Tryouts #4

Snarly, Infested Bear Cub, Gilded Moth

When I was doing 50 Battles: Bleeding I realized that Snarly and the Infested Bear Cub are a brutal Bleeding duo on their own, there’s really no need for a third Bleeder or Mauler. Since that realization I’ve been trying out different third members for Snarly and my Infested Cub.

Next on the list is the Moth. I like to use H/P Flyers in general for PvP. Most other battles will disagree with me and say P/P is the way to go when it comes to Flyers but in my own experiences H/P Flyers have performed better. I can often get an extra turn of the Flying bonus due to the extra H/P. I know my experiences aren’t evidence, but either are someone else’s experiences. Until I (or someone else) sit down and do some mathematical analysis I’ll be sticking to my H/P Flyers. Now a little caveat about Moths: they can seem invincible if they hit their Sleep. If they miss their Moth Dust they can seem like scrubs. This team may be a bit too rng dependent for me. I am willing to give it a shot, let’s get down to business.

Win: Silky Moth, Cogblade Raptor, Kun-Lai Run
Whoa this one was long and strategic, both players were taking a while to make their moves. I already explained why I use an H/P moth regularly, but this fast S/S Moth was giving me some trouble. I had to make sure Snarly didn’t get stuck with the Moth at the end. Well, I failed in that regard. Snarly ended up with a showdown versus the 500ish hp Moth. Surge gimps Alpha Strike by going first, so I used three Surges to finish off the Moth. It was kind of annoying as the second Surge got it down to 4 hp, but I survived to get off the last Surge.

Win: Anubisath Idol, Crow, Chrominius
Nice job to me not giving up. It started Crow vs. Moth which wasn’t a good match-up for me, but I’m sort of vulnerable to birds. The Moth got owned. The only damage it did was from Cocoon. Seems like gg already, it’s basically three versus two now. I bought out my Bear and my opponent swapped to Chrominius. My opponent did some unnecessary swapping, allowing me to make up some ground. Chrominius died, the Idol was at half health while my Bear was virtually unscathed and Snarly at half-health. I made the call to keep Snarly in vs. the Crow, I got him Bleeding for the Bear. Rather than swap, the Crow took a weak Maul, but even weakened Maul plus Bleed did over 500 damage. The DoT finished the bird that turn, the Bear finsished the Idol.

Win: Anubisath Idol, Crow, Chrominius
Same opponent as last battle, this time was closer. It was Moth versus Idol to start, I got stunned by Rupture. I brought in Snarly after the Moth died, the enemy bird came in. Again I thought it was worth it to get the Bleed up, again the Bleeding bird took a Maul. The Bear finished off the bird and the Idol, then I had to dance around Surge of Power. I don’t know what Chrominius was waiting for, it didn’t even use it one on one versus my Bear.

Win: Anubisath Idol, Crow, Chrominius
Here we go again. This time they were Demolish spamming. And what is really sad is that all of the Demolishes hit, but I was able to take the Bleeding Idol down fast enough with my Bear that it didn’t matter.

Loss: Magical Crawdad, Fel flame, Scourged Whelpling
Let me say that my opponent played this one well up to a last mistake at the end. They made some good choices to be in a position to win. Then the game had an interesting ending. I had the Crawdad down to less than 200 hp and the Fel Flame down to 700 hp. I was going to finish off the Crawdad and deal with the Flame, not quite sure how I was going to pull off the win. Then my opponent made a mistake and swapped in the Flame. Now I essentially get a “free turn”. One Alpha Stike on the swap, another going first on the next turn, a final one to finish the Crawdad, gg. Except the rng Gods didn’t think I deserved a win, because I missed my Alpha Strike and I ended up losing. All part of the game.
(Seem familiar? I also used this for challenge mode 7/30/13. Lol at double dipping)

Win: Giant Sewer Rat, Zandalari Toenibbler, Gahz’Rooki
I love seeing underused pets show up for PvP pet battles. Like this here Giant Rat. It’s huge! This was actually a really close battle. In the end the Rat got eaten by a zombie Bear.

Win: Tiny Snowman, Chrominius, Darkmoon Tonk
Chrominus’ Surge of Power couldn’t take my Bear out, the Moth prevented the Tonk from getting its Ion Cannon off. After being completely dominated this wonderful human being decided to be a poor sport and go afk. It’s not like I was running Direhorns here, buddy. Learn to take a loss.

Loss: Fiendish Imp, Netherspace Abyssal, Cinder Kitten
You made me lose to a Cinder Kitten! The backline DoTs were too much to handle along with my moth getting smoked by a Nether Gate.

Win: Tainted Waveling, Grinder, Kirin Tor Familiar
There’s not much to say here. I started with Snarly and was 541 hp away from soloing the entire team. When you are Bleeding against a pet with Blood In The Water or Maul you really need to swap. When your Elemental is Bleeding against a pet with Blood In The Water you REALLY, REALLY need to swap. See what I did there with the caps and the repetition? Get it?

