If you’re thinking to yourself, “Doesn’t Kenny Wisdom’s article, the hottest article on Six Prizes get published on Wednesdays? I think I would know, as it is the highlight of my week, nay, my existence?” don’t be frightened — you’re absolutely correct. Although typically this column gets published on Wednesdays, I’ve decided to do a special edition today, for a few different reasons…
- I really wasn’t happy with my last article. For those who don’t know me personally, I’ve been getting into MTG lately, and in doing so I’ve been reading as much as I can (Magic is much more advanced than Pokemon when it comes to writing, podcasting, and media in general). Some of the articles I’ve enjoyed the most were Luis Scott Vargas’ of ChannelFireball.com’s set reviews.
I decided I would try to emulate him and do an entire set review for Pokemon. It was only about halfway through the article that I realized the two games are so different that a review like that just doesn’t make sense. Still, I had spent a lot of time on it, and didn’t wanna just hang it up.
- A lot of you commented with negativity about the article. Normally I would just respond with a “haters gonna hate etc.” but I took these criticisms to heart, probably because I myself wasn’t happy with the article, and decided to publish it, which is something I’ve never done before in any facet of writing. Thank you to all of you who e-mailed, commented, or posted in the forums with constructive, if negative criticism about the column.
With all that being said, I am going to finish my Triumphant set review. However, instead of doing the incredibly boring and long-winded version I did last week, I’m just going to do short summaries of how I think cards that are interested will do in modified. No X out of 5 ratings, no limited ratings, no walls of texts about Psyducks and Kricketunes. ;)
Solrock
I’ll start with a card that’s been getting a bit of hype — Solrock. As you can see in the scan above, its Poke-Body prevents healing. This is relevant because of the best card in format, Garchomp C’s Poke-Power, which removes all damage counters from SP Pokemon on your side of the field.
I have to admit, I’m not really seeing the big deal with Solrock. Firstly, the only deck that really relies on healing is DialgaChomp, where Dialga will shut down your body anyway, rendering your Solrock completely useless. Secondly, the only card that’s relevant at the moment that heals is the aforementioned Garchomp C LV.X, and it can “Dragon Rush” either Solrock or Lunatone, killing the combo. Thirdly, I just don’t see how committing at least two spaces to something that’s so easily counterable is any good. I don’t completely hate Solrock, though, as hard as that may be to believe.
I think it’s a very interesting card that any of the thousands of players who are better and more creative than me could surely break. I’m sure some people are already working on it now, but until I see something concrete, I’m gonna have to give this guy a thumbs down.
Grumpig
PSYCHIC LOCK IS BACK BABY. Look at this beast. 90 HP, sporting the BEST ATTACK IN THE GAME? How could this guy not be getting more hype? I mean, Psychic Lock for PC is ONE ENERGY LESS than Gardevoir, and look at how that deck ruled the format. Now I know what you’re thinking…”but Kenny, it only does 20 damage?” and to that, my friends, all I can say is: Expert Belt! With an Expert Belt and Two Pluspowers, you’re swinging for the exact same amount of damage as Gardevoir, and you have 110 HP, which is just as much as Luxray GL LV.X or Garchomp C LV.X. How can this guy not be good?! START THE HYPE TRAIN PEOPLE.
Okay, in all seriousness, Grumpig is an interesting card that will never see the light of day. It might be good for a fun league deck if you still weep over the loss of Gardevoir, but it’s not going to have any relevance beyond that.
Nidoking
Nidoking is an interesting card in that the potential is there, but I don’t think it can quite get you as far as you need it to. FFCC for 80 and Poison is pretty lacking in this format, although you can make the argument that DCE makes it a little more worthy. What’s really interesting here though, is the Poke-Body, that gives Nidoking +20 HP for each Nidoqueen you have in play.
Combine this with the fact that Nidoqueen has a healing body, and that Nidoqueen is just a good card in general, and you could really have something. That is, if that combo didn’t require tabling 2 Stage 2s and at least 3 energy cards, along with some kind of damage manipulation in the form of Expert Belt to make it viable. Sadly, Nidoking is just not destined for greatness in this format.
