Kenny’s Wisdom: B/W Set Review + Thoughts on Rotation Announcement + My YouTube Channel

A lot of ground to cover today, so I’ll get right into it with a review of what I think the most exciting and/or hyped cards from Black and White are. Sorry for the short intro, pressed for time!

Quick note: I’m going to be reviewing these cards in the context of an HS-on modified environment. So while this info isn’t particularly relevant for Battle Roads, it is potentially for Nationals and Worlds, and is definitely for the 2011-2012 season. Keep that in mind while reading these reviews.

Black & White Set Review

Serperior

pokebeach.comSerperior is an interesting enough card with a lot of potential, but I just don’t think it gets there. The biggest advantage of it is that it doesn’t require energy acceleration of any sort, which is huge in HS-on. So theoretically it’ll be one of the fastest forces on the scene.

The problem is that it can’t reliably 1HKO anything, and isn’t incredibly difficult to 1HKO back. Combine that with the fact that it has weakness to Emboar and Reshiram, and I’m just not seeing how this card succeeds. Something worth testing and something that could easily be broken, but not at the moment.

If you were going to attempt to play this for Battle Roads, I think the best combination would be with Shaymin and it’s Level X, but even then I don’t think it’s an incredibly relevant deck.

Emboars

Emboar is an incredibly powerful card, there’s no question in that. Rain Dance is already great, but now the energy can be attached to any type of Pokémon? Nuts. Fortunately, it’s not too great of a card by itself. Its attack caps at 80 damage, which isn’t really saying much with 1HKO fests running around.

However, there’s also the matter of the OTHER Emboar, that has mediocre attacks and no Ability, but is still something to swing for big damage with. RRCC and discarding all R energy afterward certainly isn’t gamebreaking, but 150 damage is huge, even with the steady increase of HP over the years.

In the end, I think that both Emboars will see play, but only with each other. We’re testing a Reshiram/Emboar deck that runs a 2/1 split of the Emboars (2 of the one with the ability), and it’s doing pretty well. I’ll talk about that in a future article as well as on my YouTube channel (get excited, more on that later), soon, so I won’t waste your time here.

Samurott

pokebeach.comSamurott’s is a pretty well hyped card, although definitely less so than both Serperior and Emboar. It’s most obvious combo is with Feraligatr Prime, giving you the possibility to pump out a steady stream of 100 damage on turn 2, and increase that amount every turn after.

However, after very limited testing, I don’t think this card has what it takes. It’s certainly an interesting card, the Ability and attacks are both solid, but it has it’s fair share or problems. The first of which is that it’s almost a bad version of Blastoise/Feraligatr, and that deck is solidly tier 3 at the moment. Secondly, L weakness is going to be pretty relevant with both Zekrom and Magnezone variants being actual decks.

I don’t think the card is bad whatsoever, but I think, like most Gatr combos, it’ll stay comfortably in tier 2 land.

Reuniclus

Reuniclus is one of the most talked about cards from this set. Damage Swap is an incredibly powerful ability, and it has obvious combinations with tank decks like Steelix, Scizor, and Tyranitar. The problem is that I just don’t think it’s good enough. Those decks are slow, even for HS-on, and having to build up another stage 2 is going to make them slow down and exert resources even more.

Even if you can get it to work correctly, it just seems like a card that gives you so little value and is so gimmicky, especially considering that Steelix and Scizor are both weak to Emboar and Reshiram and can be 1HKO’d, and while Tyranitar is big, the spread damage it’s inflicting is going to add up quickly.

It also can’t be its own deck at all, as it’s attack is absolutely atrocious. It also takes 2 turns to get online, which, while not a big deal with HS-BW, will become increasingly more annoying when Pokémon Catcher comes out, both in the sense that the villain can just up one of Reuniclus’ lower forms and kill it before you even get value out of it, and that they can gust up something that has a lot of damage on it or that they can easily KO due to how you’ve used Damage Swap.

As an aside, if you want a fun deck to try at BRs, try using him with Unown Q and Mismagius GL, for an infinite damage heal loop. :D

Krookodile

pokebeach.comThis card suffers from being one of those that has a lot of pluses and a lot of minuses. It’s first attack is great, L resistance is great, the Weakness isn’t all that bad, etc. However, its second attack is terrible and it essentially does nothing for you. It’s too big and clunky to be a smaller part of a combo piece, and there’s not terribly too much that it does on its own.

