After testing some different ideas, here are the teams I've won with. Obviously, there are a lot of options to succeed at the Tournament!
Wrathion
[pet]Grasslands Cottontail[/pet] [S/S] (1/2/1)
[pet]Flayer Youngling[/pet] [S/S] (1/2/1)
Carry Pet
Yes, only two pets! The rabbit can handle Cindy easily and the Flayer destroys the other two. Burrow to avoid the Ice Tomb, Dodge right after to minimize other damage. Blistering Cold will stack up high, but the rabbit doesn't care. Use Deflection after Flamethrower to block the Breath. Alex will heal on CD and follow with a Flamethrower. If you Kick a Breath, she'll only use one. Blitz otherwise. For Dah'da, Blitz on CD, block Elementium Bolt with Deflection.
Actually, I used a Carry pet! I got 1980 xp for a level 15 pet, wearing the Safari Hat. No pet XP buff food used.
Chen Stormstout
[pet]Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling[/pet] (1/1/2)
[pet]Anubisath Idol[/pet] (1/2/1)
[pet]Snarly[/pet] (1/1/2)
Start with Decoy to avoid stun RNG. Then Bombing Run > Breath. Use Bombing Run again if it comes off CD. If Tonsa survives the Dragonling, swap in Snarly and Surge to finish him. Let Snarly take the Sleep, then swap to the Idol. Put up Stoneskin and use Crush until after the second Swarm. Deflection to block the Sleep and back to Crush. Refresh Stoneskin if needed. Your Idol should have lots of HP left unless you have really bad Crush RNG. Brewly will always do this order: Inebriate, Fill Barrel, Brewbolt, Toss Barrel, Brewbolt, Repeat. Use Deflection to block the Toss. When your Idol dies, finish with Snarly. If Brewly is low, just Surge. Otherwise Rip > Blood in the Water.
I tested the Darkmoon Zeppelin first, but found the Dragonling to be much more reliable due to it's speed.
Taran Zhu
[pet]Nexus Whelpling[/pet] (1/2/2)
[pet]Fossilized Hatchling[/pet] (2/1/2)
[pet]Nether Ray Fry[/pet] (*/*/1)
Taran's monks are really RNG, but this is a very strong counter group. Start with Arcane Storm and then Mana Surge. The Storm will protect from the stuns. The first monk always takes one hit from Mana Surge, somtimes two. He doesn't seem consistent in his use of Feign Death. It doesn't matter though. When Mana Surge ends, I prefer to refresh the Arcane Storm, but you can just Tail Sweep if you want. The Nexus Whelp usually won't last more than one turn after Surge ends. With the Fossilized Hatchling, start with Bonestorm. Try to use the Heal when Blinded, but that's not always reliable. I find the heal more useful than Death and Decay. D&D damage is minor and everything else you use hits hard. Use Bone Bite until the Hatchling dies. Bonestorm on the free turn. The first monk should be dead by now, if not earlier. Finish off the remaining two monks with Shadow Shock from the Nether Ray Fry.
Lorewalker Cho
[pet]Onyxian Whelpling[/pet] (2/1/1)
[pet]Scourged Whelpling[/pet] (2/2/1)
[pet]Flayer Youngling[/pet] (1/2/1)
Start with Lift-Off to dodge Rip from the owl. Then Tail Sweep until it dies, healing when appropriate. After Onyxian dies, use Plagued Blood and Tail Sweep the Broom. You can throw in D&D, but I usually don't. Flayer can easily finish the dragon. Spawn of Onyxia should be fine, instead of the Onyxian Whelpling.
Ion Goldbloom
[pet]Nexus Whelpling[/pet] (1/2/2)
[pet]Menagerie Custodian[/pet] (1/1/2)
[pet]Baby Ape[/pet] (1/1/1)
Arcane Storm, Mana Surge, Tail Sweep until your Nexus dies. I do like to uses Arcane Storm again if I can. Custodian uses Shock and Awe and Missiles until Trike is dead. If Custodian is almost dead, use Ion Cannon. Arcane Storm prevents the stun from Trike's Horn Attack. Finish off whatever is left with the Ape. Most beasts could finish off Chaos. Actually, a Scourged Whelpling would do well too, if you have a second. (Since I used one on Cho.)
Can use the Tonk instead of the Custodian if you aren't using it elsewhere, but I use it on Xu-Fu.
Sully
[pet]Magical Crawdad[/pet] (1/1/2)
[pet]Winterspring Cub[/pet] (1/1/2)
[pet]Gilnean Raven[/pet] (2/2/1)
Keep Renewing Mists up and use Wish proactively. Socks is faster and hits hard, so don't wait until you have 50% HP to use Wish since it takes two rounds. Snap it to a second death. The Crawdad should survive to take some HP off of Monte. When the Winterspring Cub comes out, Prowl, Claw and the rabbit shouldn't last long. The Raven easily mops up Rikki.
Of all of them, this is the team I'm least settled on. I didn't test enough last week. I saw a suggestion to use a rabbit against Socks and I think it's a good idea, so I'll try that next time.
For the Celestials, note that all of these strats can actually be pulled off with just TWO pets! I include a third to be safe, but they are usually not needed. The Celestials give extra low XP, just like the Beasts of Fable. My level 20 Carry pet only got 319 XP even with the Safari Hat.
