November 10, 2013

Today’s Team: Ripalot
B/B Electrified Razortooth (Rip, Paralyzing Shock, Lightning Shield)
H/P Snarly (Rip, Surge, Blood In The Water)
H/H Spineclaw Crab (Rip, Healing Wave, Blood In The Water)
A counter team to the popular Murkalot/Kovok/Blackfuse Bombling combo.

Strategy:
The plan is to use Paralyzing Shock to root the starting pet then use Rip. I’ll then swap to one of the aquatics for Blood In The Water. Hopefully the big damage from the Blood In The Water and the DoT damage will be enough to take opponents down.

Concerns:
Flyers will give me nightmares with my two aquatics. I don’t have a wide range of family attacks. Like a lot of counter teams it’s not the greatest team for random opponents in the queue, but it’s far from horrible.

The Opposing Team:
P/P Blackfuse Bombling
P/P Murkalot
H/P Kovok
Sometimes I think the queue loves me. First battle of the day, I queue up with my counter team to Murk/Kovok/BFB and I get that exact same team. Actually it put the pressure on, if I’m running a counter team and still lose then boy will I look silly. Well, not exactly, this team I’m facing is absolutely wreaking havoc on the meta. If I happen to lose then I’ll have to go back to the drawing board. Some folks are saying they are winning in five rounds with the MKB team. It’s that brutal.

The Battle:
My opponent started with Kovok as expected and applied Pheromones. I start with the Razortooth and give Kovok a Paralyzing Shock. No swaps for you! I’m now safe from the Pheromones being buffed by RI and I have two aquatics taking reduced DoT damage on my back line. Kovok is faster than the Razortooth and I want the Lightning Shield to damage both of the inevitable double hits from Puncture Wound so I apply it on the second round after Kovok Poisons me. On round three Puncture Wound comes as expected. It does around 750 damage to me thanks to a crit but also does around 450 to Kovok thanks to the shield. On the next round Kovok uses Poison Fang again but kills itself with the Lightning Shield. The Razortooth dies from the DoT. We’re not quite even since Pheromones has done 684 damage to my aquatics, but really that’s not bad for this overtuned move.

So now I’m a little bit behind but the battle is far from being over. I put in the Spineclaw Crab to face Murkalot, who applies Righteous Inspiration. The Blackfuse Bomling gets a Rip on the swap but now has the RI superbuff. The buff helps Flame Jet hit my Crab for 1030 damage. The Bombling gets hit by Blood In The Water for 648 damage. The next two rounds see Healing Wave/Zap, Rip/Zap and now my Crab is dead. I put in Snarly, my opponent swapped in Murkalot who takes a Surge on the swap. The Bombling goes to 0 hp on the back line but comes back to life thanks to the mech racial. Murkalot uses Shieldstorm but the shield is taken down immediately by Rip. My opponent uses RI so the Bombling is right back in; it loses its shield to a Rip. All of that speed from the RI is wasted by the priority move Surge which finishes off the Bombling. Now it’s up to Murkalot and Snarly to decide the winner. Three Blessed Hammers aren’t enough to take Snarly down as Rip, Blood In The Water, Surge and a DoT tick take out Murkalot. Snarly survives the battle with 94 hp.

I’m not sure this counter team will work every time. I think I caught my opponent by surprise. At least I have a starting point for a counter team and I know the MKB team isn’t invincible.