December 1, 2024
Beastmoon Forms Fall 2024 Update
Selenopolis and Magic Weaving isn’t the only new content in the Fall 2024 Update! Today, we’ll be talking about the five latest forms introduced to the Beastmoon events- Storm Fairy, Myth Elf, Life Ninja Pig, Fire Krokomummy, and Balance Colossus. All of these forms are the last of their respective statues, and some are the last forms of their school. They will all be usable in both the Beastmoon Hunt and Beastmoon Monster Mayhem.
Hover over a spell to find out what each spell does. For mobile users, tap on each spell to get more info.
Storm Fairy
First up we have Galvana Joltwing, the Storm Fairy. This fairy is focused on dealing damage, buffing its allies, and manipulating heal overtimes. Similar to Fire Fairy, Storm Fairy has a 2-pip 250 hit, but Storm Fairy also has a 2-pip 200 hit and a 2-pip blade that also gives the recipient a pip. However, Storm Fairy can only hold 1 bonus pip, which holds it back relative to small damage forms like Myth Rat or the aforementioned Fire Fairy.
The limit on Storm Fairy’s pips is in anticipation of future balance changes to other small damage forms. Basically, forms like Storm Elf and Myth Rat are currently over-performing, so if Storm Fairy and Myth Elf can perform well enough with only 1 bonus pip, then any form that gets more than 1 bonus pip and has a 2-pip 250 hit could potentially get nerfed in the future.
As for what Storm Fairy can actually do, it has 3 different blade options- in particular the AoE blade is better than every other AoE blade currently, and the blade + pip combo can easily set up a buffed AoE, although Balance Elf’s damage aura + pips is better since it can potentially provide more damage and it gives 1 more pip because it costs 3 pips, and Balance Elf still gets 2 bonus pips.
Galvana has some interesting but niche utility with its ability to counter pacify. Collateral Damage can potentially hit the target twice if you use it on someone the same turn that they become pacified. It also works well with buffs, since any blade or positive damage aura will apply to both the base 125 hit and the conditional 75 hit, which would be devastating if both hits are on the same target.
Despite being a form with the lowest possible health, Storm Fairy can interact with HoTs. The main 2-pip 250 hit becomes a whopping 375 hit if it clears a HoT! Unfortunately, Storm Fairy’s secondary 2-pip hit only does 200 damage and has questionable HoT synergy. Alongside its ability to extend HoTs, these forms of HoT synergy don’t really make sense on a form with the lowest possible health, since these effects only do something if the recipient survives for multiple rounds. Storm Fairy is liable to die early in most fights because most 2 pip hits will do at least half of your health and you will be targeted by multiple enemies, which will make it difficult to get even a single tick of a HoT.
Despite Galvana’s shortcomings, I think she will be a decent form. Especially in Mayhem, the ability to blade efficiently while setting someone up for an AoE and having the biggest AoE blade alongside solid damage options will make Storm Fairy a runner-up to Myth Fairy. Having multiple solid 2-pip spells allows Storm Fairy to consistently have a good turn 1 play, which is valuable in Hunt. However, having 1 less bonus pip than most of its peers makes Storm Fairy less threatening should it survive for a turn, and ultimately less likely to see play in comparison to other offensive small forms. In the context of future balance changes, or without directly comparing Storm Fairy to the likes of Storm Elf or Balance Elf, Storm Fairy could actually be pretty good. Galvana Joltwing certainly isn’t bad, and it will be interesting to see how she performs.
Myth Elf
Next up we have Buddy Mirthman, the Myth Elf. Buddy here is another small form that only gets 1 bonus pip. He’s also the first of a trend with the rest of the forms in this update to have a bigger focus on DoTs. Myth Elf also has traps which can detonate DoTs on their target, making him a pretty effective user of both traps and DoTs.
Myth Elf’s 2-pip 250 hit has the same conditional as Life Draconian’s beetle, which can provide a lot of value if the condition is met since Myth Elf can then detonate the 200 DoT. Unfortunately the only way that Myth Elf can reliably set up that combo is with a 2-pip DoT that only does 300 damage over 4 rounds, which is the same as the 2-pip DoT from Life Rat, who also has a 0-pip 50 damage hit that detonates a DoT. So Life Rat has another starting pip and a DoT into detonate combo that does almost the same damage as what Myth Elf can do. Furthermore, with the condition met on both spells, Myth Elf’s Creative Play is actually worse; Creative Play would do 375 damage over 5 rounds, while Life Rat’s Vandalize would do 400 damage over 4 rounds. But that’s a systemic issue with how DoTs are currently valued in Beastmoon, and it only affects the 2-pip DoT and its 4-pip AoE variant on Myth Elf.
