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Cancer META: Season 18
Welcome to a new series where we showcase the TOP teams in the current Meta of Axie Infinity Arena! We will be highlighting teams that are able to frustrate enemies to surrender, smash devices to the ground, and make opponents wallow in despair!
If you are thinking of Terminator Reptiles, that is so yesterday! We are talking about high MMR here! In this article, we will talk about one of the most TOXIC teams this season, Backdoor-Poison Team! This kind of setup is used by the Number 1 player currently, Gabz! Aside from him, there are several iterations and similar teams but they have one theme in common, POISON! But for now, we will go into in-depth analysis of the team used by Gabz to reach 3000+MMR!
BACKDOOR-POISON
Now let us look at the team by the current number 1 player as of September 18, 2021. This team is composed of a Plant-tank Axie as well as 2 Dusk Axies for its midline and backline. The current setup of this team is to spread poison as much as possible while dealing damage.
Source
Discard-Poison Tank
First up, we have the Plant-tank Axie! This Axie has the following parts: "Disguise” card from Leaf Bug horn; “Sunder Claw” card from Pincer Mouth; “October Treat” card from Pumpkin back; and “Gas Unleash” card from Yam tail. Something seems wrong here? Or is it?
As you can see, there are two(2) zero energy cards. Though this may be bad for most team compositions due to the lack of damage, this has a very important purpose. It will be used to easily chain with "Barb Strike '' card from "Garish Worm"! We will further explain why this is important in the next segment but for now we shall focus on this Plant Axie! Aside from chaining the zero energy card, the skill Disguise can be combo'ed with Plant cards to gain energy.
Like most tanks, this one has "October Treat" card for its high shield. But this is not capable of stopping high damage combos of opponents. In fact, the skill "Gas Unleash" is the real deterrent for this Axie to survive! Though it only has minimal damage and shield, it has POISON! Get attacked? Get poisoned! Don't attack? Get poisoned! This creates a mental pressure for the opponent which leads to more possible ways for this team setup to win.
The opponent has to decide when to skip turns in order to avoid getting poisoned. So despite having low shields and 2 zero energy cards, this plant Axie is Meta right now but with the right team setup.
Midline: Toothless-Poison Dusk
Now we get to one of the core Axies in this setup. We have a Dusk Axie Midliner! It has the following cards and parts: "Surprise Invasion" card from Cerastes horn; "Sneaky Raid" card from Toothless Bite mouth; "Barb Strike'' card from Garish Worm back; and "Venom Spray" card from Grass Snake tail.
This Axie has Surprise Invasion and Barb strike as its high damage card. Coupled with Sneaky Raid, it is capable of easily sniping faster opponents. But this is not the main purpose of this build! One of the most important purpose of this team is to spread Poison to all Axies of the opponent!
As you can remember, we have said that the zero energy bug card from the Plant Axie is important. It will be chained with the card Barb Strike. But for what purpose? Simple, to dish out POISON aside from its high damage! Aside from the poison from Barb strike, this Axie has Venom Spray as another source of poison! Talk about toxic! This Axie will surely poison you to death. Literally!
Backline: Poison Once Again
The player Gabz was not content with only one poison dealing Axie, he wants TWO of them! This dusk Axie has the following skill and parts: "Smart Shot" from Wing Horn horn part; "Chomp" from Tiny Turtle mouth; as well as Barb Strike and Venom Spray which are very similar to the previous dusk Axie.
Aside from poison, this Axie now deals stun debuffs. This debuff can allow this Axie to deal damage to targets with high shields. So not only do the opponents need to guard against poisons, now they also have to guard against the damage! The Wing Horn at the same time allows this Axie to bypass tanks and spread the toxicity!
OTHER SIMILAR SETUP: Poo-Poison Team
You think this was over? NO!
There are other poison builds out there! But as always there will be similarities with the first team composition discussed above. Furthermore, this team will also use Barb Strike and Venom Spray! The difference in builds can be due to the price range of specific card combinations! You will see that it is possible to reach higher ranks with a team that is more affordable but with the same theme: Poison.
