In this first segment of 5 Battles I will be using a relatively new team to me, Sears and Robot. This team is made up of:
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)
P/P Sen’Jin Fetish (Shadow Slash, Immolate, Sear Magic)
P/P Warbot (Missle, Minefield, Extra Plating)
Not a huge amount of synergy here, but some really good pets. Many people consider the Spirit Crab to be a top tier PvP pet. With a strong attack against Critters, 1887 hp, and the Undead racial it is a very solid pet. The Sen’Jin Fetish is relatively unused in PvP with so many other great Undead out there, but I have been taking people by surprise lately with Sear Magic, a move that will “cleanse” you. It gets rid of all those bad things that make a little box appear under your name, like Ice Tomb, Poisoned, etc. The Warbot is included for two reasons, to throw a Minefield and make people think twice about swapping and also to counter Direhorns, which are very popular in my meta at the time of writing.
The strategy is simple here: get a minefield down, then swap to exploit family strengths. Use Sear Magic, Extra Plating, and Shell Shield when necessary. And with that we’re off to the queue!
Battle 1: Anubisath Idol, Crow, Direhorn Runt
The battle starts off Warbot v. Crow, I pop my Extra Plating, the Crow uses Darkness as expected. Neither one of us wants to swap, after he uses Nocturnal Strike it becomes a shootout, Missles v. Alpha Strikes. The Crow misses thanks to its own Darkness (I love when that happens), my Warbot is the victor and manages to get a minefield out.
The Idol comes in to watch the minefield explode in its face, then it kills the Warbot quickly with a Sandstorm. I bring out the Fetish and for some reason my opponent doesn’t swap. Maybe they think the Sandstorm will protect the Idol. It doesn’t. Strong attacks from my Fetish finish off the Idol with no problem.
My opponent brings in the Direhorn and starts with Trihorn Shield, luckily I won’t have to worry about Horn Attack interrupting me since I’m faster. My Immolate is useless against his shield, I have nothing to Sear, so I spam Shadow Slash. Sandstorm causes misses for both of us, but I get the Direhorn down to 5 hp before my Fetish is done.
My crab is undead and has the racial to fall back on, so I’m less worried, but anytime facing a Direhorn there’s the chance they will take you down before you know what happened. It just takes a few Horn Attack interrupts and a Trihorn Charge and you’re dead. Luckily this wasn’t the case, even the mighty Direhorn can’t take down my Crab when it starts with 5 hp versus my 1887 hp.
1-0. Off to good start, but that was poorly played by my opponent. I’ve faced this opponent plenty of times in the past, I have no respect for their strategical skills. This person just uses Darkness and Sandstorm and hopes that the RNG causes me to miss more than them. This time it didn’t. Leaving an Idol in versus the Fetish was a bad move.
Battle 2: Arcane Eye, Frog, Luyu Mot
I started with the Fetish because I thought my opponent would start with the moth, but they start with the Eye instead. I like DoTs against moths because it drops their Cocoon in case I miss my regular attack, but it doesn’t matter, I have an Arcane Eye to deal with.
The Eye uses drain power and Mana Surge, brings the Fetish to 0 hp while it has only 19 hp remaining. I have to use my Undead turn to finish it off, it’s all even, we both have two pets remaining.
Out comes the Moth against my Warbot. I was hoping for this, I hate fighting against moths as last pets since sometime their Sleep will hit right before the Undead racial kicks in. The Moth misses Moth Dust and I put up Extra Plating. Nothing special here, luckily he doesn’t Sleep me, I spam Missle, waiting for the right time to throw Minefield, which I do right before my death.
The Spirit Crab comes in and finishes up the Moth, but now I’m worried. This Frog is a Kiss spammer, hoping to get lucky and Polymorph me. Luckily, I don’t get Poly’d but it’s still close thanks to me missing a Snap. The Frog finally hits its Polymorph as it brings me to 0 hp. But I had a Whirlpool out which kills the Frog that same turn. Gotta love the undead racial, it counts as a win.
I’m 2-0 but neither battle has been particularly interesting, hopefully things will liven up. I find it interesting that this team came closer to beating me than the presumably more powerful Crow, Idol, and Direhorn team in game 1.
Battle 3: Harbinger of Flame, Purple Puffer, Celestial Dragon
I start with Warbot, but my opponent starts with Harbinger so I immediately switch. Better to waste a turn than get Immolated by the Harbinger.
