March 1, 2015

Today’s Team: Ghostsiders
H/S Scalded Basilisk Hatchling (Crystal Prison, Feign Death, Thrash)
H/P Teroclaw hatchling (Claw, Dodge, Nature’s Ward)
H/H Lost Of Lordaeron (Shadow Slash, Arcane Explosion, Bone Prison)

Rationale:
My little basisisk friend, oh how I’ve missed you! The Scalded Basilisk Hatchling used to be one of my favorite pets. At some point I decided that it was just too risky since it has two moves that are heavily reliant on speed. If it doesn’t have a speed advantage then it is seriously gimped. This speed disadvantage problem started to happen so much that I eventually stopped using this pet at all. Today I was feeling nostalgic and brought it out for some fun, this time trying to address the speed issue. I paired it with the Teroclaw Hatchling so that when the basilisk is slower than the opening pet it can cast Feign Death in order to bring my flyer in. This worked wonderfully, but I was still having some issues with flyers. I went through a series of third pets as anti-flyers; I would do a seeking a third write-up but I have to finish the POTM today. I decided to go with the LoL (with Arcane Explosion as my anti-flyer move) for today but will share some of the other teams soon enough.

Something else worth mentioning is that AoE teams have pretty much dissappeared over the last few days. It was just “poof”, no more Kovokination or Dreadful Breath teams. I’ve still been running into the occasional Weebomination or Fossilized Hatchling teams, but at a reasonable frequency. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Concerns:
I really want to take Alpha Strike since I already have a beast attack. Claw has performed much better for me in general since it isn’t penalized when the Teroclaw Hatchling is below half health. I’m going with the “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it” approach.

The Opposing Team:
S/B Clockwork Gnome
P/P Kun Lai-Runt
P/P Xu-Fu

The Battle:
The battle started off with my beast versus the gnome. I wasn’t going to stay in for long, but since I was faster I used Crystal Prison and Thrash for some free damage before casting Feign Death. The LoL replaced my basilisk on the swap. Even though the LoL would do strong damage against the KLR I figured that this was a good match-up. Why? If the gnome and ghost took each other out I assumed that I would be able to handle the KLR and Xu-Fu with my remaining two pets. The gnome and ghost did indeed kill each other off, then out of my the blue my opponent fled.

Bonus Battle
vs. Clockwork Gnome, Kun-Lai Runt, Xu-Fu
This time my opponent started with the KLR. I used Crystal Prison, Thrash, Thrash then Feign Death to avoid the incoming Deep Freeze. Run away again? No, this time my opponent sucked it up and stayed for the whole battle. The LoL replaced the basilsk to put a Bone Prison on the KLR in case it wanted to swap. One round later a Shadow Slash killed the runt. Xu-Fu was out next so I swapped to my flyer. I assumed that Xu-Fu would Prowl like it always does. Instead I took a strong Moonfire to the face, yikes. It turned out to not be much of an issue. I cast Natuer’s Ward then back lined the bird to heal. My basilisk replace the bird, my opponent swapped to the gnome. A Feign Death brought back in the LoL, which finished off the Clockwork Gnome. Xu-Fu killed the ghost, my basilisk came back in to get in a Thrash, then the Teroclaw Hatchling completed the battle by killing Xu-Fu. It was much closer, see what can happen if you stick around?