Why a Bandicoon? It seems like a somewhat mediocre pet to do 100 Battles with. It actually has some attributes that I like. First of all it comes in a relatively fast breed, with the S/S Bandicoon coming in at 325 speed. That’s right about the minimum of what can be considered fast.
The Bandicoon has Survival, a powerful move that I don’t see used much. Survival makes you unable to go below 1 hp for its duration. So basically you are invincible while Survival is up. As of now Apocalypse trumps Survival, but that’s changing in 5.4. If you are faster than your opponent you can get an extra turn by casting Survival at the right time. Here’s how to do it: cast Survival if you think you will die that turn. You won’t die, you’ll be brought to 1 hp. On the next turn you attack as regular, but you still can’t die because Survival hasn’t expired. On the next turn you are no longer under the effects of Survival, but since you are faster than your opponent you can get an attack in before they kill you.
Another thing that the Bandicoon has going for it is the move Poison Bite. Poison Bite is a nice attack because it dishes out two types of damage. The initial attack is a Beast attack, but the 5-round DoT is an Elemental attack.
I will be using Tongue Lash in the first slot, a speed based multi-attack. If you are faster than your opponent to get two attacks plus a 50% chance at a third attack, if you not faster then you get one attack plus a 50% chance at another.
Those are the attributies I like, but the Bandicoon has some weaknesses. It’s main attack is speed based, but there are many 325 speed pets used frequently in my meta, my Bandicoon will not outspeed them. Its main attack will not be very powerful versus these pets. Also, the two biggest threats on my meta are Direhorns and Fiendish Imps. Bandicoons are bad, no really bad, against both of these pets. The Direhorn will destroy the Bandicoon in two or three rounds easily, and my Bandicoon is slower than the Imp. Tongue Lash is also weak against Humanoids, so it’ll be really hard to take down an Imp.
Sounds like a death wish, but luckily my meta is not as infested with Direhorns as some that I hear about on the forum. Hopefully matchmaking will be kind to me and I won’t get many Direhorn opponents.
The weaknesses mentioned above remove any possiblilty of the Bandicoon being a top-tier pets. The Bandicoon is what I consider to be a support pet. I can try to build a team around my Bandicoon, but it’s just not that strong of a base. So what I will do instead is use the Bandicoon’s strengths to support other pets. Let’s get started!
Team 1 (The Other Daryll)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Shell Shield, Whirlpool)
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Tongue)
H/S Corefire Imp (Burn, Immolation, Wild Magic)
This is the only pre-existing Bandicoon team that I’ll be using. I will try to get both DoTs up along with Wild Magic.
Win: Darkmoon Rabbit, Pygmy Direhorn, Son Of Animus
Awesome way to start. How much gold of yours did my Bandicoon just beat? Corefire Imp started by putting up Immolation and Wild Magic, Trihorn Shield made it useless, for now. I put the Spirit Crab out to soak some damage from the Direhorn, it did well and after the Trihorn Shield wore off the Imp’s combo started taking off some hp, at least for a few rounds. The Direhorn dies, out comes the DMR. My Crab is awesome versus rabbits, after awhile Animus comes out and finishes my Crab but the Bandicoon wrapped up the win.
Draw: Fiendish Imp, Crawling Claw, Spawn Of G’Nathus
Bummer draw. Had the win all lined up, assuming my two Snaps hit the Imp, but the Imp crit, taking me to 0 hp earlier than expected. The two snaps did hit, but the second on my Undead turn.
Loss: Enchanted Broom, Direhorn Runt, Pandaren Earth Spirit
The good thing about this game is that the Direhorn went down really fast and hard. The bad thing is I still lost. In the end I had to face the full health Broom with a 300 hp Crab, a 300 hp Bandicoon, and a 600 hp Imp. A lot came down to the 325 speed coin flip to see if the Bandicoon could damage the Broom. I lost the coin flip, and later the battle to a 367 hp Broom.
Win: Direhorn Runt, Fiendish Imp, Clockwork Rocketbot
Can’t I just use a Spirit Crab every game? Wouldn’t life be easier? Actually this person seemed somewhat new to pet battling, some of their choices were a little suspect. Things like not surging my Imp and letting me kill the Direhorn. The full-health Bandicoon came in to face a 228 hp Imp.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Anodized Robo Cub, Phoenix Hatchling
A buffed Demolish one shot my Imp. The Imp had already taken the cub down enough so that the Bandicoon could easily took it out. The Runt tried to Deep Freeze without Chilling me first, the Stun missed. This was a very close one, after my Crab died the Bandicoon came out and needed its speed and Survival to finish off the Phoenix.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Kun-Lai Runt, Sandy Petrel
The Bandicoon ignoring the Deep Feeze stun was very helpful. The Kun-Lai Runt being such a predictable pet was also helpful.
Win: Lesser Voidcaller, Phoenix Hatchling, Eternal Strider
The Crab took out the Strider and most of the Voidcaller. After the Bandicoon finished the Voidcalled my opponent ran.
