Skuntank G Platinum PL 94 – Card of the Day

Skuntank G PL seemed like a great card when it first came out. Its “Poison Structure” Pokémon Power, which allows you to automatically poison your opponent’s active Pokémon without using an attack is superb. However, the conditions under which you can accomplish this are becoming less and less favorable.

Skuntank G Platinum PL 94 Pokemon Card
The first clause to the Pokémon Power is that you must have your own Stadium card in play. This is a problem at the moment for a few reasons. Decks that do not play Pokémon SP can use Skuntank G, but nearly every single one of these non-SP decks plays the exact same Stadium card, Broken Time-Space. The rules in Pokémon state that you cannot replace a Stadium card in play with a Stadium card of the same name. This means that if your opponent plays their Broken Time-Space before you can play yours, you will not be able to counter it and thus use Skuntank’s Pokémon Power. Of course, if you can get your Broken Time-Space in play before your opponent, you will be able to use Poison Structure all game (unless you are playing against Flygon, in which case it may be unwise to play your stadium down). Basically, you will only have a 50% chance of being able to use Skuntank.

The second clause to Poison Structure is that the defending Pokémon does not become poisoned if they are an Pokémon SP. Pokémon SP seem to be gaining a lot of popularity, especially considering they comprise the majority the cards released in the past two sets. Because Skuntank G cannot poison these Pokémon, this makes it a lot weaker.

I would most likely play Skuntank G in a non-SP deck, just because you really need to max out on Stadiums in order for it to work. Most SP decks do not have the room or necessity to play Stadium cards. Skuntank G can be best used in decks like Beedrill, Flygon, Gengar, or Kingdra. The strategy is to use Poison Structure, then retreat your active Pokémon to remove the poison special condition, and send up a new attacker. Your opponent’s active Pokémon will then be poisoned while yours is not. This approach works best in those decks because they have attackers with zero to one Retreat Cost and they try to swarm their attackers.

So is Skuntank G worth playing? I would say most likely not. Most decks use Pokémon with very little Retreat Cost anyway, so even if you are able to poison their active Pokémon, it will more than likely retreat the next turn. I can only see it being effective to do the extra 10 damage needed for a Knock Out.

Try it out if you would like and let us know what success you have with Skuntank G!

Reader Interactions

39 replies

  1. Dave Hueglin

    I use Skunktank in a deck with Mightyena PL, Muk Pl and Zangoose PL. All benefit from, or cannot be hurt by, poison. I run several different stadiums – Moonlight Stadium, Speed Stadium and Pokemon Contest Hall so I have the option of taking out my opponents stadium. Not a tier one deck but lots of fun to play.

    • Adam Capriola  → Dave

      Hey Dave thanks for the comment! That sounds like a pretty cool (and annoying!) deck idea. :) Running different stadiums is definitely a key if you want to make full use of Skuntank’s Power. If you want to write a short article about the deck I would be glad to post it, just let me know.

      • Mike Qua  → Adam

        Hey Adam, that was a deck Joe played…if you think about it, it’s TOTALLY a kind of deck Joe would play HAHAHA

        That deck was pretty cool and interesting, and most DEFINITELY fun to play, I just wished Mightyena and Muk could withstand more than 2 hits… :(

  2. Dave Hueglin

    Reference my last post, I am also going to try a 1-1 Xatu SW so that I can use Psychic Shift to poison SP Pokemon. I use Skunktank G to poison both active Pokemon (but if the opponent is an SP it won’t work). So I use Psychic Shift to switch the poison from my Pokemon to the defending SP Pokemon.

  3. BiskitFoo

    More times than not, Skuntank G is a life saver for you in an SP variant. Usually, SP decks do run stadiums (preferably Galactic HQ, sometimes a Conductive Quarry for Dialga G based variants). Stadiums in a Dialga based variant is very deadly, especially if you maintain a Deafen lock from the get-go. Against Stage 2 decks, you have 40 damage pre set on their cards, if you draw into a Galactic HQ early. Against Gengar, for example, you often have a hard time sneaking in knock outs from doing 100 damage exactly, because of Nidoqueen RR. The preceding turn they will usually drop a Crobat G to Flash Bite, Gengar, in order to not activate Fainting Spell, which can completely turn the game around, if they get a heads. Or, you Poison Structure Gengar, then do 100, then it’s knocked out in between turns from Poison, thus not activating Fainting Spell. If you Poison Structure, while a Nidoqueen is on the field, you can null their Mother Pheromone from healing the Defending Pokémon in between turns, which is nice. I would say, yes, it’s worth playing.

    • Adam Capriola  → BiskitFoo

      Hey BiskitFoo thanks for posting again. :) I guess that there are some SP decks that do run stadiums. Most of the ones I have used before did not run them however. Using Dialga G with Skuntank and stadiums does sound like it could be fairly effective versus non-SP decks, but I just think SP decks are just going to be gaining more and more popularity in the future. I doubt you will be able to afford the space to keep Skuntank and stadiums when you have to play against a majority of SP decks. You will need to focus on making those matchups better.

      I may be mistaken, but I think if you get 100 damage on Gengar, its power will activate right away. Nidoqueen won’t remove the damage first and then poison kicks in. I think the only way around Nidoqueen is to attack with Uxie LA.

