5 Battles: Son Of Sanford

I recently bought a Son Of Animus and this is the first team I’m trying it out on.

H/H Fel Flame (Flame Breath, Scorched Earth, Conflagrate)
H/H Scourged Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Death and Decay, Plagued Blood)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

When I was planning on how to use my SoA I had to choose between Touch Of The Animus and Siphon Anima. I liked how Touch could benefit other pets, not just the SoA. I was looking for a good DoT partner when I thought of the Fel Flame. Then I realized that the Flame could benefit greatly from the Combination of Scorched Earth and Touch. After that it wasn’t a reach to throw in the Scourged Whelpling. In case you’re not seeing it yet here’s the plan: Use Scorched Earth, Death and Decay, then Touch Of The Animus. That way both the Fel Flame and the Scourged Whelpling will get a nice amount of healing from the Touch. If Plagued Blood is up then there’s even more healing.

Well that’s nice and all, but how’s the offense? Scorched Earth and Conflagrate will put up some decent damage. Metal Fist hits reasonably hard doing 379 damage at 95% accuracy. The H/H Whelpling isn’t really known for its offense, but it can take many pets down through attrition.

How about other types of Synergy? The team doesn’t have a wide range of attacks. Four to be exact: Mechanical, Dragonkin, Undead and Elemental. There’s not much coverage here either. There is no avoidance. There is some mitigation for the SoA from Extra Plating, which is a really solid move. 50% damage reduction for three turns is pretty good. Enough theory, time to get down to business…

Battle 1: Darkmoon Tonk, Alpine Foxling, Lesser Voidcaller
I figured that my opponent would start off with the Tonk so I started with the Flame, which is what I wanted to do anyways. The Tonk throws a Minefield and I Scorch the Earth. With no avoidance for the Tonk and knowing I will hit two times on any of these targets I use Conflagrate on the second round. The Tonk swaps to the Voidcaller, who does indeed take two hits.

I get a Curse of Doom put on my Flame and use Flame Breath on the Voidcaller when I see a world of hurt around the corner. The Fox is going to Howl me as the Curse hits. If I don’t want that to happen I’m going to have to swap out and detonate the Minefield. I’m going to take the Curse anyways and be close to dead on the backline if I swap so I make the choice to do as much damage as possible with my Flame before dying. Maybe I’ll even be able to wait out the Minefield.

The Fox comes into a Scorched Earth and Howls as expected, I’m able to get a Conflag off on the Fox before the Curse of Doom kills me with 1130 damage.

I was two turns short of the Minefield expiring so I have to take it with my Animus. I get Flurried and then use Metal Fist to finish the Fox. The Tonk comes in and we duke it out. The Tonk wins the final coin flip (they’re both 260 speed) and kills the Animus, but dies to the Scorched Earth.

The battle ended with my Scourged Whelpling easily finishing off what was left of the Voidcaller.

1-0. I didn’t get to use the Touch to heal the other two pets as planned, it just didn’t work out that way. The Voidcaller is not a very good pet in general, it’s not a pet to be proud of beating. The Howl/Curse combo was pretty good from my opponent, luckily I didn’t freak out from all the incoming damage. Sometimes it’s wiser to sacrifice a pet rather than take unnecessary damage trying to save it.

Battle 2: Crawling Claw, Pandaren Earth Spirit, Kun-Lai Runt
It started out as KLR vs. my Scourged Whelpling. My opponent used Deep Freeze right off the bat without waiting for my Whelpling to be Chilled. It hit but didn’t stun. I used Plagued Blood. My opponent swapped to the Claw and put up Curse of Doom.

Again I have a feeling what’s coming. The Claw is going to try and swap me right before the Curse hits so I expire on the backline. Knowing this I stay in and Tail Sweep until right before the I think the swap is coming. I swap to my Flame and yes, here comes the Death Grip, brining my Scourged Whelpling right back out. The Curse doesn’t bring me to 0 like I thought it would and the Claw the misses a Shadow Slash as I take it to 0 hp.

Now I could swap out the Whelpling instead of letting the Claw take it to 0 hp on this turn, but no overwhelming benefits come to mind so I decide to keep it in and put down nine more rounds of Death and Decay. I take the hit an am down to 0 hp. The Earth Spirit comes out and I use my Undead turn to apply Plagued Blood.

Now it’s the Earth Spirit vs. my Fel Flame. There was nothing too exciting here, they went blow for blow, my Flame ended up the winner thanks to Rupture not stunning and the extra hp I got from Plagued Blood.
The Runt came in and finished off the Flame, now it’s my Son Of Animus vs. the Runt and it’s Elemental attacks. It seems bad for me, but here’s where the Extra Plating pays off. I use it on my first round in, the Runt Chills then Deep Freezes me. It hit for a strong 419 damage which would have been 832 without the Plating. I use Touch, I get some healing from my Touch and Metal Fist, another win for Son of Sanford.

2-0. I still haven’t utilized my initial plan of the other two pets getting healing from Touch Of The Animus. It just hasn’t worked out that way yet and I’m not going to deviate from a winning strategy just to make it happen. Maybe next time.

Battle 3: Dark Phoenix Hatchling, Kun-Lai Runt, Flayer Younling
It started off Elemental vs. Elemental. Even though I knew it would help the other Conflagrater I decided to Scorch the Earth. I’m not sure if that was a good idea. After I took some damage (including the Conflag I deserved) I swapped to the Scourged Whelpling and put up Plagued Blood.