Win: Crawling Claw, Lesser Voidcaller, Azure Whelpling
I saw those Two Curses of Doom and knew if I started with my Imp it would be, well, Doomed. So instead I went with the Bandicoon and never looked back. Thanks to a poorly timed heal by my opponent I was able to get off an extra Survival. The Banicoon took out the Voidcaller and most of the Claw. Th Corefire Imp never got to come out.
Win: Celestial Dragon, Shrine Fly, Scorpid
Dang, this time I’m the bully with my top tier pets against the person trying to have some fun with some underused pets. Wild Magic and Immolation worked really well. A seventeen round battle and the Bandicoon never made it out.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Corefire Imp, Unborn Val’kyr
So close, I thought for sure it was a loss. It came down to my 700ish hp Bandicoon versus a 280 hp (but faster) Fiendish Imp. He Gated but it didn’t kill me, I used Poison Bite and it didn’t kill the Imp, but the Poisoned tick did.
Record: 8-1-1
Assessment: I already knew this team could do well, when I put a Spirit Crab out there I have high expectations. Winning eight out of ten is pretty good.
Team 2
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
H/P Gilded Moth (Alpha Strike, Cocoon, Moth Dust)
P/P Warbot (Missile, Minefield, Exrta Plating)
The Warbot has been racking up the wins and the Moth is a PvP regular. Any synergy here? There’s coverage for the Bandicoon and a “minefield trap” combo with the Moth/Warbot.
Win: Frosty, Crow, Kun-Lai Runt
Most Crow users I face start with the Crow, so I put out my Warbot. This opponent started with Frosty. I got out a Minefield and swapped to the Bandicoon. Does Frosty take strong attacks or does someone eat a Minefield? My opponent chose the Crow, which lost the flying bonus. I would have gone with the Runt. The Bandicoon ended up finishing both the Runt and Frosty. No need for the moth in this battle.
Win: Silkbead Snail, Feline Familiar, Darkmoon Tonk
My Warbot vs. the Snail to start. The Warbot wins thanks to no Head Butt stuns. The Tonk eats my Mines, I put more out, the Tonk kills my Warbot, it’s Bandicoon time. I need to be aware of that Ion Cannon. When the Bandicoon has around 600 hp and the Tonk 100 I figured that it would be a good time to Ion Cannon so I pop Survival. Nice call. Now that the Tonk is forced to recover while my Bandicoon easily kills it, and then the cat takes over 1k damage from the Mines as it enters. Second game in a row where the Moth wash’t used.
Win: Magical Crawdad, Nether Roach, Spider
After almost killing the Roach with my Warbot, then almost killing the Crawdad with a Minefield down, my opponent calls it quits. I usually don’t like to see people run away, but I hate that stinkin’ Crawdad. Good riddance!
Win: Anubisath Idol, Blighthawk, Son of Animus
Epic battle. It started with Warbot vs. Animus, they sent each other to 0 hp, on the Failsafe turn the Animus won the coin flip but the Moth finishes Animus with Alpha Strike. Here’s my moth sitting there with 1546 hp. The Blighthawk comes in, eats the Minefield, gets a Moth Dust along with the Sleep, an Alpha Strike, and misses its Lift. It expires and my Moth still has 1546 hp. Moths are gods when they hit their Sleep. Looking good for me right? I have two pets to take out the Idol. But wait, the Bandicoon is worthless vs. the Idol. The Moth only takes the Idol down to 1100 hp, gg. There’s no way my Bandicoon is gonna take down the Idol with weak multi-attacks in a Sandstorm. Or is there? The Idol misses four times, I hit numerous third attacks, along with a few crits, I pop Survival and two rounds later I knock out the Idol’s last 200 hp with 1 hp remaining on my Bandicoon. Epic.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Clockwork Gnome, Speedy
The combination of a Minefield, good use of the Critter racial, a Sleep, and unlucky misses made this a faceroll. My opponent ran when the Gnome was dead, the Runt was at 200 hp and my team still had a ton of health.
Win: Amethyst Spiderling, Fel Flame, Scourged Whelpling
This was a really fun battle in the beginning. A lot of strategic swapping trying to exploit the family strengths. Eventually the Minefield’s damage and hinderance to swapping caught up with my opponent.
Win: Elementium Geode, Pet Bombling, Darkmoon Zeppelin
A very close battle. At one point I backlined my Bandicoon after Survival with 1 hp left. In the end it came out to deliver the killshot on the Geode. It was a good battle, reasonably played my both myself and my opponent.
Loss: Stunted Direhorn, Anubisath Idol, Fiendish Imp
It sucks that I didn’t go undefeated, but nothing shameful about a loss to this team. Both the Imp and the Idol synegize with the Direhorn, even though they don’t with one another.
Win: Stitched Pup, Ghostly Skull, Fungal Abomination
My Warbot took out the Ghostly Skull and got down second Minefield before dying. The Bandicoon came out with its strong attack against Undead and my opponent ran.