This card is certainly breakable and something I feel we’ll be discussing more as time goes on, especially as new sets come out, but for now I think it’s worth skipping over.

Zoroark

I feel the same way about Zoroark as I do about Krookodile, although a little bit more optimistic. It’s a card that is interesting and breakable, but at the moment doesn’t have any super great applications. I have no doubt that this card will eventually become something viable and that I’m just missing something or not looking hard enough, but as for now I don’t see anything entirely gamebreaking.

The combination with Cinccino is relevant, but I don’t even think that deck is going to be all that amazing, so again, it does neat things, but those neat things may not be enough.

Cincinno

Er…didn’t plan for Cinccino to be the next card on the list, but hey, I’ll take it.

This is a very Jumpluff-like card, and I believe that it’ll suffer from the same problem that Jumpluff had after the 2009-2010 season: There are no Bench-sitters that gain you value every turn. Claydol was such a huge help to Jumpluff because in addition to drawing cards for you every turn, it helped you recover KO’d Jumpluffs through drawing out a ridiculous number of cards in combination with Night Maintenance. Jumpluff became irrelevant after the rotation of both Claydol and Night Maintenance, and I’m not sure Cincinno will fare any better.

Combining it with Zoroark and Ninetales HS/COL are the only worthwhile things I see happening, and even that doesn’t seem too good to me. This style of deck is definitely one that I’m a huge fan of, and therefore I’ll test it, but early indications aren’t impressing me at all.

Mandibuzz

pokebeach.comThis card combos with Tyranitar Prime very well, and is something I’m looking to test for sure. I think this may end up being the sleeper hit of this set when all is said and done, but because I haven’t tested it or even given it that much thought outside of random deck ideas while driving and things of that nature, I won’t speak on it too much.

Reshiram

The better of the two Legendaries, and one fantastic card. Immediately a Reshiram deck using Emboar comes to mind (and is something I’ve tested, and as I said, will have more info and several videos on soon! :P), and I think that’s a perfectly viable option.

I almost feel like this card has been hyped up so much that there’s no point in talking about its values, so instead I’ll play devil’s advocate for a moment. The biggest problem with the card is that, outside of its second attack which requires 3 energy, and makes you discard most of them, it has nothing going for it. No ability and its first attack is terrible.

That’s not to say that it’s a bad card, it’s obviously a great card, but that’s the biggest problem I’ve found in our testing.

Again, am keeping this short as I’ll have tons more information for you soon.

Zekrom

A lot of the testing videos I’ve done with the aforementioned Reshiboar deck have been against a Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin build, and a similar type of deck with Magnezone Prime, so again, going to keep this short as I don’t want to be redundant.

This card has a hard time being better than Reshiram or really finding a home in general until Pokémon Catcher comes out. In my opinion, both of the decks I spoke about in the above paragraph get worlds better with Catcher is released in BW2, and until then remain okay to good options.

Professor Juniper

pokebeach.comI don’t feel that I’m as qualified to speak on this card as many others are, seeing as how I never played in a format when the original Professor Oak was legal. However, I do have a few random thoughts on this card:

– I don’t see it being as good as Professor Oak was whatsoever. There’s not as much discard pile manipulation now as there was back then, and it’s much harder to play out your entire hand now.

– This makes Smeargle UD so much worse. Last format your worst fear was running into a Judge, but now you run the risk of losing all of your cards, many of which are impossible to get back.

– I don’t see how this card is all that much better than the shuffle effects that we already have in Professor Oak’s New Theory, Copycat, and Judge. In some decks this card is clearly better, but in the end I think it’ll end up being a niche in the majority of decks out there.

Thoughts on the Rotation Announcement

By now I’m sure all of you have heard the news: Pokémon will either be rotating to HS-on in July 1st or September 1st, depending on the results of Battle Roads. Before I go any further I’d like to give a shout-out to my teammate Ann Marie Thompson for predicting this way before it was announced.

To me, this was the only viable option that Pokémon had in front of them. The truth is, even with how broken Sableye may or may not be, Pokémon as a game and a company would lose all of it’s integrity if they ever made rotation or banning decisions based on speculation.

