Faction Primer: Terrasaurs [SHE3PDOG]
Whether you’re playing a faction pure list or just looking for a little advice on certain Terrasaurs models, this article is for you. Monsterpocalypse is a game that can be played as casually or competitively as you would like. While the game is designed and balanced around mixing factions together within each agenda, many players enjoy the cohesive appearance of a single faction on the table. We will cover some of the strategies, synergies, and list building ideas for each model in the Terrasaurs arsenal. While not wholly necessary, reading through the MonPoc 101 articles might help you understand some of the terms and ideas put forth here as these faction primers are a little too long to have a rules refresher before each one. Some mentions will be made to models outside of the Terrasaurs faction, so you might also like to have the Smashville University Wiki up if you want a quick reference.
I’m particularly excited to talk about today’s faction for a huge number of reasons! Like many of you, I’m sure, I have always loved dinosaurs. I’ve devoured Michael Creighton’s Jurassic Park series in print and on screen more times than I can count, and the numerous kaiju based on our prehistoric friends have captured my imagination ever since.
Terrasaurs are one of the most popular factions in the game, and they are also one of the oldest. Whether this is due to the various Godzilla analogs found within the faction or the simple joy of dinosaurs stomping around a city, they are certainly one of the more eye-catching factions. With an astounding six (!) monsters along with a complete set of three unit packs and a faction base, they are also one of the largest factions in the game.
Despite their vast numbers, Terrasaur monsters tend to stick to a few basic playstyle themes. With the lone exception of Pteradax, they are hardy pedestrians that generate a ton of power while also synergizing well with friendly faction units. Their units share similar DNA, boasting the highest average defense in the game, and while Terrasaur units are rarely the best-in-slot for a competitive list, they do have a wide variety of options which is quite the boon to more casual play, particularly if you are playing mono faction lists.
Monsters
Arctic Armodax
Arctic Armodax is an unreleased apex monster from the indefinitely delayed Mythic Kickstarter. However, these rules are official, and this model can be played using the Tabletop Simulator mod or physically with an appropriate conversion or proxy.
Of all the Terrasaurs, Arctic Armodax is unquestionably the strangest. While he fits into the slow, hard-to-kill pedestrian mold at SPD 5 and a whopping 13 hp, his special rules offer up a unique challenge for both you and your opponent. While The Magistrate is certainly the most control-heavy Destroyer, Arctic Armodax holds that title on the Protectors side. Every attack in both forms has the incredibly frustrating Energy Sap special rule which forces your opponent to move an action die from their Monster Pool to their Unit Pool when it hits. Alone, this may not be back-breaking, but it will absolutely wear on your opponent throughout the game, and any additional resource gaps you may be able to generate will be felt all the more. Given that he picks up Follow-Through on his brawl attack in hyper, he can really start messing with your opponent’s dice pretty heavily. Our chunky snow cone also adds a little defensive prowess with the Stalwart special rule which functionally makes him immune to Beat Back, Lure, Gravity, or any other special rule that allows your opponent to move your monsters around outside of a body slam or throw power attack.
Now, time to cover what truly sets Arctic Armodax apart from his Terrasaur brethren and, really, every other monster in the game as well: Glaciers. Arctic Armodax is the only monster in the game that can generate an asset, and it is a pretty odd asset with a mix of rules that allow it to buff your models while being a huge deterrent to enemy monsters. Our snow miser Armodax creates these speed bumps with the Ice Age action for a single action die, and he’s the only model in the game that can produce them thanks to the Exclusive special rule on the Glacier itself. He then uses these assets to buff Terrasaurs by giving nearby models +1 SPD when they begin their advance within 2 spaces of the Glacier. Then, in Arctic Armodax’s hyper form, he can also use Glaciers adjacent to enemy monsters to generate super damage. Combined with Follow-Through on his brawl attack, this means that he can generate 3 damage per turn without even using a power attack in hyper, all while hamstringing your opponent’s action dice. We haven’t even reached the best part yet though. The best part about Glaciers isn’t even on Arctic Armodax’s card, it is on the Glacier’s: Crushable. This insane rule allows your Legos-in-disguise to be destroyed by enemy monsters if they end an advance on it and spend an action die. Most relevantly, this means your opponent cannot step onto a Glacier to get rid of it, they must either use their full advance or another rule that specifically states the movement is an advance. Additionally, they’ll have to spend their increasingly precious action dice that Arctic Armodax just loves taxing in order to interact. Glaciers can still be destroyed via attacks, but at DEF 6, this is a difficult proposition, especially for a model that does not generate any power dice upon destruction.