Win: Celestial Dragon, Pandaren Earth Spirit, Wild Golden Hatchling
In the end I thought I blew it by Cocooning instead of Alpha Striking. The Alpha Strike might have given me the kill, but I chose to play defensively. This allowed the dragon to get off a heal, oh snap. But luckily my Moth Dust hit and put the dragon to Sleep. I’ll admit to the lucky win when it comes my way.
Record: 9-1
The Warbot is awesome, the Moth hit some crucial Sleeps, the Bandicoon provided some support. Going undefeated would have been nice, but a 90% win rate is nothing to cry about.
Team 3
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
H/P Blighted Squirrel (Scratch, Crouch, Stampede)
I said I wouldn’t use the Blighted Squirrel again but here I am. I’m choosing Scratch and Crouch over the Diseased Bite and Consume of the Infected Squirrel. I need to watch out for Humanoids since I have so many weak attacks against them. I could change Poison Fang to Bite, but I already have a Beast attack in Poison Fang. Bite would hit Humanoids harder, but I would be weaker against Undead. I’m gonna stick with Poison Fang.
Win: Mechanical Squirrel, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Eternal Strider
The plan worked. Both DoTs were up on the Strider and the Squirrel Stampeded.
Win: Frosty, Darkmoon Zeppelin, Fel Flame
Same plan, same success, this time there was a Scorched Earth to add to the DoTs. Having the Critter attacks paid off against Frosty.
Win: Direhorn Runt, Cinder Kitten, Infinite Whelpling
My Imp Gated the Direhorn on the first turn, in came the Infinte Whelpling. I brought out the Bandicoon to take care of the dragon (since I knew it was worthless versus the Direhorn), it worked well. My opponent brought in the Direhorn, the Bandicoon came out with 24 hp in exchange for the Undead Squirrel. I used Crouch for some mitigation, after Trihorn Shield wore off I Stampeded, only to realize my Immolation had run its course. The debuff was still powerful enough to take out the Direhorn with one scratch. Stampeded again, the debuffed Kitten was easy.
Win: Zandalari Footslasher, Blighthawk, Frosty
It would seem to be a good idea putting the Footslasher in versus the Bandicoon, but it didn’t turn out that was for my opponent. Hitting all of my third attacks along with the Imp’s DoT killed it fast. After all it only has 1237 hp. After that I just had too many Critter attacks for the two Undead. What really sealed the deal was my Imp trying to get off Immolation in front of the Blighthawk. I knew the Ghostly Bite was coming, I thought I might survive. I did, but with only 1 hp. Nine more rounds os backline DoTs coming your way.
Loss: Bandicoon, Flayer Youngling, Menagerie Custodian
I don’t like losing, who does? But I hate losing to stupid mistakes. My mistake here being that I forgot that the Menagerie Custodian had Ion Cannon. I love to make a clever swap right at the time that the Cannon is used. You can often use it to your advantage. If you remember it exists, that is. To add insult to injury this will probably be to only time I see another Bandicoon in the queue, so I will lose the only head to head Bandicoon match up.
Win: Moonkin Hatchling, Fel Flame, Emerald Turtle
So far I’ve been lucky about running into Humanoids, until now. Both my Bandicoon’s and Squirrel’s main attacks are weak against humans. I didn’t have as much trouble as I thought, though. Probably because the Moonkin Hatchling is on the weak side of the Humanoid spectrum.
Win: Qiraji Guardling, Quiraji Guardling, Living Fluid
This is why all you people who run at the first sight of trouble should learn to stick it out. I thought there’s no way I could possibly win this battle. I have so many attacks that are weak against Humanoids, my DoTs are worthless in a Sandstorm, there’s not much hope. My opponent started with Living Fluid, probably because they expect me to Gate it out. I didn’t, instead I backline my Imp hoping I can get a few ticks off before the storm comes. My opponent kept the Fluid in. It took a Survival, but my Bandicoon killed it. It’s still not looking good. After the Bandicoon I bring in the Imp, I Burn as much damage as I can. My Nether Gate misses, but so do the Guardlings, my Imp got them down to around 600 and 400 hp before dying. There’s a chance but my Squirrel’s only attack is now weak against Humanoids. Luckily for me my opponent loves Reckless Strike, which helps me due to the debuff, and all of the sudden I have 47 hp to the last Guardling’s 200ish. To make things interesting Sandstorm makes the Guardling miss three turns in a row and me twice. My hit is not enough to kill it. 47 hp to 31 hp. The Guardling finally hits and brings me to 0 hp, but I land a hit to finish him off. That was an exciting one.
