May 23, 2015

Team Focus: Macarena Prohibited
S/S Alpine Hare (Flurry, Dodge, Burrow)
H/P Trunks (Smash, Ethereal, Avalanche)
H/P FoA (Seethe, Spirit Beam, Soulrush)

While I was on my break from doing the dailies I ended up battling quite a bit. The discovery of this gem of a team was by far the highlight of the break. After the success of Janus and the Elephant in POTM #5 I wanted to try something similar by changing out the second undead pet. I was already under the influence of a rabbit renaissance so the critter was one of my first choices. It didn’t let me down. After losing my third battle with this team it proceeded to go on an unbelievable streak of forty-six wins in a row, not counting the insta-flees. There were many close wins, but more importantly, many quality wins in the streak. The teams record now stands at 53-2, which is truly amazing.

The strategy is to start with the FoA, with the goal being to get off two Spirit Beams before the FoA expires. Unless there are mechs on the back line you have done 924 damage to the back line pets. Since Spirit Beam doesn’t have the even split mechanic (thankfully!) it’s important to start with the FoA, but of course sometimes it’s necessary to start with something else. I find Teroclaw Hatchlings the trickiest pets to play against with this team, but I have beaten many of them. MPDs aren’t as big of an issue since there are two ways to take down a decoy, however you have to be very careful with your use of Spirit Beam.

Battle 1
vs. Droplet Of Y’Shaarj, Scourged Whelpling, Weebomination
This battle brings up an interesting aspect about keeping records and judging a team’s worth on its win/loss record: poor play by opponents. I don’t think that I should have won against this team. The Droplet Of Y’Shaarj started by casting Dreadful Breath without first changing the weather. I kept the FoA in to take out the DoY and the Scourged Whelpling then brought in my rabbit. It was able to finish the Weebomination and Burrow on the immortal round with 19 health to spare. With the extra damage from cleansing rain it would not have survived. I haven’t seen many of these triple AoE teams lately, I hope they don’t make a strong comeback. I’ve been using Trunks and Zomstrok a lot so I guess I deserve whatever comes.
Record: 1-0 (54-2)

Battle 2
vs. Fiendish Imp, Ghastly Kid, Death Adder Hatchling
Three words: you sucks worse. Yes, this was a battle against the infamous “Y O U S U C K S B A D”. This player will use this high powered team to rack up wins against lower tiered pets, yet quickly runs away when things start to go bad. I started with Trunks so I could either get swapped into the FoA or try to avoid Blinding Poison or Haunt. Ethereal dodged Blinding Poison then the adder applied the DoT before swapping to the Ghastly Kid. It used Cleanse Magic, then I avoided the Haunt. Run away!
Record: 2-0 (55-2)

Battle 3
vs. Fossilized Hatchling, Iron Starlette, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Wow I’m dumb. This is a similar team to the team that brought my streak to end. I had previously beaten it by starting with Trunks, making sure that I save the rabbit for the MPD at the end of the battle, but similarly to the streak breaking loss I started with the rabbit for strong damage against the Fossilized Hatchling. Just like the earlier loss, I was in a really bad position at the end of the battle. I was expecting a draw, but weak Breath hit low twice in a row, leaving me with 16 health left as Failsafe kicked in. The undead racial and a strong Seethe gave me another close win. Note to self: DON’T START WITH THE DAMN RABBIT NEXT TIME.
Record: 3-0 (56-2)

Battle 4
vs. Fossilized Hatchling, Iron Starlette, Mechanical Pandaren Draogonling
Damn, someone is trying to counter me. No fair! I played this battle as planned, with Trunks starting and the damage working out so that I could get off two Avalanches for some huge damage to the back line mechs. Unfortunately, it never happened thanks to a BONESTORM crit taking out Trunks before I could use the second Avalanche. I used the FoA to damage the Iron Starlette then finished it with the rabbit. It was the showdown that I had hoped for, rabbit versus MPD. I didn’t try to get cute with Dodge, I used the obvious sequence of Dodge, Flurry, Burrow, Flurry, Flurry to win the battle. The first Flurry took out the decoy. Damn, can’t I just face three Twilight Fiendlings or something? This is stressful. But fun.
Record: 4-0 (57-2)

Battle 5
vs. Sunblade Micro-Defender, Death Talon Whelpguard, Sentinel’s Companion
Ok, I can take a breath of relief. The Sentinel’s Companion started against my FoA, luckily I didn’t get stunned. I was able to get off two Spirit Beams with the FoA. I never used Soulrush since I was going to wait until after Ethereal was used, but the bird never tried to avoid anything. The FoA used Seethe against the mech and the dragon before expiring. I brought Trunks in, even though it had to face the strong damage of the DTW. It worked out fine, the rabbit was able to sweep without incident. I think that’s it for today, it’s nice to be back.
Record: 5-0 (58-2, crazy!)

I don’t know if you noticed or not, but I changed the heading of the “Daily Battle”, to “Battles”. It’s been close to two years now of attempting to do a write-up everyday. I’ve had that experience long enough, I think that I would be better off not attempting to do a write-up every day. It’s not that I don’t enjoy pet battles anymore, I still do. The problem is that there are only so many hours in a day. Aside from a full time job, I have other hobbies as well. I like to do recreational math (nerd lol), spin/mix records, make electronic music, paint Warhammer 40k models and tend to planted freshwater aquariums to name a few. These past few years my free time has definitely been skewed towards WoW/pet battles with the other hobbies being neglected; I feel it’s the time to reinstate some balance.

If this sounds bad, don’t worry, this is a good change. I still plan on doing a write-up three or four times a week. I still plan on doing the POTM competition. This change is good because it’s it’s a lot more sustainable for the future.