This was a tad long-winded for the very first monster in this article, but he’s an oddball that is worth taking your time to understand. Not only is he very difficult to kill on stats alone, but his ability to create Glaciers means that you can often engineer situations where your opponent simply cannot effectively throw or body slam him. His ability to drain your opponent’s action dice is pretty unique as well, and the combination of these traits make him extremely difficult to play against when he’s piloted well. That said, he is still a SPD 5 pedestrian, and getting good use out of his various abilities takes experience. It is often a good idea to pair him with a more mobile monster that can generate a good amount of power dice, but he also does well with other monsters that like to deny movement vectors or resources such as King Kondo or Gausamal respectively.
Armodax
At an incredible 12 hp with an Armored alpha and Resilience hyper, Armodax is the single hardest monster in the game to put into the ground. Armored allows him to not take damage from collisions with buildings, and Resilience makes him immune to super damage. This is offset somewhat by him having middling SPD, DEF, and accuracy while also being a pedestrian that may inflict hazard damage to himself while moving across the map in the mid or late game. However, survivability is certainly not Armodax’s only strength. He also generates a ton of power dice. He gains +1 power die for every building he destroys as a result of his attacks and an additional power die from destroyed models on his brawl attack through Power Gorge in alpha. In hyper, he loses Demolisher, but picks up Riled which allows him to passively generate power dice just by getting attacked by enemy models. Power Gorge also moves from his brawl attack to his power attack, but he also picks up the terrifying Beat Back rule on his brawl attack. Beat Back functionally acts as a short, two-space throw that triggers off of his brawl attack. This means that screening against hyper Armodax might not be enough to keep him from killing your monster if you remain too close to nearby damage vectors.
Armodax exemplifies the Terrasaur faction with his toughness, power generation potential, and strong offensive capability. While he lacks the finesse found in practically every other monster in the game, it can still be fun to jam a tank down your opponent’s throat to see how they deal with it. The main bit you need to think about when playing Armodax is how to extend his life and make him the primary target for your opponent so that your other monster can have a favorable match-up once he goes down. To that end, pairing him with a more mobile monster with a good 1v1 game like Stomatavorus Rex or Rastaban will make life difficult for your opponent. You can also further your opponent’s frustration by packing your list full of Incombustible buildings, particularly the Tokyo Triumph which will damage non-Armored monsters normally while still leaving Armodax only scratched by the initial attack, not the resulting collision of a throw or body slam. Armodax often shows his true strength through just how much you decide to warp your list around limiting the amount of damage he takes in a turn.
Magma Khan
If you haven’t read Tekk’s article about his tournament-winning Magma Khan / Gausamal pair, you should really give it a look! Magma Khan fills a couple of the same roles as Armodax: he is difficult to kill and generates a ton of power. He’s actually so good at these two things that he has a pretty solid late game plan going into the 1v1 because he can just chain back-to-back monster turns for the win. Rather than leaning on Armored to keep him safe, Magma Khan has the Fireproof special rule. For power generation, he has an Onslaught brawl attack with Go for the Throat along with Fury on his power attack. Once he hits hyper, he even rewards you for having a ton of power dice through Power Blast and Pyro Clasm in addition to providing new ways to generate power with Fury on every attack type, Combo Strike on his blast, and the frightening Omega Titan special rule which basically rewards you just for playing the game. Despite being a SPD 6 pedestrian, he’s also fairly mobile in his alpha form thanks to the pounce action, and he can gain a bit of SPD if you manage to keep your Power Pool full during his hyper.
