September 24, 2015

Team Focus: Event Horizon
H/H Spirit Crab (Snap, Whirlpool, Shell Shield)
P/B Mana Wyrmling (Flurry, Amplify Magic, Deflection)
P/S Cobra Hatchling (Bite, Hiss, Burrow)

Pet battle event time! We have all sorts of new people in the queue, so I figured why not make a less competitive team just for fun, to even up the odds. I took none of my team building tenets from Creating A Team to heart, I basically just threw three pets that I liked together.

Why do I like these pets? I have an emotional attachment to the Spirit Crab. In 5.3 it was the cream of the crop, the best of the best in my opinion, and I wasn’t shy about sharing my opinion. I caught a lot of flak from non-believers, but my trusty undead crustacean kept taking out direhorn after direhorn. In case you forgot, direhorns were the bullies of the 5.3 meta, obviously overpowered and on everyone’s nerf list. My crab was somewhat less effective in 5.4, but still useful when carrying Surge against the new bully Death Adder Hatchling. The removal of accuracy in 6.0 saw all of the old 95% accuracy moves take a big hit, one of which was Snap. While still a second tier pet, the Spirit Crab is no longer what it was, but I will always love it. I decided to bust it for this team.

I took the Mana Wyrmling because in theory it’s a good pet. It has Flurry for taking down all of those undead out there and it also has the priority avoid move Deflection. Unfortunately, the middle slot isn’t that great, with a choice between Amplify Magic and Drain Magic. I like Drain Magic since it provides both an offensive buff and a defensive debuff. The cobra is only there for eye candy. Really, the only reason I chose it is because it looks cool. Why else would I use any of the terrible generic snakes?

My team is mediocre, which is what I wanted. The Spirit Crab will have to carry the other two pets. Wish me luck.

Battle 1
win vs. Singing Sunflower, Clockwork Gnome, Netherspawn
092415AThe Spirit Crab is good against both the gnome and the flower since its shield can block the turret fire and Whirlpool is strong against elementals. I started with my crab, my opponent the slime. Not a horrible match-up, but I wanted to save my crab for the other two pets. After I let the slime pop its CD on my crab I swapped to my snake. I was sad to see my beautifully colored pet get turned green by Poison Spit, but other than that my choice was a good one. The snake was able to take out the slime thanks to a timely use of Burrow, after it died I let the Spirit Crab use its advantages to take down most of the other two pets. Sometimes one good decision is enough to nudge the battle in your favor.
Record: 1-0

Battle 2
loss vs. Anubisath Idol, Macabre Marionette, Firehawk
092415BHow does the idol, which is now a has-been like the Spirit Crab, manage to pop back into my life when I’m running a mediocre team and ELICIT THE SAME RAGE FROM ME THAT IT ALWAYS USED TO? Seriously, this battle played out exactly like I wanted to. A lot of battles can be won by simply forcing the end game match-up in your favor, and that’s exactly what I did. The idol’s Crush is weak against my beast and I could cast Burrow to avoid the Rupture. So I made sure my other two pets took out my opponent’s other two pets to force this favorable match-up. I even managed to leave a parting gift of a whirlpool for the stupid idol. My opponent was obvious with using Rupture, I avoided it as planned. My snake came up to hit the idol, it cast Sandstorm, then the damn whirlpool missed thanks to sandstorm! Just like old times. The idol killed my snake with 119 health left. Lame.
Record: 1-1

Battle 3
win vs. Molten Corgi, Sky-Bo, Iron Starlette
092415CWhat has two thumbs, embarrasses the Iron Starlette and takes down a Sky-Bo’s decoy? Oh wait, the Mana Wyrmling doesn’t have any thumbs. The magic wyrm used its move Deflection and oh so barely useful magic racial to great effect against the iron ball. The first superbuffed Wind-Up was avoided. The next Wind-Up’s damage was reduced greatly by the magic racial. The next superbuffed Wind-Up was avoided. After the iron ball was gone Sky-Bo saw his decoy get dropped in one turn by Flurry. Good times. For me. The Spirit Crab came in after my magic pet died and easily finished off Sky-Bo and the Molten Corgi. I feel like making a public service announcement on the forums aimed at new battlers: the Molten Corgi is not good, repeat, the Molter Corgi is not good.
Record: 2-1

Battle 4
win vs. Direhorn Runt, Fossilized Hatchling, Pterrodax Hatchling
092415DRng takes and rng gives. My opponent must have been feeling the same rage that I was feeling during the second battle; the direhorn missed Trihorn Charge twice and the interrupt from Horn Attack never procced. Wait, scratch that, no pet battler can ever feel the rage that I feel for my old nemesis the idol, aka Smelly Dog Face. Thanks to the misses this battle was an easy win, I didn’t even need to use the snake. Flurry being strong against the Fossilized Hatchling helped. I would like to do more battling tonight, but it’s late and sleep seems important at the moment. I hope you’re having as much fun with the event as I am!
Record: 3-1

6 Responses to September 24, 2015

  1. Liwei says:

    “The Molten Corgi is not good”

    *Looks back to the Young Talbuk PotM*

    You take that back! Or I’ll make it give you the sad flame puppy eyes!

  2. Vek says:

    Lol. This was excellent. :)

  3. Tekulve says:

    Its funny that people play that corgi…it is as if they think its a speedy dog version of lil rags ..simply because it has an ‘of the flame’ submerge move

    I agree it is cute… but stinks as a battler
    —-
    On an off topic note…someone played a summit kid against me today ..an s/s one..it performed ok..they chose stampede/soothe/hoof…worth a look vs undead ..it has 325 speed

    • Josh says:

      ^Agree. Basically Courageous Yon but not as predictable. With fewer shields around nowadays such an unknown pet/move combo could really surprise the meta.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *