June 16, 2024
Beastmoon Forms
Summer 2024 Update
Have you taken a peek at the Beastmoon forms released in the Summer 2024 update? Today we will look at the newest forms; the Fire Wolf Warrior, Balance Draconian, and Death Minotaur. All of these forms will be available in 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.
Fire Wolf Warrior
Introducing Thane Cinderclaw, the Fire Wolf Warrior. This large Fire form is focused on using a bunch of overtimes and leveraging them for the conditional effects of their other spells. Fire Wolf is also the first Fire form that can summon a minion unconditionally, and for 2 pips.
As a Fire form, Fire Wolf has plenty of damage over time spells. He can perform 2-step combos to put HoTs on himself, which can be leveraged effectively by the 2-pip 150 hit that deals more damage if you have a HoT on yourself. Thane also has access to a 4-pip AoE version of the 2-pip hit.
The Ashen Thrall summoned by Fire Wolf is pretty interesting. It has 175 health and casts either a 75 fire DoT over 3 rounds, or a 75 heal over 3 rounds. Both of these spells have conditional effects that give the minion an extra pip if its target already has the same type of effect. When it reaches 4 pips, it can cast a 225 fire DoT over 3 rounds on all enemies. The value generated by the minion is actually pretty good. Especially if it gets to cast its AoE- which does the same damage as an AoE DoT from Fire Colossus.
Unfortunately for Thane here, he only has one 0-pip spell. Forms that only have a single 0-pip spell often have trouble building pips effectively. This means that if you want to use some of your higher pip spells as Fire Wolf, you may have to pass more often than you would want to unless you’re gaining pips from conditional effects or have a bunch of TC from Beastmoon chests.
A disappointing exclusion from Fire Wolf’s arsenal is any form of taunt counter. Taunting is supposedly an Ice effect, which is why Death and Myth also have access to it, and Myth can counter it. But there are currently no Fire forms with any way to deal with an opponent’s taunt. While 3 Myth forms currently have conditionals involving enemy taunts. Something else that would have been nice to see is some way to deal with the defensive auras used by Ice Cyclops and Pig. Considering how those auras disproportionately affect damage from DoTs.
Overall, Fire Wolf is a decent Fire form that should fare well in slower fights. Since it gains value from overtimes and its minion. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have much other utility. Thus it’s susceptible to overtime counters and minion counters, to a lesser extent. Thane should serve well against Ice and Myth forms due to having a shield counter, along with answers to traps and minions.
Balance Draconian
The latest Draconian is Thraxx Even-Tempered, the Balance Draconian. This Balance form utilizes both healing and shields to protect their team. Combining these two particular effects is unique to the Balance Draconian. It will be interesting to see how this form can stand out amongst support forms.
As with most Balance forms, the Draconian features a spell that utilizes both of its specialties. In this case we’re looking at a 0-pip spell that puts up a 50 damage absorb and a 75 over 3 rounds HoT. Typically, HoTs aren’t very valuable because the health pools of most forms can only take 2 or 3 solid hits. And a HoT is too slow to recover from that kind of damage. But here the HoT is tacked on for free alongside the shield. Which gives your target a bit more effective health to work with and a higher likelihood that they can get value out of the heal.
Like most medium forms, Thraxx has a 0-pip 50 hit, a 1-pip 100, and a 2-pip 200. The 1 and 2 pip attacks both interact with shields. For the 1-pip hit, Balance Draconian can echo a shield on an opponent for a hefty 150 absorb on itself. The 2-pip hit puts a 75 absorb on the caster if you already have a shield on yourself, which should be feasible for the Balance Draconian to pull off, as he has several spells which can create shields.
Balance Draconian has an interesting 2-pip 150 absorb. It can heal the target for 75 if they are below half health. This spell can revive a defeated ally while protecting them with the shield. With the condition met, the spell represents 225 value, which is very nice for a revival spell. Though it is susceptible to shield counters, Balance Draconian’s ability to revive might make more likely to be targeted first.
Thraxx has a minion, similar to most of their Draconian brethren. This particular minion costs 3 pips and has 225 health. The spells that it uses are 0-pip 75 hits that give the caster a pip if they have a shield, and a 4-pip 250 AoE! With these spells, the minion actually has better damage than its own summoner. This kind of power coming from a minion is a first for Beastmoon, and may encourage the summoner to actually protect their minion, unlike any other Beastmoon minion seen before. As usual, if the summoner is defeated, then the minion will disappear.