Win: Direhorn Runt, Fiendish Imp, Clockwork Gnome
My opponent handed me the win. Near the end of the battle my Bandicoon used Survival, the 281 speed Imp burned me, a Poison tick killed the Imp. So now I have my own Imp in the backline with about 400 hp, my Bandicoon has 1 hp, my opponent has the Gnome and the Direhorn on the backline with less than 100 hp each. GG, bring in the Gnome to take the hit on the second turn of Survival, bring in the Direhorn and Charge twice for the win. But my opponent chose to bring in the Direhorn first, it couldn’t kill the Bandicoon due to Survival still being up, the bandicoon killed the Direhorn and the Gnome. I hope they realized their error.
Win: Wild Jade Hatchling, Celestial Dragon, Glockwork Gnome
A missed Burn allowed the Gnome to get off a Repair, that was annoying. My opponent just couldn’t hold back from using Lightning, even though it helped me as much as it helped them.
Loss: Tiny Snowman, Winter’s Lil’ Helper, Mr. Chilly
This battle had kind of a funny ending. I thought an Ice lance would take me out after I Burned Winter’s Little Helper, but the Helper Cleansed Poison unnecessarily. Thanks for handing me the win, all I have to do is hit one Burn. But my 90% Burn missed, and I died from another Ice Lance. I haven’t had a good old fashioned miss on the last turn loss in quite awhile. I hope I don’t have another for an even longer while.
Record: 8-2
Assessment: Anytime I use a top tier pet like the Imp there’s always a chance of going undefeated. Didn’t happen, but an 80% win rate is far from shameful.
Team 4
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
H/P Wild Jade Hatchling (Tail Sweep, Call Lightning, Cyclone)
H/H Pebble (Ston SHot, Rupture, Rock Barrage)
I wanted to find a weather for the Bandicoon. It sort of synergizes with Lightning. It has a multi-attack, a DoT, and with Lightning pumping out so much damage each round, maybe the Survival will be enough to force a win by living an extra round. Not feeling great about this team, but I’ll give it a shot.
Win: Wild Jade Hatchling, Peddlefeet, Terrible Turnip
Everytime I face Peddlefeet and Lightning I think it’s Karma for all the times that I’ve run it myself. It’s annoying. But I’ve got some Lightning, too. In the end it came down to Survival allowing me to not die on the last turn of Sons.
Loss: Pygmy Direhorn, Fiendish Imp, Corefire Imp
I saw my competition and obviously knew I couldn’t use Lightning. I feel that I played this one really well. I killed the second Imp with my Bandicoon and had 860+ hp. The Direhorn came in with 96 hp. All I needed is one of my Tongue Lashes to hit, but the Charge killed me with a strong 939 damage. Guess what? After the 5.4 nerf to Direhorns comes, this is a win for me.
Win: Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Cogblade Raptor, Arcane Eye
Bad match-up for my opponent, the Elemental DoT along with Lightning took out the two Mechs fast.
Win: Infinite Whelpling, Harbinger of Flame, Muchbreath
The Bandicoon came in at the end to give a Poison Bite and a Tongue Lash to win. Both were helped by Lightning. That theoretical synergy is actually happening.
Win: Gregarious Grell, Corefire Imp, Fiendish Imp
This was funny. I ran the same team in back to back battles, which I don’t usually do. Because you can be sniped. I could be paranoid, but I it does seem suspicious that this team will own my Lightning team. If I actually use Lightning, that is. I didn’t, and was able to pull off the win. If my opponent was trying to snipe and failed miserably then that’s hilarious.
Loss: Flayer Youngling, Kun-Lai Runt, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
I should tally up the number of each opponent I face, I bet the Kun-Lai Runt will be up there at the top. Which is odd to me since I don’t even use it outside of a Blizzard team. This wasn’t a very close battle, I managed to lose pretty badly.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Chrominius, Peddlefeet
The Bandicoon didn’t see any action, the Lightning combo pets took everything out. Going two for two on Rupture stuns sure helped a lot.
Win: Crawling Claw, Fiendish Imp, Stunted Direhorm
This team usually strikes fear into my heart, but I recognized the names on the pets. Sometimes my opponent’s choices make you wonder. This time they didn’t make any particularly offensive mistakes, it was a missed Nether Gate that secured my win. Instead of Gating out Pebble, I got off a Rock Barrage, which combined with Lightning did a lot of damage.
Loss: Spirit Crab, Lost of Lordaeron, Frosty
Man that Crab is nasty. I’m guilty of overusing it, perhaps my meta is catching on to its awesomeness. I sure hope not, for the sake of my win rate.
Win: Anubisath Idol, Rapana Whelk, Amber Moth
Another one where the Bandicoon didn’t have to come out. This Pebble/Lightning combo has a lot of potential. Although this was an odd use of the Idol, it never Sandstormed os Stoneskinned, just Ruptured and then went to the backline. This battle only took thirteen rounds, but the rounds lasted forever. I really wish that the animation for Cyclone would be fixed, it makes for such long battles.
Record: 7-3
Not a great record, but a lot of complete facerolls. That seems to be the way most Lightning battles go, if you don’t have something to counter it then you have no chance at all.
