June 21, 2014

Today’s Team: Disciples Of Hypocricy
S/S Qiraji Guardling (Crush, Sandstorm, Blackout Kick)
H/P Living Sandling (Sand Bolt, Sandstorm, Quicksand)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)

Rationale:
After not seriously battling for a while I sat down yesterday for some chain queueing. Lucky me, I saw a string of Fossilized Hatchlings and Mechanical Pandaren Dragonlings. These pets can be difficult to deal with because AoE damage has so few counters. One of the things highest on my wish list for pet battles is more counters to AoE, something like a group shield or another type of damage reduction weather (without an accuracy reduction). Until that happens we’re pretty much stuck with the move Sandstorm. I have a special hatred for everyone’s favorite pet with Sandstorm, the Anubisath Idol. Instead I like to use the Qiraji Guardling. I love to pair it with the Living Sandling so I have two pets that can change the weather, plus having an elemental means no accuracy reduction in the weather. There are a number of pets I like as a third for this team (the best being a Direhorn Runt); today I’m going with the Spirit Crab for its shield and large health pool. Any AoE teams will have to contend with the weather and the high health of two of my pets.

Concerns:
In a stale meta where you have a one in four chance of running into an Unborn Val’kyr you better have a counter. I don’t, unless you consider the damage reduction of sandstorm a counter to Haunt. For most DoTs I would say yes, but Haunt? Not so much because it’s just that strong.

The Opposing Team:
B/B Unborn Val’kyr
P/P Lil’ Ragnaros
H/H Anubisath Idol
Just when I was thinking it was good to be back.

The Battle:
062114AWithout a true counter to the Unborn Val’kyr I need to get creative. When using a Direhorn Runt as my third pet on this team I have a decent opening sequence that I use against Unborn Val’kyrs: Blackout Kick, Sandstorm, swap then Trihorn shield. It works really well, so I used the same opening sequence but with Shell Shield instead of Trihorn Shield. The Spirit Crab did get a Curse of Doom put on it but no Haunt came. My opponent must have been scared of the double shielding. Either that, or an Unholy Ascension was incoming. It never came, the Spirit Crab and Unborn Val’kyr cancelled each other out, with my crab giving me an advantage by laying down a Whirlpool. Lil’ Ragnaros was brought in next as I brought in my Qiraji Guardling again. I was saving my Blackout Kick for the turn that the Whirlpool was going to hit so I used Crush first. Lil’ Ragnaros cast Conflagrate. The Blackout Kick/Whirlpool took a hefty chunk of hp off the firelord, a Crush finished him off. Now it was basically two pets against one but you know what? The single Anubisath Idol almost took out both my remaining pets. Almost, my Qiraji Guardling survived with 169 hp. The stun from Rupture didn’t even proc. Damn I hate that idol!

8 Responses to June 21, 2014

  1. Jan Kleemann says:

    Welcome back. And with the matching pet to the Solstice :)

  2. Prema says:

    Missed your posts — welcome back!

  3. roger arsenault says:

    Welcome back, missed your excellent blog posts!

  4. roger arsenault says:

    Also… I prefer the tanky h/h sandling …it really outlasts many pets and still hits OK imo

  5. Liwei says:

    Welcome back. Good vaycay?

    • Discodoggy says:

      Yes, was feeling rested for a while but came back to a summer teaching job. Why oh why did I do this to myself? At least it’s half days rather than full days.

      Thanks for all the WB everyone :)

  6. roger arsenault says:

    I used it with the qiraji guardling but only had the p/p breed ..I plan to grab an s/s now that they’re back. Can’t remember but I’m sure I cheaped out and used Anub as a sandy third wheel.

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