March 13, 2014

Today’s Team: Bet On Birds
P/P Dread Hatchling (Shadow Talons, Darkness, Anzu’s Blessing)
P/P Warbot (Missile, Minefield, Extra Plating)
P/S Gilnean Raven (Peck, Darkness, Nocturnal Strike)

Strategy:
I never thought I would enjoy playing Darkness teams as much as I have since the Dread Hatchling was introduced. I always hated the fact that Darkness causes not only my opponent to miss but me too. Anzu’s Blessing helps by increasing my own accuracy. The Warbot was included as a soft counter to all of the magic attacks that inevitably show up to counter my birds. Have you ever seen that powerful Nexus Whelpling hit both Mana Surges against a Warbot with Extra Plating? Laughable damage. There’s no set rotation, although I would like to start with the Warbot to get down some mines as soon as possible. Then I’ll hit hard and fast with the two birds or die trying. These powerful pets often lead to short battles which is nice. The best thing about this team? Pounding Magical Crawdads into oblivion.

Concerns:
Flyers are fragile. I will not be winning any battles of attrition.

The Opposing Team:
H/P Oily Slimeling
H/H Fel Flame
H/S Direhorn Runt

The Battle:
031314AThe really sad thing about this battle is that I counted on my opponent to make the wrong move, and they did. The battle started as Warbot versus Oily Slimeling. I mentioned that I wanted to get a Minefield down quick but I backed off of that strategy for two reasons. The first was that I was afraid the Oily Slimeling might outlast the Minefield. There wasn’t a high probability of that happening, in fact it was somewhat unlikely but combine Absorb with a few Missile misses and it’s possible. The other more legitimate reason was the Fel Flame on the back line. I didn’t want to waste the Warbot’s best move on an elemental. I thought that if I could kill the magic pet with my Warbot then my opponent might go for the seemingly obvious match up of elemental versus mech, which would be game over for the Direhorn Runt. That was my thought process around not laying down a Minefield and that’s exactly how it went down. The Warbot took out the Oily Slimeling but needed to use its Failsafe to do so. What would I have done if I were my opponent? Bring in the Direhorn to take out the slower Warbot before it could get down a Minefield. But no, my opponent chose the 244 speed Fel Flame which allowed a Minefield to go down. After the Warbot died I brought in the Dread Hatchling. The Fel Flame was able to kill the bird but it left a nice blessing for the Gilnean Raven. The second bird finished off the elemental, the Direhorn Runt took over 1k damage from the Minefield then a Nocturnal Strike killed the beast for the win.

One Response to March 13, 2014

  1. Noel says:

    Nice, I often just do stuff by rote, and your strat of holding off because the pet can outlast mines I never thought of. Too bad he didn’t realize you were going to minefield his runt however after all that time maybe he assumed you didn’t have minefield?

    Anyway nice battle.

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