October 11, 2014

Farewell 5.4 Part V
Counting down my favorite teams of 5.4.

Team 105: Amazing Larry’s Revenge
Competitive Score: 6/10
Crystal Spider, Highlands Skunk, Swamp Croaker
vs. Frosty, Garden Moth, Disgusting Oozeling

101114CFor a team without much synergy this trio of pets has won a decent amount of battles. It made me realize that for a guy who wrote a long guide on creating teams based on synergy I have an awful lot of teams that are simply comprised of pets that I like. When I saw the moth on the other team I was worried, but my skunk managed to take it down to 87 hp while giving its team mates a health buff. After that I was well equipped to deal with Frosty’s Ice Tomb and the blob. The Swamp Croaker survived with full health.

Team 104: Stovetop Stuffers
Competitive Score: 5/10
Snarly, Infected Bear Cub, Pierre
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Tolai Hare, Twilight Fiendling

101114AHere’s another bleed team outside of the top 100. I was very excited to have a new bleed pet to play with, but Pierre didn’t live up to my expectations. I don’t like the fact that the stove doesn’t have a spammable normal attack. Plus, I use the accuracy reducing move Stench which isn’t my cup of tea. Still, any team with Snarly and the bear can win a lot of battles, even against top pets like rabbits and valks. I had no trouble winning this battle, a bleeding Maul at the end of the battle made short work of the Twilight Fiendling.

Team 103: Blade’s Edge Livers
Competitive Score: 6/10
Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Cogblade Raptor, Squirrel
vs. Frosty, Menagerie Custodian, Mac Frog

101114BI’m really glad that I came up with the concept of “map buddies” (although I wish I would have come up with a better name). Restricting myself to pets from only one zone in WoW makes for an interesting challenge. I had high hopes for this particular map buddy team since it included my once favored basilisk, but I ended up using it less than I thought I would. I have to say this was one of the most fun battles I’ve been involved in for a long time. There was a lot of swapping trying to force good match-ups. In the end my speed was too much for my opponent to handle, but they made a valiant attempt and played well. Pet battles without any top pets of the meta can be a lot of fun.

Team 102: Mean Joe Green
Competitive Score: 5/10
Spirit Crab, Flayer Youngling, Robo-Chick
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Ruby Droplet, Spring Rabbit

Another case of just putting some pets that I like on a team together. I really need to stop promoting these to the teams page. The Flayer Youngling has fallen hard, from the one time king of PvP with Reflection and a then-blazing 325 speed it’s now somewhat worthless in this meta full of valks and adders. The only reason this team doesn’t get a lower score is because the Spirit Crab and Robo-Chick can often carry the humanoid. Not this time. Thank goodness people don’t use the Ruby Droplet more often. If they did it would surely be one of my most hated enemies. I’m starting to think that I hate healing pets in general. Interesting.

Team 101: Wetlands Wonders
Competitive Score: 4/10
Tiny Bog Beast, Mountain Skunk, Toad
vs. Flayer Youngling, Fossilized Hatchling, Onyxian Whelpling

Another map buddy team that probably shouldn’t have been promoted, but I like the Tiny Bog Beast a lot. Of course I get a Flayer Youngling after just bad mouthing it and lose. I am facing it with a team that’s a four out of ten, cut me some slack!

Team 100: Ghostlands Gladiators
Competitive Score: 5/10
Spirit Crab, Rat, Toad
vs. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling

I really wanted to flee, not because I didn’t think I could win but because three decoys are just annoying. It ended up being a draw.

Team 99: Darby’s Crashers
Competitive Score: 6/10
Sporeling Sprout, Sen’Jin Fetish, Imperial Eagle Chick
vs. Blossoming Ancient, Firefly, Tiny White Carp

It’s unfortunate that I’ve never come up with a good Sporeling Sprout team since it’s such a useful PvP pet. My opponent fled after watching about ten rounds of the humanoid doing a stellar job tanking

Team 98: Hillsbraddies
Competitive Score: 5/10
Infested Bear Cub, Squirrel, Huge Toad
vs. Luyu Moth, Dread Hatchling, Death Talon Whelpguard

101114DI can’t wait to get to some of my better teams, all of these losses are getting annoying. Against one flyer I would have enough trouble, against two I was in a lot of trouble. I only lost by a few hundred health so I did better than I thought I would. I couldn’t help but be reminded how ugly that damn bear is.

