March 12, 2014

Mini Tryouts: Team Cackle
P/P Dread Hatchling (Shadow Talon, Darkness, Anzu’s Blessing)
P/S Yu’la (Jadefire Lightning, Celestial Blessing, Life Exchange)
P/S Gilnean Raven (Peck, Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)

This is what is so fun about pet battles to me. Just one new pet comes out and there are so many things you can do with it. I’ve been making a bunch of Dread Hatchling teams since its arrival a few days ago. One thing that has been hard to work with is its fragility. Anzu’s Blessing is awesome but the flying racial goes really fast when you use a turn to apply the buff. What have I done in the past to make hard-hitting fragile pets last longer? Celestial Blessing. That’s right, Yu’la is back to start off the battle with her tricky move set that will hopefully leave my opponent’s back line damaged and my Dread Hatchling buffed with Celestial Blessing.

The plan works like this: start with Yu’la and Jadefire Lightning. Then cast Celestial Blessing. Jadefire Lightning again. By now hopefully the enemy pet has done a lot of damage to Yu’la so Life Exchange will steal their health. Since very little direct damage has been done to the enemy pet there will probably have a lot of hp to exchange. It doesn’t always work out this smoothly but when it does you can get three or four Jadefire Lightnings off and leave your next pet with a huge defensive buff. It may seem like I’m missing out on the obvious coverage of Flame Breath but I really like the move set I described. If I see a lot of magic pets I may change it up. After Yu’la dies the two birds can hit really hard to take out the damaged pets that come in.

Battle 1
vs. Darkmoon Tonk, Crawling Claw, Gilnean Raven
I thought I would be foiled from the start by the Tonk and its Ion Cannon, but that wasn’t the case. The threat of the Ion Cannon made me cast Life Exchange earlier than I wanted to but it never came. The Darkmoon Tonk laid the Minefield then spammed Missile. The Dread Hatchling walked into the mines but received the blessing before the damage was done so it didn’t hurt too bad. The Darkmoon Tonk was able to get another Minefield down before expiring. I thought I was done for when the Crawling Claw came in but it missed the Death Grip. In the end it was my P/S Gilnean Raven versus the B/B Gilnean Raven. Mine was faster and had Anzu’s Blessing so the win was a sure thing.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2
vs. Pengu, Stunted Direhorn, Cinder Kitten
My biggest fear in this battle was that the Slippery Ice would cause Life Exchange to miss. It didn’t, but I didn’t gain a huge amount of hp from it. My dragon was able to cast three Jadefire Lightnings before dying. The Dread Hatchling came in to Slippery Ice but thanks to Anzu’s Blessing didn’t have to worry about the accuracy debuff as much. The Cinder Kitten and Stunted Direhorn both fell to my first bird.
Record: 2-0

Battle 3
vs. Fiendish Imp, Darkmoon Tonk, Ghostly Skull
I love this team! All of the enemy pets had strong damage against me. The Darkmoon Tonk had humanoid damage for my dragon. Both the Fiendish Imp and the Ghostly Skull had magic damage for the birds. If I was sniping myself I would create a team similar to the enemy team. And you know what? I barely lost. The Celestial Blessing helped keep me alive from all the strong damage. I had a shot at the end but even with Darkness the Fiendish Imp was able to heal enough to survive with a measley 71 hp. This was a really fun battle that almost saw me beat the odds.
Record: 2-1

Battle 4
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Flamering Moth, Blackfuse Bombling
Will you look at that juicy 1806 hp on the BFB. Life Exchange loves those high hp pets and Yu’la made good use of it. The BFB killed Yu’la but when it cast Armageddon my Dread Hatchling had the defensive buff up. The moth took big damage from the strong Jadefire Lightnings. I should mention that this was a Conflagrate using Lil’ Ragnaros. Without a trap the elemental goes from being top-teir (yeah I said it) to mediocre. I passed on taking out Rag with a Shadow Talon so I could get another Anzu’s Blessing off for my Gilnean Raven. It worked out well.
Record: 3-1

Battle 5
vs. Unborn Val’Kyr, Stitched Pup, Dread Hatchling
Yet another person who thinks that using Curse Of Doom at the end of a battle is a good thing. They would have won if they did some direct damage with the Unborn Val’kyr instead of using Curse Of Doom. Instead the battle ended as a draw. One of the first things I tried with my Dread Hatchling was a Val’kyr along with Consume Corpse, it’s a good team. I’m a bit shocked about how many people are down on the Dread Hatchling. I’ve heard that it’s “just a P/P raven”. Anzu’s Blessing and Consume Corpse make it much more than that in my opinion.
Record: 3-1-1

Battle 6
vs. Shimmering Wyrmling, Soul Of The Aspects, Pandaren Fire Spirit
Yu’la started against the Shimmering Wyrmling and it just couldn’t take my dragon out fast enough. I got off a lot of Jadefire Lightnings so the birds had no problem finishing the battle.
Record: 4-1-1

Battle 7
vs. Death Adder Hatchling, Wild Crimson Hatchling, Ashwing Moth
I don’t like to deviate from my plan with Yu’la but the Wild Crimson Hatchling charged Deep Breath on the first turn and hit on the second. That left my slower Yu’la waiting to take a dragonkin racialed hit from the faster Wild Crimson Hatchling which may have had enough punch for the kill. Instead I swapped to the Dread Hatchling for the defensive buff. Darkness and a few Shadow Talons took out the opposing dragon. Next up was the moth. A Darkness crit killed off the moth earlier than expected. All that was left was the Death Adder Hatchling. It was a 276 speed snake so I wasn’t as worried as if it were a fast one. Yu’la and the Gilnean Raven easily killed it.
Record: 5-1-1

Battle 8
vs. Lil’ Tarecgosa, Shimmering Wyrmling, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry
Back when I used to do the longer team tryouts I would do it over the course of a few days or even weeks. Now doing tryouts as a daily means I run the same team over and over. It seems like someone has had enough of my fliers and decided to bring out the magic attacks. That seems like a good idea. What doesn’t seem like a good idea is casting Surrge of Power with Lil’ Tarecgosa when my bird is protected from Celestial Blessing. Yu’la did great against the Shimmering Wyrmling again. With two Call Darkness attacks on this team dragons should beware. Never in my pet battling experience have I used a Darkness team as much as tonight. With Anzu’s blessing I don’t have to deal with the thing I hate the most about Darkness, accuracy loss. Yay for the new bird! I just can’t get enough, one more.
Record: 6-1-1

Battle 9
vs. Nexus Whelpling, Clockwork Gnome, Anodized Robo Cub
More magic, but it’s a dragon so Darkness will hurt it. I can’t believe I mis-clicked on my Dread Hatching to start against the Nexus Whelpling, that’s not what I wanted. My first bird cast Anzu’s blessing then Darkness for over 1k damage. I probably should have just sacrificed my first bird and let Yu’La come in after its death but I swapped instead. Yu’la took a hit on the swap then died after casting Celestial Blessing. Good job, me. The Gilnean Raven came in to take the blessing so it could finish the dragon and because I wanted to save the Dread Hatchling for the slower (227 speed) mech bear. The Clockwork Gnome used a Rocket and Metal Fist against my shielded bird then pleasantly surprised me with a Repair. Bad call. The Gilnean Raven took the mech gnome out. The Anodized Robo Cub has a weak bite to take out two powerful birds with. It didn’t happen. My record is great but I’ve been seeing some poor play. I think I’ve had enough of this team for now but I’ll surely come back to it in the future. It’s fun and does well. I still need to try out the other Celestial Blessing pet, the Harmonious Porcupette. I’m looking forward to it.
Record: 7-1-1