September 29, 2013

Today’s Team: Obvious Ponies
H/H Unborn Val’kyr (Shadow Slash, Curse Of Doom, Haunt)
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
P/P Warbot (Missile, Minefield, Extra Plating)

Strategy:
I know, I know, another Minefield and swap team. And this time I’m cashing in on the current cheese: the Unborn Val’kyr. It went from brokenly bad to brokenly good with the changes to the Haunt mechanics.

The plan here is to throw down a Minefield with the Warbot then swap to the Val’kyr. I’ll use Curse of Doom on then Haunt, then bring in the Imp. I’ll then use Nether Gate to swap out the current pet. I’ll use Immolation and then bring back the Warbot, who will be ready to throw down another Minefield. The Unborn Val’kyr will be done Haunting, I’ll go through the sequence again.

Concerns:
These are some very obvious and very scripted tactics. As strong as the Val’kyr is I feel it’s still a one trick pony with Haunt. Any shields or even aquatics can cause it trouble, and because it’s the current cheese of the meta more people have been running those. I mentioned this is a very scripted rotation, once my plan gets messed up (as it usually does in pet battles) any improvisation may be hard with this group. In other words, a lot could go wrong.

The Opponent:
P/P Emperor Crab
H/P Darkmoon Tonk
B/B Direhorn Runt
It’s like that Emperor Crab was reading what I just wrote. Damn you psychic crustaceans! P/P Emperors are considered by many to be the “best” aquatic.

The Battle:
I know I have an Emperor Crab to face, and a P/P at that. I don’t think that I’m going to deviate from my plan, it’s just not going to work as well.

092913CI start with my Warbot and the Emperor Crab comes out to meet it. I lay down my Minefield and the Crab puts down a Whirlpool. Ok, I will have to deviate from my plan after all. I swap to my Val’kyr while the Crab Surges. I can’t use Curse Of Doom because I’m going to use Haunt early. If I use Haunt now the Whirlpool will miss me. This is one of the reasons people equate Haunt to a “free” Feign Death move. You essentially get a pass on any impending damage that’s going to hit after you use Haunt because your Val’kyr has died. Another benefit of Haunt is that unlike Feign Death is that you get to choose the pet that’s coming in. I choose the Imp.

092913BMines are down, the Emperor Crab is Haunted, it’s time for the Imp to do its thing. The Imp gets Surged and Gates out the Crab, who will now be taking weak damage on the back line. The unfortunate Direhorn is forced into the Mines to watch most of its health disappear. It Primal Cries while I use Immlation. I swap to my Warbot and Horn Attack misses. Another Minefield goes down as my opponent swaps to the Tonk and the Haunt ends, brining my Val’kyr back to life on the back line. While not exactly as planned, the overall strategy is working. I bring in the Val’kyr to Curse and Haunt the Tonk.

092913DThe Imp comes in to Gate it out. The Direhorn takes another Minefield, if I didn’t hate them so much from 5.3 I’d almost pity the dead beast. At any rate its a goner so the Crab comes in. I bring in my Warbot, apply my Extra Plating and try to take out the resilient Crab with Missiles. Thanks to the back line Haunt the Tonk has hit 0 hp and uses its failsafe. I could put down more mines but I’ll be able to finish the Tonk off, it’s the Crab I’m more worried about. My Missiles and Plating are almost enough to outlast the Crab’s healing and power as the Warbot perishes with 49 hp left on the Crab. The Imp comes in to finish it, misses a burn but a tick of Immolation kills the Emperor Crab. Rather than take his final shot the Tonk runs away.

This was a very scripted plan that I was able to pull off beautifully. I would have to give this team a few more whirls to see what I really think of it. What happens when the plan falls apart? Can it recover?

6 Responses to September 29, 2013

  1. Snow says:

    I’ve played many games with the valk over the past week. The first pair I had it with was Terrible Turnip and Blossoming Ancient. That team could really whip a poor team but it couldn’t kill an aquatic pet for anything. My next pairing was Crow and Fiendish Imp. It was better than the turnip team with the Crow having a lot of punch with darkness and nocturnal strike. The imp was kind of squishy though and I liked saving the crow to finish the last mob off. My latest team is with Spring Rabbit and the Crow. The rabbit deals with other valks well. It has a nice little sequence with the valk. Dodge – Flurry – Dive – Dive attack – valk is ready to go again. Eventually I want to replace the rabbit with a s/s Dandelion. I’m not sure if the crow is the best 3rd pet or not. It does obliterate the aquatics that you would have trouble with.

    • Discodoggy says:

      The Rabbit and Crow team sounds really nice. I was thinking of some variations on your team and haven’t really thought of another flyer I like a lot. I tend to gravitate towards the pets I know well so the Robo-Chick comes to mind. It’s not a flier but it has Peck and it would also provide some coverage for the Rabbit with Wind-Up. It still doesn’t seem optimal, though.

  2. Snow says:

    As far as sequence goes, I’ve only been casting curse of doom if the pet has more than 1600 hp. Haunt is going to be doing 700+ damage and hopefully my next pet can do another 700 or so damage over the next 4 turns. I guess it’s different if you are swapping in the imp and the tonk though.

  3. Halldor says:

    Does the Imp need to be SS? I have a PB imp and wondering if that would work in this composition.

    • Hirrus says:

      The SS is important for the imp so that it’s faster than almost anything else. The power of a forced swap isn’t just pushing something into the minefield. A forced swap is also kind of an avoidance move. If you hit Nether Gate and go first, your opponent’s attack doesn’t go off. If you aren’t faster, then you’re going to get hit, and your imp might die before it can Immolate and get to the back line, or be vulnerable to AoE while it’s trying to rest up.

      SS isn’t just important for the imp on this team composition. SS is important for the imp itself.

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