Wazzup, wazzup everyone!?
The other day I lost 13 out of our 20 games. It was a terrible experience and I hope none of you guys will have something similar in the future. I made some adjustments with our line up. Since, it's a new season I tried shuffling our axies and bring the old team back to life once again. Our midline aqua 'CB' had been very weak the previous seasons and the biggest reason for this was that it lacked the offensive capabilities needed. In the first place we had low to mediocre offensive capabilities so it was quite understandable that it didn't passed through the 1600 MMR during those times. I already tested in it the arena for 2 days now and I must say that the patch really did well for this guy. I thought that the recent update would only up it's performance for adventure. I never thought that it would be also a viable option for the arena battles.
It got a little nerf because of the damage reduction on Tail Slap but it didn't matter as the damage output of the card is not very crucial, especially to our past and present team compositions. The game changer would be the adjustments made on the card 'Timber' or 'Woodman Power'. Last season it has 50 attack value and a 100 shield but because of the balance patch it now has 80 attack value and 80 for the shield. This card can potentially increase our shield to almost 400 but it's only effective if we're targeting plants and the attacking axie of the opponent is slower than us. Unless the opponent has a midline plant this card is pretty much mediocre after the opponent plant in the front is taken out. Nonetheless, the 30 point increase in damage complement our team quite well. I told you guys earlier that we lost most of our matches the day before yesterday. So, from 1700 we were back to the 1550's. After using it for 2 days straight we're now back again in the 1700 bracket. It's roller coaster ride I must say. Anyway, without further ado let's proceed to watch and see some of our recent matches.
Cute Bunnies, Ain't they Cute?
Cute bunnies, gravel ant and an immortal plant. No doubt this is strong and very intimidating team. One thing we need to take note of is the turn order. Since the opponent's team is slower than mid and backline we didn't have any major problems unless our plant was taken off really early.
We started a Carrot and they replied with a 2x Cactus, one crits which was shocker. How lucky could you be? With 3 energy the following round they could kill the plant given the right cards but that would mean they had to pass the following round after that. So we deduced that this would be more likely an energy gainer move from the plant. Although they have lots of zero cost cards which made it easier for them to form combos it would still be difficult if they don't had that juicy stock pile of energy. What we did in round 3 was a risky move but since we had still had energy to spare we took this chance and we successfully attacked their front with our dying plant. That Cactus that went through just saved us 2 cards to kill their plant later. our gamble paid off.
We would be in trouble if their mid was a faster aqua or a dusk since it would deprive us to defend the following round. Although teal shell has mediocre damage it is still quite painful to bugs. Although we get stunned at the end the mid aqua managed to land all cards so it was also worth it. Also, we didn't want to let this bug leave even with for next round because it would be troublesome. Thankfully, this gravel ant was placed in mid rather than the back. We have higher of chances winning in 1 v1 against healing plant than with gravel ants (unless it's an aqua). We killed with 7 cards .
We passed in round 6 while their last axie, the immortal plant, played Cactus + 2x Zigzag + Cattail. Nothing crits so we barely survived that one undefended. Well, I was thankful at that because it removed the stun and now were in a perfect scenario to perform Axie Kiss. Ha! We had two in the stash. I thought round 7 would be the last round because we got two axie kisses and we could play 6 cards excluding Tail Slap but it turned out that the damage was not enough as they were still left with 10 hp. How convenient it would be if we got some high damage cards from start? Well, if we had Tiny Dino we could have ended it early but since we don't they still lived for another round.
In the end we still won the game. Their health was too low to sustain fruther damage even with almost 300 shield. thankfully, we drew a Tiny Dino this time. Things could have been different if we dragged the battle longer since they got heal. We finished it just in time.
The Great Sacrifice
Immortal Aquas are pain to deal with because they are capable of healing back lots of health if you didn't finish them in one go. My approach with this team is often like this if I play heavy offense I always try to take one of them. Notice that my plant and reptile were aligned in this case. The reason we had this formation is specifically to deal with this line up. Capitalizing reptile cards and/or Cactus (or Carrot) from the plant to deal with the aqua in the top. Target round is usually after round 3 but reality doesn't usually go according to our plan and this is also what happened here.
I was about to play Pumpkin in round 1 but I had this really bright idea that they might pass so I just also passed. It turned out that they would play hare dagger chained with Tail Slap + Piercing Sound taking out half of my plant's hp while also destroying one of my energies. I should have known why the f**k did I think they would pass. I knew that combo-ing Cactus with Pumpkin in round 2 would be risky as they would likely secure the kill given their play in the first round but I wasstill pathetic to include Cactus. I could have saved an energy there.
In round 3 we got the right amount of cards but the problem was that the only have 50% of hitting the top aqua. If it it went to the bottom one it would be useless even with 4 cards from the reptile because the aqua would just likely heal it next round. Our plan was to stall until round 5 but disabling our horn card Teal Shell for round 4 made it very hard to defend. The occasional bombardment of energy destroy was very annoying. At round 5 it was now 1 v 3. it's funny that the aqua manages to stall the round even a bit loner than the plant.
In this 1 v3 situation we still got a chance. The sacrifice made by our mid is not for nothing. We had 4 energy advantage and got plenty of cards in our stash. Although they got energy destroyed they would likely not use it because need to stock up. We played Kotaro + 2x Catapult and a Tiny Dino which demolished the top aqua. It would be tricky if they had Egg Bomb instead of Kestrel since they would have ability to divert the damage. I think they never thought that we would still play another 4 cards so they just played it safe and heal back the damage of their bottom aqua. We took the opportunity and play a 4- card combo, two of these are Tiny which were dealing 156 damage each. They were unlucky 2 round and they didn't get any Kestrel which would disable Catapult.
In the end we got a 1 v 1 with the bird. We both played 4 cards but they almost died just by reflect. Even without catapult this would a win. We had a bad start but things ended quite beautifully for us. So, the lesson for today is never say die! Don't give up even if you have only one axie left. :D
And that's all. Thank you very much for visiting!
See you soon.
Ciao~