Hello there guys!
Today, we're suppose to do another battle review/analysis but I think it would be quite monotonous as there is nothing special that happened today or even yesterday to talk about so we're gonna try to tackle something new and that is the topic of 'Mouth Cards'. Playing Axie Infinity for almost two months now, we know that each six body parts raises certain attributes. Each part raises a total of 4 attributes: 3 points for the major and 1 point for the minor. For example, each Aqua part raises 3 points of speed and 1 point of health. That's the reason why terminators with Aqua eyes and ears are more valuable because they complement the build well. Eyes and ears as parts don't have corresponding skills dedicated to them but the increment in stats is just the same. Terminators in general become slower than pure reptiles and beasts (both have 41 speed) because of they have 3 bug parts which are 'Thorny Caterpillar', 'Snail Shell' and 'Laggin'. Bugs focuses on Morale(3) and Health(1) for each part so to offset the effect of this parts adding speed with Aqua parts become the most ideal option. So, you might ask why not add Bird parts instead of Aqua? The reason for this is the secondary/minor attribute added, both Bird and Aqua parts add 3 speed for each but the difference is the secondary attribute. Terminators are still build to be chunky so it is more ideal to have more health which is given by the the secondary attribute from an Aqua part, compared to a Bird parts which add an extra morale instead of an extra health.
Let's go back to the main topic which are the 'Mouth parts'. Mouth is a special body part because aside from adding certain attributes there is also a corresponding skill assigned for each part. Well, we know that mouth, back, horn and tail parts all have corresponding skills but there are still some noticeable differences between them. For example, back cards in general focuses more on defensive moves compared to other parts and majority of the horn cards focuses more on offense. Take note that we say 'in general' there would be exceptions like 'Teal Shell' in case of horn cards etc. We're just trying to generalize things with regards to body so there of course would be exceptions. Mouth cards are special because they are more diverse in a sense compared to the other parts. They don't generally pack lots of attack or armor but their utility aspect really shines in every battle. There are currently 24 mouth cards in the game (4 for each basic class) and today we're gonna try and list the top 5 most annoying Mouth cards. Anyways, this more of a personal opinion so it might be a bit biased base on the team we play in the arena. I mean we play different teams so some might find number 3 more annoying or irritating than 1, hope you understand. Without further ado let's begin the list.
Honorable Mentions
Self Heals
Well, before go to the main event there are certainly some that didn't make the cut but still deserves to be mentioned. This time we chose the self heals which are consists of mouth cards like 'Swallow', 'Blood taste', 'Vegan Diet', Why So Serious' and 'Drain Bite'. 'Vegan Diet' is one of those that have the highest total stat in this set of cards (a total of 130, 65atk and 65 def) but it actually has the strictest condition for life steal which is you needed to attack a plant to activate it's effect. For me, it's not very optimal compared to universal ones like 'Drain Bite'. Although the latter has lower overall stats, it's effective against all classes which make it convenient in most situations. And if we compared it to 'Why So Serious' both have specific class requirement to trigger the effect but most of time plant are placed as front and it's quite rare to encounter mid or backline plant compared to encountering mid/backline aquas, so for me 'YSS' have a tiny bit of advantage if we take note of the frequency of appearing classes in the arena.
Backdoors
Another honorable mentions that deserve some attention are the backdoor mouth cards 'Dark Swoop' and 'Sneaky Raid'. 'Dark Swoop' targets the fastest energy which are generally Aquas and Birds. This would be very fatal if comboed with other 3 high damage cards. 'Dark Swoop' is also effective against speed gainers like those axies with 'Koi' and 'Acros' as these axies might get taken down just after speeding up. 'Sneaky Raid' on the other hand targets the furthest enemy. I think I've seen it most of the time comboed with something like 'Grass Snake'. Both 'Sneaky raid' and 'Dark Swoop' don't have impressive stats compared to other backdoor cards like 'Tri Spike' or 'Perch' but they are the type that pinpoint the target more accurately. A pass can save your back or mid from 'Perch' and 'Tri Spike' directing all the damage to your front but the former cards can deal damage with pinpoint accuracy to the target making them really frustrating as opponents.
Top 5 Most Annoying Mouth Cards
So, we now arrived at the main event. Again, this might be a bit biased base on our current team composition but I think most would agree with these picks. In general, this list is composed of energy stealers, discarders and status inflictors.
