Hi there!
So we did it, 1900 MMR is now achieved. I'd say that we did great for a non-meta team. We were stuck for almost 2 weeks in the 1500-1600 bracket but after we bought 'Freddy' and made 'YB' the midline we've seen some progress. Although we lost 'Buddy' which was our previous energy gainer in the midline, the absence of 'Nimo' is compensated by our backline's 'Luna Absorb'. Of course, 'Nimo' is preferred by more people because of the additional 30 base damage compared 'Luna Absorb's' nothing.
We were really ecstatic the day before yesterday because we thought that we might step into the 2k MMR bracket. We managed to get a rating of around 1940-1950ish MMR and had our best run in the arena so far. If my memory is right we ended that day with 13W-5L-2D standing. But like Icarus with his wax of wings I think we get too close to the sun, eventually melting down after finding that short-lived happiness in our small success. In this entry we'll try to analyze two battles. One is from the time we were dominating our arena battles and the second one is the flipside in which we lost even against double Aquas, the most comfortable opponent to deal with our team composition.
Before Our Wings Melt
Two days ago fights were easier even as we climbed the rankings. Losing is also part of the journey but we have this expectation that by the end of the day our win-loss standing would at least be close to 50 percent, with 40% being the minimum. In this fight we're up against a Bird+Beast+Plant line up.
I must tell you that I really hate this team for a reason. 'Egg bomb' when used wisely can overturn the outcome of a battle. We've already experienced it a few number of times and it's not a great feeling. Being outplayed by a bird in a 2v1 situation against our plant and reptile was tragedy in plain sight. Another one is that 'Piercing sound' which destroys and an energy of the opponent. It's annoying because even though it's used as a utility card it provides a 80 base damage and 40 shield. If we add the affinity to the equation then it becomes more troublesome for our team.
In the first round we played 'Serious'+'Double Carrot' . I think that this was the best possible option for us, as passing would most likely to get our energy stolen or destroyed. Our plant had the advantage in this first round energy battle because it was last in the turn order bringing us in an advantageous position because of 'Serious'. The beauty of using 'Carrot' is that even if the plant is killed (which was unlikely in our case) the energy would still come back as long as the shield breaks. We should avoid playing 'Carrot' as much as possible against opponents with 'Stun' and 'Sleep' because these debuffs penetrate through the armor. It would be a waste if we played a high defense like something with 'Carrot'+'Pumpkin' in low health because the damages would just bypass the shield provided by such cards.
The downside of having 'Goda'+'Luna Absorb' for a beast instead of the 'Nut Crack' combo is that damage is sacrificed for energy gain/destruction. In round 3, we were not sure where the attack would come from. What we only knew for the past 2 rounds is that most of the cards they played came from the plant and that some of their energy cards were seen. The 'Double Cactus' from round 2 seemed to be very effective as their plant was hanging for it's life. The option we chose this time was to put a 'Pumpkin' in case they already had the 'RIMP' combo, gain energy from our back and deploy 'Catapult'+'Bone Sail' in our midline. The importance of this set of moves depended on 'YB'. Even with something like 'Carrot'+'Pumpkin' their plant would still be killed because the damage was enough. In case that they played backdoor bird cards then it would better because we have the perfect cards to receive them.
With 'Catapult'+'Bone Sail' we were safe even if one of their skill crits. They played 'Little Owl'+'Ill-omened'+'Early Bird'+'Egg Bomb' which was not very optimal in their case. If they just played a single card 'Aroma' they would let the plant live for another round and because of the lack of reflect damage their bird would still manage to survive. The best thing is that they could have saved an extra 3 energy for the remaining rounds.
After that, it came to a 3 v1 situation in round 5. Although their beasts manage to take down our frontline pant it's already too late as the backline already had the perfect cards. WIth 'Acro'+'Ill-omened'+'WSS' we already dealt lots of damage to their beasts, prevent their critical strikes if they manage to survive which survive (which is very unlikely) and most importantly gain that speed advantage. In the end, the game concluded in round 6 with us using just 2 offensive cards to deal that closing blow.
A Taste of Consecutive Defeats
Like we said earlier, losing is part of the game. It's actually in defeat that we improve ourselves. But what if the streak becomes too long that even sure win battles are being affected. In this case let's take a peek of what happened earlier today. I was on a 7 or 8 losing streak (the longest streak I had) because of encountering these strong teams with tons of beast cards. I was praying like, 'please give me a double aqua'. My wish was granted but the results actually remained the same.
If you read some of my previous entries you might notice that I often tell that double aquas are my most preferred opponents to do battle with because I have lots of advantage against. They have raw speed and power but that's it. They don't have annoying debuffs and it's very rare to encounter something like a shrimp or another annoying backdoor build using them as core.
In this fight I made three major mistakes which didn't happened in my last battles against an AAP. My mind and judgment might be clouded because of the previous loses. The number one reason of my defeat here is that I mismanaged the cards. I was so eager to finished the battle that I wasted important cards from our reptile without fully utilizing their effects. Instead of using 2 'Bone Sail' and 2 'Catapults' we should just used 3 cards and leaving at least one 'Bone Sail' and 1 'Catapult' for the next round. If we did this we would survive that 5 card chain combo (we had 4 cards in this situation) and even manage to draw a card and gain an energy. Also, to kill the plant we could have played 'Acro'+'Ill-omened' from the back. Although it would diminish our card supply on hand we had 'Bone Sail' that would eventually compensate for this. The opponent was also very patient so kudos to him.
I knew they had lots of energy but still tested my luck. The opponent was good and they knew their cards. They chained and comboed those double 'Risky Fish' with maximum efficiency killing my reptile and wasting 3 energy in the process. They made the perfect decision while my judgment and reasoning was at it's lowest.
We ended up in a two 2 v1 situation which if you think about still had a chance for salvation. We had the cards and the quantity of the energy was the same for both teams. But this battle seemed like the cumulation of our bad luck for today. We miscalculated the damage and used the wrong cards. Even if they passed we should have reserved one WSS for the backline. Our hope for salvation ended there when we played double WSS and the mid aqua was still left with 22 health. The optimal choice that we could have made was to eliminate the mid with 2 'Ill omened'+'Acro'+1'WSS' leaving us with 3 energy for the next round and enough cards with at least 1 WSS. Sigh. Anyways, it already concluded. What we could have done in the first place was to stop for a while after a losing streak of 5 then try again a few hours later when our head has cooled down a bit.
Anyways, it's still a lesson learned. Just do not rush things and let it cool down a bit if it's not going in your favor. I remembered playing and losing money in poker a few years ago. It's the same feeling. I only grinded 160 SLP today far from my 210 daily average.
This would be the end of today's entry. Hope you guys had a good Monday.
See you soon.
Ciao~