October 8, 2014

Farewell 5.4 Part III
Counting down my favorite 5.4 teams.

Team 124: Cuentos De La Cripta
Competitive Score: 6/10
Fiendish Imp, Scourged Whelpling, Molten Hatchling
vs. Clockwork Gnome, Son Of Animus, Skywisp Moth
It’s hard to get excited about the imp and Scourged Whelpling combo that has been around forever. I’ve tried numerous third pets and I have to say the Molten Hatchling isn’t one of the better choices. In this battle I had an advantage because my ace pet countered the two mech pets so hard. Unfortunately I lost a turn due to all of the DoTs in the lightning (a glitch) and a Nether Gate missed. I was still able to win because Son Of Animus performed so pitifully with Batter. A speed move on a 260 speed is not always a good idea.

Team 123: The Love Tank
Competitive Score: 5/10
Spirit Crab, Harmonious Porcupette, Emeral Proto-Whelp
vs. Onyxian Whelpling, Fel Flame, Water Waveling
You know your team is good when you draw against an Onyxian Whelpling! This was one of my first Celestial Blessing teams where I used the shield to prolong the life of a low hp pet. The problem is that I don’t really enjoy the game play of the EPW, it’s just too healy for my tastes. I could never really get into this team, so although it made it to the teams page it quickly fell out of favor and got all dusty.

Team 122: Ten Topper
Competitive Score: 5/10
Flayer Youngling, Sen’Jin Fetish, Robo-Chick
vs. Lil’ Ragnaros, Gilnean Raven, Scourged Whelpling
In the future when I think back about 5.4 I will probably think of the fetish. It was one of my most used pets in this patch. I used to run with Shadow Shock and Immolate but at some point I switched to Flame Breath and Wild Magic (due to Rhonstifor mentioning this move set many times). Apparently it’s been a very, very long time since I used my team because I still had the old Shadow Shock load out equipped. Shadow Slash hit every time in the darkness which allowed me to take down the raven fast. My Flayer Youngling ate two traps, one which killed it so I guess I had a little help from rng.

Team 121: Genghis Crate
Competitive Score: 5/10
Yu’la, Creepy Crate, Spirit Crab
vs. Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling, Darkmoon Zeppelin
Yu’la eventually replaced the Harmonious Porcupette as my blesser of choice. She has a really interesting yet risky move set that I like: Jadefire Lightning, Celestial Blessing, Life Exchange. It’s risky because if you have to pull her out and bring her in later in the battle she’s less effective. This was a close battle despite me not being that into it. I could have used my Death Grip more effectively but frankly I just wanted to get the battle against all of these decoys over with as quickly as possible.

Team 120: Mr. Faster
Competitive Score: 5/10
Fiendish Imp, Blue Clockwork Rocket Bot, Mongoose Pup
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Kun-Lai Runt, Onyxian Whelpling
This team was made as counter to a specific team I used to face a lot: a mech dragon, a 297 speed imp and a 292 speed adder. I would wreck it with my faster pets. In general it’s not a bad team. This battle started off with my Nether Gate missing the valk. I recently read someone making disparaging remarks about imp users who run after a Nether Gate miss. I have to say I completely understand why they do this: you get a 900 damage CoD placed on the imp plus it can’t get the Immolation going. It’s a hard miss to come back from. I didn’t run but I lost to the second Onyxian Whelpling of the night, so pro. Thanks Mr. Faster for earning a ton of victories against the team I mentioned above. That person must have hated me.

Team 119: Lolkin Bonus
Competitive Score: 4/10
Nexus Whelpling, Nexus Whelpling, Nexus Whelpling
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Hopling, Fel Flame
This an obviously silly team, but it still sucks to have no chance winning thanks to three Mana Surge misses. Three losses in a row, ouch.

Team 118: AK 5
Competitive Score: 8/10
Unborn Val’kyr, Tiny Twister, Magical Crawdad
vs. Unborn Valkyr, Kun-Lai Runt, Pocket Reaver
Eww. Murkaot and Kovok must have been a real pain in the butt for me to have made counter teams with the Magical Crawdad. To me the Magical Crawdad is one of the super villains of pet battles, not far behind the smelly dog face. I don’t remember all of the details but I remember I had to stoop to this level to have a fighting chance against the Murkalot/Kovok combo before those pets were nerfed. This battle was shaping up to be a long one but my opponent fled after I cast Bash on the Pocket Reaver’s charged up round not once but twice.

Team 117: AK 6
Competitive Score: 8/10
Unborn Val’kyr, Tiny Bog Beast, Magical Crawdad
vs. Hippogryph Hatchling, Curious Wolvar Pup, Ethereal Soul-Trader
Another anti-Kovok team, another easy win. The Tiny Bog Beast was failing in the beginning by only hitting two Lashes on numerous rounds but later made up for it by hitting all three. The elemental was also able to eat the trap for weak damage. The Unborn Val’kyr is just too strong. Haunt, well… I have no desire to repeat what’s been stated and debated in a plethora of forum threads. It’s strong.

