February 4, 2015

Five Wins Or Bust
I don’t know why but I feel like dusting off some 5.4 teams.

Battle 1: Don’t Bite Me Bro
Fiendish Imp, Sen’Jin Fetish, Spirit Crab
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Nexus Whelpling
I thought that Lil’ Ragnaros and the Nexus Whelpling were bad partners due to the dragon’s weather making the trap not stun. Well, every rag doesn’t need to have a trap, duh. Conflagrate did some serious damage to me Spirit Crab. It was the imp’s Nether Gate that allowed me to dictate the flow of the battle by force swapping out the Nexus Whelpling a few times before it could get the Mana Surges off. Immolation taking out the decoy helped as well. It sounds like everything went right, yet it was still a close battle; the imp survived with a few hundred health.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2: Party Party Party
Tiny Twister, Lil’ Bling, Macabre Marionette
vs. Zandalari Anklerender, Sky-Bo, Lil’ Bling
Zandalari raptors always scare me. Their low health usually means that I can take them out easily enough, but killing them is always on my mind. Then I had the Decoy to worry about as well so I wasn’t sure about my chances in this one. It turned out that Sky-Bo didn’t even have Decoy and my opponent didn’t take good care of the raptor. I took it with the Tiny Twister easily after it swapped in.
Record: 2-0

Battle 3: Instant Heroes
Emerald Shale Hatchling, Stunted Direhorn, Sen’jin Fetish
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Nexus Whelpling
I wasn’t sure which pet to start with since I didn’t know which pet my opponent would start with. I chose the direhorn since it would be able to take out the MPD’s decoy and be able to withstand some of the Nexus Whelpling’s Mana Surge. It was the dragon with it’s magic attack that started. Trihorn Shield did really well to keep the direhorn alive since it almost completely shut down the second attack from Mana Surge. After getting the shield up I cast Stampede and hoped that the direhorn would land its 85% accuracy Trihorn Charge. My opponent kept the dragon in with the damage debuff, the charge connected, the dragon died. That was enough for my opponent to show me their back side.
Record: 3-0

Battle 4: Purple Legosi
Death Adder Hatchling, Spirit Crab, Legs
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Weebomination
In 5.4 the Spirit Crab and DAH were good enough to carry Legs but in WoD they’re both feeling the effects of the nerf bat. Snap was one of the 95% accuracy moves that got hit with a damage nerf in exchange for 100% accuracy rather than a variable range like the 90% and less accuracy moves. The adder, it got hit hard. It’s still a good pet, it’s just not as insanely OP as it once was. Definitely not good enough to carry Legs. That’s why I was surprised that I was able to squeeze out a draw. The Weebomination did a lot of Cleave damage while the DAH slowly took it out. I think that’s what kept me from winning, but because of all the AoE I didn’t want to back line the low health adder either. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation. I was damned to a draw.
Record: 3-0-1

Battle 5: Acorn Berserkers
Infected Squirrel, Rabid Nut Varmint 5000, Grizzly Squirrel
vs. Chuck, Hyjal Bear Cub, Electrified Razortooth
Aww man, I was gonna run one of my second tier bleed teams, that would have been a cool match up. Instead I chose my squirrel team and I wish that I hadn’t. There was a lot of beast damage to frighten my critter squirrel, but the real problem was Chuck. The crocs are just all kinds of awesome. In this battle Chuck was particularly bothersome for me because it soft countered my undead damage, it had a strong attack against my critter and its priority move made my mech’s multi attack useless. Bad croc, you made me lose!
Record: 3-1-1

Battle 6: Purple Hooters
Droplet Of Y’Shaarj, Scourged Whelpling, Scourged Whelpling
vs. Flayer Youngling, Fiendish Imp, Lil’ Ragnaros
I was looking for an easy win after my loss. Instead I came away with something much, much more valuable. I learned the secret to beating cheesy AoE teams! Cheesy traps! No, not really, but I can never pass up the opportunity to bad mouth traps. I started off wrong because I thought that my opponent would start with the imp and auto gate so I brought out one of my Scourged Whelplings. Instead they started with rag and I wished that I had started with my Droplet Of Y’Shaarj like I should have. That pretty much threw my AoE “strategy” off and the rag trap didn’t help either. Damn me over thinking with my 5.4 teams! I should just put in my AoE pets and thoughtlessly spam like I’m supposed to in WoD.
Record: 3-2-1

Battle 7: Surgio By Armani
Azure Crane Chick, Snarly, Eternal Strider
vs. Leopard Tree Frog, Blighthawk, Rabid Nut Varmint 5000
Damn this one was a close one. I got way ahead by critting with a Pump during cleansing rain with the Rabid debuff on me. I hit the Blighthawk for over 1500, bam! Then rng decided to screw with me. I had the battle almost al l wrapped up with my close to full health strider and full health Snarly facing only the Leopard Tree Frog. Three Frog Kiss procs, two of them back to back, made this a nail biter. It took the priority move Surge to save the day on the final round. Stupid Frog Kiss spam, don’t they know it’s only allowed against clonedance teams.
Record: 4-2-1

Battle 8: Blight Bastards
Fiendish Imp, Sen’jin Fetish, Bligted Squirrel
vs. Frosty, Warbot, Kun-Lai Runt
What has no thumbs and cleanses mines and tombs in one fell swoop? Oh wait, that only works if you have thumbs to point at yourself with, which the Sen’jin Fetish doesn’t. Even without thumbs, or even a body for that matter, the voodoo mask was the hero of the battle with its ability to cleanse and the move Wild Magic. Immolation isn’t that serious of a damage threat on its own, but Wild Magic plus Immolation makes health go down fast. Phew, I was afraid this might be the first night I go bust before getting the five wins since it’s getting late and I’m off to bed soon. The 5.4 teams were good enough to ensure that didn’t happen.
Record: 5-2-1