I mean, think about it, if they did take articles and Pokégym posts over actual tournament results, then Gengar Prime and Lost World would’ve been insta-banned. Instead, those cards are used in non-degenerate ways and are by no means overpowered (at least in MD-BW). This was absolutely the correct decision.

pokebeach.comI’ll also throw out there that, if you’d like a HS-on rotation, the only way it’s going to happen is if everyone plays Sableye. The problem with Sableye is that it will lose to Spiritomb, and therefore most players will be inclined to play VileGar or other Spiritomb based decks, and if that happens I think those decks will win out most of the time, proving that Sableye isn’t as overpowered as everyone thought, and lead to OP seeing the modified format as healthy, and deciding to stick with MD-BW for Nationals and Worlds.

The problem with this, however, is that the format is NOT healthy. Even if Sableye doesn’t win the majority of events (and I don’t think it will), it will only lose to the aforementioned Spiritomb decks. When one deck/card is warping the format so that the only decks that directly counter it can win, that’s a huge problem.

Even SP was never that overpowered, as there were decks that could lose to it (Gyarados, for instance), and still perform well and win tournaments. Sableye takes things to a whole different level.

I’ll also note that the problem is Uxie. Sableye, Crobat, and Uxie make the deck what it is. The difference between them is that Sableye and Crobat can be used in non-degenerate ways. Crobat is an incredibly useful card, and Sableye is a great starter in Gyarados and decks of that nature. It’s Uxie that fuels it all. Uxie is one of the most degenerate cards ever, and should’ve been banned long ago.

Without Uxie you don’t have access to the ridiculous amount of card draw that nets you a million Poké Turns, Poké Blowers, Junk Arms, etc. and you certainly wouldn’t be able to hit your misers copies of Special Dark and Expert Belt nearly as often. If you want to put the blame on something, it has to be Uxie.

So, in short, if you want a new format for Nationals, convince all of your friends to play Sableye and nothing but Sableye. If you choose to play a Spiritomb-based deck at Battle Roads, understand that you’re probably hurting the game in the long run.

My YouTube Channel

As some of you may have already heard, me and my OMGWTFBFF Amelia Bottemiller have recently started a YouTube channel dedicated to Pokémon, which can be found here.

The show is called Play To Win, and will mainly be focused on accomplishing just that. We’ll have deck techs, filmed matches, filmed top cut matches with commentary, financial advice, set reviews, box/product openings, random debate, and anything else that you ask for. Expect content from us to come out about once a week, give or take depending on how much there is to do and talk about.

If you’d like to support our channel, the best things you can do are rate, comment, and subscribe. We absolutely need subscribers as they are what fuel this entire project. Ratings give us more spotlight, and comments will help us make videos that are more relevant to you, giving you what you want to see.

So again, please take a few seconds to subscribe, I guarantee it’ll be worth your time. When we reach 500 subscribers I’ll be giving something back to the community. :D

 

I’m not sure what we’ll have up on the channel by the time this gets published, but you can look forward to the following:

Sableye vs. VileGar testing
Emboar/Reshiram deck tech
Zekrom/Pachirisu/Shaymin deck tech
Emboar/Reshiram vs. Zekrom testing
An array of both HS-on and MD-BW testing videos.

So please, subscribe, watch the videos, and let us know what you think! Also keep in mind that we’re still figuring everything out, and that our videos only get better from here. Please me know what you think, Like us on Facebook, and spread the videos around as much as you can!

Random Thoughts

I don’t want to be too much of a shill here, so I hope I kept that segment about the YouTube channel as short as possible. Thanks so much for reading. :)

Moving into some random thoughts…

– This usually doesn’t happen with promos, but those Tepig, Snivy, and Oshawott blister packs are fantastic. Not only are they a great value at $5 for a pack of BW and a promo, but they’re great competitive too. The Tepig and Snivy are the best versions, and they all have great art (I’d put Snivy as some of the best art in Pokémon, actually).

pokebeach.com– Cleffa from HS and COL is a fantastic starter next format, so get your hands on them while you can. Amelia and I bought multiple online stores out of their reverse foils, so holler at me if you need any. ;). If you can find them at a low price, snatch up as many as possible as they’re going to be useful for a loooong time.