As with all Myth forms, Buddy has his own buddy. Myth Elf’s troll minion has 50 health and spams a 0-pip 50 damage myth hit that does an extra 25 damage if the target has a trap, which Myth Elf can place. If the minion sticks around long enough to reach 4 pips it can use a 150 damage AoE that does an extra 100 damage to any enemy with a trap. Unfortunately, I don’t think Myth Elf or his minion can reliably stick around long enough to cast its AoE- unless the Myth Elf can cast its level 5 spell which puts a 150 shield on himself and a friendly target minion.
The issue that often comes up with small forms is that they can’t survive long enough to perform combos or really do anything interesting. Even though Myth Elf can shield himself, it requires having a minion up, and even surviving the first turn is a bit of a toss-up on a form that will likely be targeted first. Spending your first turn as Myth Elf summoning a minion also means that if you do die before you can follow up, you spent your only turn effectively doing nothing, which means that summoning your minion early is often not worth the risk if Myth Elf could potentially die on that turn. I would have liked to see Myth Elf have a hit that also summons a minion, like what Myth Colossus has. I think that would alleviate the opportunity cost of wanting to spend the early turns doing as much as possible while also being able perform the minion summoning that Myth is known for. Myth Elf’s best bet is often going to be to go for a 250 hit on the first turn or a 300 DoT with the intention of detonating it on the next turn.
However, if Buddy can survive long enough to get extra value in via DoT combos or by summoning a minion and trying to stabilize with shields, then I think it has a lot of potential. In my opinion, Myth Elf’s ability to get extra value if it can stick around makes it a bit better than Storm Fairy, although it shares Storm Fairy’s weakness of only having one bonus pip when comparing it to other small forms. It is also worth noting that Myth Elf’s conditional effects are also more appealing than Storm Fairy’s, since Myth Elf can counter weaknesses and shields as well as performing well with other DoT focused forms.
Life Pig
Here we have Shizukana Yoshi, the Life Ninja Pig. This little piggy is focused on blading and manipulating overtime effects. At a glance, Life Pig’s deck looks similar to Life Krokomummy, which sounds bad at first, since Life Krok is considered one of the worst forms in Beastmoon, but Life Pig fortunately doesn’t share Life Krok’s lack of a burst heal. And unlike Life Minotaur, Life Pig has not one, but two different 2-pip 150 hits, making up for Life Minotaur’s omission of a 2-pip hit. So right off the bat this medium Life form is looking decent, so let’s look at what else Shizukana is capable of.
Life Pig’s main heal is a 1-pip 75 heal that can activate up to 2 HoTs on the target. Since the base effect is a heal, this spell can target (and revive) a defeated player with a HoT on them and simultaneously activate the HoT. You could potentially combo this with the 2-pip HoT that Life Pig has by casting it on a defeated ally and then following up the next turn with Healing Hippo for a grand total of 375 health!
Unfortunately for Life Pig, it only has a single 0-pip spell, which is a +50 blade. The similarities to Life Krokomummy continue as Life Pig also has a 2-pip 150 hit with a blade synergy. This spell- Charge of Light, will deal an additional 100 life damage over 4 rounds if the caster has a blade. At first Charge of Light would seem to be objectively worse than Death Minotaur’s 2-pip 200 hit, which just does 100 more damage if the caster has a blade. The main benefit of Charge of Light in comparison is that a hit + DoT gets twice as much value from any outgoing damage modifier, so if Life Pig had a +200 blade and used Charge of Light, it would deal 350 damage plus 300 damage over 4 rounds, which is very impressive offensive value in Beastmoon.
Shizukana has some DoTs as well. Unfortunately, the values on most of them leave something to be desired, especially compared to what Life Draconian and Minotaur can do. Charge of Light isn’t nearly as bad because it gains increased value from blades as I mentioned earlier, but Djinn’s Lament can’t do that as reliably, and Apollo’s Wrath can’t do that at all. As I mentioned with Myth Elf, this is emblematic of a systemic issue with overtimes in Beastmoon, despite the fact that Apollo’s Wrath was buffed from 250 damage over 5 rounds to 300 damage over 4 rounds, it still isn’t desirable over a 3-pip 225 hit.