Xu-Fu
[pet]Tranquil Mechanical Yeti[/pet] (1/1/2)
[pet]Mechanical Pandaren Dragonling[/pet] (1/1/1) OR [pet]Darkmoon Zeppelin[/pet] (1/2/2)
[pet]Darkmoon Tonk[/pet] (1/1/2)
Cast Call Lightning, use Metal Fist, cast Ion Cannon before the Yeti dies. Xu-Fu is faster and hits hard, so cast it early! The Dragonling starts with Bombing Run, then spams Breath until near Death. Dragonling is faster than Xu-Fu, so use Explode on your resurrection turn. If you'd prefer, you can try Decoy to block a Feed instead. Either way is fine, but I've been able to get Xu-Fu low enough for Explode to kill it. If Xu-Fu gets under 560 HP, just Explode! Otherwise, the Tonk can finish him with S&A and Ion Cannon.
If you use the Dragonling earlier on Chen Stormstout, use the Zeppelin here. Missile > Decoy > Missile until Xu-Fu is under 560 HP or your Zeppelin is about to die. Remember that Xu-Fu is faster than the Zeppelin! Use Explode early enough to get it off. Essentially the same fight, you just need to be more cautious since the Zeppelin is slower. One Missile before the Decoy should block the Feed.
Zao
[pet]Clockwork Gnome[/pet] 1/1/1
[pet]Cogblade Raptor[/pet] 2/1/1
Zandalari Raptor (Backup)
As others have said, Zao can easily be beaten by a couple of Zandalari Raptors, so feel free! I wanted to see if I could do something different. So start with the Gnome and put up a Turret. Metal Fist until you can build a second Turret. If Zao will kill the gnome the next round, you can leave him in. Otherwise swap in the Cogblade. Expose Wounds and Batter away! Zao should use Wish, but the Turrets and Batter will tear him down pretty fast. If you swapped out the Gnome and if the Cogblade dies, cast another Turret and Zao should be done. It is a bit RNG, so I have a backup Raptor just in case. You could possibly even Carry a pet, but it'd be touchy.
Chi-Chi
[pet]Voodoo Figurine[/pet] 2/2/2
[pet]Disgusting Oozeling[/pet] 1/1/2
[pet]Lunar Lantern[/pet] 2/2/2
The main goal of the Voodoo Figurine is to get Wild Magic up. Anything else is bonus. Start with Wild Magic and then use Flame Breath until the Figurine dies. Refresh Wild Magic on the free Revive turn. When the Ooze comes out, get Acidic Goo up first and then Corrosion. Chi-Chi will probably block the first Goo cast, just cast it again. I prefer the Goo first to get the 25% buff going, but it shouldn't matter. Ooze Touch if the Ooze lives long enough, but it probably won't. The Lantern shouldn't even need to connect an attack. Chi-Chi should Ethereal after the Ooze dies, but dots will finish him anyway.
I tried using Rot and it does work, but I found it less reliable. You need to make sure to get two attacks off with the Voodoo instead of just one. It also turns off Chi-Chi's vulnerability to the Corruption damage while giving it vulnerability to the Goo. You could use Rot early enough that it is up for the Goo application, but then drops before Corruption, but that's a lot of planning for minor gain.
Note that this strategy is NOT MINE. It came from [url=http://battlepetroundup.com/2013/09/01/celestial-tournament-chichi/]Liopleurodon[/url]'s blog. She's got strategies for the other battles too, if you want MORE options! Also, all 3 of these pets have similar options. You can use Sen'jin Fetish, Oily Slimeling, or Magic Lamp and there's still more options.
Yu'La
[pet]Lil' Bad Wolf[/pet] (*/2/1)
[pet]Feral Vermling[/pet] (1/*/1)
[pet]Gregarious Grell[/pet] (1/2/1)
You can use Claw or Counterstrike with the Wolf, either is fine. With Claw: Claw x2, Dodge, Howl, Claw x2 and repeat until the Wolf dies. With Counterstrike: Howl, Counterstrike, Dodge, Pass, Repeat. Vermling should be able to finish her off with Backflip and Crush, but having another Humanoid as back-up is a good idea.
This thread has already pointed out that the Grell can solo Yu'la anyway, if you have one. I suggested this option in case you don't have one!
Whew! There we go, I hope that's useful for someone! If not, then at least it's here so I can easily reference it each week.
Again, there are many different pet combos for the Celestial Tournament. These are just one option that I enjoyed. I particularly tried to avoid re-using any pet so you don't need duplicates. I also didn't want to use the Beasts of Fable Bomb Team. If you want to, go ahead! I prefer some variety, so I avoid it. I use it on Ti'un and Dos-Ryga, but that's it.
Also, I don't like the "AoE heal your pets and cancel the fight" strategy. It goes against the obvious goal of the Tournament to NOT heal or re-use pets. If you want to, then go ahead! It doesn't matter to me what you do.
I do caution you that Blizzard MIGHT break it. It's clearly not how they wanted the Tournament to go, so you might not want to rely on it. They could set a Tournament only rule that if you forfeit a fight, your pets go back to the same HP they started with. Except dead ones, they stay dead. That's just one option, they're creative, they can come up with others. Then again, they may just say "screw it" and leave it alone.
Anyway, the Tournament is a lot of fun and I look forward to dealing with three new tamers next week! Enjoy all!
(Interesting enough, I almost manage to win with a Beast team strat with Howl, cause most attacks from the monks are critter).