– The B/W products in general, the Victini box, the tins, and all of the blisters are a fantastic value, since they all come with BW packs. The Victini box in particular comes with 5 packs of BW, a Victini figure, and an awesome alternate-art Zoroark card and retails at $20. Seeeeems good.

– A small gripe about PTCGO: I bought multiple boxes of Black and White and was super excited to crack the packs and get those pack redemption codes. So I redeem them all, open all the packs, and get some pretty sick pulls. I crack multiple foils of good cards, Primes, Legends, and the like.

However, I then learn that all of the cards that you pulled are going to be wiped when the official version of the game officially releases.

I understand that wipes are common in beta, and that you will be credited for your packs, but that makes this game almost completely useless to me until September, and I was planning on getting a jump-start on it. I dunno, just a little peeved about that.

S’all I’ve got. Thanks for reading!

Reader Interactions

66 replies

  1. Anonymous

    eeeeeek! cleffa is going to cost you a prize, or even worse delay you for multiple turns while it tries to wake up.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Anonymous

      I don’t mean to be rude at all, but how many games have you played HS-on? Because I’ve logged probably around 50 with multiple decks, and Cleffa has proven to be very solid in a lot of them. If you have different testing results I’d love to hear them, but I’d like to think that I’m giving a very informed opinion in this article.

      Still, thanks for reading, and I’d honestly like to hear if you have any contrary testing results.

      • Anonymous  → Kenny

        actually I can see cleffa working. if you do give up that prize at least you have early access to twins and black belt. After testing I can see a lot of the new decks require reliable hand refresh pretty often. Im still aftraid of over-sleeping with cleffa and pichu though. Also, mountain eater larvitar loves to eat cleffa’s, and sometimes minccinos too.

  2. Anonymous

    Cleffa may work out, I’d rather go with Stantler or Minun bench Pokemon. 8f you are going to give away a Prize it might as well be for something guarenteed. You could wiff on what you need with the Cleffa draw. You could also have too good of a hand to use the attack, and then you’ve wasted a turn.

    I know I’m in the minority, but IMO Sabledonk has opened up the format and make it fresh again. Sp decks are going to have to run 4 Sableye, slowing them down. Spiritomb allows many evolution decks (beside G-dos and VileGar) to be viable.

    So, you have a slower SP and ,ore viable Stage 1 and 2 decks. Sounds good to me…

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Anonymous

      Stantler and Minun are certainly viable options, and what you’ve said about Cleffa is true. However, I think with 4 Cleffa and 4 Collector (or some count of Collector and Dual Ball) you have a good chance of getting Pokemon AND getting to Eek. A lot of my games have gone like this…

      Open CleffaCollector for Pokes
      Play an energy
      Play any other viable cards
      Eeek

      It’s not as if you have to choose between playing cards or Eeking, y’know?
      And as far as Sabledonk improving the format…I get what you’re saying in that different decks will pop up, but the idea is that, as a person playing against Sableye, you’re forced to either play Spiritomb (and therefore be one style of deck) or have fun getting between 0-1 turns in each round. It’s just too constricting. At least when SP was around you got to play different types of decks (speed, SP, set-up, trainer lock, etc.) and often got more than one turn.

      Thanks for reading!

  3. Carlos Vergara

    There’s something I didn’t like while I was reading your article, and it’s the fact you’re just praising Emboar, Reshiram and Cleffa. I do agree most of these cards won’t stand on their own deck, but let’s be fair. Cinccino can deal lots of damage in no time, and Zoroark is awesome as a counter against Reshiram and Zekrom, aswell as keeping the consistency of some decks. Zekrom is also a faster deck than Emboar/Reshiram and Mandibuzz can be used as a counter for certain cards like Gengar. Krookodile might do wonders on its own deck (although I’d like to think how) and Juniper is great for some decks, aswell as serving as a second option for PONT.

    That’s my opinion though, and I think you did a good work nonetheless. It was a pretty informative article, and thank you for it.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Carlos

      Yeah, I may have been a little too rough on some cards. I just think that Emboar decks, especially Emboar/Magnezone are the nuts, and my testing has backed that up. I’ll certainly be wrong on a few of these cards and I expect that some of them will turn out to be quite good decks. I agree with you on Zoroark and your point about Zekrom. Didn’t mean any offense at all, I’d love if all of these cards turned out to be sick decks.

