity to wipe out entire towers with cloning or mirroring made it a 2v2 lynchpin. The chart above perfectly captures its sudden popularity peak following 2v2‘s introduction. Reddit threads like this one exemplified the surgical tower sniping capability of "Giant Skeleton clone" combos which ruled 2v2 battles.
So while the Giant Skeleton occupied relatively niche status early on, its uniqueness in both mechanics and statistical uptake solidified its place as one of Clash Royale’s cult favorites. Let’s analyze how balance changes throughout the years impacted its effectiveness.
Initial Neglect and Resurgence
In its early days, the amount of neglect the Giant Skeleton received made players label it an “dead” card. Aside from minor damage and death timer reworks, the devs left it largely untouched. This resulted in poor ladder standings for the card right from 2016 into 2017.
However, the August 2017 update brought a key change – the Giant Skeleton’s death explosion now dealt double damage to Crown Towers. Many like YouTuber Orange Juice hailed this as the perfect modification to shore up its weakness of unreliable tower damage.
And yet, a surprise nerf dropped its shields to levels lower than even pre-buff values just a month later in September 2017. Since it was omitted from official notes, many were left confused by this unannounced downgrade. The requiem on Reddit was swift – “RIP my fav card” and “back to being dead” becoming common refrains. From 10% prior, its usage went into freefall down to 2%.
In October 2017, the team tried further compensating through a false fix that claimed the death bomb could now one-shot Goblins. In reality, this changed nothing since Skeletons were already being one-shot earlier. It was no surprise then that the date marked the Giant Skeleton’s usage rate plummeting to 0% in Top Ladder play. The neglect was real and players grew increasingly frustrated.
While brief spotlights came thanks to combo viability in 2v2 and specific metas, the Giant Skeleton languished without impactful changes all through 2018. Aside from July when a predominant spell-bait meta benefited it, usage stayed around lowly 3-5% levels. Win rates also hovered between 44-48%, reflecting poor card strength. The consensus everywhere from YouTube comments to Twitter was clear – the team had left the Giant Skeleton behind. Too complex to balance and lacking a clear identity, it just didn’t fit into their plans.
The memes almost wrote themselves by then. Jokes around the Giant Skeleton’s usefulness became commonplace. Players found their fun in embracing the absurdity of using clearly underpowered cards. But this was no laughing matter as for Racing players like JACK, the lack of a balanced Giant Skeleton option to counterCOPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. swarms meant struggling against faster cycle decks. The card desperately required reworking to increase viability.
Renewed Dominance and Emergency Nerfs
Fortune finally turned in 2019 as the team looked willing to revamp older cards like the Giant Skeleton. Through February to April, impactful balance changes boosted its utility. Hitpoints and death bomb radii improvements spawned Giant Skeleton cycle decks which suddenly became all the rage.
Its rising strength through 2019 invited polarizing opinions. While many like Boss shared concerns around potentially excessive buffs making lower ladder play “unbearable”, Santy bags in challenges put the pro community on red alert. Complaints surfaced about low-risk and high-reward gameplay involving simply dropping the Giant Skeleton at the bridge.
By June 2019, the card had skyrocketed to a 27% usage rate while still boasting solid 53% win percentage as highlighted below. Calls came for emergency nerfs which arrived in short order in July 2019. Hitpoints and death damage values were rolled back in response to lopsided Grand Challenge standings. The team also promised to keep close tabs moving forward, a far cry from previous hands-off approaches.
More see-saw changes followed through 2020 with small spikes and dips. But a clear realization had set in – the Giant Skeleton was now too competitively viable to ignore. The card had gone from zero to hero, usurping mainstay choices like Sparky in numerous decks.
Even after nerfs, it enjoyed great stintCOPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT Copyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.s as the win condition for decks like Classic Giant Skeleton and Giant Skeleton Royal Giant. The latter emerged as arguably the Meta deck in mid 2020, occupying numerous top ladder and tournament spots. Giant Skeleton + Fisherman eventually dominated to an extent that prominent players like Boss called for emergency restrictions ahead of the Clash Royale League World Finals.
Bos‘ words underlined how crucial it had become to regulate the Giant Skeleton to prevent further competitive jeopardy, starkly contrasting the previous indifference it faced. The skeleton was finally out of the closet!
Present State and Potential Changes
Currently, the Giant Skeleton sits just outside Meta relevance following small nerfs. Yet it continues displaying periodic dominance with the right supports like Electro Wizard, and remains a good ladder option.
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The latest January 2023 balances brought a small HP reduction showing the team wants it in check. I feel an interesting tweak could involve making its bomb trigger faster upon death instead of this passive approach. Quickening activation would enable more immediate and reliable counterplay.
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Alternatively, they could look into reducing Crown Tower bomb impact since the 2x factor makes defense too easy at times. Overall, I believe small guerilla balances allow the Giant Skeleton’s unique flair to keep shining.
Looking at the Giant Skeleton’s past, anyone can appreciate Supercell’s more responsive approach lately. This bonehead has exhibited incredible tenacity, bouncing back every time the soil beneath its feet shook. It embodies the underdog spirit which connects profoundly with players desiring satisfaction from mastering niche cards.
I feel its adventurous journey educates us on balancing intricacies in card games. The Giant Skeleton’s evolution is meta and player feedback coming full circle. Through attention and care, no card stays neglected forever. Here’s hoping players keep having a blast with this big bag of bones!