Today, I thought I would take a look at the very interesting Kecleon from Rising Rivals. Kecleon, for a non-evolving Basic, has somewhat low 70 HP (sure the Pixies do too, but there are Pokémon such as Dialga with 100). The +20 Fighting Weakness doesn’t do much to help against Donphan or any of the other powerful Fighting Pokémon in the format. Kecleon has no resistance and one Retreat Cost.
Kecleon’s sole attack, “Triple Smash,” for the high cost of CCC, does 10(!?) damage. In addition, you must flip three coins. For each heads, it does an additional 20 damage. On a very luck day, you’re doing 70 damage for three Energy, which is pretty bad (especially when it can’t use Energy Gain).
Thankfully, Kecleon does come with a redeeming factor in the form of its Poké-Body, “Colorful Body,” which makes Kecleon’s type Grass, Fire, Water, Psychic, Fighting, Darkness, Metal and Colorless. Obviously, this will allow Kecleon to hit every Pokémon in the format for twice as much damage (for a few, a Lucario GL will be required as some Pokémon have a +30/20/10 Weakness).
In addition to hitting for weakness, there are a number of cards in which Kecleon can be greatly helped by. Perhaps the best one is Shaymin LV.X, which has the ability to raise Kecleon’s fragile 70 HP to a nice 110 HP, which will make it very difficult for any non-Fighting Pokémon to 1HKO Kecleon.
Kecleon can also use both Special Dark and Special M Energies, to increase its attack power of further push for durability (taking down a 110 HP Pokémon with a few Special Metals is now easy task). Also, if you’re able to make Kecleon somewhat durable, attaching Expert Belt to it would really help to give it more HP and increase its damage output.
While some new players may have already started to find a few Kecleon’s in their binder and sent an e-mail to their best friend “I’m on 6p and I just came up with the deck that we’re gonna win States with!”, you should know there will be a few problems this deck will commonly come across.
The most common is Dialga G LV.X, which is able to completely shut of Kecleon’s Poké-Body and force him to stay a Colorless type. Staying Colorless isn’t terrible as you can still hit Garchomp C LV.X for Weakness, but will make many of the techs you’re running useless. The other problem you’re likely to come across is Machamp, which as the ability to 1HKO a Kecleon each turn. With some luck coin flips, you can get in a few revenge KOs, but I doubt your luck will hold long enough to take out Machamps turn after turn.
Finally, while not as widely played as the first two, a card that should still be considered a big threat is Mewtwo LV.X, which will completely shut down your deck more than the first two did. Of coarse, you can get around this by running a counter, but it will still be difficult.
My Recommendation: A very interesting card that I believe the format is too highly stacked against it. I’m sure you’re tired of me saying that, but for many cards, it’s true. There is hope, however. Next year, if we’re given a Rising Rivals-on format, Kecleon will loose some handy techs but many of the deck’s biggest problems will be out of the format as well. Don’t use your Kecleon’s for your campfire yet!
My Rating: 2.75-3/5 (In the Current Format) 3.25/5 (If we get a very lucky rotation next year)
FIRST!!!! Great review. Kecleon is certainly an interesting card, but, like you said, next format (if it’s RR-On) Kecleon could be one of those big & popular decks. (for example: LuxChomp, DialgaChomp, VileGar, Gyarados, Machamp, etc.)
I think Kecleon will stay as a bit of a rogue. Even if it ends up being a good deck, I think it’ll end up like MewPerior is now — a good deck, but underused. I’m mostly concerned about the flippy part of its attack and the fact that it’s a really fragile Pokemon. Donphan Prime will destroy it, especially with Snowpoint Temple gone.
Sunyshore City Gym could always help. Get rid of your weakness and Donphan’s resistance.
Lose its handy techs in an RR-on format? Someone forgot about Floatzel GL Lv X…
“some handy techs”
cough Lucario GL from RR cough
This card is a fun tech for Kingdra Prime. It put’s a fire Pokemon in play!