pokebeach.comHey guys! As requested by Aura in the comments this article, today’s Card of the Day is Crobat Prime.
Crobat Prime is certainly an interesting card. It has 130 HP, which is OK in our 120-damage-for-3-energy format. Oh yeah! I forgot. Zekrom & Reshiram use PlusPowers. Zekrom doesn’t even need the PlusPower, though — Crobat has a x2 Weakness to Lightning. It’s -20 Resistance to Fighting is great, as it lessens DonChamp’s power.
Finally, Crobat Prime has a wonderful 0 Retreat Cost. This let’s you rotate out your Crobats quickly, and you don’t even need to waste an Energy. In the HS-On format, a 0 retreat is one of the best things you can have (sans Zekrom and Reshiram’s 120-frickin’-damage-for-3-energy-attacks.).
Well, his stats are OK, but how are his attacks? Crobat has 2 attacks: Severe Poison and Skill Dive. Severe Poison is amazing; for one P Energy, you poison your opponent. So what? Oh wait… The attack text says to place four damage counters on them between turns instead of the usual one. Shweet.
In a high-retreat format, this could be devastating. Crobat’s second attack, Skill Dive, also for the cost of P, does 30 damage to ay of your opponent’s Pokémon. This means that even if they did retreat (or used Switch), you can still Knock them Out, as they have already taken 4 damage counters for Severe Poison. So Crobat in itself is a pretty sick combo. Let’s see how you can use him…
pokebeach.comCrobat Prime owns his very own deck. The strategy is pretty simple: swarm with Crobats and use his sick attack combo to destroy your opponent. Another idea is to pair him with Kingdra Prime: you can use Spray Splash to weaken your opponent’s Poisoned Pokémon to put it into range of 1-shot with Skill Dive.
Unfortunately, that would mean two Stage 2’s, and in a slow format like HS-On, that could be dangerous. Crobat isn’t very splashable (a Stage 2 that requires an Energy type that’s not going to be used much, so that’s pretty much it.
So looking at all this, I think that Crobat Prime deserves a 3.5 out of 5. he owns his own powerful deck that is definitely useable in the HS-On format, but he has an unfortunate weakness to Zekrom (and to a lesser extent, Raichu). Thanks for reading, and I’ll see ya next time. Bye!
Check out my website at http://dcdane.webs.com/ !!!
And what exactly might his own powerful deck be, and how well does it match up against other decks?
Crobat Prime is a cool Pokemon, but I think it’s a little bit too weak. Maybe when Pokemon Catcher comes into play, it can start wreaking a bit of havoc.
3 things: Crobat Jumpluff is fun. I, too, think that Catcher will make this guy a lot better. And thank you for not giving this card a horrible rating, as I find it to be pretty cool though not always effective.
you play everything with jumpluff
kingpluff
jumpgar
jumpchomp
and now this
Yes. Yes, I do play everything with Jumpluff, and that was a great comment. LOL
It’s because Jumpluff is really good but can’t stand on its own, so when you pair it with a sturdier Pokemon that also does something epic for one energy, it usually turns out well. Although, I’m not sure how it’s going to pan out in the next format without Uxie accelerating things and without Warp Points giving me cheap KO’s.
YES!!! You chose me!!!
And on your Zekrom/Reshiram stuff, I”m using a “Vilebat” and, against Reshiram, you use severe poison, they take 40, then 40 more at the turn-end, plus skill dive, plus another 40 from poison = 150! That kills an Emboar. The best part is they still take damage when they k.o. Crobat.
Next review suggestion: the “big tank” Wailord!!!
From what set is the “Big Tank” Wailord? If it’s from Triumphant, then it’s already been done.
Awww….
Then what about Mandibuzz BW?
I did that already.
Ummm… Klinklang? You’re welcome, Aura.
LoL Gladly.
Nice Review. I think this can make a very good deck in the new format where very few things have free retreat. Like you said, when Pokemon Catcher comes in to play, it will be much more powerful
Its cool in mewgar. Come up against donpahn you lost zone crobat and the severe poison donphan.
It’s not so cool in MewGar.
I actually tested Crobat partnered with Gengar using a total speed engine and it was pretty solid. Severe poison a Resh, switch for Gengar and Cursed Drop one on the active and one on any benched Resh’s…active Resh gets Lost Zoned at the end of turn and any future Resh’s can be poisoned for a Gengar switch afterwards. You have risk Plus Powers, but it works pretty cool and ends up with 3+ pokemon Lost Zoned per game and can work well with a miser’s copy of Lost World in case you can steal a win that way.
In MewGar, there’s too much going on to really make use of Crobat. It does work as a tech for Lost Link (0-0-2 Crobat line), but a well-built MewGar really doesn’t need the Crobat to work. It ends up cluttering the deck and hurting consistency.
Can you do a review of Sharpedo?
I think Captain X is doin’ that one. I’ll have to ask him.
the weakness is a problem against magnezone as well, as if crobat takes 30 damage then magnezone can KO it for 1 energy… poison is cool but useless against steelix prime, and with resistance crobat can only do 10 damage to it with skill dive (not that i expect steelix to be big next format, but crobat just cant beat it)
Oh, I totally forgot about Magnezone. But on the Steelix, I don’t think it’s going to do very well because of all the ReshiBoar hype (and success).
How will this play in a Leafeon deck with Roseade and Houndoom?
There would be too much going on, IMO. But I guess you could try it.
Actually, A CrobaTrio deck has done well (Dugtrio PL where you take 20 for retreating) at the 2 Br’s ive went to so far, but cane in 2nd or 3rd
Yes…Zekrom can one shot it but it can one shot anything, your giving zekrom way too much credit that even magnezone prime is getting jealous, and if people wanna use crobat but are afraid to play it cause of zekrom thanks to you, tech in zoroarks to with 1 special dark or 1 plus power to one shot zekrom. For those of you that wanna play crobat with a strong passion, run the hypno with the sleep pendulum ability, get a heads and there alsleep so that way if they get tails there pokemon will just stay there, 2-2 will ensure you get a sleep outta 2 flips, or run the ivysaur from SV when it evolves the pokemon goes to sleep or darkrai from MD without a flip and then seeker/ssu and just enjoy your opponent getting tails.