Team 5
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Death and Decay, Plagued Blood)
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
DoT? Multi-attack? Seems like a good match for Plagued Blood. The Bandicoon is replacing a Fel Flame on one of my best performing teams, hopefully the little Critter won’t embarrass himself.
Loss: Anubisath Idol, Emperor Crab, Blighthawk
Dang, a Sandstorm team as first opponent. Damn that Idol. The Emperor Crab’s lack of Speed helped against my Tail Swipe. It wasn’t pretty.
Loss: Desert Spider, Oasis Moth, Crawling Claw
Really now? 0-2. The Moth didn’t even hit a Sleep. The Spider was a good counter to the Imp and the Bandicoon with it’s 341 speed. I love speed, it’s nice to see someone else using something so fast. It was close, the Spider had 60 hp when it killed my bandicoon.
Win: Arcane Eye, Cogblade Raptor, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Phew, finally a win, even if it was against a so-so team.
Draw: Wild Jade Hatchling, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Scourged Whelpling
The Lightning helped us both. Apparently it didn’t help either of us enough.
Draw: Lil’ Ragnaros, Curious Wolvar Pup, Direhorn Runt
Traps hate me today. Thankfully Poisoned can damage Rag while he’s underground. Unthankfully even after he dies his Sons can still kill my Imp.
Win: Wild Golden Hatchling, Shimmershell Snail, Kun-Lai Runt
This one turned out to be quite an easy win. At least my opponent didn’t use Lightning, which would have made it even easier.
Win: Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Scourged Whelpling, Darkmoon Monkey
Thanks for the Lightning, buddy. I’m ofter surprised at how much people want to use their weather, even when it benefits the other team more than theirs, as in this case.
Win: Darkmoon Tonk, Menagerie Custodian, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry
I see teams like this and think “you’re not going to use Lightning are you?” The answer is usually yes. It wasn’t as easy as it should have been thanks to an initial missed Nether Gate, but in the end my DoTs plus my opponent’s own Lightning added up to some big damage.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Father Winter’s Helper, Clockwork Rocket Bot
What’s this? A Kun-Lai Runt team leaves when things are going bad, pure madness! One-third of the work for all of the win.
Win: Pandaren Fire Spirit, Curious Wolvar Pup, Snarly
For the second time today a Trap went off when I was sending off a killshot. Absolutely nothing you can do about that. Luckily I was far enough ahead at the time so it didn’t cost the battle. Snap Trap is now surely my least favorite move to face
Record: 6-2-2
After a horrible, no, an embarrassing start this team was able to save some face by knocking out five wins in a row. Still, six out of ten for a Fiendish Imp will never be considered a good run.
Team 6
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
P/P Sen’Jin Fetish (Shadow Slash, Immolate, Sear Magic)
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
After my poor performance with Team 6 I need some Fiendish redemption.
Win: Soul of The Aspects, Scourged Whelpling, Blossoming Ancient
Didn’t need to use the Fetish, the Imp and Bandicoon handled them all.
Win: Terrible Turnip, Lil’ Ragnaros, Water Waveling
I guess this person doesn’t like weather. It was a close one, thanks to some untimely Trap detonations.
Loss: Lil’ Ragnaros, Onyxian Whelpling, Unborn Val’kyr
I’m losing to Onyxian Whelplings? Ragnaros plus Unholy Ascension was brutal. But come on now, Onxyian Whelplings? Someone on he other end has probably been saying “I’m losing to Bandicoons?”
Win: Lil’ Tarecgosa, Onyxian Whelpling, Kun-Lai Runt
I Tried to Gate Lil’ Tarecgosa after the Arcane Storm, but I missed so I had to endure a Mana Surge. This wasn’t that close of a battle, but the Runt did get a crit in the end that made the outcome a little less obvious. That’s why, even though sometimes frustrating when it causes a loss, a little bit of rng can add a twist to the battle. Oh yeah, and some payback for the Onyxian Whelpling that just beat me. You know you’re having a bad pet battling day when you’re pleased with yourself for beating an Onyxian Whelpling.
Win: Spectral Tiger Cub, Crawling Claw, Infinite Whelpling
This same Spectral cat beat one of my Sandstorm teams with a lucky crit. Payback! I have to say it’s scary Nether Gating a Crawling Claw. If that 10% miss chance happens you’re totally screwed. Luckily it didn’t happen.
Win: Flayer Youngling, Mr. Bigglesworth, Arctic Hare
This was a fast team, I was a little worried about the rabbit, but my Imp and the Bandicoon Took Care of it. As I mentioned earlier, a nice thing about Poison Fang is that it’s really a two family attack: the initial bite is a Beast attack and the DoT is an Elemental attack. Here I wanted the Beast attack, of course. The best part of this win is that I got to Sear the Ice Tomb/Nova combo. Surprise!
Win: Alpine Foxling, Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog, Amber Moth
The Moth hit Moth Dust two times, but luckily never hit its Sleep. Unfortunately I didn’t get to Sear anything this time. The Frog landed a Polymorph, but I just stayed in for the Resilience buff rather than swap and potentially get Poly’d again.