Team 116: New Shinies
Competitive Score: 6/10
Spirit Crab, Imperial Eagle Chick, Sporeling Sprout
vs. Anubisath Idol, Dread Hatchling, Arcane Eye
New Shinies is another case of me throwing three pets that I like together with no real thoughts about synergy. I hate to be the guy who cries “misses”, but when you miss two Jabs before the Sandstorm and two Snaps afterwards it’s hard not to complain. 5.3 saw a huge improvement to the accuracy system (remember base dodge?), hopefully we will be saying the same thing about WoD. I’m not completely convinced it will be better, but I certainly hope so. The Dread Hatchling Survived with 564 hp.

Team 115: Retaliating Six
Competitive Score: 7/10
Alpine Hare, Sen’Jin Fetish, Mongoose pup
vs. Jademist Dancer, Blighthawk, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
Look ma, I can beat clonedancers! This team got boring after awhile which is why it’s so low on the countdown. It is a decent competitive team though. I’ll admit it’s on the fragile side with every pet coming in at 1400 hp and under, but Dodge, Burrow, Dive, Survival and the almighty undead racial give it some trickery and staying power. This battle saw Sear Magic get rid of the first Cyclone before the mask double DoTed the Jademist Dancer. I have no idea why I was missing Wild Magic; I need to check the move sets of these teams I haven’t played in a long time. In this case it worked out fine. Even though I won it was no easy task; the win required Flurry hitting three times, which it did.

Team 114: Hatebreakers One
Competitive Score: 8/10
Emperor Crab, Living Sandling, Qiraji Guardling
vs. Unborn Val’kyr, Anubisath Idol, Chrominius
In theory I should give this team a five, but just like Hatebreakers Two I haven’t played it enough to feel comfortable doing so. Sorry, I just can’t get into the Emperor Crab, as awesome as it is in this meta. The Qiraji Guarling was kicking some serious butt this battle against Chrominius, pun intended. My opponent ran when it was clear I was dominating, denying me the chance to beat up on the idol.

Team 113: Green Guys
Competitive Score: 5/10
Emerald Proto-Whelp, Snarly, Magical Porcupette
vs. Darkmoon Tonk, Darkmoon Cub, Celestial Dragon
It’s time for a break because A) one should never lose to a Darkmoon Cub and B) when one moans loudly in real life after an Emerald Bite miss they should acknowledge a time-out is in order. This was my St. Patricks Day themed team by the way.

Team 112: Kun-Lai Ropers
Competitive Score: 3/10
Prairie Mouse, Kun-Lai Runt, Alpine Hare
vs. Anubistah Idol, Scourged Whelpling, Lil’Bling
Back. With two critters with Flurry I was never going to be able to win this, ever. I should replace one of them with the Summit Kid like I had originally done.

Team 111: Orly
Competitive Score: 5/10
Yu’la, Blackfuse Bombling, Snarly
vs. Skywisp Moth, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Bandicoon
I’m not sure what the plan was with Celestial Blessing and the BFB, but I do remember I liked playing this team when I made it. Perhaps I should go back and read the daily. I let the Bandicoon take Yu’la down to 43 before casting Life Exchange, awesome. The Skywisp Moth missed a Burn, but I think I would’ve won anyways. Snarly is still an awesome sweeper; at the end of the battle you don’t want to be stuck bleeding against the croc without a pet left to swap in. Plus there’s the Surge, a move that has been the deciding factor in many wins.

Team 110: Rainbow Hoppers
Competitive Score: 6/10
Azure Crane Chick, Lifelike Toad, Tiny Bog Beast
vs. Chi-Chi, Death Adder Hatchling, Death Adder Hatchling
This one of the rare cases where the Tiny Bog Beast’s 289 speed was slower than all the opposing pets, making it somewhat useless. Some of these teams I decided to keep… maybe I should have cut if off at 100 :).

Team 109: A Bloody Trap
Competitive Score: 8/10
Darkmoon Rabbit, Infested Bear Cub, Curious Wolvar Pup
vs. Yellow Moth, Mojo, Creepy Crate
Blasphemy! A DMR bleed team only ranking 109? The problem with this team is the Curious Wolvar Pup. I’ve stated my opinion many times that traps are OP. They stun, priority interrupt and cause damage, which is too much for one move, even if it is unpredictable. Due to the way I feel about traps I haven’t used this team much. When I saw the team I had to face in this battle I wasn’t too worried, but the moth really packed a punch. It had been a long time since I had faced a Yellow Moth and I totally forgot how hard it hits. The trap went off at a great time for me when it brought the Creepy Crate to 0 hp and ruined the undead racial. Mojo tried to get lucky with Frog Kiss spam but couldn’t land the poly. Snarly won this time with a final BITW. 108 teams to go!