February 21, 2015

POTM check-in
I missed yesterday because I was having too much fun learning how to play holy paladin. It’s fun playing a new spec, but I guess you could say any spec is new since most of my paladin leveling was done through pet battles. Anyways, here I am ready to continue with the check-in. I have four more teams to play with, and I think I’ll play with Clonestorm again since I gave such a poor report. I was suffering from both murkrage and chronic rnghatesmeitis. I’ve done thirty-one POTM battles so far so I’m on the fourth cycle.

Note: I’ve been naming unnamed teams after their creators, but today I decided to rename them myself. Let me know If you don’t like your team’s name.

Battle 1: Hair Club For Darkness
Frostwolf Ghostpup, Frostfur Rat, Frostfur Rat
vs. Molten Corgi, Anubisath Idol, Chi-Chi
This team has been hair-rippingly frustrating to play. It’s countered hard by both elementals and humanoids. The reason elementals are a problem is because Sneak Attack (on both rats) doesn’t get the benefit of its second darkness attack. On that topic could someone please explain to me why elementals still ignore negative effects of weather except in a sandstorm. I would really love to use my Living Sandling to counter the AoE meta but it’s gimped due to being effected negatively by a sandstorm. I digress, as usual. What has happened in a few battles so far with this team against elementals is that I try to play extremely well, then when I think I may win darkness causes misses, thus resulting in hair pulling. One positive thing this team has accomplished is moving darkness testing from me thinking “I should test darkness sometime” to being written down on a list of things to do, which in my way of doing things is a lot closer to actually happening.

After having said all that, I am pleased to report that this battle resulted in a win. Even with Call Darkness missing under darkness (my full head of hair will soon be seeking Rogaine) and all of my normal attacks being weak to the idol I was able to earn a surprise victory. How? The only way it could happen is if I connected a Ghostly Bite against the idol. I assumed my opponent wouldn’t let it happen so I was elated when Deflection was used to block a rat’s Call Darkness. Both other pets were dead so when the undead pet swapped in there was no swapping out of the 1K+ damage Ghostly Bite.

Battle 2: Rewining Try
Frostwolf Ghostpup, Axebeak Hatchling, Frostfur Rat
vs. Kovok, Weebomination, MPD
Initially I thought I was in good shape because I’ve been using my Frostwolf Ghpstpup as a core member of Kovokination (12/13/14) counter teams. I was bummed at the realization that I had Refuge instead of Haunting Song. There’s nothing wrong with Refuge, but I think against AoE teams the heal is better. I also thought I was in good shape against the Decoy since I could Flurry it down, except I had Sneak Attack instead. So far this month’s competition has taught me that I’m really not a fan of Sneak Attack. I started with my flyer since I knew that Kovok would start and I needed Slicing Winds to perform well. It didn’t, so my bird hopes were on Nocturnal Strike critting. It didn’t crit, so I wasn’t able to take out Kovok fast enough to have my bird be a factor against the other two pets. There was no way to take out the Decoy, the MPD was hitting high, so by the time the Weebomination came in I didn’t have enough health left to make the strong attacks count.

Battle 3: Filthy Frolickers
Flithing, Frostwolf Ghostpup, Dandelion Frolicker
vs. Kovok, Weebomination, MPD
Sigh, it’s this same alt from Tichondrius spamming Kovokination. Believe it or not this Frolick rng team has been fun to play. Perhaps because it’s such a lighthearted team that lives or dies by the rng, plus I also know that undeadpetsop isn’t taking it too seriously. In this battle I was really hoping that Stench would slow down Kovok enough to give me a fighting chance. Stench caused a grand total of… zero misses haha. After that I was doomed. Frolick was able to Dodge at least one attck, but the Kovokination team’s steamrolling strategy was already set in motion.

Battle 4: Trunk Ate It
Frostwolf Ghostpup, Lovebird Hatchling, Trunks
vs. Huge Toad, Baby Ape, Crimson Geode
What? No Weebomination? No Murkalot? Am I still in my own meta? The Lovebird Hatchling has been a really fun pet to use with it speed, stun and back line damage move. It was goint to take strong attacks from the Baby Ape at the beginning of the battle so I stunned, cast Pheromones then went to the back line. I brought in Trunks, who was able to avoid the Clobber with Ethereal. I was winning but thought it might be close until the toad came in to face the Lovebird Hatchling. A strong Peck and the critter racial to deny Frog Kiss ended in a massacre. I didn’t use the Frostwolg Ghostpup. Somehow this ended up being the fifth battle with this team, I must have done an extra one yesterday. It’s doing very well.

Battle 5: Clonestorm
Frostwolf Ghostpup, Royal Peacock, Blighthawk
vs. Macabre Marionette, MPD, Magical Crawdad
I absolutely love the cross synergy on this team. Two Ghostly Bites in arcane winds is already awesome, but then you have the Cyclone and Rain Dance synergy as well. I was afraid of my opponent starting with the MPD and blocking the Cyclone so I started with the peacock instead. I’m pretty sure Arcane Storm will take down both charges of Decoy so I wanted that as well. Instead of the MPD, the Macabre Marionette started, leaving me a bit behind on the usual clonedance strategy. After an Arcane Storm I brought the Blighthawk to put the clonedance strategy in place. The Magical Crawdad took a pounding on the back line, so much of a pounding that when it came in to cast wish I was able to kill it with one Savage Talon. No Wish for you! The MPD was able to get a Decoy down after the bird died, but it wasn’t enough to get a win out of it. Yay, a more deserving write-up for this team.