October 27, 2013
My meta has been increasingly difficult lately. Crawdads, Val’kyrs, Death Adders, Kovoks. They’re all over the place. The 5.3 glory days of easily busting out five or six wins in a row are gone. I can still bust out five or six in a row, it’s just not as easy.
Battle 1 (Fairy Moans)
Fiendish Imp, Wild Jade Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Spiny Terapin, Direhorn Runt, Crimson Geode
Oh oh, this isn’t exactly a top flight team and I almost lost. It came down to the last Burn against the Terapin. How did it get to that point? The stun from the Geode, the interrupts from the Runt and the shield from the Terapin. Still, I would have thought I’d do better. I’m now dedicating this week’s challenge to Kovok teams. They’re not my best teams but it’ll be a fun, but perhaps short night.
Battle 2 (Trap Is Crap)
Curious Wolvar Pup, Fossilized Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Pandaren Earth Spirit, Lil’ Tarecgosa, Mini Mindslayer
Dang another very close one. The Earth Spirit did some serious damage to my Wolvar and it totally destroyed Kovok, but not before Kovok was able to get the Pheromones down. The Mindslayer died on the last turn of the Trap, so basically the Trap was useless. When Lil’ Tarecgosa came out as the final pet it only had 159 hp so I was able to take it out on the Hatchling’s undead turn while a low health Wolvar survived the battle. Way too close for comfort.
Battle 3 (Twisting Moans)
Tiny Twister, Wild Jade Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Celestial Dragon, Cogblade Raptor, Water Waveling
Okay, I guess I was lying about my meta being more competitive because I’m just not seeing it tonight. The only thing I had to worry about here was the Waveling’s Geyser. I started with the Twister to put up Wild Winds and Lightning versus the Celestial Dragon. I had two Lightning’s in my pocket but it didn’t matter since the Celestial Dragon didn’t ever use Moonfire. The Geyser wans’t too bug of a deal, I ate it with Kovok and survived with 60ish hp. The Cogblade Raptor was at such low health when it came out it was insignificant. All of my pets survived.
Battle 4 (Look Over There)
Curious Wolvar Pup, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Kovok
vs. Fiendish Imp, Unborn Val’kyr, Terrible Turnip
Now I have some competition. Or at least the team looks that way. The truth is that this player sometimes makes me scratch my head and wonder what the hell they are doing. The “what the hell” moment this battle was when the almost dead Val’kyr just came out of the Haunt on the backline and I brought in the Dragonling to face the low health Imp. My opponent had the bright idea of swapping in the Turnip. One Thunderbolt gave me the double kill on the Imp and the Val’kyr. I wouldn’t be so harsh if this were a new player or someone I didn’t know, but this person does stuff like this all the time. Oh well, I got another win.
Battle 5 (Thundering Moans)
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Wild Jade Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Fiendish Imp, Restless Shadeling, Pygmy Direhorn
The Imp user from the last battle I see regularly and I have already stated my opinion of. I see the opponent in this battle a little less regularly but hold them in higher regard so I was a bit worried from the beginning. On top of facing a better opponent I have an Imp to deal with while I want to run a Lightning team. Do I take the conservative route and just go for AoE damage without the Lightning? Or do I go all out and say screw your Imp and its DoT? I went for the latter and it turned out to be a very interesting battle. The Imp almost solo’d my entire team. I say almost because it couldn’t quite finish off my Kovok and mech. It swapped, it Burned, it threw wrenches into my plans for thirteen rounds without swapping. Then it died. I had a little bit of health on my Kovak and 
Mechanical Dragonling left. The Direhorn came in and to my surprise didn’t charge Kovok, it took a Poison instead. It killed Kovak and survived with 1 hp. Really, 1 hp. Now it could charge the Dragonling, but thanks to the mech racial the Dragonling popped back up to Thunderbolt, killing the Direhorn and taking the Shadeling to 0 hp. In comes the Shadeling for its undead turn but I’m safe thanks to my Decoy. The Shadeling expires having done no damage at all. Epic ending.
Battle 6 (Crybaby)
Lil’ XT, Fossilized Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Fiendish Imp, Terrible Turnip, Unborn Val’kyr
The same opponent as a few battles ago and I thought I might have to eat my harsh words. I was certain that I was done for. I’ve never been a fan of XT and this battle did nothing to change that. I couldn’t get a Tantrum off to go with the Quake because the Imp would have pounded me even harder. At the end of the battle the Imp was facing my Hatchling and I had to Bonestorm to take out the Turnip whose Sons was off CD. Sounds like a good plan, except that the Bonestorm killed me. The Imp survived the Bonestorm with 2 hp so I had to use my undead turn to finish it off for the draw. What’s with the single digit remaining hp tonight? At least a draw means I can continue. Oh, my opponent did nothing blatantly wrong this game. I could have used the help, buddy.
Battle 7 (Happy Trappy)
Curious Wolvar Pup, Creepy Crate, Kovok
vs. Fiendish Imp, Crawling Claw, Direhorn Runt
Oh how this team used to annoy me when Direhorns were overpowered. Now that they’ve been brought down a peg it’s not so bad. The Claw was nerfed, too. Come to think of it this whole team got nerfed in 5.4. I admire their sticktoitiveness. There was a ton of forced swapping in this one, including my Crate’s Death Grip. I figured that most of the damage was coming from AoEs so there’s no need for a four round nuke. The Grip helped at a crucial moment versus the Claw. My lightning fast 260 speed out speeded that slow poke and its 257 speed. The Trap is what’s making this team viable against more competitive teams. Two of them went off which allowed for some extra back line damage.
Battle 8 (Now Look Over There)
Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Fossilized Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Fiendish Imp, Crawling Claw, Direhorn Runt
Same opponent, same result. My Hatchling got Gated out immediately and in came the Dragonling. I figured my opponent would use Immolation so I tried to get off a “free” Thuderbolt but my poor Dragonling took a Burn to the face. I swapped back in the Fossilized Hatchling to duke it out with the Imp. I missed my opportunity to heal because I thought my opponent was going to waste a turn swapping to the Claw. Good call, Imp. The Imp ended up surviving the Hatchling. Kovok dispatches the Imp, the Claw comes out to Curse and swap but not before being Poisoned and seeing Pheromones go down. I Thunderbolt again then bring back in Kovok. For some reason my opponent swapped to the Direhorn who takes a racialed Punture Wounds and dies. The claw was easy enough to finish off. I’m running out of Kovok teams, I may have to make some new ones.
Battle 9 (Bones Moans)
Fossilized Hatchling, Wild Jade Hatchling, Kovok
vs. Anubisath Idol, Ashwing Moth, Unborn Val’kyr
When I saw this team I thought that the Idol would be my undoing. I was wrong, it was the Moth. I assumed that the Moth had Dust, which most Moths will bring to the battle. And why not? A Moth who can Sleep you is hard to take down (must… not… go… on… rant… about… Moth Dust). Well this Moth had Moth Balls. Just like many previous foes who I’ve laughed at for not using weather responsibly, I’m the one being laughed at by my opponent. The Balls and Lightning absolutely ruined me. What’s funny is that the battle was still amazing close. My Cyclone killed the Idol (who never made it out) on the turn that my final pet died, if it had hit the Moth it would have been a draw. Oh well, you win some, you lose some. Overall it was a very fun weekly challenge with Kovok. I did much better than I thought I would.
Game over.
Final Score: 7
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