Axie Origin Builds #3: Sandal Fear Bugs

Theorycrafting for Axie Origin continues, in spite of all the craziness of the last week.

We would have been playing Axie Origin and probably having a great time if not for the Ronin Bridge exploit that recently threatened Axie's entire existence.

Right now it looks like Axie is going to survive the recent events and we may as well keep getting ready for Origin, which is still shaping up to be a fun and rewarding gameplay experience for all of us Lunacians.

Today I will share a build that many people have asked me about during my streams: the FEAR BUG.

Principles for Buying (Recap)

1. Look for Good Affordable Deals
2. Look for simple synergies, not galaxy brain strategies
3. Spend for entertainment only -- this is alpha, strong axies may be nerfed etc

What is Sandal Fear Bug?

There are some remarkable synergies built around the fear debuff in Axie Origin within the bug cardset.

First off take a look at Sandal -- one fat card.

Apply fear, and if the target already has fear, deal 50% bonus damage.

50% is a big bonus... but, how hard is it to apply fear to the opposing Axies? Well, based on the other cards in the bug set, it might not be too difficult.

Caterpillars is an easy unconditional way to apply fear for four turns.

Cute Bunny does the same thing, again with no conditions.

This might be a good time to remind you what Fear does: Every time the Axie with fear uses an attack card, shuffle one "Confused" into the deck

The opponent will still be able to attack you when they have fear, but they will pay for it by being dramatically slowed down later in the match.

So, the idea is simple: Bugs with fear synergies could be really strong. If fear mechanics end up being powerful, perhaps in combination with some other builds, then these sorts of Bugs could be powerful.

Example 1

Price: 0.08 ETH (!)

Trying to find the fear-applying moves Caterpillar and Cute Bunny along with Sandal on the same bug is expensive right now.

I'm also not sure if this is the perfect build... for example, I don't like the move Neo at all in its current form. One energy to see the top four cards of the deck seems bad compared to Parasite, which looks at the top 2 cards while doing 70 damage. Maybe I'm wrong...

Example 2

What if we look at non-bug Axies that have some of these combos?

I filtered for Sandal, Caterpillars, and Bookworm to see what came up and found this guy. Interesting moveset.

Only problem is, the low Potential Points on chop-suey axies like this may be a real issue, we don't know how bad that will be yet. Pure Axies get 15 PPs, this guy only gets 8.

Total Cost: 0.025 ETH

This one is more affordable and I like the moveset more. Having two 0-cost cards, one of which is nimo with the energy cycle, is a great way to offset the 2-cost of Sandal.

It is still a big unknown how hard it'll be to effectively pull off 2 energy attacks like Sandal. I think that it's going to be very important to run 0-cost cards on most Axies in Origin, just like it is in Axie Infinity. Those cards are crucial for getting extra value when energy runs low.

Conclusion

I'm not sure how strong the fear archetype will be on day one of Axie Origin. I think this is a build that will require a lot of Axie breeding and theorycrafting to figure out the best combinations of moves to make it pop off.

The perfect Axies for this build might not even exist yet. Options on the marketplace are still slim.

This is a build that might be rewarding for ambitious Lunacians to experiment with. If you can compose and breed the best fear build, you could help to create the meta of Axie Origin Season 0.

What do you think? Any good ideas for fear-based comps in Axie Origin? Let me know in the comments.