Team 97: Good Timers
Competitive Score: 7/10
Spirit Crab, Enchanted Broom, Lifelike Toad
vs. Infected Squirrel, Infinite Whelpling, Lifelike Toad
101114EGood Timers is an attempt at a dedicated anti-clonedance team. The Lifelike Toad has a critter move for the all too common Blighthawk along with some aquatic damage for the Jademist Dancer. The problem is that Frog Kiss is broken with its ability to chain polymorph. You can always choose not to Frog Kiss your opponent when they are already poly’d, but then you are creating an extra hurdle for yourself since you are missing a round of ramping up the damage. The Enchanted Broom is included since it takes less damage from the Cyclone and its speed and swap can control the 317 speed Jademist Dancers. It ranked so low because I don’t enjoy playing it much against non-clonedance teams in the queue. I was able to win this battle fairly easily thanks to me winning some timely coin flips against the opposing mech. Overall, it’s a decent team that should win regularly.

Team 96: Jade Forest Jammers
Competitive Score: 6/10
Shrine Fly, Wild Jade Hatchling, Leopard Tree Frog
vs. Death Adder Hatchling, Unborn Val’kyr, Death Adder Hatchling

101114FThis was a fun team for Gone Wildin’. It’s a map buddy team with some real synergy between the lightning, Swarm Of Flies and Swarm. It’s not great because the lightning dragons aren’t good pets in general. The Tiny Twister has long been my preferred lightning pet. This battle was interesting because I was headed for a loss but I was putting up quite a resistance. Perhaps my opponent is used to pounding everyone into oblivion with not one, not two, but debatably three over-tuned pets (with the debate being about Wish). They fled to give me a surprising win.

Team 95: Croak And Meow
Competitive Score: 6/10
Spirit Crab, Swamp Croaker, Cornish Rex Cat
vs. Infected Squirrel, Infinite Whelpling, Lifelike Toad

I played around with the cat by teaming it with other powerful pets. It actually contributed to some decent teams like this one. No sleeps for the dragon or polys for the toad meant an easy win for me.

Team 94: Purple Doom
Competitive Score: 7/10
Droplet Of Y’Shaarj, Scourged Whelpling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
vs. Frosty, Garden Moth, Disgusting Oozeling

101114GIt’s hard to give teams like this a competitive score because it’s the type of team that works well or falls apart, there’s not much in between. At least that’s been my experience with Dreadful Breath teams. This was one of the times when it worked well. The Disgusting Oozeling and the moth both died on the back line. This may be the only team that use the evil mech dragon on as I find that pet to be very annoying.

Team 93: Y-Visitors
Competitive Score: 6/10
Harmonious Porcupette, Ravager Hatchling, Spirit Crab
vs. Golden Dragonhawk Hatchling, Eternal Strider, Darkmoon Zeppelin

101114HWhy people use Explode/Armageddon/UA when they still have a lot of health is something that I’ll never understand. There goes your Zeppelin on its second round? On this team the Celestial Blessing is meant for the ravager but it’s also useful when my crab is the recipient. Have fun taking down an 1887 hp undead pet with damage reduction.

Team 92: Millions Of Deer Corpses
Competitive Score: 7/10
Fiendish Imp, Son Of Animus, Infected Fawn
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Jademist Dancer, Ruby Droplet

101114IIt’s downright scary how good the imp is going to be when there are no more misses on Nether Gate. I can’t say that it’s true for every single loss, but most of my losses with an imp are due to Nether Gate misses, especially against valks. The little guy is just too fragile to take any unplanned hits. Nether Gate missed, I lost, the usual story. It was even more annoying this time because I anticipated my opponent’s swap and timed Nether Gate accordingly. I think someone cursed my Son Of Animus when it comes to this blog. It performs so well outside of write-ups, but once I start typing the accuracy of every move of every team he is on drops by 10-15%.

Team 91: Marionette Barry
Competitive Score: 8/10
Fiendish Imp, Macabre Marionette, Tiny Twister
vs. Gilnean Raven, Jademist Dancer, Warbot

101114JIt wasn’t until I tracked win percents for 500 battles that I realized how often Tiny Twister lightning teams win. The 80.8% win rate was solid. This was a great example of why. Lightning adds so much damage when you have DoTs or field effects going, then you Bash to make your opponent lose an offensive turn while soaking up all of that lightning damage. It really is a great pet. Even so, this battle was tough because all three of the opposing pets were formidable battlers. This time the Nether Gate didn’t miss so I was able to control a few important rounds. After the flyer lost its racial the Tiny Twister was faster so was able to Bash it effectively to watch the lightning damage add up.