After my Scourged Whelpling took out the Phoenix the Flayer came in. It did well and took out the Whelpling fairly quick, but I did apply both Plagued Blood and Death and Decay. Remember the Fel Flame is still healing from the Scorched Earth ticks and Plagued Blood.

Now Comes the moment I’ve been waiting for, my Son Of Animus comes in, uses Touch, the last Scorched tick heals the Flame for 177 hp plus another 61 from the Blood. Not that big of a deal, but it made a difference. My Son Of Animus kills the Flayer. The Runt comes in and finishes off my Mech fast with a Deep Freeze and Takedown. It’s going to be close, but the extra hp from the Touch and Plagued Blood allows my Flame to both Scorch the Earth and Conflagrate for the win.

3-0. Not only did I put my healing plan in action but it allowed me the extra hp necessary for the win. Nice.

Battle 4: Stunted Direhorn, Anubisath Idol, Ghostly Skull
I see this team and am excited to have some real competition. Let’s see what my team can do against a top-flight team. The Skull starts out and I start with my Flame. I Scorch the Earth and Conflag before swapping to my Animus. I apply Touch Of The Animus and the Fel Flame is getting a lot of healing. It’s almost back to full health. The Skull casts Ascension and I use Extra Plating in preparation for the Ghostly Bite, which hits on the next turn.

Now the Idol comes and finishes off my Son of Animus. I bring the Flame in and it’s a weather war. Who will flinch first and apply their weather so that the other person can overwrite it next turn? I am able to win that one. I cast Scorched Earth over Sandstorm. Will the Idol Deflect on the first turn or is it more head games? They Deflect my Flame Breath instead of the Conflagrate they were expecting. I Conflagrate next turn but don’t take out the Idol. The Idol is able to cast one more Sandstorm before death, but my Flame has 600 hp. The Direhorn comes out. As long as I don’t get interrupted by the Direhorn I will be able to change the weather back to Scorched Earth and I have a full-health Undead waiting to take out the Direhorn.

Then the Direhorn crit my Flame for 677 damage, taking it out. No weather change, we’re stuck with Sandstorm. The Direhorn used Trihorn Shield, I’m now only gonna hit the Direhorn for 20 damage the next four out of six turns. It was no contest. Trihorn Shield in a Sandstorm is so hard to get through. I’ll leave it at that rather than rant on about it.

3-1. The first loss comes from the dreaded (by me, at least) Sandstorm and Trihorn Shield combo. I should have saved the Son of Animus for the Direhorn. The back line healing plan using Touch worked out really well this time.

Battle 5: Clockwork Gnome, Kun-Lai Runt, Crawling Claw
I thought my opponent would start with the Claw and they did. My plan was to soak the Curse of Doom with my Whelpling and try to get some of the hp back with Touch Of The Animus. As expected, the Claw Cursed me then Slashed before Gripping me out. I put down Death and Decay and used Plagued Blood before the swap came.

In comes Animus and the first thing I do is put up Touch of the Animus. The ticks from Death and Decay are giving the Whelpling some nice heals because of Plagued Blood and Touch. After the Curse hit I can see the Whelpling’s health meter going back up fast, it’s nice when you have a plan and it works. Animus Fists the Claw down to 0 hp, getting some heals from Touch but also getting Cursed. I know the Grip is coming so I swap to the Whelpling to let it soak some more damage. My opponent is performing the predictable moves with predictable pets so the flow is easy to, umm, predict.

Animus is swapped back in, my opponent brings in the Runt. It’s looking good for me now. I know the Frost Shock is coming, but a good Runt user will often use back to back Shocks to make sure they don’t use Deep Freeze as their opponent swaps. I decide to not play these games, if it ends up with my Whelpling and Flame against the Runt and Gnome I’ve got an advantage. Another consideration is the speed of my Animus. It’s slower than the Gnome so if I bring it back in later to face the Gnome I’ll go last. All these factors point to sacrificing my Animus, I’ll take whatever the Runt throws at me rather than dance around it and potentially waste turns.

The Runt Shocks, I use Touch, the Deep Freeze comes right away. Animus goes to 0 hp and is stunned. After my Animus resurrects from its Failsafe the Kun-Lai Runt Shocks again and the Curse of Doom finishes my Animus off. Now that the runt has used its main CD it’s relatively harmless for a few rounds.

I bring in my Whelpling, my opponent swaps to the Gnome. I use Death and Decay and Plagued Blood then swap to my Flame. The Gnome has put up a Rocket. I’m expecting a lot of swaps now to try and gain the advantage but my opponent tries to take out the Flame with the Gnome. I use Scorched Earth, Conflagrate, then Flame Breath, all the while receiving heals from Plagued Blood. The Gnome is finished.

My Flame uses Flame Breath on the Runt, I swap to the Whelpling who gets stunned on the swap, but it had enough hp to withstand the incoming Thrashes. One Plagued Blood plus the Flame’s DoTs is enough to finish the Runt.

4-1. The healing combo of Touch and Plagued Blood really worked well this battle. It’s great when the plan actually works out like it’s supposed to.

Overall Assessment:
This is not a bad first attempt at a Son Of Animus team. Touch of the Animus is an amazing move. Combining Touch and Plagued Blood provided a lot of healing. Really any DoT along with Touch will provide some nice healing. I’m definitely looking forward to creating more teams based around Touch Of The Animus.