Win: Stunted Direhorn, Lil’ Deathwing, Frosty
I used Sear twice, once on Elementium Bolt and once on Ice Tomb. That’s a lot of damage saved by Sear Magic. I’ve used a Sen’Jin Fetish against this opponent before, you would think they’d have learned by now. I was still a close battle, by Fetish survived with 190 hp.
Win: Phoenix Hatchling, Harbinger of Flame, Darkmoon Tonk
An easy victory. I even popped Survival at the wrong time due to mis-anticipating the Ion Cannon.
Win: Sandy Petrel, Mirror Strider, Jumping Spider
I took out the Mirror Strider with my Imp barely losing any hp. Then Lift missed. This was enough to cause a flee.
Record: 9-1
Assessment: Ever since I started keeping records I’ve been shocked to see how well of a support pet the Sen’Jin Fetish is. It’s not top tier on its own, but when paired with a top tier pet it has an awesome win rate.
Team 7
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
H/P Gilded Moth (Alpha Strike, Cocoon, Moth Dust)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Shell Shield, Whirlpool)
Win: Silkbead Snail, Celestial Dragon, Summit Kid
I was able to knock out the Summit Kid with Alpha Strike before it got off it’s second Chew, that helped a lot.
Win: Scourged Whelpling, Ghostly Skull, Restless Shadeling
When you run three of the same family you have to expect to get countered sometime. That sometime was now for my opponent.
Win: Unborn Val’kyr, Emerald Proto-Whelp, Qiraji Guardling
My Bandicoon and the Valk went head to head, the Bandicoon won. The Critter did a little damage to the Guardling before dying. I wanted Moth vs. Guardling, but as soon as I put in my Moth they switched to the Whelp. I swapped to Crab and then fought it out. Luckily my Sandstorm misses were at a minimum and the Crab killed the Whelp after being brought to 0 hp. The Guardling and the Moth went head to head, the Moth won.
Loss: Murkimus The Gladiator, Lil’ KT, Sea Gull
Looking at the word “loss” next to those three pets hurts the pride. Any loss to any Murloc is an embarrassment. I made a really bad call by putting in my Moth to take the Heroic Leap damage, losing my flying bonus. All so that my Bandicoon could get off an extra Survival, which didn’t help since the weak attacks couldn’t take out the Murloc.
Win: Unborn Val’kyr, Sinister Squashling, Magical Crawdad
I have to say that missing a high accuracy attack on the Crawdad while its waiting for Wish has to be one of the most frustrating things in pet battles. Didn’t cost the battle this time, but it’s still frustrating.
Win: Peanut, Sinister Squashling, Brilliant Kaliri
The Crab does so well against Critters. The Stun Seed bug caused it not to go off on my Crab, but I’m not giving that credit for the win. To be honest I’m really not sure if it’s bugged or not. Either way, the Squashling only had 200ish hp and I had a full-health Moth waiting to come out. I think I had it wrapped up.
Draw: Brilliant Kaliri, Amber Moth, Scourged Whelpling
I took the Kaliri out with my Bandicoon but then its Cyclone killed me. That’s a first.
Win: Lil’ Ragnaros, Pandaren Monk, Lil’ KT
The Bandicoon took out Rag and half of KT, the Crab finished off the other half and the Monk. My Moth was bored.
Win: Magical Crawdad, Kun-Lai Runt, Unborn Val’kyr
While not quite a nemisis, I would consider this opponent a worthwhile rival, mainly because I often have trouble taking down the Crawdad. Not this time, after about seven or eight rounds they ran. I can’t say I’m disappointed to not have to play a forty round Crawdad battle.
Loss: Fiendish Imp, Corefire Imp, Scourged Whelpling
Nice and close, the Corefire Imp won with its speed boost from Rush. I usually go with Burn rather than Rush, but Rush can be a useful move, as it was now.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Electrified Razortooth, Restless Shadeling
This one was close. I didn’t hit any Sleeps, but I did hit one out of two Dusts, one that sealed the win. Sometimes I wish there was a better option for Moth Dust, but Moth Balls is the other choice. I’m not a fan of Moth Balls, although it is used a lot against me in battles. Eventually, I’ll give it another shot.
Record: 8-2-1
Assessment: Oops, another Nigel Tufnel team (because I went to eleven). Eleven games without a Direhorn opponent, matchmaking was kind to me. In nine of the eleven games I faced an Undead. Again, good luck with the matchmaking.
Team 8
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
H/S Scalded Basilisk Hatchling (Crystal Prison, Feign Death, Thrash)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)
How can I forget my favorite pet, the Basilisk? With all the Direhorns around I’m scared. Both the Basilisk and Bandicoon will be worthless versus a Direhorn.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Bone Spider, Mini Mindslayer
Disclaimer: this was not the best breed of Imp, making it far less useful. I’m so predictable with my Basilisk. If all of your pets are less than 305 speed I will use Crystal Prison on my first move, which I did in this case. I even had Surge instead of Whirlpool, oops. I know that a lot of battlers prefer Surge, but I like the power of Whirlpool and Snap instead of the priority move.