      Thanks for reading!

  4. Olliver Barr

    I don’t think cleffa will be any good at all. When the next set comes out, if it has not died already, it will just be a free prize for your opponent even on the bench.

      • Olliver Barr  → Carlos

        Its not that, im just saying with gust of wind coming out sooner or later, its not going to be that great IMO

        • Kenny Wisdom  → Carlos

          I have a few different opinions on this subject…
          For one, you could be right. Cleffa is an easy Catcher target. However, the only deck that can get that early damage off is Donphan, and that can kill way more than a Cleffa (it can basically kill any basic besides LEGENDs and Zekrom/Reshiram). I doubt that many Catchers will be aimed at Cleffas.

          Also, Carlos brings up a good point, that’s a completely different format, y’know? Not saying that the point isn’t valid, but I was mainly discussing HS-BW in this article.

  5. Sam Stevens

    there are barely any good starters in the next format besides smeargle which can cost you a hand if your forced to juniper, cleffa allows you to play your opening hand as much as you want then reset for next turn… it has low hp but with the general decline of opening attackers (zekrom not included) and 50% chance to be un-attackable, it may survive the turn to be free retreated (only 25% chance of not waking up)…. so stop eeeeeeking at poor little cleffa its trying its hardest, and for a baby its doing pretty good :(

  6. Chris Barrieau

    YO! Just wanna say: This was an AWESOME article! Very helpful, much better than other non-UG articles lately. Props, and thanks! :)

  7. Kyle Warden

    I just wonder, how many people bashing Cleffa played with it back some time ago.

  8. Anthony Desiata

    scoop to zekrom if you flip heads on cleffa? no thanks ill take my chances on 4 collector 1 cleffa 4 stantler.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Anthony

      Not really sure what you’re saying here. Do you mean that if you open a lone Cleffa and Eek they can donk you easier? Well, that’s true, but I mean, if you open with Cleffa, go first, and don’t have any other Pokemon or any cards to play anyway it’s already going to be a hard game for you. Plus, Zekrom can’t exactly get the donk off super super easily, y’know?

      Not trying to invalidate Stantler at all, I just think Cleffa is better. Thanks for reading!

      • Anthony Desiata  → Kenny

        zekrom can first turn outrage everytime. and pachi could donk the cleffa aswell. and about 60% of the time you have a solo cleffa. ive done my fair share of testing and i still need to do more. but i know that cleffa is decent but like everything it has its goods and bads. and for cleffa early game you better be good at flipping tails or have 3 basics opening hand.

  9. Jason Baird

    Really useful article!

    Is there anywhere online where you can order BW packs with online codes? Do the packs on Amazon have them? Thanks!

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Jason

      Thanks for reading! Please rate the article if you have a moment, and subscribe to the youtube channel if you have an account there.

      I’m not sure exactly which packs have them. I know that none of the packs that come in blisters (aka the kind you get at Wal*Mart or Target or anything) have them, they’re only available in packs that come from actual boxes. I’d e-mail the seller and ask. :)

  10. Perry Going

    With intense play-testing, I have noticed that cleffa is not only goo early game but also good late game. The format is going to be so slow that using a supporter like Elms or Collector will leave you with a dead hand, so “Eek” is very helpful to get yourself out of that situation. You also get a 50% chance of invincibility. It may only have 30 HP but alot of pokemon in the next format wont be able to do it early game. I can also think of only 2 Pokemon that can kill it while its asleep and thats Gengar Prime and Crobat Prime.

    Lastly, why is Pidgey not getting any love?

    • Alex Holdway  → Perry

      I think pidgey misses out on the love because it uses an energy for the turn and is only really effective for one turn as it goes back to the deck leaving an unenergised pokemon active.

      just speculating mind!

      • Perry Going  → Alex

        i think it helps accelerate the process of getting a deck like Ttar set up where it has a free retreater….

        • Kenny Wisdom  → Perry

          Pidgey is a decent card that could see some play, for sure. It’s worth trying out, I just think that Cleffa and a few other pokes are probably better for consistency. LMK how your testing with Pidgey goes!

  11. chris frontiero

    I subscribed to the page, but I wasn’t a fan of the sabledonk video. I hope you guys use vilegar in a way where I can see how it works.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → chris

      Yeah, the Sabledonk video wasn’t the greatest. We’re mainly focusing on HS-on atm, but we’ll definitely be going over Battle Roads in the next few weeks, so expect to see at least some discussion on VileGar.

