Tryouts #6

Spirit Crab, Scalded Basilisk Hatchling, Mongoose Pup

Here’s the deal. I love the Basilisk and Spirit Crab and they’re awesome. I’ve had so much fun in the past with the Mongoose and Mongoose Pup, I’d be willing to consider them as my third favorite. No, forget that, I’m officially naming the Mongoose (or Pup) as my third favorite pet. Synergy schmenergy, I’m gonna make a team with my three favorite pets. Since they are all good pets I see this as being a good team. I don’t see it reaching greatness. It has a lot of things going for it: mitigation, avoidance, CC, Survival, a root, and the Undead racial.

What it is severely lacking is a wide range of family attacks. It only has Aquatic and Beast attacks. Elementals and Critters beware, everyone else gets a free pass on the strong attacks. And Fliers, well let’s just not talk about Fliers. The speed will take away the extra attack from both the Mongoose Pup and the Basilisk. All three of my main attacks are weak against Fliers. I can probably handle one because I can take it down with the Crab, but two will give me nightmares of little yellow wing icons.

With that introduction out of the way let’s get down to business. I don’t have high expectations, let’s just have some fun!

Win: Gilnean Raven, Anubisath Idol, Unborn Val’kyr
A Raven and a Noob Idol, how fortunate for me. Right away I’m reminded about my weakness against birds. My only real chance is to chip away at the bird with my Crab. I take out the the Unborn Val’kyr and the Idol and am left with half of a Crab and half of a Basilisk for the bird. Thanks to the Undead racial I’m able to knock out the Raven’s flying racial and finish it off with the Basilisk.

Win: Nether Ray Fry, Muckbreath, Harbinger of Flame
What’s with all the Fliers? Same as before I made sure to save my Crab for the Flyer. Even with its weak attack against Fliers the Crab took a big chunk of Nether Ray hp off. Is there anything this ghostly Crab can’t do?

Win: Spirit Crab, Celestial Dragon, Onyxian Whelpling
The last thing that I want to see on the opposing team is a Spirit Crab. On my meta I’m one of the few who use it regularly and I’d like to keep it that way. If people do start using it the fact that I know it so well may help me. In this battle I was able to triumph by using Feign Death and Dive at good times. I still think the Onyxian Whelpling is overused and overrated. That’s not a bad thing, keep feeding me dragons. Come 5.4 the story will be different. Dragons will will be annoyingly strong. We’re not there yet so I can’t really say they’ll be too strong, but it certainly seems that way.

Loss: Anubisath Idol, Sunreaver Micro-Sentry, Baby Blizzard Bear
This was funny because I took out the Idol fairly easily, but I mistimed both my Survival and Feign Death and ended up losing anyways.

Win: Emerald Proto-Whelp, Voodoo Figurine, Clockwork Gnome
Wild Magic is such a PITA. I’m actually glad to see someone other than myself using it. Wild Magic and Turrets wasn’t enough to get past my team.

Loss: Mechanical Chicken, Fossilized Hatchling, Celestial Dragon
I mistimed some of my tricky moves and let my opponent get off some heals. The Mechanical Chicken also used its speed buff to cause some trouble for my Mongoose and Basilisk, who are both very reliant upon being faster. It was still a close one, the Fossilized Hatchling needed its Undead turn for the win.

Win: Fire Beetle, Onyxian Whelpling, Muckbreath
A really bad match-up for my opponent. All of my pets have strong attacks against Critters, my Mongoose can Survive the Apocalypse, my Basilisk can Feign the Lift. It was a faceroll as it should have been.

Win: Magical Crwadad, Unborn Val’kyr, Nexus Whelpling
The Arcane Winds was really bothersome. I wondering why I was still alive when I realized the Nexus Whelpling used by this player is a P/S. If they were using the standard P/P I might be in trouble. I missed a 95% accuracy Gnaw killshot on the Crawdad, don’t I just love when that happens. It wasn’t enough to cost me the win. The Mongoose is a really fun pet to use, I’m liking this team a lot. So far it’s doing better than I thought.

Loss: Anubisath Idol, Blighthawk, Direhorn Runt
Man, it really gets old fighting these Direhorns. Rather than say what’s been said hundreds of times while complaining about Direhorns I will just say this was a close one.

Win: Stitched Pup, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Unborn Val’kyr
I love when people use Lightning and it benefits them very little and benefits me a lot. Like this game. The Basilisk has multiple attacks, the Mongoose Pup had multiple attacks, my opponent had none. I’ve been seeing a lot more Val’kyrs lately. I used to think Ascension was better than Haunt, but now that people are figuring out how to use Haunt its doing better against me.

