December 22, 2014

Seeking A Third
H/H Ghastly kid (Hoof, Ethereal, Haunt)
H/S Treasure Goblin (Magic Sword, Wild Magic, Portal)

Thank you daily quest bag for finally giving me the Ghastly Kid after eleven other pets. My first Ghastly Kid team was with a Warbot and Fiendish Imp, but that got old sort of fast. It did win. I was trying to think of effective ways to use Haunt when I remembered the Treasure Goblin. The plan is to use Haunt, Wild Magic then Portal out to another pet. I don’t know if this classifies as Haunting and stalling or not. When it works it’s an incredible sequence of moves. When it doesn’t work there’s really no plan B.

In a third pet I’m looking for a pet that works well with Wild Magic and also has some survivability. Haunt needs to tick away and it needs to refresh since the CD doesn’t count down until the Ghastly Kid returns to the back line. That may be a hard order to fill. I don’t expect this team to be great since it’s such a one trick pony. A few wins and seeing the plan work will be enough for me tonight.

Pet 1: Stonegrinder (Rip, Thunderbolt, Sweep)
Even though I usually don’t like using pets that don’t have a spammable normal attack I’ve found myself really liking Stonegrinder so far. With a DoT, an even split AoE and a useful utility move it’s an interesting pet. It’s not exactly a hearty pet so it might die too soon.

Battle 1: Treasure Factory
vs. Kun-Lai Runt, Frigid Frostling, Lil’ Bling
Why do I feel so dirty right now? The plan worked perfectly. This entire battle went exactly the way I wanted it to with the exception of a Slippery Ice miss. The opening sequence of Haunt, Wild Magic and Portal worked out perfectly by the KLR using Deep Freeze on the third round. Stonegrinder had to take a strong Deep Freeze but that was it; Clean-Up and a Haunt tick killed off the KLR with minimal damage done to my pets. When the Ghastly Kidd came back in it was able to avoid the Ice Tomb from the elemental.

Pet 2: Spectral Tiger Cub (Rend, Dodge, Leap)
This is certainly stalling. The ghost kitty can come in after the Portal and use Rend while Wild Magic is up. It can use Dodge to buy the Ghastly Kidd a few rounds to refresh Haunt.

Battle 2A: The Wealthy Ghosts
vs. Kun-Lai Runt, Lil’ Ragnaros, Emperor Crab
I’m going to run my team again because this was a new player with an uncommon quality level 23 KLR and a poor quality level 24 crab. Seriously, poor quality. What’s sad is that it wasn’t exactly easy to kill it off. I hope I don’t run into a real one. There are so many new pets around now that I haven’t made a serious attempt at good Spectral Tiger Cub teams, I really need to get on that.

Battle 2B: The Wealthy Ghosts
vs. Kun-Lai Runt, Lil’ Ragnaros, Stunted Direhorn
Wow so intense! The battle came down to a final head game. The Ghastly Kid had 97 health, the KLR had around 90 health. Frost Shock had been applied, both Ethereal and Deep Freeze were ready to go. So should I expect the Deep Freeze on that round and use Ethereal? I had already avoided it twice, once with Dodge (I was faster thanks to Leap) and once with Ethereal. They wouldn’t fall for it again would they? If I cast Ethereal and no Deep Freeze came then it would surely come on the next round and I wouldn’t even be able to force a draw because the Ghastly Kid would be stunned on its undead round. If I didn’t cast it and Deep Freeze came then I lose the same way. Really it’s was just a guessing game at that point and… I guessed right. The third Deep Freeze was avoided and then the kid finished the KLR on the next round.

Pet 3: H/H Robo Chick (Batter, Overtune, Wind-Up)
This big mechnugget meets both of the criteria that I am seeking: an attack that has synergy with Wild Magic (Batter) and survivability. A big concern is that it has to use Overtune to get the speed necessary for Batter.

Battle 3: Living The Life
vs. Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Zandalari Toenibbler, Clockwork Gnome
I didn’t do a good enough job of taking out the SBH. It’s truly an elite pet when it’s faster. I’ve been on the other end of this scenario many, many times; the SBH swept away all three of my pets easily at the end of the battle. I wasted the Robo-Chick on the raptor when I should have saved it for the SBH. One big Wind-Up could have changed things drastically, but that’s all hypothetical. My lack of planning led to the basilisk ripping me a new one. I miss that pet.

Pet 4: H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Surge, Shell Shield)
There are no moves that work well with Wild Magic but the crab surely meets the survivable requirement.

Battle 4: For Cereal
vs. Anubisath Idol, Unborn Val’kyr, Clockwork Rocket Bot
When seeing this team I didn’t have as much respect for it as I once might have. The idol is still a formidable opponent, still a top tier pet, but when it hits low it seems downright weak, especially in a sandstorm. Still, I couldn’t deal with the Minefield well enough. If I was facing a team with Haunt and Portal I’d probably use a Minefield pet as a counter. I was losing towards the end when there was a brief glimmer of hope for me. The Ghastly Kidd could take out the mech, then it would have a turn to play a head game with the idol and potentially Haunt it. It would have to do 280 damage with Hoof. It hit at the extreme low end for 240.  Next round the kid was brought to 0 so it couldn’t Haunt the idol. The Treasure Goblin was left with a one versus one showdown against the idol. Not gonna happen.