Fiendish Imp, Darkmoon Tonk, Blighthawk
I’ve been playing around with Minefield and forced swap teams lately as a response to the 5.3 Direhorn infestation. The Warbot is my usual Minefield layer as of late but I’ve been wanting to branch out to the Tonk. Since I’m going for a competitive team I’m going to need some anti-Humanoid attacks so I’m adding the Blighthawk.
Here’s my line up:
H/P Darkmoon Tonk (Missile, Minefield, Ion Cannon)
S/S Fiendish Imp (Burn, Immolation, Nether Gate)
H/P Blighthawk (Infected Claw, Ghostly Bite, Lift-Off)
Minefields do a ton of damage and make your opponent think twice about swapping. This can often allow you to exploit a match-up that favors you. One strategy against Minefields is to put in a tanky pet and outlast the Minefields for nine rounds. That’s where the Imp comes in. If this is happening then you can use Nether Gate to force the swap. So here’s the general plan: lay down a Minefield and force a favorable match-up, if the opposing pet is going to outlast the Minefield then use Nether Gate to force the swap. Where does the Blighthawk come in? As mentioned above it provides some anti-Humanoid attacks for those damn Idols. It also provides some much needed avoidance.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Zandalari Kneebiter, Clockwork Gnome
The opposing Imp missed a Gate and took a Ghostly Bite to the face. A funny and painful way to start it off.
Win: Mini-Thor, Disgusting Oozeling, Spirit Of Competition
This battle brought to light the Blighthawk’s biggest flaw: its main attack (Infected Claw) is only 85% accuracy. I missed two attacks against the Spirit. One was a killshot that allowed it to heal, which made a huge difference. The Ion Cannon was a factor, it did some nice damage to the Disgusting Oozeling for the kill. The damage was close to the Magic racial’s 40% cap. I think the 5.4 Magic racial buff wouldn’t have allowed me to finish off the Oozeling. Interesting.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Zandalari Kneebiter, Clockwork Gnome
The same opponent as a few games above. The same result. This time the opposing Gate didn’t miss so the Blighthawk got swapped for the Tonk. My Tonk threw down mines and I brought the Blighthawk back in. My opponent was so afraid of the mines they left the Imp in against the Blighthawk. It went bad from there.
Win: Fiendish Imp, Zandalari Kneebiter, Clockwork Gnome
Again. This time my opponent did much better. They Gated out the Blighthawk and then immediately swapped to the Gnome. I brought in the Tonk and laid some Mines. Then I brought in the Imp and damaged the Gnome as much as I could before Gating. The Kneebiter came in to some heavy damage and my Imp finished it off. It was an easy win from there. I hope I don’t see this person again tonight. I like winning but facing the same team over and over gets really boring.
Win: Clockwork Gnome, Zandalari Anklerender, Scourged Whelpling
Some revenge on the person who knocked me out of Challenge Mode today. The Turrets and Plagued Blood interacting together creates so much healing. It wasn’t enough healing in this case. It seemed like a closer battle than it was, my Blighthawk survived with a ton of hp.
Win: Fel Flame, Clefthoof Runt, Amber Moth
The Moth gave me a lot of trouble. I couldn’t Gate it in the beginning because I didn’t time the Cocoon right. It took out a lot of my Imp’s hp and then almost killed the Tonk before I got rid of it. My opponent must have not wanted to win because they sent the Clefthoof into the Minefield and then I gave it an Ion Cannon to finish it off. The Imp and the Blighthawk cleaned up the Flame.
Win: Direhorn Runt, Scourged Whelpling, Lil’ Tarecgosa
What’s worse than walking into a Minefield? Walking into a Minefield and taking critical damage. After the Imp and Tonk took out both the Scourged Whelpling and Lil’ Tarecgosa the Direhorn decided to put up the white flag. A new Direhorn strategy has emerged: beat up its friends so bad that it’s afraid to even enter the battle!
Win: Anubisath Idol, Sumprush Rodent, Scourged Whelpling
Anytime I beat an Idol I’m a happy camper. I had a Minefield down against the Idol and I brought in a Blighthawk. My opponent chose to keep in the Idol which turned out to be a horrible choice. The Blighthawk ate him up, the Scourged Whelpling took the Mine damage, the Rodent got Cannoned.
