Magcargo + Slugma (Undaunted UD 6 + 67) – Cards of the Day

Hello, and welcome to another Card of the Day.

Today, I will be covering Magcargo and Slugma from Undaunted, an overlooked duo of cards that received some hype after doing well at USA Nationals.

pokebeach.comThe first one I will cover will be the basic Slugma, Undaunted #67. His base stats aren’t too bad, 60 Hit Points puts him out of range of being Pachirisu donked and sniped by Yanmega. The weakness to Water is annoying, but to be honest if he’s being legitimately attacked in this format he’d be KO’d anyway.

The retreat is very annoying; it makes him a pretty bad starter to have, needing a DCE to retreat out into a Cleffa or Tyrogue. His attack is also pretty unimpressive, 40 for 2 Fire and Colorless is just horrible. But, he does come with an interesting Pokémon Power, Active Volcano; it lets you discard the top card of your deck, and if it’s a fire energy it lets you attach to Slugma.

This is very useful, especially since his evolved uses up so many resources. It’s also a great way to attach energies if you are a bit slow on getting Emboar out early in the game. He’s definitely the preferred Slugma in this deck.

Now, let’s talk about the big guy:

Magcargo is a Fire stage one, meaning he won’t take up too much space in Fire based deck. He clocks in at an okay 100 Hit Points, which really isn’t that high at all right now, but that’s actually okay for this card.

The weakness to Water is a bit annoying, Samurott and Lanturn prime have both seen a rise in a play as Donphan/Reshiram/Yanmega counters, but also hurt Magcargo as well. Last, but not least he has a very hefty Retreat Cost of three, which could really hurt him in an era of Pokémon Catcher.

He comes with two attacks, the first one, Searing Flame, is a pretty standard auto-burn attack, a fire and a colorless, for 20 damage and automatic burn. Not really impressive, but can lead to some easier KOs down the road, especially if you are using him to wall your opponent, and trying to get a cheap prize.

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This, in an era with Pokémon Catcher, is more likely to happen. We already have seen Muk have success using a similar strategy, and with Pokémon Catcher coming out that strategy is now easier to execute.

The second attack, Lava Flow, is where he truly shines as a great card. It does 60 damage for 2 Fire and a C energy, which isn’t too impressive. But, the attack allows you to discard as many R Energy as you want attached to Magcargo, and do 20 more damage for each one.

This lets you 1HKO anything, provided you have enough energy, thus, making him a great game finisher and great at getting a surprise Prize card on your opponent at the end of the game can be key to gaining the upper hand, and ultimately winning.

This attack makes him a great tech in Reshiram decks, primarily ReshiBoar because Reshiram’s damage output is usually capped at 120, without PlusPowers or an almost KO’d Reshiram with Outrage. This lets the Reshiram deck overcome, in my opinion, its greatest flaw, the inability to 1HKO anything at will. Granted this attack does take a lot of resources to use effectively, but it will usually be worth it, especially with Emboar because you can then Fisherman the energies back, and then rinse and repeat.

Unfortunately, in an era of Pokémon Catcher this will be harder to use effectively because you have to use so many resources, and with a pretty soft 100 Hit Points, and a hefty Retreat Cost, it will be harder to get those surprises KOs, but if you can, it’s a great card.

But, that doesn’t stop me from saying it’s worth testing out, it’s damage output potential, is so high and being a 1-1 or even 2-2 tech really helps the card, you just have to alter your list to accommodate the changes in your strategy. Since, I haven’t done as much testing in a HGSS-EP format as I’d like too, I’ll just give you a sample list from the HGSS-BW format for this card as a tech in ReshiBoar.

pokebeach.comThat’s a pretty basic, and in general, aggressive ReshiBoar list, I neglected the Ninetales in the list due to the inclusion of Magcargo. I also took out the Pokémon Reversals because with Magcargo you can now KO anything, provided you have the energy.

I also didn’t run the “Bad” Boar, because again, Magcargo takes up the role of that card. The reason for the thicker line of Emboar than usual was in this list, you need to get him out very quickly, along with Reshiram/Magcargo and you can’t afford to have him prized.

Lastly, I did skimp a little bit on the energies, but with the high amount of recovery I have in the list I feel that it will be okay. I highly encourage you to make changes to it, to make it more consistent or shore up some poor matchups. I definitely think that this deck can be a contender for next format, I just haven’t tinkered with it enough to know it yet.

Well, that’s all for today, I hope you enjoyed it, and hopefully I’ll still be able to write while I’m in school.

On that note, I also want to thank everyone who voted for me in the writer of the month poll, it’s a great feeling to know your work is appreciated.