Win: Stunted Direhorn, Arcane Eye, Electrified Razortooth
Some redemption against Direhorns. How did I pull it off? The other pets went down so easy that I had a full health Spirit Crab to go against a 900 hp Direhorn. Totally doable.

Win: Giant Bone Spider. Lil’ XT, Kun-Lai Runt
The most interesting thing that happened this game is that the Spider gripped my Basilisk into the detonating turn of the XE-321 Boombot. Nice move! It wasn’t enough to secure the win for my opponent, but nice nevertheless.

Win: Giant Bone Spider, Enchanted Broom, Crawling Claw
Take that, triple swapper! I was able to do a few good anti-swap tactics. Things like swapping my Crap out when the Sweep to negate my racial was coming. I also cast Survival when I knew the Death Grip was coming which ensured the Curse Of Doom wouldn’t kill me on the backline the next turn.

Win: Emerald Whelpling, Fiendish Imp, Scourged Whelpling
This Emerald whelpling tried to tank against the Crab. I hate to break it to you buddy, but you’re not an Emerald Proto-Whelp. It couldn’t outlast the Snaps and the Whirlpools with its shield and heals. The Imp never used its Gate, I’m not sure what it was waiting for. My Basilisk hit numerous third Thrashes which helped solidify the win.

Win: Kun-Lai Runt, Pandaren Water Spirit, Bandicoon Kit
I had plenty of avoidance for the Geyser and Whirlpool and plenty of Beast attacks for the Bandicoon. It was a faceroll.

Win: Spirit Crab, Yellow-Bellied Bullfrog, Nordrassil Wisp
My Basilisk was faster than the Wisp so it was easy to control the flow. When I was Blinded I made sure to always swap. There’s just too much that goes wrong if you stay in while Blinded versus a Wisp. Speed is so important for the Wisp it might have been a different story if this were the 357 speed breed. It wasn’t and this turned out to be an easy win.

Win: Pandaren Water Spirit, Brilliant Kaliri, Pet Bombling
I was kind of worried about the bird and the Bombling, but my opponent saw my line-up and ran. If Blizz is going to count it as a win then so am I.

Win: Fluxfire Feline, Lil’ Tarecgosa, Feline Familiar
I will often open with Crystal Prison with my Basilisk. However, against the Familiar I’ll give it a Thrash to start off since I know it’s going to Prowl most of the time on its first turn. That’s exactly what happened here. Over the course of the battle the Familiar never got an attack off, every time it Prowled I would Prison it. The Fluxfire hit the Crab really hard after it Prowled but it the Crab has so much hp it didn’t matter much.

Win: Fel Flame, Pandaren Monk, Toothy
Versus the crocolisk I started with the Basilisk, Feigned to the Spirit Crab after Prison and Thrash then just let the crab take the Rip and Blood In The Water. The Crab defeated Toothy and the Flame, the Mongoose just kicked back with some popcorn and a lawn chair.

Loss: Netherspace Abyssal, Emperor Crab, Menagerie Custodian
Doh. I’ve been doing well with my 80% accuracy Dive so far but I missed an important one here. I also missed a Snap. In the end I was hoping to Feign the Ion Cannon and kill the Custodian but my opponent didn’t make that mistake. I used my Feign on a Shock and Awe and was promptly Cannoned the next turn.

Win: Clockwork Gnome, Fiendish Imp, Zandalari Anklerender
This one was very close and my opponent missed twice to my zero misses, so I’m gonna have to give the credit to rng.

Win: Brilliant Kaliri, Ghostly Skull, Dark Whelpling
Here’s one of those Fliers that I’ve been dreading. How did I take down this evil Kaliri? The first turn of Mongoose vs. Kaliri my opponent used Cyclone. Two or three quills would have really taken its toll. I Dived as one would expect. The Dive hit for close to 500, then I swapped to the Crab. One weak Snap was all it took to take away the Flying bonus. Now at least I was faster than the Kaliri, which made it easier to Prison and Thrash it.

Win: Baby Blizzard Bear, Disgusting Oozeling, Chuck
With its Shield the Crab had no trouble withstanding the Oozeling’s double Dot/Absorb combo. After finishing the Oozeling the Crab took out most of Chuck’s hp. After that it was clean up, the Bear was really no threat.

