One Hit KO

Well, regionals has come to an end, and its time to start preparing for the next set, HGSS Unleashed. Since 6 new primes are being released, and 3 new legends, there is plenty to chat about. With the primes (Kingdra, Crobat, Ursaring, Lanturn, Steelix, and Tyranitar) there are some new decks that can be made and techs to be considered. The new legends are the coupled dogs of Raikou, Suicune, and Entei. Please note that the analysis on the cards are before i have seen any trainer or supporter card of this set.

As far as the primes go, the only ones that i can see that will be competitive in some way shape or form are Kingdra and Ursaring. Kingdra is a Crobat G every turn, so if you had multiple Kingdras, you can add extra damage anywhere. On top of that, if he has a belt, he will do 80 damage with no discard effect. The only drawback this card has is when you see a fire match-up, or a deck that runs fire cards in it, because the base damage goes from 60 to 20. Ish. It’s a good thing that the original Kingdra we have grown to love isn’t cycled out yet. :) Luxray GL is the other huge issue, but then again who doesn’t know that when they are playing water?

The other prime worth mentioning is Ursaring. At face value, it doesn’t look all that delicious, but if he has damage counters on him, his damage gets a huge boost. 60 extra damage, sweet Jesus! This means that with a DCE and any other energy, you can potentially swing for 110(with belt) and discard a card off of your opponents deck. The main drawback is that you need a damage counter on him to get that nice boost (not to mention time to get the energy). The cool thing is that, no matter what, there is a way to get that counter on him. You can run this with Donphan Prime, giving you that damage for when Ursaring is ready to come off the bench. Donphan can usualy supply you the time you need to get set up and ready to go, unless you see water of course. Another way could be by playing Rainbow Energy, so when you drop that on him, he gets the damage counter and is ready to go. Otherwise, the basic form Teddiursa (from Unleashed) does 20 damage for 1 and 10 damage to itself.  He also gives you a type advantage over some popular cards like Garchomp C and Flygon, since his weakness is fighting.

As for the other primes, this is why I don’t yet feel like they have the umph necessary to play in top decks. Crobat prime has deadly attacks, which either quad poison or 30 snipe everywhere (with both attacks being only one evergy). Until Unown G gets put out of format, this card can lose all of its potential simply by playing an Unown G play on the defending Pokemon. Lanturn has a pretty good attack, since for 3 energy it will do 70 damage no matter what. For it to be really effective, though, you need some type of energy acceleration, and I just don’t see a consistent way of doing that right now. It can change to water, cool, but that’s not significant right this moment. All of the SP and Gyrados chillin across the table don’t care about that. Steelix is bad, just plain bad. It can’t be put under any special conditions, nor can it do any significant amount of damage. Sure it has a huge amount of health, but why waste 5 energies to do 100 when you could put 1-3 energy on pretty much anything good and do at least that much if not more? He’s too slow and hits like a girl. Tyranitar is interesting. It can spread damage faster then anything I have seen lately, but it does have a drawback. It doesn’t effect dark Pokemon, and hurts your own bench. The other attacks are ok, not bad but not like OP. It could be paired up with Manectric to stop it from hurting itself, not to mention it has 160 HP as a stage 2, but I don’t see the umph or the card to run along-side it to make it amazing.

As for the dogs, and how I have felt about all of the legend cards, unless legends box comes out, they’re not worth the effort. All of the dogs have some weakness that is run in the competitive decks right now and they give up 2 prizes. Sure, their attacks can get a KO, but most of the time isn’t worth the effort. The only one I can see making any move on anything is the Raikou Entei legend. It’s got free retreat, and for 2 energy it can either do 90 up top or 80 to anyone with a power. That single attack could make a difference in a power heavy deck or speed deck with Uxies, Crobats, and Claydols galore. Other then that, the dogs are too slow and clunky. Without the so called “Legend Box,” they’re too hard to set up, and really, how are you going to recycle them efficiently?

As much as I love the next set and its potential, I have to wonder how decks will do without the use of Claydol!!! ZOMG :)

Category: Card Discussion | Tags: Kingdra, Unleashed, Ursaring