Balance Draconian will also have to be wary of forms that can get rid of minions. These are forms like Balance Minotaur or Life Cyclops. The hefty pip cost on the minion will also likely mean that it won’t be useful in a fast-paced fight, similar to the Ice Cyclops minion. But unlike the Ice Cyclops minion, this form’s minion puts pressure on the enemy team instead of ramping up their own team’s defenses. These two minions may have similar use cases, but they will play out differently.
This Draconian also has the ability to pacify any friendly target that is below half while simultaneously placing a HoT on them. While this might be a niche ability, it is one that players will have to keep in mind if Thraxx is in play. The ability to pacify with a HoT also alleviates one of the issues with HoTs by ensuring that the target will get at least 2 ticks of healing while being unable to be targeted.
Bizarrely, the Balance Draconian features two attacks with no secondary effect. This sort of thing used to be more common, but has all but stopped within the last couple of years of new form releases. Even the older forms that do have these “vanilla” attacks typically only have one. These would be part of their level 1 deck to ease newer players in. Personally, I think that having 2 of these basic spells is a bit too much. Especially on a spell that requires player investment to unlock. It feels especially bad considering that many of the forms released in the past 2 years have not had any of these types of spells, and it feels unfair to the Balance Draconian.
Despite that, Thraxx Even-Tempered is a very solid form. Since it has the ability to provide a good offense while maintaining a respectable defense. Having the ability to revive with good value and summon a minion that provides inevitability against the forms that would want to wall it off gives Balance Draconian a lot of versatility. While not quite as powerful as the Life Draconian, this particular Draconian will hopefully be a solid choice for a versatile support form.
Death Minotaur
Mero Tramplehoof is both the last Minotaur form and the last Death form to be introduced into Beastmoon. Players often consider Minotaur forms mediocre, so let’s see if the Death Minotaur can positively represent both Death forms and Minotaur forms.
The Death Minotaur has a very solid selection of spells in the 0-3 pip ranges. Its drain is a 3-pip 150 drain, just like the Death Ninja Pig’s- but this drain also has a conditional effect to clear a blade for a -150 flat damage aura. In particular, Mero’s 0-pip spells are really solid. They are both 75 defensive value, in the form of either a weakness or a shield. Both of these spells also have solid synergy payoffs.
Speaking of synergy, Death Minotaur has some really good blade synergy. The 2-pip 200 hit becomes a 300 hit if the Minotaur has a blade. Since the blade isn’t removed the blade buff is also applied. So you could do 350 damage with a 0-pip 50 blade. Or up to 500 with a 2-pip 200 blade from the likes of Storm Wolf or Colossus. Death Minotaur’s shield gives the recipient a pip if they have a blade already. Mero can take advantage of an allied buffing form even if he isn’t the one being bladed. Death Minotaur even has a 5-pip AoE version of the 2-pip hit. It can doa whopping 375 danage if you have a blade!
There is a 3-turn combo that Death Minotaur can perform that ends with a bladed 2-pip hit. First cast Wither Constitution, followed by Wither Strength. Then use the 2-pip 200 with the blade from the 0-pip weakness conditional for 350 damage at once. Alternatively, you could use Wither Constitution in succession, since the conditional can trigger off of any negative charm. However, this would require the enemy to not attack and use up the weakness so that you can fulfill the conditional on the weakness. If you can pull this off, you will end up with more pips than if you used the 1-pip hit and infection. Something else to consider is using the shield once you get a blade to build pips for a bladed AoE.
Death Minotaur’s potent blade synergies might actually make it desirable in Beastmoon Monster Mayhem. It probably won’t be used as an AoE form. But it can give pips and a bit of defense to whichever form is being bladed. In the case that Mero is the recipient of all of the blades, he has access to the aforementioned 5-pip blade synergy AoE, as well as a 4-pip drain AoE. If the Minotaur shields immediately, you could pull off a turn 2 buffed drain AoE, or a turn 3 high damage regular AoE.
As the final Death form and the final Minotaur form, Mero Tramplehoof does not disappoint. Amongst the Minotaur forms, he might be one of the best. Death forms are a tougher crowd, considering standouts like Death Wolf, Fairy, and Krokomummy. The Minotaur compares favorably against their contemporary medium forms Death Pig and Death Draconian, due to having plenty of good rank 0-3 spells. This form will certainly be a solid choice for any team, especially ones that have blade forms!
