LKP's Axie Log #47: Never Give Up, Never Surrender // Reading Reflections

Hello Axie pips!

It's been a while since I've written an entry in this log. Well, you might speculate that I sold my Axies as the market conditions back in December last year was really terrible but I have not. Schedule was hectic and many other things kept me busy. There was a time when I was playing on and off but it did not came to me to sell them.

The past updates were quite frustrating to be honest. I know that the adjustments especially with regards to cutting SLP gained from adventure to zero and further lowering the SLP earned in the arena is needed but I also had some questions. If bots was the problem then why not just strengthen the infrastructure of the game to minimize botting, is it that costly? I'm still playing the game but I'm not as motivated as I was half a year ago. I'm thankful that I managed to break even last February. Technically, I'm now in the real play-to-earn model.

Currently at 1400-1500 MMR I've noticed that it's alot harder to advance compared to the previous seasons. The cheap Axie prices is obviously one of the reasons. There is an option to invest for a meta team but I opted not to do so. The previous experience was traumatizing enough, I'll just gonna play with my old team even if it will be difficult to reach higher brackets. mAXS rewards starts at around 1700-1800 MMR which is quite difficult with my team. Trying my best to penetrate 1600 before the end of this week here are some of my winning fights from today and yesterday.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

Jumping poison teams have become more prevalent once again. Although there are many variations, the goal of this type of enemy is just the same. Distribute poison stacks throughout your team and outlast you in the end. The longer the game the more favorable situation for them.

Teams with beasts and mechs would find it easier to contend with teams like this because of their burst damage. But for us it would always be a game of patience since that spike in damage happens at round 5. It would be easier if we get double cactus for our plant in the first 2 rounds but the possibility is quite low.

In this particular battle we just got lucky because we manage to waste their energy earlier in the game. Jumping poison tend to pass the first few rounds so I was surprised by their play at round 1. Although it look like we overcommit our energy steal it's still somewhat effective because we negate the leaf bug card. In the end we were thankful that most of their attack cards are range type. If not that lucky reflect would not save us.

Reading Reflections

One of the most surprising meta teams nowadays was the full reflect/kotaro reptile having speeds at 40 and below. This number is very important because pure reptiles and beasts have 41 speeds which is basically the benchmark of average in the game. Having slower speed means that Kotaro will be effective or you'll have a free energy with every bite.

It's difficult to battle this type of reptiles especially if you're faster than them. The 1v1 between our backlane plant was challenging. Both have 40 speed but if we use Arco too early they would manage to have the energy advantage so we bide our time until the final 2 rounds to maximize our damage. The reflect of both melee and range attack is very energy dependent so once we deprived them with energy the reflect threat was already cut by half. It would be alot more difficult for faster opponents like birds and aquas because of their insane speeds but for plant and reptiles with similar speeds it was manageable depending on your card management.

And that's all! Thanks so much for your time.