October 29, 2013

Today’s Team: Reamplification
H/H Spirit Crab (Amplify Magic, Surge, Rot)
S/S Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling (Breath, Thunderbolt, Decoy)
H/S Kovok (Poison Fang, Pheromones, Puncture Wound)
I’m still on the Kovok trip.

Strategy:
Similar to yesterday’s team, this team is designed to increase the damage of Pheromones with Amplify Magic. I played some more games with The New Black (Spirit Crab, Nether Fairie Dragon, Kovok) and it did really well but it didn’t feel optimal. I like Amplify Magic and Pheromones a lot, I still need to find a perfect third. Today I’ll try the Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling as the third. The main goal is to Amplify the Pheromones, but if I could Amplify the Thunderbolt that’ll be a lot of extra damage. I’m taking Rot rather than shield in the Crab’s third spot because I found myself not using all the time. That sounds preposterous, but this Crab is played completely different than my go to Snap, Whirlpool, Shield move set.

Concerns:
By taking Rot I’m wondering if opposing pets will die too fast and let pets off the back line sooner. If that’s my biggest concern then that’s kind of funny.

The Opposing Team:
H/H Unborn Val’kyr
P/P Xu-Fu
H/H Ruby Droplet
All really good pets. The Val’kyr negates some of the power of Pheromones. This could be challenging.

The Battle:
102913CI start with Kovok to get the Pheromones going. My opponent starts with the Val’kyr and gets right down to business with a Haunt. Take that Pheromones, the Val’kyr just cut your damage in half. In comes Xu-Fu on the free swap and I thank my lucky stars that I have a Decoy. Xu-Fu Prowls as I swap to the Dragonling for the Decoy which means I have to abanodon my strategy of Amplifying Pheromones, oh well. I drop the Decoy and watch both of Xu-Fu’s buffed attacks get blocked while I use a half-powered Thunderbolt (because of the Haunting Val’kyr not taking damage). I use Breath and Xu-Fu uses Feed as the Haunting ends on Kovok.

102913AMy opponent brings the Val’kyr right back in and I bring Kovok right back in for a deja-vu round of Pheromones and Haunt. The Val’kyr still hasn’t taken any damage. The Ruby Droplet comes out next. Kovok uses Poison Fang and Puncture Wounds while the Droplet uses Drain Blood and Bubble. On it’s final turn Kovok breaks the first Bubble as the Droplet kills it with Absorb. The Crab finally comes out and Surges away the second Bubble. The Droplet is Poisoned and will surely die on the back line but my opponent swapped to the Val’kyr anyways. Much to my surprise my opponent Haunted my Crab, which was a fatal mistake. Xu-Fu came back in to use Feed, but the health gained was negated by an Amplified Rot that hit for 558 damage. I chose the extra damage and it paid off. Perhaps my opponent assumed I just had Surge for damage and Xu-Fu would outlast the Haunt. With 396 hp and 3 rounds of Haunt left that wasn’t going to happen so Xu-Fu turned tail and ran away.

102913BMy whole strategy was busted due to needing to block the buffed Xu-Fu. It didn’t matter much since the Val’kyr wasn’t going to be taking Pheromone damage. The Val’kyr simply ceases to exist while Haunting, it’s not on the back line or in play. For this reason the Val’kyr seems like a good counter to Kovok’s Pheromones. Overall this battle was somewhat disappointing, I thought that it would be more challenging. This battle shows one of the real downsides of the Val’kyr, which is the possibility of losing the game to a mistimed Haunt. It also shows why Decoy is a really good way to deal with Xu-Fu’s Prowl.

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