Team Focus: Slitherbolt
S/S Jademist Dancer (Steam Vent, Rain Dance, Acid Rain)
S/S Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (Breath, Thunderbolt, Decoy)
S/S Slitherscale Elver (Deep Bite, Clobber, Pump)
Back in March I was looking for a third pet to join the watery duo of the Slithershock Elver and Jademist Dancer(3/3/15) when Vek suggested the MPD as a counter to magic pets. With the MPD third this team quickly became my favorite elver team. I played around 20 battles with it before forgetting about it. During the past week I’ve encountered a couple of sunny day teams so I dusted off this team so I could make flower and scumbag crawdad teams cry with all of the aquatic damage.
It’s been doing great. If I remember correctly it was 19-3-1 when I started using it, now it’s 38-4-2. I usually start off with the elver, even though in theory it would seem better to start with the Jademist Dancer to change the weather. The reason I’ve been doing this is because of all of the slow teams that I’ve faced. If I start with the elver against slower opponents I can Clobber and Pump before the opposing pet can do anything, giving me a 10% boost to my Deep Bite. I then ramp up Deep Bite until I can finish off the first pet with a Pump release, by then Deep Bite is ramped way up and Clobber has reset. It sounds ideal, but that scenario has happened quite a bit. I’ll then use the MPD and Jademist Dancer to finish things off. Surprisingly, I’ve found myself using the MPD in the middle and the dancer as a sweeper more often than not. So basically I’ve been playing this team in a very different way than I first imagined (dancer->elver->MPD).
Some potential problems are Deep Bite needing to ramp, Breath doing weak damage to undead and three low health pets. So far it hasn’t been enough of an issue to keep the team from winning a lot. There have been many very close battles.
Battle 1
vs. Fossilized Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Curious Wolvar Pup
I got really worried when I saw the Curious Wolvar Pup because I thought it might lay a trap. Instead it had Frenzyheart Brew to buff Whirlwind. Not a bad idea, but I don’t know if I’d run a humanoid other than the imp with all of the undead damage out there. This battle played out just like I described above: the elver started off with a Clobber and Pump, then ramped up Deep Bite against the pup. I forgot to mention that sometimes the damage works out so that you don’t even need to use Pump against the first pet. The pup was above 700 health (Pump does 693 without cleansing rain), so I used two Deep Bites instead, which allowed me to save the Pump for the Fossilized Hatchling. It was hairy at the end with the MPDs facing off, but I still had an unused (yet low health) Jademist Dancer to finish things off if necessary. It wasn’t needed.
Battle 2
vs. Fiendish Imp, Spawn Of G’Nathus, Jademist Dancer
When my opponent swapped out the Spawn Of G’Nathus for the Jademist Dancer I thought “wow genius” sarcastically. When it cast Geyser unexpectedly I thought “wow genius” without the sarcasm. See, I was probably going to have to eat the geyser now. I could have brought in my MPD to try and block it by using Decoy, but if my opponent brought in the imp and got Immolation going then I’d be screwed: Burn plus an Immolation tick would take down the decoy in one turn, leaving my MPD exposed to strong damage (the imp was 297 speed). It turns out that the opposing dancer stayed in so I could have used the MPD to block, but that wasn’t a chance I was willing to take. I ate the geyser after finishing off the dancer with my elver, which was killed off by the imp while stunned. I was worried now because I didn’t like the two on two match-up that was in front of me, I would be taking a lot of strong damage. It ended up not being a problem because my opponent let me take out the imp quickly before sending it to the back line. I feel like I dodged a bullet.
Battles 3 -5 (see video)
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Spawn Of G’Nathus, Mirror Strider (1:20)
vs. Molten Corgi, Spawn Of Onyxia, Fen Crab (5:49)
vs. Molten Corgi, Spawn Of Onyxia, Fen Crab (12:20)
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Really like the video, and I think you are getting much better at explaining your how you are thinking. Still I’m partial to the written words but videos give more details.
You have some damn fine records.
Puddle Terror and Slitherscale Elver are a bit similar, unless you do sunlight/heal on the Terror. I do believe the Elver is the more powerful of the two since it can be S/S.
The Puddle Terror do not have to ramp up it’s main attack and can have both stun and an avoid, but the breed is not as good as the Elver using these moves.
Good work as always.
I stopped using the Puddle Terror earlier than I thought I would, I should get back to it.
I think my records are better than ever, which is because I tend to play with less “fun teams” than I used to. It’s sort of sad. I don’t know if you ever go to the US forums but I made a point there that power creep has made it much more difficult to run “fun” or less competitive teams and stand any chance of winning. There’s nothing fun about seeing a Teroclaw Hatchling on the other side and thinking “I can’t beat this team if it’s played well.” Luckily the second half of that thought isn’t always the case :P.
Oh, and for the record, my team “experimenting” that absorbs the records of teams that I dissolve after realizing they aren’t playable or viable is currently 4-27-2. Many failed experiments.
“Luckily the second half of that thought isn’t always the case.”
But that’s just it. Against Graves+MPD, if you’re not running a counter, your opponent doesn’t need to play decently. Just hit the abilities as the come off cd, ignore whatever your opponent is doing. A skilled player with Graves+MPD would have above a 50% win percentage with an Elekk Plushie as his third pet. The meta is beyond the point where you can play a fun team and have any hope of success. It’s at the point of you’re running the FOTM comp, a FOTM counter, or you’re giving away victories. Pre-Graves, I felt the meta was in a great place. There were power comps, sure, but fun comps were still viable. Now, not at all.
I couldn’t agree more with that sentiment.
I also think something needs to be done about certain AoE abilities, was a lot of good suggestions in that thread. Not sure if it was here or on Warcraftpets were I made a comparison with MPD Thunderbolt and Darkmoon Tonk Ion Cannon. Thunderbolt does just slightly less single target damage, is much more useful in general and does not make you recharge for two turns. Perhaps a one turn recharge for those split aoe attacks could be another route to go. Or that if the active pet avoids the attack in some way then it will miss all together.
“puppies of the lame” lmao disco 😛
That one never stuck. I also started using the name “Weeboremenation”, but that never stuck either 😛