February 5, 2014

Mini Tryouts: Sons Of Bloodarchy
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
H/P Blighted Squirrel (Woodchipper, Crouch, Stampede)
P/P Son Of Animus (Metal Fist, Touch Of The Animus, Extra Plating)

A team like this one can be really effective because it has more than one type of synergy working for it. There’s synergy between the bleed DoTs (Rip and Woodchipper) and Touch Of The Animus. If Touch is applied to a bleeding opponent then each tick will do around 170 hp in healing. Either Snarly or the Blighted Squirrel could benefit from that. There’s also some bleed synergy here. The Blighted Squirrel can apply the bleed for Snarly so the croc can come right in and hit with Blood In The Water. Even better is when the Blighted Squirrel applied the bleed and Shattered Defenses so Snarly can get a double damage Blood In The Water off. That will be close to 1200 damage.

The strategy will be to start with the Blighted Squirrel to cast Crouch, Woodchipper then Stampede. That will hopefully be enough to take down the first pet and get a Stampede off on the next. If it goes really well then it can get both a bleed and a Stampede off on the second pet. If I face a Val’kyr then I’m not sure what I’ll do. A case could be made for any of the pets depending on the situation. It will really depend on what the other pets are.

Battle 1
vs. Wild Golden Hatchling, Kun-Lai Runt, Clockwork Gnome
I’m both embarrassed and annoyed that I lost to both a KLR and a Clockwork Gnome. It’s hard to say why but I really don’t like either of those pets. Losing to a Lightning team is just so 5.2. The way I let it happen was by trying to dance around the KLRs Deep Freeze. I ended up wasting a couple of turns by swapping when I really didn’t need to. What a bummer way to start.
Record: 0-1

Battle 2
vs. Wild Golden Hatchling, Nordrassil Wisp, Pocket Reaver
I immediately queued up so I could get revenge on the previous team. Instead of the same team I got this variation. The result was the same, I lost again. This time I was much more careful but timer run down shenanigans got the best of me, making me lose a turn. Not just any turn but the Blighted Squirrel’s undead round that I was going to use to apply Shattered Defenses. Then to make matters worse Animus missed a Metal Fist. This is not going well.
Record: 0-2

Battle 3
vs. Anubisath Idol, Lil’ Ragnaros, Stunted Direhorn
What a night. Three losses in a row. I think that Son Of Animus generally does a good job against the Idol. Unless Sandstorm causes too man misses. This Idol wasn’t even a Demolish cheater; good old fashion Crush was enough to best me on this horrible night. The one highlight was the way that Snarly handled the Direhorn. Bleed teams were so good against Direhorns in 5.3 when the beasts were OP and they’re still good now. Speaking of Direhorns, lately I’ve been loving shielding then casting Stampede. I really should make more teams like that. I digress, I should get back to losing… I mean battling.

Battle 4
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Stitched Pup, Blighthawk
What’s this? I’m capable of winning? I used Rip on the first turn and really got my money’s worth out of it. I’ve played against this player a lot so I knew that every time the Val’kyr resurrected it was going to swap in. So I brought Snarly in twice right as the Val’kyr came in and used Blood In The Water. Animus missed again while Touch was up. It’s really turning into a bad rng night, but at least this time I won.

Battle 5
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Lifelike Mechanical Toad, Fiendish Imp
People complain so much about the Unborn Val’kyr but it seems to be the only pet I can beat tonight. This was a lengthy thirty-one rounder with a lot of healing from the mech toad and Touch Of The Animus. The bleed and heal strategy really paid off in this battle. My Blighted Squirrel saw a lot of action throughout the battle but came out at the end of the battle with full health to finish off the Fiendish Imp and the mech.
Record: 2-3

Battle 6
vs. Darkshore Cub, Squirrel, Crunchy Scorpion
This might not be a bad team if it wasn’t for that Crunchy Scorpion. I’ve always wanted to make a good scorpion team but I haven’t been able to do so. Snarly was bleeding when the Darkshore Cub came in. I’ve been on the other side too many times, there’s no way I’m gonna let a Maul happen while I’m bleeding. There weren’t many Touch heals but I didn’t really need them for this battle.
Record: 3-3

I think I’ll count my blessings that I made it back to a 50% win rate. I’m not ready to give up on this team yet, but I’ve had enough of it for now.