July 7, 2014

Seeking A Third (part two)
S/S Death Adder Hatchling (Poison Fang, Puncture Wound, Blinding Poison)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Surge, Shell Shield)

Here’s the link to part one: 7/5/14. To sum it up, the Spirit Crab and DAH is a powerhouse competitive combo. I’m looking for a third pet that will complement this combo for a seriously competitive team. In order to do that I will need to counter the top pets and top teams of the current meta along with covering my weaknesses. They are (in no particular order): Unborn Val’Kyrs, DAHs, Anubisath Idol, Lil’ Ragnaros, Emperor Crab, Flying Pets, clonedance teams, AoE teams, sunlight teams, Consume Corpse teams. I think that crabs, sunlight, consume and clonedance teams are a priority because those are the type of teams that I just have no chance against with my combo. I guess that’s true of sunlight and clonedance teams in general, if you don’t have a direct counter a win can sometimes be impossible.

Pet 5: B/B Legs (Laser, Surge Of Power, Whirlpool)
In theory Legs should be good against a Jademist Dancer. It’s got the Whirlpool for strong damage and it soft counters aquatic damage. In reality it’s not that great of a pet on it’s own and I’ve not had much luck with it against other competitive teams. It also has two magic attacks for the birdies, but one of them is the sacrifice move Surge Of Power.

Battle 5
vs. Anubisath Idol, Blossoming Ancient, Lil’ Ragnaros
This was 34 rounds of annoying. I’m sure my opponent was thinking the same thing. The Blossoming Ancient came equipped with Autumn Breeze and Stun Seed so I didn’t have to worry about sunlight. I was able to eat one Stun Seed with my crab and blind another. I was also able to blind an incoming trap but Lil’ Ragnaros got one down later. It went off while he was under ground which I usually consider to be favorable to taking a Sulfuras Smash to the face while stunned. My opponent was pretty good with their swaps and this came down to the wire. Legs was a huge contributor to the win with Whirlpool hurting the tree badly and Laser hitting through Sandstorm. A Surge Of Power finished off rag for the win. Oh, I should mention that at one point point the blinded idol hit my adder. That sucked in a battle as close as this.

Pet 6: B/B Lifelike Toad (Tongue Lash, Cleansing Rain, Frog Kiss)
Another pet for support against the clonedancers. With strong attacks against undead and elemental it’ll be nice against a Jademist Dancer/Blighthawk combo, but I’m not sure how I feel about leaving it in against a valk. Looking at the list of things I want to counter the mech toad doesn’t satisfy a lot of requirements. Plus, a common third pet for clonedance teams on my meta is the Emperor Crab and I’m not sure how the Lifelike Toad will fare. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

Battle 6
vs. Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Fiendish Imp
Cool, it’s my old friend Mr. Slow. I call this player that because they run slow versions of the imp and adder. I think they are out of practice because some questionable calls were made. Most notably, the imp was brought in against my crab with only 200 hp after I had already shown that I was running Surge. Oops and bye, imp. At the end of the battle it was funny because I brought in the mech toad as a sacrifice while my Blinding Poison refreshed only to realize that the Lifelike Toad was actually faster than the opposing snake… which was impossible. Once again here I am with the leet hax. Either that or the icon of the mech toad is the same as other frogs and toads. This win goes to the S/S Leopard Tree Frog whose team I clicked on incorrectly. Another oops.

Battle 6A
vs. Death Adder Hatchling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Fiendish Imp
I ran into the same team and this time having a mech was a real liability. I still would have won this one if not for my Puncture Wound hitting low and not taking out the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling. That allowed it to get a Decoy down which was the game changer. I guess that’s what pet battles are going to be like in WoD. This is a big blow for the Lifelike Toad, I do believe this is the first time I’ve lost in a while with the Spirit Crab and DAH combo. I guess I’ll just save this this pet for when I know there’s a clonedance team around.

Pet 7: P/P Qiraji Guardling (Crush, Sandstorm, Reckless Strike)
I chose the power breed with Reckless Strike over the speed breed with Blackout Kick for the ability to put a hurt on crabs with two flying attacks. Crush hitting for 483 on the P/P ain’t too shabby, either. If it can hit, that is.

Battle 7
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Terrible Turnip, Lil’ Ragnaros
I immediately wished that I was faster and had a stun but I had the powerful flying attacks instead. I blame you, Emperor Crabs. I think I may have run a Haunt and stall team like this a few times. It’s quite obnoxious. I used my standard valk opening of blind, poison, crab, shield. In this battle I got lucky again with the traps as the second one went off while my Spirit Crab still had the resilience buff from the first trap. The battle was a close win but I didn’t feel very comfortable with the P/P Qiraji Guardling. Being slower than the Turnip gave me an extra hurdle to deal with that I could have lived without.

Pet 8: H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
What team isn’t Snarly good on? Well, maybe the little croc isn’t the best choice as a third pet. I’m not gaining any new types of attacks, although I am getting the super hard hitting BITW. I’m even more vulnerable to fliers. I’ll surely have to use my Spirit Crab against one if I encounter it.

Battle 8
vs. Anubisath Idol, Feline Familiar, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Eww, Decoy. The Feline Familiar did absolutely no damage. I figured it would start with Prowl so I cast Poison Fang and saved the blind for the two turns of prowl. The fourth round saw the low hp cat die. After poisoning the zeppelin I swapped to the crab. It took out the mech so I had both Snarly and the adder to face the idol. I have a healthy respect for that big dummy so I was careful. I still enjoy seeing an idols on its face.

With that I think I’ll call it a night. Nothing terribly good came out of tonight, although I do really enjoy carrying Legs with the other two pets. There’s still more pets I want to try as a third so I’ll call this part two out of three.