LKP's Axie Log #37: From Zero to Hero? || Our Current Team State After the Patch

Hello there axie pips!

It's been more than a week since the latest balancing patch. Truth to be told our team is one of those who are lucky enough to benefit from the recent changes. Although a good number of our cards get buffed we still find it hard to climb the ranks. One thing I noticed is that it's now very rare to encounter AAP or double aqua teams after 1500 MMR. With the exception of the Double Anemone + Backline Bird builds the presence of aquas is not as strong as they used to be in these brackets. What we do encounter often are terminators, fast beasts and mechs, and of course your typical garish poison teams. We also have a good number of encounters with backline gravel ants and healing plants which are undeniably both annoying in a late game matchup.

Alot of teams got nerfed but even the buffs it's not enough for us to move forward. Maybe, the patch is just enough for us to retain our previous standing. We're still grinding in the same brackets even with the recent upgrades, especially for our mid and backlines. I think that although these particular teams got nerfed they are still strong and competitive. Also, the buffs we obtained are not enough to overpower them. Anyways, for today we'll show you the changes in our axies due to the recent patch. So, without further ado let's go.

A Pricklier Cactus, A Cheaper Cactus?

Our plant 'Snacku' got a tiny buff from the latest patch. Cactus which had 110 attack last season now have 115. It's not that much but it's better than nothing. I think we should at least be thankful that none of the cards in this one got nerfed. My only concern is that the price of this particular axie went down by a huge chunk since our purchase. I got a hunch why it lost it's popularity but I could be wrong. I remember buying this one in August for around $500 now it's down to 240 -260 bucks. And to add some salt to our wound you could buy a virgin now for just $300. My hunch is that the popularity of beast and bug cards made the defensive capabilities of this axie less effective. The common RIMP combo is scarier than the previous one in season 18 and it becomes even more terrible when paired with Double Nut. With other cards like Sinister Strike and Revenge Arrow sometimes it's a miracle for us if our plant survives until round 4. Some might say that Pumpkin is still effective for brick walling but meh, it still melts with crit. It's still good defending against aquas and birds though.

Woodman Power is now a Time Saver

Cotton Buddy ('CB'), our chops aqua is one of our adventure axies together with YB and Snacku. Although Nimo got nerfed from 30 attack to the current 20, it has little to no effect in our adventure team. You might be curious why we substituted our plant backline with this one. Actually, our adventure team was our original team in the arena. After rummaging the marketplace we found our current arena backline 'Freddy Mercury' and the rest is history. Our adventure conquest stopped at ruin 20. I thought that it's not very efficient to level up our axies to challenge ruin 21 so we stopped at this level.

Last season it took us 4-6 rounds to complete the 50 SLP adventure quest. Actually, it's very rare for us to get it by 4 because we also lose on rare occasions. Now, we are finishing our daily quest faster with almost perfect win rate. There are a few things that I believe contributed for this to happen. One is the 'skill' stat is showing it's importance. When you combo a card there's now an additional damage compared to playing it as a single piece. Another one is the buffed damage from Kotaro which saves us a Nimo when taking down the first round of enemies in ruin 19. And lastly the woodman power which now deal 200+ damage when comboed with another card. It's very far from it's original 100+ damage. Because of this it saves alot of time in the adventure compared to last season.

We also tried testing CB in the arena and it did great. We noticed that execution of axie kiss becomes more successful. Compared to the previous season you'd get 200 shield when Woodman Power targets a plant axie. Now, a successful attack on a plant would raise your shield to a whooping +240 !

Little Change, Big results with Kotaro

Our midline reptile 'YB' got some very good buff this season. The +10 defense on Catapult might seem little but it actually made it a good complementary card to pair with. We usually do a 2x Catapult when going against birds and Piercing Sound beasts so it provides an additional 20 shield which is not bad. The bigger buff is on Kotaro with it's +5 attack and +10 shield. Double Kotaro is not very good to play with last season because the defense is just 40 (20 ea). We just usually snuck it in between our 3 or 4 card combos because it really can't defend well unlike Bone Sail. With the recent buff Kotaro gained 10 shield we have more options because it's not as frail as it's used to be. Also, the additional buffs in Kotaro has been very critical in our recent battles with terminator teams.

Last season we often lose by a single digit in hp, especially during the bloodmoon curse. It's very subtle but it did increase our win rate from around 30% to 45-55% against dusk terminators.

Luna Absorb's Zero to Hero tale

It's funny that the cheapest of our axies is also the most versatile. Our backline Freddy also got some buffs from the recent update. I think it's the one who benefitted the most. We got some small +5 bonus on both attack and shield for Why So Serious. We had a very good win rate against double aquas last season and with this buff our advantage just became bigger. It's a pity that we are now seeing fewer aquas. The patch really did some damage to most of them.

Nimo is one the most OP zero cost cards last season. It got a good 30 damage and it could gain energy on top of that. Luna Absorb on the other hand can also gain energy but that's the end to it. Thankfully, it got one of the best buffs this season. An additional +30 in shield for free is a great help in sustaining damage in the late game for our backline. It's not just a throw card anymore against termis and cute bunnies as it can also provide some defense. Because of this our shield rarely goes below 100 during 1 v1 battles in the late game. I think that Luna Absorb is one of the cards that mostly benefitted from the latest patch.

We are thankful that we are not hit that hard. The season is still early so we have alot of work and studying to do. Hopefully, we reach our target of 15 SLP/win. That's around 1800 MMR. It will take time but we will get there. Good luck to all of us!

That is all everyone.
Thank yo very much for reading.
See you soon.

Ciao~