Win: Wild Jade Hatchling, Terrible Turnip, Clockwork Gnome
Lightning scares me, unless I have this Bleed team. The Jade Hatchling will almost always use Cyclone and Lightning the first two rounds, I will use Rip/BITW. Then it will swap and die in the backline to its own Lightning.

Win: Frosty, Darkmoon Zeppelin, Crow
I was queueing with this Tryout #4 team because someone on my meta is copying it and I wanted to beat them with the original. Instead I got this team. My Moth hit its Sleep at a crucial time, allowing me to Cocoon the incoming Ice Tomb. It was still close in the end, I had to Surge a Failsafed Zeppelin.

Win: Stunted Direhorn, Kun-Lai Runt, Ghostly Skull
As usual with the mighty Direhorn it was a close call. My Bear had 11 hp and had to hit a Bleeding Maul to secure the victory. 784 hp off the Direhorn in one move. The Moth didn’t even do that well, for awhile I was worried that I would lose to a Kun-Lol Runt (as I’m calling it these days).

Loss: Lil’ Ragnaros, Clockwork Gnome, Wild Jade Hatchling
I took the Lightning Dragon out fast but Rag’s Trap got me caught in some of the Gnome’s turret crossfire.

Loss: Baby Blizzard Bear, Clockwork Gnome, Fel Flame
The Moth didn’t hit either Moth Dust.

Win: Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Electrified Razortooth, Elder Python
This person knew what they were doing when it came to Bleeding so I couldn’t put up the big numbers against them. There was a fair amount of swapping in this one. My Moth hit its Dust when it needed to to keep the Razortooth at bay. I liked seeing the Elder Python. There’s so many snakes out there that don’t see much PvP action. Probably because their move set isn’t that great. I’ve tried a few snakes here and there and have never really been able to make them work for me.

Win: Stunted Direhorn, Amber Moth, Lil’ Ragnaros
Sometimes it pays to have a slower Moth. The faster Moth and my Moth both Cocooned on the first round. I broke the other Cocoon and ended up being protected by my own. The other Moth wouldn’t cast Moth Dust while I was protected so I cast mine. It hit and put the other to Sleep. My Moth finished it off and it was downhill from there for my opponent.

Win: Fiendish Imp, Zandalari Anklerender, Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling
I started out with my Cub in order to force the swap. The swap came as expected and in comes my Moth. Faceroll time. The Moth hit three Dusts, one Sleep, and a killshot crit.

Win: Arcane Eye, Golden Civet, Arctic Fox Kit
It started with Snarly versus the Fox, Snarly won the head to head easily. The Civet came in and Snarly was able to get a Bleed on it, the Cub came in to wreck it with Maul and then slowly finish off the Eye.

Win: Stunted Direhorn, Wild Jade Hatchling, Clockwork Gnome
The Direhorn started against Snarly, who’s turning into a bona fide Direhorn killer. No interrupt meant a dead horned Beast. After that the Dragon came out to put up the Lightning. Snarly Ripped and by the time Snarly was gone the dragon had 32 hp. Then the Moth hit a sleep on the Gnome. Even Lightning and Turrets couldn’t come back from that.

Win: Yellow Moth, Electrified Razortooth, Spawn of G’Nathus
I was Moth vs. Moth to start it off. They had the same speed, it would come down to who hit the Dust and/or Sleep. I hit the Sleep, I won.

Win: Lil’ Deathwing, Zandalari Footslasher, Menagerie Custodian
Snarly solo’d Deathwing and the Footslasher thanks to a Cataclysm miss. It was easy enough to clean up after that.

Win: Xu-Fu, Bonkers, Arctic Fox Kit
I started with the Moth and hit Dust but missed Sleep. As soon as I got Howled I switched to Snarly. The Fox was nice enough to stay in for Blood In The Water while it was Bleeding. It died. Next up was Bonkers, he used Tornado Punch to stun me so I swapped to the bear without getting a Bleed up. Of course he swapped to Xu-Fu so I went to my Moth, which was able to finish off Xu-Fu and Bonkers thanks to a Sleep.

Here I am at 18-4, not great but still good. I’m starting to remember why I don’t use a Moth much anymore. There’s too much luck involved with the Sleep. If you hit it then your Moth is unbelievably awesome. If you don’t then it is a decent pet. I think Ive had enough for now. This is a good team just like any team with Snarly and the Infested Bear Cub, but it’s greatness is dependent upon the luck of the Moth. I don’t want to base my success on that. Even though I’m not loving this team I’ll keep it around anyways for when I feel like testing my luck rather than skill. I’ll name it “Lucky Pierre”.

Published September 2013, Patch 5.4
(I started the Tryouts in 5.3)