I switch to Fetish, miss a few times, The Harbinger takes a strong Slash, realizes the pain and switches to the Puffer.
There’s no way I’m gonna take that Puffer down with my Shadow Slash being weak versus Aquatics, so I go back to my Warbot.
The Warbot and Puffer duke it out, both miss a few times, the Warbot dies with the puffer having 52 hp but manages to get a minefield out.
I bring out my Spirit Crab who promptly dispatches the Puffer, the Celestial Dragon eats the minefield, casts Moonlight and Ancient Blessing. My Crab casts Shield and Whirlpool, now it becomes a matter of whether my crab can out damage the heals… and the answer is yes by a long shot. The Dragon dies while my Crab still has 600 hp.
Now the Harbinger has to kill 2 undead with only around 700 hp reamaining. It manages to kill the crab but the Fetish wipes it up.
3-0 and I still haven’t had a chance to use my Sear Magic. I might have to change my name to Doesn’t Sear and Robot.
Battle 4: Fiendish Imp, Giant Bone Spider, Scourged Whelpling
I figure if I put the Warbot in I’ll get Nether Gated before I can throw Minefield, if I put the Sen’Jin in I’ll get swapped before I can Shadow Slash the humanoid. So I start with my Crab and try to get a Whirlpool off in case the Imp uses Immolation first. The plan works, it casts Immolation, I cast Whirlpool, it turned out to be the Imp’s downfall. I keep the Crab in until the Imp uses Nether Gate, but by that time it is rooted by the Whirlpool, the Fetish gets swapped in and makes quick work of the Imp with Shadow Slash. Now there is no backline healing or DoT.
In comes the spider, puts up the DoTs as expected and BAM! I finally get to use my Sear Magic right before I’m swapped by the spider. Goodbye DoTs! I put the Fetish right back in, the spider finishes the Fetish with only 69 hp left, the Crab finishes off the Spider, takes off half of the Scourged Whelp’s hp before dying.
The Warbot comes in, applies plating, missles down the Scourged Whelpling with no problems.
4-0. I’m starting to think this team isn’t all that interesting. It’s winning, but there’s not a lot of swapping by me. This team had two forced swaps, that can be a hassle to deal with, but this person did not use it effectively.
Battle 5: Fiendish Imp, Fel Flame, Stitched Pup
Of course my opponent starts with the Imp, so I use the same strategy as before, I start with my Crab. I don’t know if was the same person who learned their lesson from last time, but they immediately cast Nether Gate. The Fetish comes in and gets a quick Slash off while the Imp casts Immolation and now there’s a swap fest as we both try to gain the upper hand:
My move/ their move:
Slash/ Swap to Pup
Swap to Warbot/ Plagued Blood
Minefield/ Swap to Fel Flame
Swap to Crab/ Scorched Earth
I definitely have he upper hand now, if my opponent wants to save the Fel Flame to destroy my Warbot, they’re gonna have to eat a minefield when they swap. If the Flame doesn’t swap it’s going to have to take a Whirlpool.
My opponent decides to duke it out, Fel Flame vs. Spirit Crab. As if things weren’t going badly enough for my opponent already, the Fel Flame misses its 95% accuracy Conflagrate. Still, it’s looking like a good strategy on their part, the Crab isn’t killing the Flame very fast while the Minefield is ticking down. The Whirlpool kills the Fel Flame while my Crab is on his Undead turn, the Minefield has one round left. Nice try, but someone is going to have to step into the Minefield.
The Imp is chosen to take the Minefield, I choose my Fetish. I have plenty of health left so I don’t have to worry about Nether Gate backlining me for my Undead turn. It’s a moot point as the Imp misses his Nether Gate, my Shadow Slash kills it, and my opponent chooses to forfeit.
5-0, even though the last win was from a forfeit. Finally there was some strategic swapping, the Minefield was helpful in gaining the upper hand through swaps.
Overall Assessment:
I thought this was a solid team going into the battles, and the results backed it up. 5-0 while facing some top tier pets (Anubisath Idol, Crow, Fiendish Imp, Scourged Whelpling, Direhorn Runt).
There was some strategic swapping going on in Battle 3 ad Battle 5, but the others just felt like “I’m gonna use my strong pets to punch you in the face”, which isn’t the most exciting way to win.
Published July 2013, Patch 5.3
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