Loss: Magical Crawdad, Unborn Val’kyr, Pandaren Earth Spirit
I just couldn’t get enough third attacks in with my Thrash to take down the Crawdad with Wish and Mists. At one point I got the Crawdad to 3 hp before Wish went off. To make matters worse I never changed Surge to Whirlpool so I had the wrong moves, again. A forty rounder. I’ve never been a fan of eating Crayfish, but I may start eating them just so I can pretend they’re the Magical Crawdad.
Win: Magical Crawdad, Unborn Val’kyr, Pandaren Earth Spirit
Same team as above, this time I had Whirlpool. And my opponent made a bad call on when to use Haunt. I choose the wrong move, they make a bad call, both games are decided by mistakes. I kind of wanted to queue right away for the tiebreaker, but the thought of another forty rounder scared me off.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Stitched Pup, Lil’ KT
Why breeds make a difference. I would probably have lost if the Imp was faster than my Basilisk. My Basilisk had Shattered Defenses against the Imp that had only 670 hp. If the Imp goes first it Nether Gate’s me for huge damage. But instead I use Prison, Thrash, Thrash and the Imp never touches me. Go get yourself an S/S Imp, buddy.
Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Flayer Youngling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
I’ve fought this person before, they usually do well. I was worried because my Basilisk wasn’t good against the Mech or the Flayer. No need to worry, they ran when Deep Freeze missed. Bad day?
Win: Darkmoon Rabbit, Lil’ Tarecgosa, Emerald Whelpling
Another slowish (309 speed) DMR. The 309 speed could have given the Basilisk some trouble, but the DMR wasn’t hard to beat with the Crab. Really any rabbit is easy for the Crab to take down, which is one of the reasons the Crab is so amazing. I think of rabbits as the premier Undead killers, yet not so for the Spirit Crab. The pet I want the most is an S/S DMR.
Loss: Curious Wolvar Pup, Darkmoon Tonk, Fiendish Imp
The trap went off at the worst possible time. I thought to myself “as long as the trap doesn’t go off ON THIS TURN” I should win. It went off on that turn, sigh. I hate traps.
Win: Spirebound Crab, Tiny Twister, Red Panda
I kept my Basilisk in against the Crab to see who would win a one on one match-up. Basilisk survived with 500 hp, but with one miss from the Crab. The Tiny Twister cast Sandstorm and didn’t like my Crab’s double shields, so my opponent ran.
Loss: Direhorn Runt, Pygmy Direhorn, Grasslands Cottontail
A close one, the Cottontail survived with 270 hp. Direhorns, yuck.
Win: Muckbreath, Nether Ray Fry, Harbinger of Flame
The amazing Crab took out the Nether Ray Fry, then got Muckbreath down to 289 hp before expiring. I think I’ve taken out close to two full pets with the Spirit Crab more than any other pet, except maybe the Idol. Not feeling confident about winning, my opponent threw in the towel.
Record: 7-3
Assessment: Matching the Bandicoon with two of my favorite pets didn’t turn out as well as I thought it would.
Team 9
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
P/P Warbot (Missile, Minefield, Exrta Plating)
H/P Infected Squirrel (Diseased Bite, Stampede, Consume)
Minefields and an Undead squirrel.
Win: Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Lil’ Tarecgosa, Cinder Kitten
The Bandicoon did over 800 damage with Tongue Lash plus Shattered Defenses to take out the last pet. Thanks for the help zombie Squirrel.
Draw: Direhorn Runt, Scourged Whelpling, Electrified Razortooth
I could say I can’t wait until 5.4 until these stupid Direhorns are gone, but most likely there will be a new overpowered pet that will get abused. You just have to bear and try not to let it ruin the experience for you. And if it is ruing the experience, go do something else.
Win: Stunted Shardhorn, Scourged Whelpling, Bananas
A close Survival victory. Winning with 1 hp remaining always seems dramatic.
Win: Topaz Shale Hatchling, Wild Jade Hatchling, Water Waveling
The Shale spider started by really messing up my Warbot, who was just out there to get a Minefield down. The spider ended up dying to my bandicoon right as the Minefield expired. I was a able to bring out the Warbot and get another Minefield down. I thought this was heading for a draw, but the Bandicoon’s Poison did a lot of backline Lightning damage to the Jade Hatchling, allowing me to kill it on the same turn it took my Squirrel to 0 hp.
Loss: Fiendish Imp, Fiendish Imp, Stunted Direhorn
Sigh, it looks like the Direhorns are out in force today. Actually, after typing that I looked back and see I haven’t faced too many. It’s good to have data to look at. I was originally planning on doing fifty Battles, this is my fiftieth battle… but I just cant get enough Bandicoon! I’m gonna take this one to one hundred! I’m gonna have to go back and do five more with each team.
