pokebeach.comHey readers, today I’m taking a look at another requested card, Shiftry from Rising Rivals. Shiftry has a nice Darkness typing, which means it can hit Gengar for Weakness and (ab)use Special D Energy. Shiftry has 130 HP, a +30 Fire Weakness and a -20 Psychic Resistance, which means that it should very rarely be 1HKO’d. The Retreat Cost of C is manageable.
Shiftry’s Poké-Body, “Unlucky Wind,” is very interesting. As long as it is your active Pokémon, all coins your opponent flips during their turn is considered to be tails. This means that Super Scoop Up, Pokémon Reversal, Houndoom’s Poké-Power, etc. all useless. We’re off to a good start. It all goes downhill from here.
“Conform,” Shiftry’s first attack, for DC will dish out a pitiful 40 damage, but if you have the same amount of cards in your hand as your opponent does, the defending Pokémon is Confused. These types of attacks haven’t cut it in the format for a long time.
Its second attack, “Seal Off,” for the nice cost of DCC (meaning you can use a Special Dark and a Double Colorless Energy), does 60 damage. In addition, the defending Pokémon cannot use Poké-Powers or Poké-Bodies during your opponent’s next turn.
pokebeach.comIn the post of the COTD Request Threat, this card was suggested to me as a potential replacement to Gengar in VileGar decks as “Seal Off” could shut off Dialga G LV.X’s Poké-Body. I don’t want to be mean, but this idea will never work. Even if each of its attacks did an additional 30 damage, it still wouldn’t be a better play than Gengar.
In addition, “Seal Off” only targets the Defending Pokémon, which means A) Dialga G isn’t their active Pokémon or B) They Retreat/Warp Energy it out of the active slot, making your efforts completely useless. I will give props to the guy who suggested it though, you spotted a weakness to VileGar, explored potential cards to fix the problem and chose one you thought might work.
My Recommendation: Unless if a Trainer comes out that says, “Flip a coin, if heads you win the game” is released, don’t consider this card. Even then, Trainer Lock might be a better idea…
My Rating: 1.25/5
You forgot to mention the good ol’ Memory Berry + Nuzleaf’s Blind Attack combo to prevent your opponent from ever attacking. ;)
“Like” for being the only one that pointed out that.
“Like” for being the only one that pointed out that.
Yeah I was the one who suggested this idea, but after having playtested this deck for awhile, I realize that it’s not as strong as VileGar. While it does actually have a favorable matchup against Dialga, it is worse than VileGar against most other decks. I think this is because VileGar can start with Spiritomb or Gastly and get Trainer lock, but Shiftry needs Spiritomb. Oh well, I’ve moved on haha.
Umm, Why didn’t you mention that if your opponent is confused by Conform they can’t attack?
Because we all know that confusion doesn’t do diddly squat in today’s format. “Oh I’m confused and cant attack because I’m flipping tails?” “okay… Poke Turn, Warp Point, Switch, Evolve, Level Up, Retreat, Warp Energy, Fighting Tag……..”
It’s still worth mentioning…
This card is really bad. I see the idea behind it, but its WAY TOO EASY to get around it.
It would be a nice Fainting Spell counter if it worked any time Shiftry was the active Pokemon. Sadly it won’t stop a fainting spell. If just a few things about the card were tweaked it would be awesome… or if Confusion worked like it did back in the day. Oh well.
Hey Dakota, I may be the only one that feel this way but it annoys me when you write “(ab)use” for some indescribable reason. I think it was kind of funny the first time you did it, but it’s just isn’t anymore because you say it every time you review a Pokémon that can use Special Dark, Special Metal, or DCE. Like I said, though, it may just be my opinion. Keep up the great COTDs.
I JUST finished a Shiftry deck (for casual play). Spiritomb/Vilegar is just counter productive. 4 Copycat, 4 Judge and a 1-1 Dugtrio line are necessary for confusion and the retreat punishment. I experimented with Memory Berry. Nuzleaf’s Blind is nice but what does that get you? 1 stalled turn? Use the Memory Berry for Nuzleaf’s 30 damage snipe on those that did get away from the confusion trap. Anyway, I dropped the Memory Berries for a small Crobat G engine and it works much better. Uxie LV.X is good perfect partner for Shiftry since they both use DCE. Hopefully Shiftry will have the tools to be a contender with the release of the last HGSS set. He has some potential but doesn’t compete with the top decks in the format. I would still put it on the level of Charizard, Blastgtr, Steelix and a few other decks simply because the Judge>Conform combo is hard for the opponent to recover from.
How about combining it with Dialga Level X (D&P Great Encounters 105) You would have to get out Dialga, level him up, retreat him and bring up a Shiftry. Game over……opponent can’t go. We are in the process of making this deck, and will give feedback later.