Win: Cogblade Raptor, Water Waveling, Snarly
How do you deal with a Bleed/Blood In The Water Combo with a Spirit Crab? Rather than risk swapping and getting Bleed put on multiple pets I’ve found it’s better to just Shield and take it. I did just that and my Crab took out Snarly then put a Whirlpool down before dying. I decided to put the Basilisk in against the Raptor even though that may not have been the smartest choice. Maybe not, but the Basilisk finished off the Raptor and the Waveling, the Mongoose never made an appearance.

Win: Mechanical Chicken, Fossilized Hatchling, Celestial Dragon
I’m impressed by how well the Celestial Dragon is doing in this patch. I preferred the free win dragon from last patch. It wasn’t enough, however. After my Crab was cancelled by the dragon the other two pets were sneaky enough to Feign/Dive/Prison their way to a victory.

Loss: Lil’ Ragnaros, Elder Python, Lil’ XT
How do you make mediocre pets like the Elder Python and Lil’ XT good? You throw down Traps and pray that they go off at the right times. I hate Traps. Lil’ Rag survived the battle with 3 hp. A close one.

Win: Lifelike Toad, Stunted Direhorn, Wolpertinger
Apparently this opponent likes to CC. One thing about my team that’s worrisome is the fact that it isn’t great against Direhorns. Trihorn Charge will take away the extra move from both Gnaw and Thrash. I started with the Basilisk, my opponent started with the Direhorn. It didn’t Charge so I was able Prison. Rather than take the hits my opponent swapped to the Toad. The Basilisk took out the Kiss spamming Toad with 200 hp to spare. The Direhorn came in, I Feigned to my Crab, the Direhorn was handled by the mighty Crab. I guess Direhorns won’t be a problem if people don’t force the match-up against the other two pets. The Wolpertinger was easy enough to dispatch after that.

Win: Flayer Youngling, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Swamp Croaker
A fast Flayer can really wreak havoc on any team, especially with Lightning. So I saved my faster Mongoose for the Flayer and the Flayer only. A slower Flayer is not all that scary. The double hits plus the Lightning took it down pretty fast.

Win: Elfin Rabbit, Clockwork Gnome, Scourged Whelpling
My Team has many ways to skin a rabbit when it only has 338 speed. The Spirit Crab can take out rabbits, the Mongoose can easily take out slower rabbits. The Spirit Crab also completely negated the Turret/Plagued Blood healing combo since the Shield blocked the Turret fire. This was a really bad match-up overall for my opponent and they left halfway through the battle because of that.

Win: Stitched Pup, Tranquil Mechanical Yeti, Unborn Val’kyr
Yet again Lightning helped me out a lot but didn’t do much for my opponent. I was waiting to Feign the application of Curse of Doom but it came earlier than expected. I decided to just stay in and take the down the Valk so I could Feign on the turn the Curse hit. It worked out beautifully, I was able to Prison the Valk on its Undead turn to prevent Ascension and then Feign the Curse on the turn that it was going to damage me.

Win: Pygmy Direhorn, Netherspace Abyssal, Lil’ Deathwing
Beating a Direhorn and Deathwing at the same time, that’s nice. The Basilisk took Deathwing down to around 300 hp before Feigning out, the Crab finished it off. I swapped to my Mongoose for the Netherspace Abyssal. I Survived as it Exploded, good timing for me. Against the Direhorn I decided to Dive rather than take the higher percentage chance at Gnaw but the Dive missed. It didn’t matter, the Crab was able to take out the Direhorn.

Win: Netherspace Abyssal, Nexus Whelpling, Restless Shadeling
This seemed like a new player, taking awhile for each move and not really making good choices.

Loss: Fox Kit, Pandaren Earth Spirit, Pterrordax Hatchling
This team has a weakness to birds but I did a good job here and it was close. This was an extremely annoying loss because rng crapped all over me. First of all, the Pterrordax hit its third Slicing Winds to take out my Mongoose before I used Survival. Ok, that’s not too bad, I took a chance by not using Survival and lost out. What was worse was the damn 305 speed Pterrordax winning just about every coin flip to see who goes first. When I’m about to take it out and it heals thanks to rng deciding it goes first, well, that’s annoying.

At 28-7 this team actually did better than I thought it would. I didn’t face many Flyers, those are always going to be hard to take down for this team. I also didn’t see too many Direhorns, which will also be problematic. Who cares though? This was supposed to be a fun team comprised of my three favorite pets and it was indeed very fun to play. I need a name to reflect my favoritism. I think I’ll call them Disco’s Destroyers. Grr, look at me and my tough name!

Published August 2013, Patch 5.3