Thanks to his surprising mobility, Magma Khan is often happiest being extremely aggressive. If you can force your opponent to go in on him first, he generates such insane value through his power production and general difficulty to kill that his partner should be set up well for the late game. This game plan works especially well with a partner that has some kind of unit screen clear in alpha like Gausamal, Avarvinea, or even Defender Extreme as they can enable him to deal peak damage with Combo Strike while being great 1v1 threats themselves. Outside of being difficult to kill, Magma Khan doesn’t really create a resource deficiency for your opponent, and while Fireproof is a great defensive rule, 9 hp can still be eaten through fairly quickly when you go against lists with access to super damage or additional collision damage like with the Tokyo Triumph or Myriad Singularity. His alpha power attack is also somewhat inaccurate with a mere 3-boost dice base, so effects like Disruption that decrease his accuracy can have a disproportionate impact on him in the early game before he generates enough power dice for accuracy to become a trivial matter.
Pteradax
Among Terrasaurs, Pteradax is pretty unique, but he suffers in the game as a whole due to being one of four 10 hp, SPD 7 flyers with an out-of-activation unit movement trick in Protectors. Due to his stats, he is very mobile, and Tow is a uniquely useful movement trick in many situations because of just how far it can send a unit up the map and the lesser positional requirements of the monster compared with Blitz. Units that can increase accuracy or damage output like the Psi-Eel or Spore Pod are common targets for Tow, and it can be used as a way to screen your monsters as well. Pteradax also has Side Step in both forms which, while not a dead rule, certainly falls into the “win-more” category as a missed attack by your opponent is often a death sentence anyways. He does have Energy Sap on his blast attack which probably won’t come up often in alpha, but it certainly does in hyper where he picks up Rapid Fire and Penetrator on his blast attack. Lastly, Pteradax has Air Drop on his power attack in hyper which allows him to toss a monster two spaces further than the number of action dice thrown into the attack. While this can be useful, it is too situational for your to get consistent use out of it. Overall, Pteradax is a speedy monster with a good 1v1 and a decent utility rule in Tow, but he’s not doing much else.
Terra Khan
Terra Khan is the first of our true unit generals in the faction. Not only does he buff other Terrasaur units through Stampede and Blood Rage, but he also gets something out of the deal with Feeding Frenzy. This mutually beneficial exchange of a speed and accuracy bump for access to super damage is really Terra Khan’s entire game plan. He’s a pedestrian, and in alpha, he has middling SPD, DEF, and accuracy along with the rarely used Munch rule on his brawl attack which could be used to extend his life a bit in a pinch. He does also have a RNG 5 gun in alpha which can be relevant in the early game. The real fun begins in his hyper where he become a SPD 8 monster with Lightning Attack to help him either clear away screening units or attain higher damage output. His access to super damage in both forms, while a little positionally intensive do to the adjacency requirement of friendly faction units, means that he more than makes up for his lack of survivability tools with how hard he hits. To ensure a friendly dinosaur unit is always around to synergize with our Godzilla stand-in, his partner is often a monster with an out-of-activation unit movement ability like Hurricanius or even Pteradax. Much like Munch on his alpha brawl, Explosion on Terra Khan’s hyper blast is rarely used.
More than any other Terrasaur that we’ve covered so far, Terra Khan really wants a good chunk of your list to consist of friendly faction models. While a partner that can help move them into position is helpful, the Raptix was born to help Terra Khan get super damage on his attacks thanks to Hop which allows the Raptix to move around the map during monster activations. The biggest downside here is that they are also a mere DEF 2, so they may not stick around long enough to be relevant. Terra Khan’s speed buff in the early game can be invaluable when trying to grab as many power zones and buildings as possible, so letting good point holders like the Brontox or Carnidon tag along as well will also help out.