      Thanks for subscribing!

  12. Matthew Tidman

    I wish Cleffa were good. I mean, it seems like a solid play with a 50% chance of blocking damage, but it still has to deal with damage counters being placed and other special conditions. If it were like the Neo Genesis Cleffa and gave 7 cards as well as blocking any attack 50% of the time, it would be a much better play. Of course Twins abuse is possible… If you draw one in the 6 new cards.

    Looking forward to seeing what you put out on the YouTube channel. The more people talking competitive Pokémon, the better.

    Have to agree with you on the Zoroark box. Pulled a full-art Reshiram and Zekrom as well as a regular Rom and a reverse Ram. With the guaranteed Zoroark as well, it’s definitely worth it.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Matthew

      I think Cleffa is very good. I don’t see it going into every single deck, but it’s performed quite well in a few decks for us. Damage counters aren’t as big of an issue in HS-on, where Crobat isn’t around and all.

      And thanks for subscribing! Tell your friends and all. We’ll be pumping out a lot more quality videos on a regular basis from now on.

      Word, I haven’t picked one up yet but I really need to. Sick pulls!

  13. Michael Sison

    This is a great article, Kenny. I’m a huge fan of Grass-type Pokémon, and I hope Serperior gets to be popular next season. I just wish there was a way for decks based on Grass-type Pokémon to get around decks based on Fire-type Pokémon like Emboar and Reshiram, though.

    • Kenny Wisdom  → Michael

      Thanks!

      Yeah, Serperior is a super interesting card. It has at least 2 formats to be legal in though, so I’m sure it’ll get it’s time to shine eventually.

      Thanks for reading!

      • Michael Sison  → Kenny

        I enjoy a lot of your articles, actually. :-) Anyway, what about adding a 1-1 Metapod evolution line in decks based on Grass-type Pokémon? Would that help cover most Grass-type Pokémon’s weakness to Fire-type Pokémon? What do you think?

        • Kenny Wisdom  → Michael

          Thanks! I really appreciate that. :)

          And yeah, Metapod is a decent choice but with Catcher coming out I’m not sure it’ll be completely reliable. =

          That card is the blemish on what looks to be an awesome format.

          Good thinking though. Could be viable.

        • Sam Stevens  → Michael

          its a good idea but when catcher starts running rampant metapod will just be a liability waiting to happen, then when your weakness comes back any good fire deck and even some not good ones will steamroll right over you… single type decks will be powerful but hard against a deck of your weakness, SP was huge because it had multiple types (and ridiculous engine, but no deck in next format will have anything like that) … we really need to start working on the next “SP-style” deck, where its consistent, fast and doesn’t get trapped by weakness too badly… mandibuzz/kingdra prime looks good as was talked about in a different article but its heavy electric weakness is an issue against zekrom and magnezone variants

        • Anonymous  → Michael

          My wife likes grass decks and we tried metapod for hgss on, but then I realized reshiram can one shot anything worth attacking with anyway without weakness.

  14. Ben Bradly

    another great article, I agree with nearly all of that other than cincinno and zoroak could be a formidable deck. I doubt it would be tier 1 but I think it has nice potential if a new card that helps in some way other than ninetales comes along

  15. Tyler Ninomura

    Stantler/Minun =/= Dunsparce SS guys. Sorry to break it to y’all.
    And while Cleffa HS definitely =/= Cleffa Neo, it is definitely one of the premier draw cards this format. And don’t forget, all of your supporters should be fetching you value, no matter what you do. You should have no trouble setting up a bench and Eeeeeking.And I may be remembering this incorrectly, but the only card remotely close to Pokemon Collector in Exp-On was Lanette’s Net Search, which was really only used in the CattyTon Turbo decks anyways. This was one of the sole reasons that Dunsparce was so good (besides the fact that the card was for sure one of the best starters ever printed); cards like Collector didn’t really clog your hand after you benched out. Not to mention that Strike and Run is vastly different from CFF; the “run” ability was highly relevant.

