Hello there everyone!
So, we got two fresh battles prepared for you this time. First one is against a Plant+Plant+Reptile line up which apparently has the same team composition as ours. The difference here is the position of the reptile. The opponent we battled placed his reptile in the backline while our reptile 'YB' is positioned in the midline. But what unique about this team is that it has good cards to play against chunky opponents like plants and reptiles. The midline has the beast (tail card) 'Hare Dagger' which has 120 base attack and the frontline has the bug (back card) 'Bug Splat' which has 110 base damage, both of these damage sources were amplified because of their affinity advantage over our team. And of course both midline and backline have backdoor cards which if you think about it would be pretty annoying.
The second battle is against a Plant+Plant+Aqua line up. At first look I thought that this would be some sort of a battle of attrition because we have too many high health axies in both corners. Most of the opponent's damage would come from the 'Perch Aqua' but the real problem were the two plants in front. They were very tanky, had lots of shield and had 'Serious' both as mouth cards. Our energy accumulation was threatened because of the possible of encountering double, triple or even quadruple 'Serious' chain combo between the two. That could have been a nightmare if it happened. Anyway, the introduction is already getting too long, without further ado let's watch and try to analyze what happened in these battles.
Wing Horn Plant?
Our opponent had a very aggressive line up. See that midline, with it's 45 speed that's undeniably one hell of a scary plant. We actually had the option to pass but decided to go all out for the first round. Although we were behind in energy count, taking down that plant in the front would make it easier for us later on. Removing their front would let us acquire energy safely in the coming rounds without being threatened by 'Serious', it would also eliminate the threat from 'Bug Splat'.
In Round 2 we played Kotaro+Acro just to damage the plant and outspeed their midline plant. We didn't play 'Bone Sail' or 'Tiny Dino' because we needed them more on the later rounds. We could generate energy anytime in the later rounds but having enough cards was just as important. By playing 1 card each from our midline and backline we denied a potential 'Tri-Spike' from the reptile. They could actually go for the 'Wing Horn' backdoor but the damage would be just a little over 400, still not enough without a lucky critical.
For three consecutive rounds we spent all of our available energy and finally managed to take down their front. Also, they played 'Tri-Spike' combo in round 3 but since all the damage came from the mid and backlines leaving the tank idle and armorless their reptile's attack was diverted to our plant.
We knew that they had lots of energy in round 5. We could make a pass to accumulate some more but it would be devastating. Because the 45 speed plant was first again in the turn order there was a high likely hood that it would bypass 'Snacku' who was in his final bar of 'Last Stand'. What we did here was that we defended our reptile with our remaining 3 energy. There was a potential stun in the end from the enemy reptile so we put Kotaro+Tiny Dino after 'Bone Sail'. Just in case we get stunned we would still gain an energy from 'Kotaro' and that amplified damage from 'Tiny Dino' would still be received by the opponent.
'YB' managed to last until round 8 after stalling the opponent for another 2 rounds, wasting some of their cards and helping 'Freddy' prepare for the late game with a 2 energy advantage.
Usually, we find it difficult to battle terminators in 1 v1 even with an energy advantage because of the double stun. Most of the time they leave us with a chomp and in our turn to attack they usually have 'Snail Shell' to defend which also stuns us in the middle of battle. They are just so good in wasting 2 moves from their opponent. If we add the armor generated the effective damage of a 4 card combo could be brought down to a measly 25%. In this battle the opponents terminator was also strong but without those debuffs like additional stun and slow from lagging we could easily outspeed them in the process.
A terminator's strength lies in debuff. Amplifying damage to debuff targets thru 'Thorny Caterpillar' while denying some of their next moves thru 'Chomp' and 'Snail Shell'. There is also lagging which let it outspeed it's opponents. The best thing he could do here was to wait for 2 Chomps and 2 Thorny Caterpillar to penetrate the armor. Maybe instead of wasting that Thorny caterpillar in the earlier rounds they should have attacked with 'Clam Smash' or 'Tri-Spike' instead. Sadly, even though they manage to pull it off, it was already too late as they were in their Last Stand.
Patience against Perch
There was one good thing about this opponent of ours, and that was we knew where that damage would come from. Obviously, it's from the 'Perch Aqua'. Perch is a nice backoor card, it makes idle opponents bleed or even demolish them in one go, especially low health ones like beast and birds. But it's a different story with plants and reptiles as they can defend against a full double 'Risky Fish'+'Perch' combo even with minimum shielding. Also, there is a certain condition for 'Perch' to be effective and that is for the opponents in mid or back to be idle, meaning they wouldn't play any card for that round.
Like we said in the introduction, the threat of multiple 'Serious' cards playing here was scarier than the backline damage. The plan we made was simple. First , the midline and backline should be active as much as possible to deny 'Perch' and divert it in front. Second, while diverting the 'Perch' in front we need to slowly chip off some health from the frontline tank. This would take time but we would eventually make it because it had lower shielding compare to something with pumpkin. We also don't have any aqua cards so we doubted that they would use 'Watering Can' that frequently.
In round 4 we used the cards 'Pumpkin', 'Luna Absorb' and 'Kotaro' while the opponent played double 'Risky Fish'+'Perch'. With 'Pumpkin' and around 60% of our health remaining our tank manage to survive that full combo but they also played 'Carrot' so it got eliminated later on. But hey, that was a good trade.
They managed to steal an energy and draw a card the next round. We thought they would go for another offensive so we used double 'Bone Sail' just in case but we were wrong as they used double 'Rose Bud' instead. We had 5 energy in round 7, and they just used their heals. It was a perfect opportunity to take down the plant. We didn't want to see this in round 10. Plants with lots shields and heals are annoying in the later rounds. We go 2x 'Tiny Dino'+'Catapult' with our reptile and an 'Acro' with our backline plant. The opponent did 2x 'Risky Fish'+'Oranda' with their aqua and a 'Pumpkin' with their plant. We manage to deal one card worth of damage by reflect which would save us 1 energy in the final showdown.
After sacrificing our reptile for their plant they conceded the battle. Most likely they were aware that we've been holding to two WSS so they just accepted the results without even seeing it.
And that's all. Thanks for reading and see you again next time.
Anyway do you know that I had a very bad start today. First 7 games and I was at 1W-5L-1D standing. Thankfully we somehow made a comeback making the final standing 10W-8L-2D. I was very nervous. Just saying. haha! See you later....
Ciao~