Gone Wildin’
I’ll use only wild caught pets in the PvP queue. Today I’m going to use teams based on the maps where the pets appear. For example, on my Winterspring Warriors team all of the pets come from Winterspring.
Battle 1: Winterspring Warriors
Robo-Chick, Rabid Nut Varmint 5000, Alpine Hare
vs. Fiendish Imp, Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
The Imp and the Adder were not fast breeds so I had a huge speed advantage. I face this team quite a bit on my new meta (when will I be able to stop calling it that). If you aren’t faster than this 297 and 292 speed duo then it’s hard to beat. I didn’t have that propble, plus the rabbit could take down the Decoy in one turn (which it did). Even though the Thunderbolt and the Imp were strong against mechs I’d say I had the advantage because of the speed. It ended up being close; the Varmint killed off the Imp with a few hundred hp to spare. The Adder letting the Chick unload a Wind-Up surely helped my cause. Chalk one up for Winterspring.
Record: 1-0
Battle 2: For The Gorge
Fire Beetle, Molten Hatchling, Lava Crab
vs. Onyxian Whelpling, Fossilized Hatchling, Shimmering Wyrmling
Searing Gorge, that is. There’s some definite anti-synergy going on here because I’m using Cauterize on both the Beetle and the Molten Hatchling so the Scorched Earth tick will make the second heal from Cauterize heal for a minimal amount. It was a factor as the Fire Beetle faced the Onyxian Whelpling. Cauterize could have healed half the damage of a big dragon attack for the second heal but instead healed for half of the Scorched Earth tick. The dragon killed the Fire Beetle, but the Lava Crab came in to kill the dragon. The Lava Crab and Fossilized Hatchling then battled it out. Conflagrate did decent damage to help the Lava Crab win. When the Wyrmling came in there was only one round of Scorched Earth left, I expected my opponent to use deflection but I chanced Conflagrate anyways. They didn’t deflect so the magic pet took big damage. Then my opponent ran. For the Gorge!
Record: 2-0
Battle 3: Jade Forest Jammers
Wild Jade Hatchling, Leopard Tree Frog, Shrine Fly
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Stitched Pup, Blighthawk
This is a tough team to beat. At first glance I didn’t like my chances but wait… I have a frog. I have a Shrine Fly with two critter attacks. Hmm. Should I use Call Lightning or not? Not. Haunt is awesome enough on its own, it doesn’t need any help from me and my weather. I started with the Leopard Tree Frog against the Val’kyr. I used Swarm Of Flies and got Cursed. Now I had a difficult call to make. I want to take the Haunt with my aquatic but I don’t want the Howl that’s obviously coming next. Which means I’ll have to swap. Which means the pet I swap in will have to swap out because it’ll be Howled. That wouldn’t have been a horrible route to take since the Haunt ticks would only be doing weak damage. In retrospect that probably would have been better than what I did, which was swap to the Shrine Fly, get Haunted, then Cocoon Strike for the Howl. There can be so much thought necessary for just one swap, that’s why I like these pet battles so much :).
Next the Shrine Fly started the Swarm. Swarm of Flies was now doing around 270 per tick. The Stitched Pup was able to heal with Consume Corpse before the Val’kyr resurrected but by the time it swapped to the Val’kyr it was low on health. My Shrine Fly was almost dead. This time I brought the aquatic in to take the Haunt then the Blighthawk came in on the free swap. Another Swarm of Flies went down then I swapped to the Wild Jade Hatchling. With that low health Stitched Pup sitting back there I couldn’t resist the Lightning and Cyclone combo. My dragon changed the weather to Lightning then cast Cyclone. The Stitched Pup got hit and died, nice. Then the Blighthawk made the mistake of killing the dragon before healing with Consume Corpse. I brought in my faster Leopard Tree Frog to bring the Blighthawk to 0 before it got off its heal. The Leaopard Tree frog was able to bring to the Val’kyr to 0 before it died. The low health Shrine Fly came in to Cocoon Strike for the win. That was a tough one. These wild pet map teams aren’t half bad.
Record: 3-0
Battle 4: Plaguelands Pounders
Infected Squirrel, Festering Maggot, Black Rat
vs. Fiendish Imp, Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Ahh, it’s been awhile since I’ve known the joy of a miss that costs me the win. This battle ended up in a showdown with my 400 hp Black Rat versus the 500 hp Death Adder. Head games time. Will it blind or attack? If the snake blinds and I pop Survival I wasted a turn and won’t win. If the snake attacks and I don’t pop Survival then I’m dead. My only chance is for me to attack and hope the snake blinds… yes! That’s exactly what happened, now I’m safe on the next round, a Scratch plus the DoT will kill the snake, I will be crowned Ultimate Champion of the Universe! Except the Scratch missed. The next Scratch hit for the draw. Oh well.
Record: 3-0-1
Battle 5: (Dustwallow Devils)
Snake, Spawn Of Onyxia, Black Rat
vs. Darkmoon Tonk, Darkmoon Tonk, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry
That Snake is a real liability in general, against triple mechs a greater liability. I didn’t see much hope for this one. The Snake faced off against the Sunreaver to start. The Snake was able to hit its Burrow to take the Sunreaver down to 200ish hp before dying. Not horrible. Now I need to figure out how to deal with the Minefields. Luckily these are Tonks and not Warbots so they are a little bit easier to deal with. My Rat came in and my opponent swapped to a Tonk. I love using the Ion Cannon against them. I thought I had the perfect plan. When I get within Ion Cannon kill range I’ll pop Survival then eat the Minefield with my dragon while the Tonk is recovering. That way I can use Healing Flame to get back a huge portion of the damage. Unfortunately I decided to live on the edge and try to get off an extra attack before the Ion Cannon struck. I knew the damage was going to be close, but would it be enough? Yes, it killed my Black Rat. There was no coming back from that. I prefer losing to a bad choice rather than rng any day. I think I’ll replace that snake with a Squirrel, Chicken or Toad after I level one to 25.
Record: 3-1-1
Battle 6: Ghostlands Gladiators
Spirit Crab, Maggot, Snake
vs. Fiendish Imp, Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Here we go again with Mr. Slow. Why the snake again? I don’t have all of the wild pets from Ghostlands leveled to 25. I would like to use the Rat from Ghostlands but it’s only level 17. I could use my Black Rat which is exactly the same but I’m anal like that. If it’s a Ghostlands team then I must do it right with all Ghostlands pets! I guess these teams will give me a reason to level those other pets. I was tempted to use two Spirit Crabs but that’s too easy. So here I am stuck with Snake. It actually pulled its weight this time. At 341 speed it was faster than the slow Death Adder. Once blinded it Burrowed, the Burrow hit, the snakes killed each other. That’s a good trade for me, my generic Snake for the Death Adder. I brought in the Spirit Crab to take the Nether Gate, my opponent Gated it out as expected. Then the Maggot unbelievably killed the Imp who had a chance to Gate it out but didn’t /shrug. Then the Spirit Crab had to survive two rounds of Decoy and weak Breath. I popped Shell Shield and spammed Snap. My Spirit Crab needed its undead round but got the job done.
Record: 4-1-1
A rather good day for the wild pets of Azeroth!
Latest Tweets