In Axie Infinity, team synergies are incredibly important. While some axies like the Terminator archetype are powerful on their own, such powerful axies become most effective with a team that covers its weaknesses. In this guide, we'll show you how to play the advanced but rewarding Shrimpinator build that is common at 2000 MMR and above.
The Shrimpinator Team Comp
The term “Shrimpinator” is a combination of the axie body part Shrimp and the Terminator archetype of axie that has been dominating the meta in different team comps. This team comp is incredibly potent but can be a little more difficult to play, as you need to wait for some precise draws before you're really effective.
This team usually consists of an Aqua axie with the Chitin Jump card, a Terminator archetype axie, and a Plant axie in the front. There are a few variations of this build with some different cards, but the concept is usually the same. If you're on a tighter budget, you can opt to replace some of these cards with a version that is less expensive, but also less effective. In this guide, we'll be covering the most effective axie builds for this team comp, and it's up to you whether you want to replace a couple of the cards for your own team.
The Plant Tank
First off, we're going with a Plant axie in the front to soak up damage. Like most Plant axies, the purpose of this build is to protect your other two axies by being a big meat shield. However, this plant specifically also ideally comes with the card Gas Unleash, which applies the poison debuff to any axie that attacks this Plant.
The complete list of parts is:
- Pumpkin (October Treat)
- Draw a card when this axie's shield is broken
- Serious (Vegetal Bite)
- Steal one energy from your opponent when comboed with another card
- Leaf Bug (Disguise)
- Gain one energy when this card is comboed with a plant card
- Yam (Gas Unleash)
- Apply poison each time this card is used to attack or defend
This build makes use of poison fairly well, so any extra applications of the poison debuff is going to work wonders. Disguise and Vegetal Bite are your energy gain cards, and are incredibly powerful when played together. October Treat will keep your Plant from being bursted, especially when you're certain that your opponent is going to offload a lot of damage cards into your frontline.
While this axie may lack damage, it makes up for it with incredible utility, giving you some powerful Round 1 plays and applying a lot of poison stacks to your enemy's axies. It's important to get a plant with 31 Speed, which is the lowest possible speed for an axie. This ensures that this axie will likely always go last, which is important when you're trying to steal your opponent's energy with Vegetal Bite.
The Aqua Shrimp
Your midliner for this build will usually be an Aqua axie, though we've seen some very rare Dusk axies with the same set of cards. This is where the “shrimp” of Shrimpinator comes from, because the Chitin Jump card is incredibly important to this build's success.
The complete list of parts is:
- Garish Worm (Barb Strike)
- Applies 2 stacks of poison debuff when played in a chain
- Risky Fish (Fish Hook)
- Applies an Attack buff to this axie when attacking a Plant, Reptile, or Dusk axie
- Shoal Star (Star Shuriken)
- Immediately kills an axie instead of putting it into Last Stand if this card brings its HP to zero
- Shrimp (Chitin Jump)
- Targets the furthest enemy axie
This axie's card set is all about patience and waiting for the right cards to come along before blowing your energy on an all-out attack. Because of the Chitin Jump card, this axie can target the backline axie of your opponent, which is usually the most powerful axie in their team. The objective of this axie is usually to backdoor your opponent with two Barb Strikes, applying a staggering FOUR stacks of the poison debuff. This is usually enough to have that axie die a slow, painful death.
Fish Hook and Star Shuriken are two high damage Aqua cards that can eat away at your opponent's health bar pretty quickly, even if these cards are hitting an axie with a body type that counters Aquas. For this axie, it's important to aim for the highest speed possible, which is a 54 Speed stat. This makes the Shrimp Aqua faster than Dusk Terminators, and even other Aqua axies with one or two Beast cards.
The Dusk Terminator
I'm sure you're quite familiar with the Terminator build that has been dominating the Axie Infinity meta for the past few months. While a Reptile Terminator is pretty effective already for this build, we're choosing to run a Dusk body Terminator here for a couple of reasons.
The complete list of parts is:
- Snail Shell (Sticky Goo)
- Stuns the enemy axie when they break this axie's shield
- Tiny Turtle (Chomp)
- Stuns the enemy when comboed with at least two other cards
- Lagging (Mystic Rush)
- Slows the enemy for two rounds
- Thorny Caterpillar (Allergic Reaction)
- Deal 130% damage to debuffed target
The Dusk Terminator is a beast in 1v1 scenarios. While a Reptile Terminator is good, a Dusk Terminator is superb. A Reptile's max Speed is only 42, while a Dusk Terminator can get up to 46 Speed. That may not seem like much, but in a game where the smallest stat increases matter, this can be the difference between winning and losing a 1v1.
You want to get a 46 Speed Dusk Termi, with a Health stat of at least 50. This ensures that your Terminator is both fast and tanky. In higher MMR ranges, Reptile Terminators are a thing of the past. It's all about the Dusk body type, and for good reason. Even iof you buy a Dusk Terminator that's lower than 46 Speed, as long as you're faster than the 42 Speed Reptile Termis, you'll do fairly well.
The Shrimpinator Axie Gameplan
Now, the Shrimpinator build has a pretty specific game plan. This build was specifically designed to take apart team comps that also run Terminators. Your goal for most of the game is to take down the farthest axie with a combination of raw damage and poison.
Turn 1
Your first turn will usually be a skip, unless you have Disguise and/or Vegetal Bite. Comboing October Treat with either Disguise or Vegetal Bite is a good defensive play that also gets you some value with energy. Being able to draw a card with October Treat is also really good.
In some niche situations, you can go for a backdoor with your Aqua immediately, but 95% of the time, you'll want to save up energy and cards for a big burst of damage on Round 2-4.
Chaining Barb Strike
Ideally, by Round 2-4, you've saved up enough cards and energy to absolutely decimate the enemy backline. The ideal combo is Chitin Jump, Barb Strike, Fish Hook, then Barb Strike again. In order to chain cards so that Barb Strike poisons, you need to use a Bug-type card on another one of your axies. Disguise, Mystic Rush, Sticky Goo, and Allergic Reaction are all Bug-type cards that you can use for this.
Sometimes, you won't get two Barb Strikes to apply all the poison at once. That's fine. You can use Fish Hook or Star Shuriken as well, as long as you target the backline with a significant amount of damage.
This Shrimpinator build is all about patience and waiting for the perfect time to combo. Unlike other builds, you don't want to go through the front first, but save your high damage cards for right after you target the backline.
Mid To Late Game
After you kill or significantly cripple their backline, you're free to attack their frontline with your Terminator. The classic combos of Mystic Rush, Allergic Reaction, and Chomp will do wonders, especially if their frontline is a Plant tank as well.
By this time, their backline should be slowly bleeding out from poison. This leaves you free to take down their midline a notch if you have anothe Chitin jump combo available or go through the front with both your Aqua and Terminator cards.
Conclusion
If you follow this strategy, you'll find yourself climbing up the ranks very quickly. While it may not work 100% of the time, the Shrimpinator build is very consistent and great against other Terminator builds, as well as classic Bird Beast Plants, and Double Aqua setups.
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