March 31, 2014

Mini-Tryouts: Purple Crane
P/S Eternal Strider (Water Jet, Healing Wave, Pump)
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)
P/P Azure Crane Chick (Quills, Cleansing Rain, Surge)

A few days ago Vek reminded me of the Azure Crane Chick. I hadn’t used this pet in a while so I dusted it off to reform this team. I was totally excited about this pet when I first got it, but somehow let it fade from my memory. Now it’s back in full force. I even went out an leveled a P/P to replace the H/P I was using. Everyone has always stated that P/P flyers are the way to go, but I think that sometimes H/P birds are a viable option. That little bit of health can give an extra turn of being faster and you are still reasonably powerful. However, that argument doesn’t apply to the Azure Crane Chick if you take Surge in the third slot. You can use Quills while you have the flying racial, Surge after you lose it. You will always be fast so it’s better to use the awesome 341 power of the P/P.

In case you didn’t notice this is a Cleansing Rain team. The goal is to get Cleansing Rain up with the Azure Crane Chick as soon as possible to buff all of the aquatic attacks. Water Jet, Pump, Whirlpool and Surge are all aquatic attacks. In the past I may have taken a second Cleansing Rain on the Eternal Strider but I’m going to try Healing Wave. That 439 heal may get me an extra turn to unleash Pump. This team has a serious weakness to magic pets, but there aren’t a lot of magic pets in my meta. If I do encounter one I’ll have to let the Spirit Crab handle it.

Battle 1
vs. Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Clcokwork Gnome, Magical Crawdad
033114AInitially I was afraid of the Sunreaver Micro-Sentry having laser but I then realized this was probably a Call Lightning team so it’ll have Fel Immolate. You know what’s great against Call Lightning, Fel Immolate and Turrets? A shield. The Spirit Crab was the true hero of this battle, blocking all of those DoTs and dishing out the damage while doing so. At one point in this battle I let out a serious gasp in real life when my Pump missed the Magical Crawdad. What a dork. I was able to recover from the miss thanks to Healing Wave, I probably would have lost this battle without it. Why wasn’t I fighting the enemy aquatic with my flyer? It had Surge which would negate my chance at a third attack from Quills. I let my flyer take out the gnome to end the battle. Those 341 attack Quills sure do hurt.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Stitched Pup, Gilnean Raven
If I have to face another Gilnean Raven named Poe I’m going to vomit. There were so many on my old meta and so many on this one (I can tell they’re different people by the names of the other pets). I really hate the Unborn Val’kyr and Stitched Pup combo. As far as fotm pets go the Unborn Val’kyr has a lot of counters, but the Consume Corpse abuse, uhh, strategy I mean is hard to deal with. I’ve used it a few times myself and it’s pretty hard to lose with. I couldn’t get past this team, even with absorbing the Haunts and Curse Of Doom with my aquatic. I guess this loss pissed me off because I immediately re-queued with a Warbot, Sen’Jin Fetish and Gilnean Raven of my own (which was NOT named Poe). I fought the same team and made the Gilnean Raven run away at the end. Revenge is a dish best served… in a Minefield.
Record: 1-1

Battle 3
vs. Aqua Strider, Chi-Chi, Kun Lai-Runt
033114BThis is why I stopped using the Aqua Strider long ago. All it did was tickle the Spirit Crab with its 227 power as it lost its 1319 hp. But boy was it fast! The KLR took a gamble by Deep Freezing the Spirit Crab without using Frost Shock. The gamble paid off: not only did it crit to take my Spirit Crab to 0 but it stunned as well. There goes two rounds of attack down the drain. My Azure Crane Chick came in to finish off the KLR and Chi-Chi,too. How? The priority attack Surge made it so Alpha Strike didn’t hit its second attack and Cleansing Rain buffed the Surge. My Eternal Strider sat this one out.
Record: 2-1

Battle 4
vs. Chrominius, Spiny Terrapin, Gooey Sha-Ling
033114CI’ve complained in the past about how often the Anubisath Idol is able to go two for one, meaning it can take out two pets before it dies. You know another pet which does that often? The Spirit Crab. What does it mean? I don’t know. I do know that the Spirit Crab took out most of Chrominius before it swapped out for the Gooey Sha-Ling. Then the Spirit Crab killed the Gooey Sha-Ling. All in a day’s work for the little undead snapper. The Spiny Terrapin saw some 341 power strong damage Quills looking it in the face and ran way.
Record: 3-1

Not the best competition today and the one top tier pet I faced was a loss. Maybe it isn’t the new dominant team in the meta but who wants to play snakes and ghosts all day? Perhaps I’ll reform some of the other teams that I made when I was into the Jade Crane Chick, like the teams I used on these days: 9/15/13 and 9/16/13 .

4 Responses to March 31, 2014

  1. Vek says:

    Excellent reading as always!

    I kind of like how you can take one Crow/Raven by surprise with the Azure Crane. They cast Darkness(they always do until they get smart) you cast Rain, then surge for the win. But I see how that would be very hard to get off when the other two pets are the Valk and Pup, hate that combination.

    • Vek says:

      I guess one of it’s strengths is that it is not widely used so many people have never faced it and are taken off guard. At least one perk of using less used pets.

  2. Noel says:

    “immediately re-queued with a Warbot, Sen’Jin Fetish and Gilnean Raven”

    Nice, as I was reading I was like whats a good counter to the stitched pup/valkyr combo? Then you mentioned it immediately! I always put a crab up for valkyr (tuesday every fight is vs a valkyr) usually an P/P Emperor or an H/H Crawdad but I’ll have to try out the undead one.

    I really think the consume corpse ability should require a (dead) corpse…maybe the valkyr can’t res anymore if you eat the corpse?

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