  4. Mike Qua

    I use Skuntank G in Beedrill and in Gengar, I don’t see it doing well without 0 retreat. I ran it with Kingdra at one point, but with the abundance of BTS out there I didn’t get much chance to get it out.

    • Dave Hueglin  → Mike

      Mightyena has 0 retreat, Muk is actually healed when poisoned and Zangoose is not affected by any special conditions. In addition, Mightyena can attack without any energy if poisoned. He does take 10 damage between turns of course, and with only 90hp he is pretty fragile. Ideally, you would hit for 80 once, or twice at max, then (assuming he hasn’t been knocked out), withdraw to stop poison and heal him up.

      • Mike Qua  → Dave

        I had a friend who ran a Mightyena/Muk/Skuntank G deck, I mean it ran pretty well and had a bunch of quick KOs but they seem to have too little hp to last very long.

  5. Mike Qua

    I had a friend who ran a Mightyena/Muk/Skuntank G deck, I mean it ran pretty well and had a bunch of quick KOs but they seem to have too little hp to last very long.

  6. Adam Capriola

    Hey Dave thanks for the comment! That sounds like a pretty cool (and annoying!) deck idea. :) Running different stadiums is definitely a key if you want to make full use of Skuntank’s Power. If you want to write a short article about the deck I would be glad to post it, just let me know.

    • Mike Qua  → Adam

      Hey Adam, that was a deck Joe played…if you think about it, it’s TOTALLY a kind of deck Joe would play HAHAHA

      That deck was pretty cool and interesting, and most DEFINITELY fun to play, I just wished Mightyena and Muk could withstand more than 2 hits… :(

  7. Adam Capriola

    Hey BiskitFoo thanks for posting again. :) I guess that there are some SP decks that do run stadiums. Most of the ones I have used before did not run them however. Using Dialga G with Skuntank and stadiums does sound like it could be fairly effective versus non-SP decks, but I just think SP decks are just going to be gaining more and more popularity in the future. I doubt you will be able to afford the space to keep Skuntank and stadiums when you have to play against a majority of SP decks. You will need to focus on making those matchups better.

    I may be mistaken, but I think if you get 100 damage on Gengar, its power will activate right away. Nidoqueen won’t remove the damage first and then poison kicks in. I think the only way around Nidoqueen is to attack with Uxie LA.

  8. kwisdumb

    I played this for a while in all of my SP decks, but I think it can be best implemented in the Mightyena deck mentioned earlier, although Leftovers is also key.

    • Adam Capriola  → kwisdumb

      I guess even though Leftovers doesn’t eliminate poison damage, it can at least limit it, making Mightyena slightly less vulnerable. It definitely is a lot easier to get a Leftovers in play than a Nidoqueen, and if you are running all stage 1’s then it is a burden to make room for Rare Candies just to get Nidoqueen out. :)

  9. BiskitFoo

    Kwis, how would that help with Mightyena being poisoned? It removes a damage counter at the end of your turn, not in between turns.

  10. Adam Capriola

    I guess even though Leftovers doesn’t eliminate poison damage, it can at least limit it, making Mightyena slightly less vulnerable. It definitely is a lot easier to get a Leftovers in play than a Nidoqueen, and if you are running all stage 1’s then it is a burden to make room for Rare Candies just to get Nidoqueen out. :)

  11. bendingspoons1

    skuntank is one of those cards that died with the release of rising rivals, to many sp simply put. If anything i would rip up all your skuntank and make some nice collage out of it…btw is that how you speel collage?

  12. bendingspoons1

    skuntank is one of those cards that died with the release of rising rivals, to many sp simply put. If anything i would rip up all your skuntank and make some nice collage out of it…btw is that how you speel collage?

  13. alex d

    Aha, I think you got it right, bendingspoons.

    Skuntank is still solid in some decks. Dialga G still needs it (even though it is a pretty dead deck), and I’ve seen it with Luxray/Infernape before. I also have used this in Speedrill before… I thought it was easier than running a few Pluspowers.

    This card definitely has its uses. Non-SP Pokemon with low retreats can use it, i.e. Chris Fulop’s Kingdra deck, or Beedrill noted above. Pretty useful in any deck that runs 4 BTS.

  14. alex d

    Aha, I think you got it right, bendingspoons.

    Skuntank is still solid in some decks. Dialga G still needs it (even though it is a pretty dead deck), and I’ve seen it with Luxray/Infernape before. I also have used this in Speedrill before… I thought it was easier than running a few Pluspowers.

    This card definitely has its uses. Non-SP Pokemon with low retreats can use it, i.e. Chris Fulop’s Kingdra deck, or Beedrill noted above. Pretty useful in any deck that runs 4 BTS.

  15. vitor2097

    the skuntank G it’s a good card to be on a deck like “grass/psychic” because of the attacks…

  16. vitor2097

    the skuntank G it’s a good card to be on a deck like “grass/psychic” because of the attacks…

  17. Sergio Ortiz

    I like to include it on many decks, but nowadays it can be really mean too cuz of Sand Wall and To many BTS playing on my area.

  18. Sergio Ortiz

    I like to include it on many decks, but nowadays it can be really mean too cuz of Sand Wall and To many BTS playing on my area.

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