Win: Disgusting Oozeling, Clockwork Gnome, Rapana Whelk
I didn’t even need to use the Squirrel.
Win: Scourged Whelpling, Clockwork Gnome, Zandalari Kneebiter
This was a close one that needed my Squirrel to finish it off with 0 hp.
Loss: Qiraji Guardling, Stunted Direhorn, Crawling Claw
Seems like payback for when I was doing 50 Battles: Sandstorm and I used a team like this. My strong attacks on the Claw were hitting for only about 100 in Sandstorm. It was still close, the Direhorn survived with only about 400 hp.
Win: Anubisath Idol, Direhorn Runt, Giant Bone Spider
It’s nice to beat a Direhorn team with a Bandicoon team. They should be ashamed of themselves for losing. Really what happened is my pets counter all of their pets, and I was able to use that to my advantage.
Loss: Crawling Claw, Fiendish Imp, Spawn of G’Nathus
It was heading for a draw but my 90% accuracy Diseased bite missed for the loss.
Record: 6-3-1
I was thinking of renaming my Warbot to Winbot, but here I can see that he’s not as badass on his own as I thought. Three of the non-wins were against Direhorns.
Team 10
S/S Bandicoon (Tongue Lash, Survival, Poison Fang)
S/S Robo-Chick (Batter, Overtune, Wind-Up)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Shell Shield, Whirlpool)
Some basic coverage synergy with a wide range of attack types. Nothing too gimmicky.
Loss: Anubisath Idol, Lil’ Deathwing, Darkmoon Tonk
I could use a gimmick right about now. I did okay against the Tonk and Deathwing, but when the Idol came out it was bad news for me. I got “No Timed”.
Win: Lil’ Ragnaros, Ethereal Soul-Trader, Darkmoon Tonk
Sometimes misses in the beginning of a game don’t seem like a big deal, but a Tonk miss against my Chick allowed it to backline then come out later for the final shot on the Trader. Who knows what it would’ve been like if the Tonk killed my Chick?
Win: Pandaren Monk, Kun-Lai Runt, Lil XT
A Kun-Lai Runt with Thrash/Mangle/Rampage caught me off guard, I put in my Bandicoon to take the Elemental attacks, of which there were none. The Runt loaded up on beast attacks. It only took one strong Rampage for me to get the hell out of there. This wasn’t very close.
Win: Baby Ape, Fox Kit, Father Winter’s Helper
This one showed the power of Survival. At the end I had my full-health Bandicoon vs. the full-health Ape, with my 100ish hp Chick waiting in the backline. Those beast attacks will wreck me, right? Yes, and no. The Ape did enough damage to take me out in two rounds with Banana Barrage and Smash, but I popped Survival on the second round against the Ape, essentially giving me an extra turn. So instead of Poison Fang and Tongue Lash I did Poison Fang/Survival/Tongue Lash/Tongue Lash. It wasn’t enough to kill the Ape but I brought it to around 100 hp, enough to finish it with Batter in one round.
Loss: Lil’ Ragnaros, Lil’ Bad Wolf, Stunted Direhorn
I made a mistake at the end, forgetting that my Failsafe had already gone off. I swapped thinking I could take a hit, rez, get an attack off with the Chick and let my Survival reset. But I swapped, died, and came in with a Bandicoon that couldn’t Survive.
Win: Filthling, Wild Jade Hatchling, Sourged Whelpling
This was an odd battle. This team had Lightning written all over it. Except my opponent started with the Scourged Whelpling. Then they went to the Filthling and used Dreadful Breath. After my Robo-Chick solo’d both of those pets the dragon came in and cast Lightning. /shrug
Win: Fiendish Imp, Landro’s Lichling, Giant Bone Spider
That P/B Imp of yours really needs to be replaced.
Win: Searing Scorchling, Celestial Dragon, Mount Hyjal Bear
This is the first Searing Scorchling that I’ve seen in a long time. Nothing interesting to report. Survival did its job and gave me some extra turns.
Win: Pandaren Earth Spirit, Clockwork Gnome, Restless Shadeling
This was a fun battle. The Rock Barrage and Plagued Blood combo worked well for my opponent. In the end it was the 700 hp Bandicoon versus the 700 hp Earth Spirit. Those weak attacks along with Survival allowed me to pull off the win.
Record: 7-2 (only nine because I did eleven battles with Team 7)
Robo-Chick used to be my go to Mech, I don’t use it much anymore. I still like it, I’ll keep it in mind for use on another team.
Overall Record: 75-20-5
Finding out that a Bandicoon won 75% of its battles might be surprising. It’s really not that surprising when you look at the pets that I teamed it with. On every team I used a “top-tier” pet. Pets such as the Spirit Crab, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Fiendish Imp, Warbot, and Moth. The only team that doesn’t include one of those pets is the Lightning team. Using the Bandicoon has shown that it can be a very good support pet and help other pets win games.
Published July 2013, Patch 5.3
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