Similar to Storm Cyclops, Life Pig has a 3 pip 150 AOE blade, which might be a decent turn 2 play, especially in Mayhem. Life Pig’s arsenal of blades, blade synergy, and ability to revive might make it a good choice for Mayhem. Those same qualities also make it decent for Hunt, particularly its 1-pip heal which also makes it better at utilizing HoTs. I don’t expect Shizukana to be meta-defining, but they may turn out to be a good blade synergy form with some notable defensive and support capabilities.
Fire Krokomummy
Stepping up to the plate next is the Fire Krokomummy, Fangses Sunscorch. From this form onward, each form will be the last of their respective school, so this will be the last Fire form unless more form statues are added. This form is the coolest looking form in all of Beastmoon in my opinion. Unfortunately, its spells aren’t quite as novel. While Fire Krok has plenty of interactions with DoTs, including a double detonate that I’ll discuss in a bit, it doesn’t have much other utility besides that.
Let’s start with Exploding Sheep. This spell does 100 Fire damage for 2 pips and detonates up to 2 DoTs. I am immediately reminded of Fire Elf’s hit and detonate, which does 125 damage and detonates a single DoT for 2 pips. The problem is that I don’t think that sacrificing upfront damage for the ability to get the most out of your DoTs is really that helpful, especially since Fire Krok has a 2-pip 200 that it could be using instead. Losing 100 damage for the additional value from detonating Fire Krok’s 3 round DoTs means that you are probably just going to break even in terms of overall damage, if not actually losing damage. Although Fangses’ double detonate could be more useful if there are multiple forms on its team that can put up DoTs.
If detonating 2 DoTs isn’t enough for you, Fire Krokomummy can go nuclear with an AoE detonate that will blow up all DoTs on the entire enemy team. Unfortunately, this spell costs 3 pips, and so it displays the problem with Exploding Sheep to an even larger degree. A detonate itself doesn’t technically have any value, so to justify using a 3-pip mass detonate would require the enemy team to have a frankly absurd amount of DoTs on them. Unless your entire team is comprised of DoT forms, DOT-onation is a spell that will be reflexively discarded every time.
The rest of Fangses’ arsenal is much more typical of a medium Fire form, with some decent conditional effects. Fire Krokomummy’s 2-pip hit is a good HoT synergy, the 1-pip hit is a cool DoT synergy that feeds into itself, the 1-pip DoT can counter minions and combo nicely into the 2-pip hit if a minion is expelled. The 2-pip DoT, while not very good without the conditional effect, gains a lot of value from countering a shield and can combo nicely with the double detonate if it does clear a shield and the Fire Krok has the pips to spare. Unfortunately Fire Krokomummy only has a single 0-pip spell, which makes it difficult to build pips without excessive passing, though it is a good trap counter.
As I noted in my review of Fire Wolf, I really would have liked to see a Fire form with a taunt counter. Despite being the last Fire form for the foreseeable future, it has no way to deal with an enemy taunt. Since taunting is an Ice effect, Fire should theoretically be able to counter it, and it would help give Fire forms a niche against forms such as Death Wolf or Ice Cyclops. Now the best hope for Fire to be able to deal with taunting forms is for taunt counters to be added onto older forms, or that for some reason the Ice, Death, and Myth forms that can taunt lose that ability in the future, though the other schools that have taunts will probably lose them.
Ultimately, Fire Krokomummy will perform similarly to the other medium Fire forms. I think that Fire Krok has more potential than those others that could be realized if the user can properly leverage its detonates and conditional effects. Although I think that Fire Draconian is better because its utility is more generally accessible. That doesn’t necessarily mean that Fire Krokomummy is bad, and I think it could be a better answer to Ice and Myth forms and an interesting pairing with DoT forms. It will be interesting to see what players do with all of the overtime detonation that Fangses Sunscorch is capable of.
Balance Colossus
Lastly, we have Sandstomper the Balance Colossus stepping his way into the Beastmoon arena. I’ve got to commend whoever did the models for these last two forms, they knocked it out of the park. In game this form’s gemstones on his body glint and sparkle, which is completely unique to this Colossus. As for what he can do, Sandstomper here combines traps with DoTs. Specifically, deferred DoTs, which is also a first for Beastmoon.