Win: Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Kun-Lai Runt, Flayer Youngling
A spineless opponent left way too early after I won a few mind games by holding off on my Gate.
Win: Unborn Val’kyr, Clockwork Gnome, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry
Go ahead and cast that Lightning, it’s not like I have a DoT or anything. If I was this person I may have done the same and hope the Turrets own everything, I don’t know. At any rate the Immolation wreaked some havoc on the opposing Mechs. I used the Ion Cannon at the right time to knock out the Gnome.
Loss: Lil’ Ragnaros, Pygmy Direhorn, Chrominius
Sometimes fighting Lil’ Rag feels like complete BS if the traps go off at the wrong time. Nether Gate missed, I couldn’t get an Immolation off due to the Trap going off on on it’s first turn, the second Trap to go off negated the Blighthawk’s Undead racial. This was not bad rng it was horrible rng. And yes, I would like some cheese with my whine!
Win: Clockwork Gnome, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Zandalari Anklerender
The Lightning helped my Immolation so much that I didn’t even need to bring out my Blighthawk.
Win: Scourged Whelpling, Nexus Whelpling, Onyxian Whelpling
So many Whelplings! I will be more scared of Dragonkin come 5.4, but for now they are tolerable. The Imp and Tonk are obviously a match made in heaven but how is the Blighthawk fitting in? In this battle the Blighthawk provided a lot of damage by hitting a Ghostly Bite crit. A Ghostly Bite that would never stun thanks to Arcane Winds.
Win: Spirit Crab, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Lil’ Ragnaros
How dare you try and use my Basilisk and Crab against me! And giving them the lucky Trapster Lil’ Rag as a third? Preposterous! Knowing what to expect from the Crab and the Basilisk helped me predict the flow of this one. Lil’ Rag never got a Trap down so I’m guessing that he didn’t bring any. Everytime that I put the Tonk in my opponent swapped to Rag and used Magma Wave on the Minefield. Then when I swapped out the Tonk my opponent would swap out Ragnaros. This sequence helped a lot by letting Nether Gate reset. The final blow was my Blighthawk using Ghostly Bite a turn earlier than expected to catch the Basilisk off guard. It didn’t Feign my Bite.
Win: Lil’ Tarecgosa, Scourged Whelpling, Leopard Tree Frog
This was a Cleansing Rain and Dreadful Breath team, you don’t see too many of those. I decided to use my Ion Cannon a little bit early to finish off the Frog. It was kind of lazy but I figured I had a 500 hp Imp and a close to full health Blighthawk to take care of Lil’ Tarecgosa. The Tonk was able to survive long enough after the Cannon to get a shot off on Tarecgosa. I’m starting to see the allure of the Tonk (don’t worry Mr. Warbot, I won’t be shelving you anytime soon).
Win: Lil’ Deathwing, Lil’ Ragnaros, Fledgling Nether Ray
Oh yeah, both Deathwing and Ragnaros go down at once. The Blighthawk was the superstar in this one. The Elementium Bolt was avoided by Lift-Off and Infected Claw put the hurt on. I should mention that Lil’ Ragnaros didn’t have Trap.
Win: Anubisath Idol, Elementium Geode, Enchanted Broom
This Idol got destroyed by the Blighthawk. That’s a sentence I am always hoping to write. It even beat me on the mind games and Deflected my first Gate. Thankfully the Claws didn’t miss. I estimated the damage from the Elementium Bolt well enough to just barely survive and back line the Imp. The Broom didn’t bother me much. With this sweet victory (fyi I hate the Idol) I’m gonna call it quits a bit earlier than usual, this team is great.
This team performed very well at 16-1 , I will surely keep it in my arsenal for future use. However, I am a little bored of Minefields and swaps, I’m looking forward to the changes 5.4 will bring to the meta. This team is suspiciously close to Trigger’s (a prominent forum member) team of Frosty, Darkmoon Tonk, and Fiendish Imp. I think I’ll give it the name “Copycat Killers”.
Published September 2013, Patch 5.3
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