First off, thanks to TheFresh1 for requesting this interesting card on the forums (if you want to request a card, just check out the request thread). Also, I think I should mention that this article is written mostly for HGSS-on.
Anyway, today’s card of the day is Liepard from the new Black and White set. It might not look like much, but it can actually serve a very practical purpose. LostGar supposedly dominated in Japan, and has been largely hyped here. In MD-on, a popular counter is Honchkrow from Supreme Victors.
However, like several other popular Gengar counters, it’s being rotated. And this leaves Liepard to serve as a decent Gengar Prime counter.
So let’s take a look at Liepard’s stats first. It’s a stage 1 with 80 HP. That’s pretty bad. The x2 weakness to fighting is horrible, especially since Donphan Prime seems like it’s going to be a powerful contender. A –20 resistance to psychic is nice and the retreat cost of 1 isn’t too bad.
Then there are its attacks. For the cost of C, Taunt drags up an opponent’s benched Pokemon to the active spot. This isn’t too great since Pokemon Catcher will probably come in the next set, and it uses up your attack for the turn. However, it could be useful in dragging up those pesky trainer-locking Vileplumes, and so this card may have found a niche in being able to do that.
Its other attack, Night Slash, costs CC and does 30 damage plus 30 more if Liepard has any darkness energy attached. With 1 special darkness energy, Liepard will hit for 70, which will be enough to 1-shot a Gengar Prime.
Overall, the card isn’t the best. There are better Gengar Prime counters. Umbreon UD/CL or Houndoom UD could both be better, especially since they both have a little bit of leverage against Donphan Prime. Unfortunately, Liepard is a little too fragile for a lot of situations.
But since it could be really useful against Vileplume, this card could see some play (especially if VileLostGar becomes popular, which it may or may not without the Stormfront Gengar in HGSS-on).
One last thing you’ve got to keep in mind its “prevolution”: Purrloin. Purloin is a pretty mediocre basic. Meanwhile, if you want to go the Umbreon route to counter Gengar, Eevee UD 48 can actually act as a good starter (though 50 HP is pretty bad).
I have slightly mixed feelings about the card. Its stats are overall bad, but its attacks could be very useful. Anyways, I don’t really like the concept of giving scores to cards since everyone has their own personal scale, but I’ll go with a 3 out of 5.