Tyrranix
Tyrranix, often misspelled in a variety of creative ways, is my favorite of the Terrasaurs. He is a power generating machine, and his unit buffs often feel more relevant to how I tend to play the game than Terra Khan’s. Like most of his faction mates, Tyrranix is a SPD 6, DEF 8 pedestrian. Some of the space where useful text could go on his card is occupied by the much-maligned Seismic Step special rule. Stomping is almost never the right call with this monster, so it is a bit of a dead rule. That said, the rest of my buddy’s card is straight gas. In alpha, he has one of the most powerful unit buffs in the game: Combat Coordination. This special rule allows your friendly Terrasaur units to advance up to three spaces after hitting with a brawl attack. He also gives nearby models Fury. I find that in many cases, you can have a Carnidon destroy an enemy unit holding a power zone, gain two power dice for that kill thanks to Fury, then have it Hit & Run onto the power zone where it often gets to stay rent-free and generate another power die during your monster activation. To pile on the unit hate and power generation, Tyrranix also has Fury on his brawl and power attacks in alpha along with Hit & Run on his brawl attack. This means he regularly gets to make safe attacks against enemy units in the early game all while generating a ton of power dice, especially with swat power attacks.
In Tyrranix’s hyper, he becomes slightly less focused on his units, losing Combat Coordination. However, he gains Crunch and Scatter which make him very hard to screen against and potentially quite lethal if he manages to trigger super damage with Crunch. Every attack in his hyper form also has Fury, so Tyrranix is able to chain back-to-back monster activations with relative ease.
Like Terra Khan, Tyrranix actually wants you to bring a good number of Terrasaur units. Carnidons certainly benefit the most from his unit buffs, so they should be very high on your list. A Brontox or three can also be a good idea as they allow your Carnidons to spawn further up the map in more relevant locations, and their Nesting action also allows you to bring out Carnidon Elites for a single action die. Unlike his desire for friendly faction units, Tyrranix does not care much about who his partner is. Ideally, they would have high-mobility to make up for Tyrranix’s pedestrian status, but he’s a fairly self-reliant monster. Favorites of mine include Defender X to push the unit game even harder and Zor-Magna to create a chaotic board state with loads of out-of-activation movement.
Units
Bellower
Many of the Terrasaurs units are just simple designs that do their job well through sheer force of stats. Like many Terrasaurs, Bellowers are a bit slow, but they make up for that by being very defensive at DEF 3 with Disruption which allows them to nerf the number of boost dice your opponent gets while making attacks nearby. Notably, this includes both units and monsters, so they can force your opponent to spend more resources during any type of activation. This is also a very relevant rule against units making combined attacks as each model participating in the attack within two spaces of the Bellower will lose a boost die in their contribution to the overall dice roll. This is particularly good against faction units like the Necroscourge, Vegetyrants, and Ancient Ones that make a lot of combined attacks. Elite Bellowers are not a very common sight, but if you are playing a faction pure list, the blast attack on these guys can be enough to do some work when they get an extra boost die or combine their attacks.
Brontox
Brontox are, in my opinion, one of the best point holders in the game. Not only do they have a whopping DEF 4 and carry their own cover around with them thanks to Dig In, but they also generate a lot of value for you just by existing on a power zone or negative zone. The Nesting action is very abusable as it does not specify that either the Brontox or the newly spawned model cannot move or attack as with some other similar rules. Perhaps more relevantly, you can also spit out another Brontox with Nesting which is not something you can do with their Destroyers counterpart, the Vorota Walker. With some creativity, and a Statue of Liberty, you can really make a big impact on the map on your very first unit turn by flooding it with high-DEF, low-cost units that your opponent will have a hard time handling. Using highly defensive units like this so aggressively is very fun, I assure you. They are perhaps best combined with Elite Carnidons, as they can get these heavy-hitters out with a single action die. While Brontox do have a Brawl attack, it is rarely used unless you need to make a combined attack where the extra action and boost dice are relevant.