#5: Vegetal Bite (Serious)
Energy disruption moves in general are some of the most annoying moves to deal with. For mouth cards we have the very popular plant move 'Vegetal Bite' and the beast move 'Piercing Sound' which fall in this category. Although there are some differences we prefer the former if we are given an option to choose which is better. The main reason for this is that plants are generally used for tanking and utility so having something like an energy disrupt in their part fits perfectly in their respective roles. There is an overwhelming advantage with regards to stats as 'Piercing Sound' has a total of 120 (80 atk and 40 def) compared to 'Vegetal Bites' 60 (30 atk, 30 def). Also, 'Piercing Sound' can demonstrate it effects even when played alone while 'Vegetal Bite' needs to be comboed with another card for it to be effective. But even with these issues 'Vegetal Bite' when played right gives the user an overwhelming energy advantage. 'Piercing Sound' destroys an energy but 'Vegetal Bite' steals one, which means you add 1 energy to your pool while depriving 1 for your opponent which is actually gaining 2 energy advantage in the next round. What more if you played 'Double Serious' successfully, isn't that 4 energy advantage right off the bat?
#4: Sunder Claw (Pincer)
Being deprived of energy is annoying but so is being deprived of cards to play. The bug move 'Sunder Claw' with just a total of 40 overall stats certainly lacks appeal if we based it in stats alone. But for a zero cost card this might be one of those cards that can change the tide of battle especially in mid to late game when cards become as important as energy, sometimes in the late game both players have accumulated energy but lack cards to play. This is where 'Sunder Claw' shines especially if paired with something like the horn card 'Third Glance'. It mills the opponent deck gradually making it a very annoying adversary. Aside from being zero cost it doesn't need any special condition to trigger the discard effect, you just play it and 'boom' the opponent discard a precious card from their pool.
#3: Chomp (Tiny Turtle)
Aside from energy disrupts and discards, status effects are also annoying to deal with. 'Chomp' has quite a strict requirement for stun to trigger as it needed to be comboed with at least two additional cards. That's why in terminator build you often quite see zero cost cards like 'Mystic Rush'. This is to maximize the stun effect while conserving energy. Although it has stricter requirement the 'Stun' effect is just devastating as it is for two reasons. One, being stunned ignores the armor for that turn so even if you still have lots of shielding if you're in defensive, stunned and have very little health left you might say goodbye because pure damage will pierce through that shield. Second, even if you're faster you would miss an attack if you're in a stunned status. It would great if you have something like 'Bidens' which is a zero cost card that removes status effects. Sacrificing other zero costs cards like 'Luna Absorb' or 'Nimo' might be a bit frustrating but it's better than sacrificing something that costs energy. Of course, there are exceptions like purely defensive cards like 'Pumpkin'. Even with energy cost these type of cards are great in removing the 'Stun' effect.
#2: Soothing Song (Double Talk)
With only 80 overall stats (all focused on attack, 0 def) the move 'Soothing Song' might be lacking compared to something like 'Chomp' which have an additional 50 defense and a stun effect. The true potential of 'Soothing Song' lies on the status effect 'Sleep'. Unlike 'Stun' it doesn't deprive the enemy a turn when inflicted with it instead it does much worse which is bypassing the armor not just once but two times when comboed with another card. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to play two cards but 'Soothing Song' itself already ignores the armor of the opponent, when inflicted by it's 'Sleep' effect the next move also ignores the armor. Which means that having 2 'Soothing Songs' comboed with 2 other cards practically neglects the opponents armor no matter how high it is. Reptiles and Plants usually survive even a full combo given that the cards played are mostly Birds or Aquas but it 's a different story when this card is played with something like 'Ronin' or 'Dual Blade'. That would be very fatal regardless of what class to receive it. A rare but effective counter for this would be a 4 card combo of 'Double Catapult' + 'Double Indian Star' as it would return close to 100% of the damage to the attacker. If the opponent is a bird with majority of range skills 'Double Catapult' would be enough but if 'Soothing Song' is paired by beast cards then 'Bulkwark' would be more optimal if possible.
#1: Terror Chomp (Cute Bunny)
Now we are down to the number 1 of the most annoying 'Mouth Cards' of all time. 'Terror Chomp' needs to be chained to exhibit it's 'Fear' effect but this condition is just a little price to pay for the overpowered effect of this card. 'Fear' might be a watered down version of 'Stun' because even in 'Feared' state the opponent still retained armor but it's different with 'Terror Chomp' as the opponent is not just feared once but two times. This only means that they would miss their first two attacks. Another thing to be wary is that unlike other mouth cards, 'Terror Chomp' boasts an insane amount of base damage of 120 which is very disadvantageous against plants and reptiles. I bet even birds and aquas even with their class advantage would feel pain against a combo with this card. Fear is indeed something to be feared.
This would be the end of our short ranking competition against mouth cards.
Hope you have a great day tomorrow.
See you soon.
Ciao~