Poison Frontline
Instead of having Garish Worm in two(2) Axies, this team went for three(3)! Despite having a less durable tank, it is capable of dishing out lots of damage and poison right at the very start of the battle! This is not a “Tank” anymore, with the current backline poison meta, “Frontline Poison Spreader” is a more apt nickname!
This Axie has the following skills: “Vegetal Bite” from Serious mouth; “Disguise” from Leafbug horn; “Barb Strike” from Garish worn back; as well as “gas Unleashed” from Yam. Now it can spread poison aggressively using Barb Strike as well as defensively using Yam!
Backline: Poo Flinger
As the team’s backline, this Axie also serves as the “backdoor” for another Axies to spread poison. This can be done with the help of “Poo Fling” from the Unko horn part. This requires the Axie to be the fastest among the team in order for its other members to dish out damage to the midline and backline. Aside from that, this Axie can also directly attack the backline Axies using Toothless Bite!
This Axie has the following skills and cards: ”Poo Fling” from Unko horn; "Sneaky Raid" card from Toothless Bite mouth; "Barb Strike'' card from Garish Worm back; and "Venom Spray" card from Grass Snake tail. This Axie is almost similar to the previous Dusk-Axie a while ago.
Midline: Poison and Damage
I think you should already know the cards of this Axie, right? You guessed it correctly! More poison!
This Axie has almost the same cards as the Dusk Axie aside from the Sneaky Raid mouth! It has the following cards and parts: "Surprise Invasion" card from Cerastes horn; “Chomp” from Tiny Turtle mouth; "Barb Strike'' card from Garish Worm back; and "Venom Spray" card from Grass Snake tail.
The Axie used by AC Malakas has 39 speed. This means that the skill Surprise Invasion can deal more damage to most of its enemies including Beast Axies. Compared to Dusk Axies, Reptile version of the popular build are cheaper and slower. Both setups have their own advantages but we can all conclude that these teams are very TOXIC and quite difficult to play against.
Core Cards for this Team: Barb Strike
In our opinion, the back part Garish Worm is very important in this build. Not only can it cause poison but also deal huge amounts of damage against Plant, Reptile and Dusk Axies which are the current overlords of the higher rank. Aside from that, this card has a decent amount of shields as well! Now this card is very versatile! Damage? Check! Shields? Check! Debuff: Poison? Double check!!
Conclusion
In summary: These teams are very toxic! A few seasons ago, poison was very popular using Double Yam plant teams. Though yam has been nerfed, the strategy has once again appeared in a different form through Grass Snake and Garish Worm. Poison is really powerful but it has a counter. The debuff poison can be removed using "Bidens" or "Mint" cards. However, despite removing the debuffs, one cannot discount the amount of damage the team can also deal to its opponent.
Through the entire season 18, poison heavy teams have dominated the higher ranks. Without the proper counter and skills, defeating such team can be frustrating. Backdoor skills such as winghorn and Toothless Bite creates a mental pressure against its opponents. Though Poison Meta teams seem overpowered, we should never forget that newer Meta compositions are being created every season.
This off-season, poison meta teams have dissappeared from the current leader boards. This could mean 2 things. First, the developers might have felt that the cards used frequently in poison heavy teams such as Grass Snake and Garish Worm need balancing. This may mean a reduction of damage or defense. It is also possible for the poison debuff itself may be nerfed sometime in the future. Aside from balancing, this could also mean that a new Meta has been formed and has countered multiple poison heavy teams.
Currently, top players have been using Bug Signal Card as well as Cute Bunny Card. Does this mean anything at all? Maybe? With this in mind, we can also say that the players themselves are balancing the game through meta changes.
Well that was fun!
In this article, learned about 2 core skills used in Posion Meta Teams. These cards are Grass Snake and Garish Worn. We hope that our readers have also learned more about this team composition so that they can build a team with similar cards to reach a higher rank.
We will keep exploring the perpetually evolving meta to deliver fresh ideas for new team comps that have high MMR potential.
If you're not looking into acquiring new Axies though, you'll get a chance to learn how to counter some of the most annoying teams to face in the Arena!
Eager to meet more god-tier Axies and possibly even pony up for an elite team? Well then, have your eyes peeled to our Hive blog because we'll definitely post more of these.