An example of the degeneracy your opponent could have to deal with on Destruction Junction on the very first turn if you decide to bring a bunch of Brontox, a Statue of Liberty, and a few of the common competitive staples like Mount Terra, Temple Giant, Humusoid, C-Type Shinobi Elite, Interceptor, and Steel Shell Crab. The blank foundations could be any buildings, and if you’re going first, you should be able to guarantee similar results if you prioritize your Mount Terra placement during the building placement phase. That’s five DEF 4 units, two DEF 3 units, and a Humusoid that can replace itself when it dies all threatening a power-up of 7 power dice and a loss of 1 power die for your opponent. You also have 3 Brontox that can get other Terrasaurs (probably Carnidons) out very far up the map on your following unit turn if your opponent opts to not interact with them due to how difficult they are to kill.
Carnidon
Carnidons are probably the best unit that Terrasaurs have to offer. They don’t require you to build your list around them like abusing a Brontox does, and they have a much better attack than Bellowers do while also offering some support with Flank which makes it easier to hit nearby enemy models. Despite being SPD 4, they do have All-terrain which makes them one of the more mobile Terrasaurs. They hit hard, support well, and are a solid option for standing on important spots for the low, low cost of a single action die for the grunts. The elites can be relevant if you can get them out cheaply with a Mount Terra or the Nesting action from the Brontox, but their grunt counterparts typically don’t need the extra help. Of all the Terrasaur units, they are the most ubiquitous in competitive lists due to their versatility and solid stat line.
Pteradactix
Pteradactix are the oddballs of the Terrasaur world. They have high-mobility and sit at SPD 5 with Flying making them one of the most agile units in this article. However, they stand at a mere DEF 2, and their brawl attack leaves a lot to be desired at 2 action dice and 1 boost die. The biggest reason to take them is that they have access to the Tow action. This allows them to grab an allied unit within five spaces of them and place it adjacent to them. The big downside here being that the placed model cannot advance after being placed. This is still pretty useful in a couple of different situations. The first is that Tow actually move a unit at the full five-space limit pretty far thanks to the adjacency clause in the rules text as demonstrated in the image below. Tow is also useful for models that may not care so much about their own advances. For instance, Rocket Apes and C-type Shinobis both have the Aim special rule which give them another boost die if they attack without advancing, so Tow can help them get into position without interfering with Aim. Tow can also be useful for making the most of the Catapult action on a Kraken Hatchling which requires them to not make an advance the turn they use the action. Tow most often gets compared to Blitz, and unfavorably so, but it does have a handful of uses despite seeing very little competitive play when present on units.
The Pteradactix was able to Tow this Rocket Ape all the way from the red spawn zone (green Rocket Ape) to a neutral spawn activator (blue Rocket Ape) where it could hit most of the objective zones in the center of the map with Multi-Fire while still getting an Aim bonus.
Raptix
The Raptix are the fastest units that Terrasaurs have access to between SPD 6 with high-mobility and the Hop action. They can get to places that most other units in the game can only manage with external support. That said, they are a mere DEF 2, and their brawl attack is even worse than the Pteradactix at a mere 1 action die and 1 boost die. While Anti-Air can remedy this in some situations, it just isn’t very consistent. Elite Raptix are something I would never personally play, even in a faction pure list. They are too easy to kill, and their buff isn’t very relevant when you consider that most of your attacks should be made with the far more accurate Carnidons. If you really want to try it out, I would strongly advise only bringing one of them. The grunts, however, are serviceable. They are overshadowed in multi-faction games by the Hopper, but they are able to offer your Monster some screening if they manage to stick around until your monster activation with Hop. This is even more relevant if you end up playing Terra Khan as they can help you out with getting Feeding Frenzy to trigger.
