<center>
</center>
Hello there axie pips!
It seems like we are now finding our rhythm for this season. Although there certainly are ups and downs we finally manage to get back to our usual bracket which is around 1500-1800 MMR. We had a pretty good first day as we won 17 or 16 of our 20 matches but the following days were not the same. The next 2-4 days were the worst as we have encountered meta teams from the previous season like the double anemones and jumping poison teams. Heck! We even had matches with a super fast backdoor mechs. For a few days we did struggle between 1300-1400 but now we're finally back. There's a quite a difference in reward and hat is why we target this particular bracket because we would be rewarded with 12 SLP per win instead of 9 SLP in 1300-1500 MMR. Sometimes we got lucky and would make it to 1800-1900 which has 15 SLP per win as reward. Anyways, the highest MMR earlier today was 1670 but we got hammered down after that so we are now back at the late 1500's, around 1580's if I'm not mistaken.
I noticed that our win rate against Dusk Termis are getting better. In general the latest patch buffed our team. We would have a more in depth discussion about these changes but we indeed get stronger compared to the previous season. We got some big buffs on our backline which have Luna Absorb and Why So Serious. Last time, we said that Luna Absorb is somewhat a tier lower than Nimo because aside from gaining energy and being a zero cost it didn't have any redeemable stats but it's different now. That 30 shield for a no cost saved my life from backdoor shrimps with garish a couple of times now. Kotaro also got some buff which made it easier for us to do 1 v1 battles with dusk termis. Poison backdoor have been a common encounter since the start of this season so unless the backline of the opponent is aqua I always try to have our midline reptile as our last axie. It's now very well rounded and I also figured out how to deal with termis. Of course, the method I discovered only works if I have plenty of energy and cards. It's not a surefire way but it's better than just blindly throwing cards like we usually do.
Anyways, I can't sync the battles log from my phone to my pc. Nowadays, I find it more convenient to play on mobile but I didn't realize that the battle logs in pc didn't get updated. It's a problem cause it's hard to record battles on mobile because the screen becomes to small when I upload it youtube or just save it as a video. I'll try playing from pc more. For now, let's look at some crazy battles we did these past few days.
### <center>Wrong time to Pass</center>
<center>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_w4sghJSqc</center>
In this battle we're up against your somewhat typical DBP terminator team. The plant is quite fast so we got no trouble dealing max damage for our cactus. But the thing is it got some heavy shield in it's armory. Merry Legion got a pretty good buff and do know just on stats alone this card has one of the highest when you combine both attack and shield values. On the top of that it got a 20% shield bonus when played in a chain so that's quite OP when you use it properly. Although it makes a tank quite speedy I think this card is indeed a good fit for fronts unlike having it on mid or backline beast.
Although their beast is on the slower side we got rekt pretty early because of the nut ronin combo. It's hard to survive that even more in this season because both ronin and imp got some buffs of their own. But it's pretty easy to kill the beast here. Because we manage that double tiny dino to pass through it was down to less than 100 health. We tried to finish it off by YSS and an Ill omened but the crit from YSS triggered last stand and even with Ill-omened it was still left with one bar of last stand. We both played mind games in this scenario. In their case, I think their gauging that I'd make a pass or just play luna absorb at the back. Since, both their axies are first and second in the turn order they have initiative to attack. We gambled on this one and played 4 cards on our dying reptile. They on the other hand played doubled nut which wasted 1 of their energy right off the bat. For a bonus damage of the combo I think it's not worth it, especially for critical situations like this one.
At the end the undefended Dusk termi took a whole 4 card combo consisting of 2x Bone sail and 2x Tiny Dino. Although, they manage to make a last stand again it was impossible for them to win or even draw with just 2 turns. They should have put a snail shell to defend at least.
### <center>Another Wrong Pass [Against BBP]</center>
<center>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_zEX3rLTPMw</center>
This one is against a BBP. The beast is a total monster with Sinister Strike as horn and that Revenge Arrow for the back. Add the Nut combo and it's a demolisher for teams like ours. The plant although quite weak compared to Hot Butt plants we encountered complemented the lack of energy gain from the mid. We needed to take this one down early to prevent them to have enough energy.
Our plant was taken out at round number 3. Notice that we don't usually lasts much against this tank destroyers. The bird got Soothing Song so if your up against something like this and your plant is in the red I advise to just let it go. Even if you have cards like Pumpkin do not defend because it would likely be useless. Although nerfed the penetration effect is still there so it's a sure kill against low health opponents, even tanks.
Luckily, they got no cards for the beast in round. It's a 2 v1 but we have the same energy. I bet they were saving it for the next round. From my POV it would been favorable for them if they sacrificed the bird at this point. They could have played 3 of their birds cards (with post fight) chipping off some health while diverging the attack from the beast to the bird in the back. They would still be left with 3 energy next round, enough to play their cards. They passed and we manage to bring their beast to last stand. We then played another 2 luna absorb to waste those two bars and they still passed. It's their last time to deal some decent damage but they passed again. Depriving them the ability crit they got no chance with just the raw damage from 2 x Soothing Song and two of their bird cards.
In the end we won the match. thanks to those passes we manage to secure victory for these two games.
And that is all for today.
Thank you very much for visiting and see you next time.
Ciao~
hiveblocks