Hey there! It’s Celebi’ once again with a Card of the Day. Today’s subject is Minun from HS Unleashed, per request of Innocent_Shine, who said “we need more yellow.” :P
Minun is a basic Lightning type Pokemon with an average 60 HP. It’s got Fighting weakness, which is pretty bad (although Donphan Prime would OHKO it anyway). However, with Donphan and Stage 1s in general declining in popularity, it’s not as bad a weakness as is used to be. Metal resistance isn’t that important, and one retreat cost is decent.
Minun’s role, if it’s ever played, is that of a starter. He’s a basic Pokemon with a single colorless energy attack – Call for Family. It’s word-for-word the exact same attack as that of Stantler, also from Unleashed. Call for Family says: “Search your deck for up to 2 Basic Pokemon and put them onto your Bench. Shuffle your deck afterward.”
Stantler has been discussed as a potential starter. So, why can’t Minun be a starter too? Call for Family is pretty flexible, because of its colorless requirement, and it can be useful in any deck that aims to fill up the bench quickly, such as a Cinccino BLW variant.
The problem is, once you get set up, Minun must suffer one of two fates. The first is, obviously, getting KO’d, since it’s pretty fragile. Giving your opponent a prize is always bad, but it does enable you to use Twins. Besides, in a swarmy sort of deck, you’ll be taking quick knockouts anyway and one prize shouldn’t matter much.
The other possible outcome is that Minun will have to retreat and be stuck on the bench for the rest of the game. It’ll just sit there eating up valuable bench space as well as being an obvious Catcher prize.
Say you have an inkling of sympathy and decide that instead of abandoning poor little Minun, you’ll let it keep attacking. Its only damaging attack, Tag Team Boost, does a vanilla 10 damage for one Lightning energy, and 20 more if Plusle is on your bench.
While 30 damage for one energy isn’t bad, and can KO babies, you need to have a Plusle in play. That’s one card you’ll never want to have in your deck. So, Minun isn’t very good as an attacker.
Minun UL could have the potential to be a second-tier starter in the vein of Stantler UL. They are pretty much exactly the same – they’re both basic, Fighting weak, and have one retreat cost. While Minun can attack for one energy, that isn’t very important. And the only thing Stantler has over Minun is 10 more HP. I’d say they’re pretty much interchangeable.
But Stantler is simply never used! Maxing out Collector is definitely better. Deck builders in the HS-on format have strayed away from the 4-of starters we saw in MD-on, and now most people run just one Cleffa HS as a crutch. Some run no starters at all! Even if you do need a starter for your deck, Minun (and Stantler) just aren’t good enough to be played, as they both are inferior to Cleffa and Manaphy UL.
I rate Minun at 5/10 – Mediocre. It’s not horrible, but there are just better options when it comes to starters.
Do any of you think Minun (or Stantler, for that matter) is playable? Feel free to comment below! Thanks for reading!