Spikodon
Truthfully, the Spikodon is the worst of the Terrasaur units. Like many of its brethren, the Spikodon is slow and defensive. However, it doesn’t make up for this with the amazing accuracy and support of the cheaper Carnidon or the Nesting trickery of the fellow two-cost Brontox. It has the worst brawl attack in the game at 1 action die and no boost dice. The rule that seems to be intended to make up for this is the RNG 4 blast attack. While it is fairly accurate at 2 action dice and 2 boost dice, it just doesn’t compare to out-of-faction choices like the Rocket Ape, particularly due to the difficulty of making ranged attacks in the game generally because of the prevalence of cover. The Spikodon’s blast attack does have a special rule on it though; the only special rule on the entire card, actually. Explosion allows the Spikodon the potential to hit multiple units with a single roll of the dice, but only if they are adjacent to the initial target. This kind of clumping doesn’t happen very often, and things like Explosion really only serve to ensure that your opponent does not fall into that trap. I would only play the Spikodon in a mono-faction list, but I would rather replace them with Carnidons if given the option.
Faction Base
Mount Terra
Mount Terra is a staple in competitive building lists due to its Tectonic Shift action. It allows you to spend an action die to move one of your monsters two spaces, during your unit or monster activation! This carries with it two major advantages. The first is that you functionally get to step twice for a single action die as long as you don’t need to make two diagonal movements. The second, and far more relevant one, is that moving your monster on a unit turn can be the difference between winning a game and losing it. With this, you can break alignment with an enemy monster, move away from high-damage vectors where you might lose 5+ HP, and/or screen your monster using the other models on the map to ensure your opponent needs to spend a lot of resources to get to you. These are all particularly useful if your opponent gets too greedy and tries to chain back-to-back monster activations for a finishing blow to one of your monsters. Like all faction bases, Mount Terra also provides a nice discount for Terrasaur units. While most competitive lists don’t play a ton of these, they often at least bring a Carnidon or Bellower to make use of it. The discount is also vital to lists that want to run Brontox as they are a little pricey at 2 action dice, but once you get Nesting going, you won’t have to worry about this as much.
List Building
Nearly every competitive list will bring a Mount Terra, and a lot also bring a Carnidon or Bellower. Digging much deeper into the Terrasaur units is pretty rare, but some lists make good use of them if they’re running Terra Khan or Tyrranix, or if they want to make mind-bending plays with a Pteradactix. In a faction-pure list, I would recommend doubling up on the Carnidon unit pack as your fourth unit pack as it will likely bring you the most value with how consistent they are in their offensive and defensive roles. If you’re playing Terra Khan or Tyrranix (or both!), Terrasaurs can be a powerful mono faction option as the buffs these monsters bring elevate your good units to insane levels and your middling units to solid inclusions. They can flood the map quickly if you have multiple Brontox, especially with a Statue of Liberty and Toxic Waste Depot to back them up, and they are pretty hard to kill on average which can give other factions quite the headache. Realistically, if one of your monsters is Terra Khan, Tyrranix, or Pteradax, you can play any other monster with them, but keep in mind that your mobility might be a bit limited if you opt for a double pedestrian pairing where neither monster has high-mobility. Personally, I love pairing Tyrranix and Terra Khan together and just relying on my units to pressure my opponent into less favorable positions and wreck them in the late game when fewer buildings are around to worry about. Pteradax and any other Terrasaur is also an excellent option as he provides you with a good bit of agility while also ensuring you have an extra attack to clear out any pesky units and buildings in your way once he hits his hyper form.
I hope you enjoyed our walk with these giants, the Terrasaurs. They are a really fun faction, and I hope you get the chance to play them. These articles will continue to be released alongside other content, but there are 22(!) factions in the game, so it will take some time for the whole catalog to be covered. Our release schedule has also slowed significantly, but SmashU is here to stay for the time being.