Today’s Team: Leggo My Crabbo
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)
B/B Legs (Pump, Surge Of Power, Whirlpool)
H/P Toad (Water Jet, Cleansing Rain, Swarm Of Flies)
*Rationale:
I’ve been facing an absurd amount of clonedance teams lately. My theory is that some new pet battler found out how easy it is to win with that strategy and has been grinding out the achievements with it at everyone else’s expense. I’ve been trying to come up with ways to counter the evil Jademist Dancer and Blighthawk combo. The third pet on this team is variable but it’s usually a Death Adder Hatchling or Emperor Crab. I’ve been losing more than usual thanks to these teams. A clonedance team is one of those teams that if you don’t have a specific counter to you can rarely beat. That right there might be the very definition of OP in pet battles, but that’s a different topic. So why did I choose these pets as an anti-clonedance team? I like the Spirit Crab because it’s nice and beefy with all that 1887 hp. It can take a beating from Cyclone on the back line and live to tell about it. Plus it has an aquatic attack in Whirlpool. I chose Legs because it is a magic pet with aquatic attacks. The Jademist Dancer’s aquatic attacks will do weak damage and in the likely case of a crit the magic racial will provide a bit of protection. The Huge Toad I was a bit unsure about, due to being an aquatic and taking strong damage from the Cyclone. It will be good against both the Blighthawk and the Jademist Dancer if I can keep it alive and it has Cleansing Rain to buff the aquatic moves. I will start with it against the Blighthawk and keep it in to dissuade the Jademist Dancer from coming in due to fear of aquatic attacks. That’ll also prevent it from a useless death on the back line. I really loaded up on the aquatic attacks because the Jademist Dancer is the priority target. Hopefully it’ll work.
*While explaining this blog on a forum Astra gave me the idea of changing this section to “rationale” instead of “strategy”, since I usually talk about team creation much more than strategy. It’s a much better description, thanks.
Concerns:
With so many aquatic attacks I will have trouble damaging magic pets. Legs’ move set is sort of clunky since it doesn’t include a normal attack.
The Opposing Team:
B/B Jademist Dancer
S/S Nether Fairie Dragon
H/S Pet Bombling
How lucky is that, I get to test my anti-clonedance against a clonedance team!
The Battle:
While this isn’t exactly the top clonedance combo of Blighthawk and Jademist Dancer I got to test my strategy nonetheless. Well, sort of, since they ran away prematurely. I started with the Huge Toad against the Pet Bombling. A Minefield went down then the NFD came in to lay down the Cyclone. So far my Huge Toad had used Swarm Of Flies and Cleansing Rain. The Nether Fairie Dragon cast Evanescence so my toad refreshed Swarm Of Flies. After Evanescence wore off the Jademist Dancer fearlessly stepped in to use Rain Dance, but had to take two 600ish damage Water Jets. The Huge Toad was still hanging in there and was looking like it would outlast the Minefield so the Pet Bobmling came back in. Screeching Gears didn’t stun, after a few more Zaps my opponent fled. Super toad! After two battles this team is 2-0, but I’m really not that excited about. Legs seems like a definite weak link here, but it is fun to try out underused pets.
Latest Tweets
So, seems that something happened in the last couple of weeks and we are now in the same meta, which I think is pretty cool. Maybe they consolidated.
The clone dance with emp crab jerk is me
After seeing, oh I dont know, 20 + straight matches with Valks, Adders, Rabbits and Rags in some combination or another, I just decided to run emperor crab with his clone dance buddies until all the valks and adders are gone.
I have to say that decimating valk after valk and adder after adder is not without some pleasure.
I remember one match in particular in which you ( 99% sure it was you ) beat this team. PP Eagle with lift off and senjin fetish. Your fetish had the wild magic move set with flame breath. I started with my blight hawk knowing you would cleanse my cyclone so i just attacked with infected claw and ghostly bite. I missed a few and you out lasted me. The reason I remember this match is that you won because you were able to get a wild magic on my crab, without which you would have lost.
With that being said, I have enjoyed seeing the different teams you and others have thrown at this nasty team.
I will probably retire it for a while because no matter how hard I tried, I still see unborn valk after death adder over and over. Ill go back to some more creative and fun teams.
lol……about two weeks ago I kept seeing teams that I thought were just someone who followed your blog and then copied your teams. I am almost sure there is one person in our meta who does that. His play is mixed. Then someone with your teams started playing really well. At some point, I was sure it was you!
I’ve tried out every team suggested (by Disco or comments) so it definately could be me…I’m still a bit noob but sometimes I surprise myself with some good play lol.
“So, seems that something happened in the last couple of weeks and we are now in the same meta, which I think is pretty cool. Maybe they consolidated.”
Welcome to the meta.
I too thought I noticed a change a couple weeks back. Even on more casual nights, the strength of teams and caliber of play was noticeably better.
And ya, a ton of valks, rags, idols, DAs …
Overall I’d say it’s decent a decent enough meta. There’s way fewer Magical Crawdads than my previous one, which is always a good thing.
That was me, I definitely remember that battle because I was like “Finally I beat this damn team!” It was after that that I started trying to come up with counter teams but I don’t think I faced you again, at least not that night. Welcome to the meta, we’ll surely see each other again.
I haven’t seen any clonedancers for quite some time, then yesterday when trying out Coilfang Stalker I ran into one. S/S Nether Faire Dragon, S/S Jademist Dancer and Crawdad. After the first loss I had it and switched in a S/S Quiraj Guardling, it was pretty much the perfect counter to this team(would be less so if it had been a Blighthawk, unless they use slicing winds). Strong Crush vs the Dragon. The Dancer switches in, and I wait to use the stun until they have cast Rain Dance, they will then lose both turns of the buff. Then you can change weather to Sandstorm and only take about 50 damage from the Cyclone. Guardling is also one of the best pets I have found to kill Crawdads. Was a sweet revenge.
I know Pump and Whirlpool are true elemental killers. But I wonder how the Filthling would fare against a clonedancer team. Creeping Ooze is the strongest DoT outside of Haunt and is a strong attack against Elementals as well, you could perhaps also Ooze the cyclone pet for added back line damage. Then you could use Stench to reduce hit chance of said cyclone(which might not be that useful when Rain Dance is up). But finally you can Dreadful Breath and possibly get bonus damage done if the Jademist Dancer casts its rain.
That’s a great idea! I’m going to give it a shot, although I really do dislike accuracy reduction moves. When I win with them I feel like I got lucky rather than earning the win. Still, I’ll try it out.
I wouldn’t really call it a counter, but I love using my kovok against clone dance teams. I can almost always get a black claw + poison fang on both the blighthawk and jademist dancer before he dies, and sometimes I can get a pheromones off as well. The blighthawk dies on the back row, the jademist doesn’t last long either, and then it’s usually his last pet vs my remaining two.
I hadn’t thought of using Kovok. I’m going to try this as well if I run into more clonedance teams. I haven’t used Kovok at all for such a long time, I think I’ll dust it off and give it a whirl right now.