Toadfish
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Contents
Overview
As one of the few cards that have a completely different mechanic while upgraded, Toadfish provides creature control in the form of Inflate. However its upped form, Puffer Fish, applies poison onto the player via Venom. Because of the differing mechanics between the two creatures, they are hardly used together (non-upped and upped) within the same deck.
General Use
Quick Facts:
- The abilities for both Toadfish and its upped version, Puffer Fish, are completely different.
- Toadfish’s ability, Inflate, poisons a creature for 1 damage per turn when activated.
- Puffer Fish’s ability, Venom, deals poison damage to the opponent when it successfully attacks the opponent.
- Both Toadfish and Puffer Fish are Poisonous.
Toadfish and Puffer Fish have one central theme in common; poison. Despite their identical costs (5 
quanta), their mechanics of utilizing that poison are completely different from one another. The Toadfish can shoot a nasty barb at a creature (Inflate) with one poison counter provided a little 
quanta, which often serves as a slow but nifty form of CC for the Water element. Puffer Fish instead ignores dealing with creatures, and applies the poison directly to the player upon a successful attack (i.e. - an attack does damage, including ‘negative’ damage).
In the Toadfish’s case, while it may not accumulate poison onto the player directly, it can still serve as a monitor for the enemy’s creatures if they aren’t paying attention. Given the synergy between Air and Water cards, the Inflate skill can often be used repeatedly over the course of a battle to wither the majority of the opponent’s creatures down. Its HP is only one less than the Puffer Fish, making it fairly durable against several AOE CC effects, and its ATK is double that of the upped version, making it a very strong mid-range attacker.
For the Puffer Fish though, many cards that involve dealing poison damage to the opponent work better with it. Its HP can survive a Shockwave, and its damage (while only half of its counterpart) is more lethal in the long run, as the poison damage can stack up pretty quickly against non-shield-wielding enemies. While the major loss of ATK and bare increase in HP seems like a terrible tradeoff, the Puffer Fish’s skill is not only deadlier, but also non-reliant on any element to work (i.e. - Inflate requires to work, while Venom is automatic).
Regardless of which version of this creature is used, both of them are considered poisonous, making them somewhat resistant towards devour-based creatures such as Otyugh and Scarab, and other mutants with the Devour ability.
Synergies
Because the Toadfish has a fairly slow CC effect, cards that ‘stun’ or stop the creature from attacking (while being dealt poison damage) pair up well. The Arctic Squid | Arctic Octopus is another Water creature with the capacity to Freeze (or Congeal) enemy creatures for 3-4 turns. While the creatures are still frozen, they are still vulnerable to targeting effects, and thus, a Toadfish can slowly infect the creatures while the Squid can refreeze them for a continuous lockdown. In upped environments, Puffer Fish cannot serve the same CC effect, so the Squids can help lock down nasty creature abilities while the Puffer Fish deal the damage to the enemy.
Shockwave | Shockwave also works well with the Toadfish and Pufferfish creatures, alongside Water’s arsenal of freezing techniques. Shockwave can deal instant damage against creatures that have relatively low HP (or lowered via Toadfish), to deliver a killing blow easier. Also, depending on how many cards are capable of freezing enemy creatures (or the enemy’s weapon!), Shockwave can instantly destroy such cards in a single stroke. Shockwave is a cheap card that helps reinforce the Water-Air synergy in various duos, and shouldn’t be ignored if one uses Toadfish of Puffer Fish exclusively.
Finally, Chrysaora | Physalia is wonderful to add if the deck is focused mostly on poison techniques. While the combination of three elements may be hard to pull off (, , 
), using the upped versions of these cards can create a very annoying but fun duo-Water/Death deck (from the Puffer Fish and Physalia). In most cases, Physalia can act as support damage while the Toadfish (or Puffer Fish) becomes the main star in dealing damage.
Other Cards With Synergy
The other two Water spells, Freeze & Ice Bolt, can serve as alternative ways to stall the opponent’s creatures on the field, and are great when used with any of the above aforementioned cards as well. Adrenaline can be fairly beneficial on the Puffer Fish, which can help it deal 12 raw damage and apply 2 poison counters during its attack (unless certain shields are up). Ice Shield can be a great defensive counter towards creatures with moderate ATK and HP for a Toadfish to take down, while Owl's Eye can act as the offensive counterpart. Finally, it’s important to note that Toadfish can actually apply its poison ability directly to the enemy via the use of a Voodoo Doll, although this combo is extremely rare in game.
Conclusion
All in all, Toadfish and Puffer Fish are two unique sides of the same coin. Poison the creature or the player? No matter how that question is answered, players should always remember the strengths and weaknesses of the version they’re using.
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