Team 90: Curious Problems
Competitive Score: 7/10
Fiendish Imp, Sen’Jin Fetish, Shrine Fly
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Arctic Hare, Voodoo Figurine
101114L/singing Once… twice… three times a val’kyr, and I ga-aaa-aaa-ate you /singing. Ok, sorry you had to see that. Trust me, it would have been worse if you had to hear it. Really though, the Unborn Val’kyr was the recipient of three forced swaps during this battle. It did very little damage. My opponent fled after the third Nether Gate. As we get into the higher ranked teams expect to see more imps, more masks and of course more crabs. I’ve made many teams like this where I attach a useful third pet onto mask/imp combo. I just can’t help it, I got problems.

Team 89: Mulgory
Competitive Rating: 6/10
Spirit Crab, Mulgore Hatchling, Baby Ape
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Fel Flame, Jademist Dancer

101114MThis is one of my most recently created teams. I’ve always been interested in the Mulgore Hatchling. It has Feign Death and is a critter, both of which can be useful in PvP. Unfortunately, like a lot of critters it lacks any real punch. That problem was highlighted in this battle; I played it well enough, the trap didn’t go off at a terrible time, but in the end I just couldn’t take out the Jademist Dancer fast enough with Peck. I think if it had a better ability in the second slot or a different breed it would be more useful. A P/P or H/H would work, that way it could get some use out of Adrenaline Rush.

Team 88: Fun Guy Three
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Infected Squirrel, Snarly, Spirit Crab
vs. Sprite Darter Hatchling, Clockwork Gnome, Phoenix Hatchling

This team does well enough but the lack of synergy got boring after a time. Moonlight was cast by the darter to help me out in this easy battle.

Team 87: Axis Of Ceva
Competitive Rating: 8/10
Death Adder Hatchling, Lil’ Ragnaros, Mulgore Hatchling
vs. Luyu Moth, Oily Slimeling, Rapana Whelk

I really went over to the dark side for this one. Traps are stupid. Adders are stupid. This battle was stupid. I won way too easily against a team that supposedly has counters.

Team 86: Croak And Smoke
Competitive Rating: 7/10
Spirit Crab, Swamp Croaker, Sen’Jin Fetish
vs. Xu-Fu, Nether Fairie Dragon, Mini Diablo

101114PAll of the “Croak and …” teams are decent with the Spirit Crab and the Swamp Croaker. I added the Sen’Jin Fetish for some synergy with Wild Magic and Swarm Of Flies but this squad is still lacking in the offensive department. In this battle it wasn’t an issue since I was equipped to counter the biggest threat: Prowl. I simply waited until Xu-Fu prowled then cast Bubble. My opponent was already losing and this was enough to make them flee.

5 Responses to October 11, 2014

  1. Calerian says:

    It is really weird how often I recognize the teams you are facing in the que during these write-ups….and I’m also facing them in the que during the same time, but I NEVER seem to match up against your teams.

    It’s a conspiracy, complete with black helicopters, alien abductions, and chips installed into our brains. That’s the only explanation.

    • Discodoggy says:

      Yeah, that is odd. Do you also run into the person who forfeits every time?

      • Calerian says:

        At least 20+ times a day. He’s been running away with three different teams now, not just the panda monk, skull, and bonkers. I’ve also seen a Rags, Crow, and Valk team running away, too, and another with a Dragon Kite, Xu Fu, and Yula.

        He’s helping me toward 5k, but I’d still rather play than constantly have to re-que.

  2. tekulve says:

    I was wondering if you settled on a nice 3rd pet for the Living sandling/ qiraji guardling combo? Also, what breeds you suggest… People often run the s/s guardling for the quick stun but the sandling will presumably wreck the opp speed so p/p is viable …

    I like the atk that boosts critical hits as well and I’ve had success with it …I don’t even think sandstorm is a must when running these pets ..the Sandling is already super tanky

    • Discodoggy says:

      I do like the S/S so I don’t have to rely on the Living Sandling to make the guardling faster. My favorite 3rd pets are the Ashstone Core and the Direhorn Runt. I use them both with sandstorm for the double shielding.

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