  16. Steven Nilsen

    Serperior is a great card with the Stage2 Cell type. I was screwing around with this last night… it was pretty cool. Get 2-3 on the bench, build a tank, and heal 120-180/turn… I haven’t quite found the right tank yet, but Meganium Prime… I’m working on it.

  17. Martin Garcia

    Im sorry to have to be the one to put this down, but i dont like this article. AT ALL.

    While i agree on the serperior,reuniclus and junipper toughts, i have to disagree on all else.

    Reshiram is arguably better than zekrom, but its first attack is by no means terrible. Its not impressive either, but coupled with the dragons massive 130 hp, an attack like that can easily deal 70~100 damage with a single DCE, or 2 fires. Sure, it will be killed next turn, but unless you switch-seeker it up, its gonna die anyways, so its a good way to get something in return for it.

    While the inferno fandango emboar is good, the other one is just a gimmick. Both reshiram and emboar can abuse DCE, so having to pay 4 energies to hit for 150, and discarding all of them seems rather bad in my cook. Specially with the 4 retreat cost. When (if) catcher is realesed, that enormous retreat will make him a liability, and unless you play a heavy count of switch, or have any other way to get it out of the active spot easily(in 1 or 2 turns, max) he will be toast.

    So i see the pig has a really grim future. Then again, if catcher is never realesed, his cost is nothing relevant.

    The main problems i have are both with zoroark and cinccino.

    Using the dragons attacks for a single DCE, and not having to discard (in reshiram´s case) is not relevant for you? If thats so, i think you need to retest from the start.

    Zoroark will, withouth a doubt, become the perfect counter for both reshiram and zekrom, a single pluspower, a an sp dark, or a spray splash from kingdra can get the dragons out of commision, and it is arguably as fast as they are.

    Finally, while cinccino is getting more hype than it deserves, its still a great card, and coupled with zoroark i can see it as a tier 1 deck, if a good enough list comes up. As i mentioned before, having low retreat costs will be huge with catcher on format, they use the same energies (colorless), and can abuse sp dark (in zoroarks case, which makes the pluspower/kingdra useless), rescue, and any other special energy thats comes out in the future. You can easily retreat/switch them, seeker, and use the DCE you just took from one on the other. Thats a lot of synergy.

    The main problem i see with them is donphan, but i dont know how much the elephant will be played anyways.

    • Tyler Ninomura  → Martin

      …except that Catcher wasn’t released in BW. No offense, but analyzing an article based on cards that aren’t even out yet is akin to the old Machamp SF hype, but before SPs were introduced. It just isn’t relevant in terms of Nationals and Worlds.

      While Catcher will certainly be relevant for next season, I think you’re looking a bit too far in the future.

      As for the Outrage comment: this is a format focused on OHKOs. Zekrom and Resh shouldn’t last the turn unless you’re playing against control or something weird. I suppose it’s plausible that you miss the pluspower draw, but at that point you would probably be in set up phase anyways.

      Zoroark is good, but it’s reliance on DCE, takes 2-4 spaces in your list on average, and the fact that it’s a 1 turn setup makes the card slightly worse on average than other tech options. It’s definitely a powerful card, but it’s a slow counter in a relatively fast format. You’ll be giving up one prize before the Zoroark ever has a chance to do anything if you’re playing it in response to something.

  18. Matthew Tidman

    Hey, random question since you’ve been testing Emboar: Have you tried out Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND yet? I really think that it could be the core of a solid deck in HS-On since you can one-shot almost anything with its attacks (Including Ram and Rom) and draw two prizes for doing so. Of course, it’s weak to Cinnicino, so there is that downside, but I’d love to see this deck succeed.

  19. Taylor Pagani

    The rotation is gonna happen. We copied Japan’s rules, there’s no reason we won’t copy the rotation. I’m tired of people trying to justify Sabledonk. You’re ruining the last chance we have with old cards, not to mention you’re making Battle Roads sort of…I dunno…not fun. Which is sort of the reason we play this game in the first place.

    I’m running 4 sableye in my deck + 1 mespirit to combat Sabledonk. Most people will counter it as well. If you’re wanting to win, don’t run it. If you’re wanting fun, don’t run it. If you’re “TRYING TO HELP THE CAUSE, MANG. MAKE ROTATION HAPPEN”, don’t worry, it’s gonna happen.

    You people be ruining this fun, competitive game, I swear to gawd

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