As with all Balance forms, Balance Colossus has a signature double effect spell that utilizes both of the form’s specialties. For Balance Colossus, that would be Patient Hydra, a 1-pip 75 trap plus a 100 deferred DoT that triggers after 3 rounds. Compared to what other Balance forms get, this isn’t quite as impressive, but it’s still good and it doesn’t feel overpowered because it isn’t 0 pips.
The abundance of deferred DoTs on Balance Colossus would make it bad if it didn’t have an accessible detonate. Fortunately, Balance Colossus has a 0-pip 50 trap that can detonate a DoT. Having a 0-pip trap that can also detonate makes the rest of its deck a lot more appealing because not only are the DoTs less of a liability- at least not as much as they would be otherwise, but it also means that Sandstomper is capable of some impressive damage for a large form. For example, you could use the 2-pip Feral Pounce into Imbalance Curse for a total of 300 damage, or Patient Hydra into Imbalance Curse for 225 damage while using 1 less pip. Interestingly, Imbalance Curse can instead activate an enemy HoT, meaning that an enemy can cover your DoTs with their HoTs to prevent the Colossus from detonating. Fortunately Balance Colossus also has a 2-pip 150 that can echo an enemy HoT for a decent HoT of his own, to discourage using HoTs against him. If Balance Colossus does end up with a HoT on himself, he can gain extra pips via the 0-pip 50 hit.
Sandstomper is not without flaws, however. A form with this much reliance on DoTs is positioned poorly in the current Storm-heavy meta. Having a detonate makes this form a bit less susceptible, but the sheer amount of DoTs in its deck makes it difficult to avoid using them. Since Balance Colossus is so reliant on the 0-pip trap, not drawing it will put you in a really bad position where most of your DoTs are basically useless because they’re too slow without the ability to detonate.
Balance Colossus also has an overabundance of high pip cost spells. Most of them are AoEs, but one of them is a single target 5-pip deferred DoT (what is it with recent forms having high pip cost DoTs with no secondary effect?) These spells aren’t particularly bad when taking into account the fact that Balance Colossus can detonate its DoTs, but again the sheer amount of them makes Sandstomper’s deck unwieldy. Just like Fire Krok, Balance Colossus has a 3-pip mass detonate. However, this version also activates all HoTs, and is symmetrical, meaning it affects both teams equally. I think this makes it a strict downgrade to Fire Krokomummy’s spell because although it can also activate HoTs for your team, it carries the risk of helping your opponents by detonating DoTs on your allies or activating HoTs for your enemies.
In addition to Feral Pounce doing a lot of damage when detonated, it also has a conditional to counter shields. However, I don’t think that it is an effective shield counter- it may even be detrimental to get the conditional effect! On the surface, getting another DoT provides a good amount of extra value. Since Balance Colossus exclusively has deferred DoTs, they actually don’t provide any value until they detonate, and both DoTs take too long to wait for in most situations. The reason that getting the conditional on Feral Pounce can be detrimental is because it does less damage than the base 250 DoT, meaning that the conditional DoT would be detonated instead of the bigger initial DoT when using Imbalance Curse. Of course, you could use multiple copies of Imbalance Curse, but as I stated earlier, Balance Colossus heavily relies on that 0-pip detonate to function effectively, and using 2 of them for 1 card means you would have used at least half of your copies while having plenty of deferred DoTs left in your deck. Producing multiple DoTs like that pressures Balance Colossus to either pair with other forms that can detonate or use its 3-pip mass detonate, which I don’t think is a good spell.
I think the conditionals of Feral Pounce and Double Strike could be adjusted in one of a few ways. The first is to make them more effective shield counters by actually clearing shields. Perhaps Balance isn’t supposed to clear effects, in which case I would point to older Balance forms such as Balance Krok that have a hit with a conditional effect that can trigger off of either a positive or negative effect. Balance Colossus could have something similar- so the conditionals on Feral Pounce and Double Strike could trigger off of a shield/trap or a shield/HoT. Alternatively, the conditional effects could just be changed to replace the initial DoT with a bigger DoT instead of creating a new DoT, which would make it more effective to detonate.
Despite all that I’ve said against Sandstomper, I quite like this new Balance form. Its main strength is the amount of damage it can do with detonate combos while having 575 health thanks to being a large Balance form. Although it lacks defensive utility and is susceptible to DoT counters, its high health gives it plenty of time to get damage in. As with most Balance forms, this one is pretty unique among the Beastmoon roster, and it looks cool to boot! I’m definitely looking forward to when Sandstomper becomes available in Beastmoon Hunt.
