April 30, 2014

Today’s Team: Blue Weirdos
P/P Nexus Whelpling (Tail Sweep, Arcane Storm, Mana Surge)
H/P Blighthawk (Infected Claw, Ghostly Bite, Lift-Off)
P/S Mini Mindslayer (Mana Surge, Mind Vision, Life Exchange)

Rationale:
I was looking through older teams for something fun and found this pre-5.3 team. The synergy here is based around the weather arcane winds. Arcane winds will prevent the Blighthawk from being stunned by Ghostly Bite and make Mana Surge hit twice. Why the Mini Mindslayer on this team? Why not? It looks kind of weird and interesting and it has Mana Surge.

Concerns:
This team is suffering from some serious power creep. Not being stunned by Ghostly Bite is not as big of a deal as it once was. This team is very dependent on the weather, if it is changed it could lead to trouble. Mana Surge only hits at 80%. So much can go wrong! I’ve already lost once to triple Anubisath Idols and I got called away at the beginning of the second battle. Third time’s a charm!

The Opposing Team:
S/S Fiendish Imp
P/P Warbot
S/S Mr. Bigglesworth

The Battle:
043014ASomehow I managed to escape with a draw. The battle started as Blighthawk versus Fiendish Imp. I brought my undead out first so I could force the imp to use Nether Gate and it did. The Nexus Whelpling was brought in to cast Arcane Storm and then Tail Sweep since the imp hadn’t swapped to the Warbot yet. Of course, as soon as I cast Mana Surge the Warbot came in. The powerful Mana Surges weren’t doing a lot to the soft-countering mech, especially with Extra Plating. The Warbot killed my dragon then swapped out, but Failsafe had been activated. I brought in the Mini Mindslayer who had to face Mr. Bigglesworth. The undead cat tried to block the Mana Surges with Ice Barrier but ended up going down fast, in part due to a miss. I was staring to think that there was hope, but the Blighthawk ended up missing the Fiendish Imp in the end so the battle ended in a draw. No complaints here, the misses equaled out. These weirdos did better than I thought they would.

8 Responses to April 30, 2014

  1. rhonstifor says:

    Me again. I knew going in that this was going to be tough if you played well. Normally mana surge teams are totally predictable, but you didn’t mana surge right away which was smart. Also, you had some good things going against me. Blighthawk strong vs imp. Arcane storm taking away bigglesworth’s stun. Mana surge getting rid of ice barrier in one turn.
    I don’t think any of your mana surges missed. The Blighthawk miss at the end saved me, but as you said, I had an unlucky miss earlier.
    I think we played a great match earlier. You had your warbot, imp, valk team, and I had direhorn, mech dragon and foss hatchling. You won with I think your imp living with like 40 hp. I am pretty sure that was you. It was a great match.

  2. Robbins Gray says:

    What server do you mostly play on? I’m going to start a toon there so I can join your battle group. Thanks

    • Discodoggy says:

      After I server transferred to Area 52 I was moved to that battle group (Retaliation). I don’t think anyone knows for sure how the pet battle groups work, but I’m fairly certain that there are indeed different battle groups, meaning we’re not all playing each other in one big group. All I really know is that a server transfer totally changed my meta. I’m not sure if creating a new toon on Area 52 will allow us to battle one another, but it would be interesting to try.

      Lately there have been a lot more adders, valks and rags so I’m not even sure if it’s a desirable group to battle in.

  3. Choan says:

    Hey Disco, how you been man?
    I’m sure I’m not the only one, but the blog feels a little left aside lately man. Real life taking over or just lost a bit of motivation? I am no longer subscribed, but if there’s something you need just post man, I’m sure I’m not the only one that would be willing to help out.
    Well, I hope whatever it is you be alright man. Best of luck to ya.

    • Discodoggy says:

      Hey Choan, nice to hear from ya.

      You are correct that the blog has been receiving less attention than usual. There are a number of factors contributing to this:

      A) real life
      I’m a teacher and this time of the year is interesting. Some years at this point I feel totally energized and excited. Other years, like this year, I feel fatigued and just completely out of steam. Working with kids can take a lot out of you. I’ve also been stepping up my work outs so I often come home nearly catatonic. It’s hard to be excited about pet battles in that state.

      B) lack of a carrot
      I love pet battling for the sake of pet battling, but having some goal to work towards really does help motivate me to play more. Leveling Safetydance by PvP pet battles was a dangling carrot that got me around 3,700 wins, but after that I couldn’t find another. I need to come up with some other form of motivation to continue. I was thinking about making another pet frequency table to see what the meta really looks like these days, but that’s not super exciting. Neither is ability testing or leveling. I’ll come up with something.

      C) end of expansion blues
      There’s nothing new happening in pet battles (or WoW) at this point in the expansion. When I do try to create something new or interesting…

      D) my meta
      … my meta just slaps me into submission. I know that in 5.4 pet battles are the most balanced they’ve ever been, but that doesn’t change the fact that when DAHs, UVs, and Lil’ Rags are running around it’s really hard to beat them without direct counters. Perhaps if I had more energy in general I could come up with new and interesting ways to counter the meta, but I don’t.

      E) Hearthstone
      Yeah, I said it. I started playing Hearthstone. I figure after I get to legendary in constructed and 12 wins in arena that’ll be enough for me. That might take awhile since I’m only rank 10 and at 6 wins in arena.

      So what does all of this mean for this blog? I’m not done with it (or pet battles) by any means. Just like anything in life there are ups and downs, now happens to be a down phase. You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t done the daily for the past few days. I’ve decided that for the month of May if I don’t feel like doing a write up then I’m just not going to. I’d rather take the day off than push out some unmotivated, mediocre content. Expect me to miss more days here and there, and towards the end of May I’ll probably take close to a week off. That way when June comes around (and I’m only teaching one night class at the local community college) I’ll be nice and fresh for an awesome summer of smashing valks and snakes.

      Thanks for the comment Choan, it helped me to formalize all these thoughts floating around my head :)

      • Luthorien says:

        Sounds good to me. :) If anyone deserves a rest, Disco, it’s you. All that battling you’ve done over time would drive a normal man insane!

      • Rhonstifor says:

        FWIW, while everything you wrote makes sense and is beyond reasonable, your blog seems to be picking up in terms of active participants and followers of recent. Make sure and do minimum regular posting to at least keep the audience you have built.

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