Absol Prime
A lot of people are high on this card, and it’s easy to understand why. It’s Poke-Body is pretty neat, and a lot of immediate combos come to mind. Its attack, DC for 70 (+10 with a special dark, maybe?) is very solid, even if that attack requires a Pokemon to be Lost Zone’d. It’s not without it’s drawbacks though. Firstly, that Body only triggers when Absol is active, and if Lost World is printed in the next set (SPECULATION~!), that attack just got a whole lot worse.
Double weakness to Fighting, meaning that Donphan and Machamp both OHKO it isn’t pretty either. All in all, I’m not really certain how I feel about this card. On one hand my team didn’t think it was relevant to test, so that’s saying something. On the other hand, I know a lot of good players who have been talking it up a bit, so I’m getting mixed signals. In the end, I don’t think this card is necessarily bad, but I’m not sure it’s good either. However, as always, I’d love to be proven wrong.
Electrode Prime
This is another card where I think it’s an interesting enough card, but I’m not sure if it has everything you need. A friend of mine (sup Amelia) has been working on a Steelix list which incorporates Electrode’s Power to further the energy acceleration of Steelix, all the while giving up a prize, allowing you to use Twins or Black Belt.
I’ve tested a few games against it and it’s proven to be pretty okay, but I’m really unsure if that is good enough. I mean, if the best this card does is speed you up a turn while giving up a prize, allowing you to use conditional supporters that you have no way of tutoring in the first place, how good is it? Still, much like Absol, I’ll have to put this in the “maybe” pile.
Gengar Prime
This card epitomizes the “maybe” pile. When it was announced in Japan, the U.S. competitive community went insane. Some proclaimed that it would be absolutely broken and ruin everything and kill their mother, while others countered that by saying they’d tested it for a thousand hours and it didn’t win a single game.
Regardless of how you feel, it was never really Gengar that was hyped. Gengar is only as good as the stadium in the set, Lost World. Still, with Lost World and Gengar coming out in the same set, and Gengar being a 6-in-a-box prime, it wouldn’t be too hard to pull off, right?
Well, that would be the truth if it weren’t for the fact that Lost World was never printed! If Lost World shows up in the next set, this card could potentially be game breaking. However, if it’s not in the next set, the card is basically useless and nearly every word that’s been spoken about it is moot.
Magnezone Prime
This card is not your Claydol replacement. There, I said it.
I’ve never understood that mentality. How is a stage 2 that lets you draw until you have 6 cards anywhere as good as a stage 1 that lets you put 1-2 cards on the bottom, and then draw until you have 6 in your hand? Answer: It’s not.
For those of you that argue that it indeed is, riddle me this: In the three formats Claydol was legal in, how many times did you have less than 6 cards in your hand, and topdeck those one or two cards that win you the game? I don’t know about you, but typically I had anywhere from 5-7 cards in hand, and would get rid of stuff I didn’t need, and gain a card or two. Another question to ask yourself is: If Claydol were never printed, would you be looking at this card whatsoever? I believe the answer is no.
Looking past its power, the attack is actually kind of neat. For a fairly low energy cost it allows you to essentially determine how much damage you want to do, and how many resources you want to use up. The problem here is that it’s woefully inconsistent. If you’ve tested this and are able to get big damage on a consistent basis over a large amount of turns/games, then you are a much better player and deckbuilder than I.
Mew Prime
Even if Lost World was printed, I’m not sure I see the greatness of this card. If the Body and Attack were swapped I could see it, it could be good to pitch a guy to the Lost Zone and then be able to attack this turn, but with having to use up the attack to Lost Zone a guy, all I see happening is your 60 HP Mew getting KO’d by my Uxie + Expert Belt.
I also understand there’s a certain sect of people that are interested in it because of what you could do with multiple Mews. That is, the fact that you can continually use a Pokemon that you’ve Lost Zoned, even if your original Mew gets KO’d. I understand that, but I just don’t see why you would want to use a Mew in the first place. I’d much rather be a turn slower, or have to commit a couple more resources to be able to use Machamp’s Take Out attack with an 130 HP beast in a Machamp, then use that same attack on a super fragile, 60 HP Mew.
That’s all I’ve got today folks. I hope you all enjoy this style of article to my last one, as for future sets I’ll be defaulting to this format. Join me next week as we go over what I think are the top decks for the upcoming City Championships.
