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This is a cool Book!

Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day


 

Scyther Ex - Team Rocket


Date Reviewed: 11.11.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.


William
Hung
Rocket's Scyther ex

Modified 1.5/5 - The HP is too low, and the attacks are weak - considering this is an EX.

Draft 3/5 - It works decent, but not great. The Slashdown is inefficient to me.

 
Young John 
Rocket's Scyther Ex:
 
Unlimited: hmmmI don't really know how he'll do here, probably not too great. Only reason you'll play him is probably to play Rocket's Scizor Ex which could be good. His attacks aren't terrible I guess but overall he's not something to use without intent of evolving. 2/5
 
Modifed: I actually think he has some chance of being used as tech in some decks. Mostly Dark Dragonite, because you can move darkness to him along with Rainbow energy and have him both grass and dark and dealing 60 damage (with 2 darks). I guess the main purpose for that would be against Nidoqueen, or other things grass weak. I can see it being used for that and obviously evolving purposes. 3/5
 
Jermy101
Rocket's Scyther ex will probably only be used to evolve to the Scizor.  His hit and run attack is good, but the 2nd attack is bad since you can't use it again next turn.
 
Unlimited - Don't use this.  ER and SER pwnz it. 1/5
 
Modified - If you're going to use Scizor then use this, but I don't like Scizor.  I'll tell you why in the next review. 1/5
 
Limited - It's good here because of the hit and run, and overall it's a good ex basic. 4/5
 

Johnny Blaze
Rocket's Scyther EX – I believe this is the 1st time that Pokemon has introduced us to a Basic Pokemon-ex that can only evolve into another Pokemon ex. Talk about an expensive deck!!

Of course Rocket’s Scyther ex is a Dark Pokemon but its Dual Armor Poke-Body allows itself to be both Dark and Grass as long as there is a Grass energy attached to Rocket’s Scyther ex.

Bounce is a nice little attack C for 10 damage is average but it allows you to switch Rocket’s Scyther ex with 1 of your benched Pokemon. Its 2nd attack, Slashing Strike, normally does 40 damage for CCC, but it can do up to 70 damage for 3 Darkness energies but then you cant use it again for your next turn’s attack. It’s 1 retreat cost will allow for easy retreat. It does have low HP for a basic Pokemon ex and it is resistant to the ever popular Magma Fighting decks.

Unlimited: 3/5 – For a basic, it has the magical HP of 80 to qualify it as a Big Basic Pokemon (BBP). If you are playing Rockets Hideout you can boost the HP up too 100Hp which is insane for a Basic Pokemon. It has all colorless attacks which makes it nice and splashable in any deck you play. It is resistant to Tyrogue so that is another good thing. Lets not forget that it is an Ex Pokemon so that your opponent will take 2 prizes upon knockout.

Modified: 2/5 – Not for your main attacker here but more so to wait until you can evolve it into Rockets’ Scizor ex. Still if you are stuck with Rocket’s Scyther as your attacker its not that bad. Just watch out for its Fire weakness.

Limited: 3/5 – Very splashable and decent attacker. Of course you wont get to benefit from the Darkness energy but there are some other Special Energy cards in this set that if you are lucky to draft to play with Rocket’s Scyther ex.
 

Otaku

New Feature: If you think this review is too long to read, just skip straight to the scores and then read the summary for a concise overview!  Yes, the summary now lives up to its name.

 

Name: Rocket’s Scyther ex

Set: EX: Team Rocket Returns

Card#: 102/109

Type: Grass

Stage: Basic

HP: 80

ex Rule: When Pokémon ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: Fighting

Retreat: C

Poké-Body: Dual Armor

As long as Rocket’s Scyther ex has any (G) Energy attached to it, Rocket’s Scyther ex is both (G) and (D).

Attack#1: (C) Bounce [10]

After your attack, you may switch Rocket’s Scyther ex with 1 of your Benched Pokémon.

Attack#2: (CCC) Slashing Strike [40]

Rocket’s Scyther ex can’t use Slashing Strike during your next turn.

 

Attributes: Rocket’s Scyther ex is a Basic Dark Pokémon.  Being Dark is interesting: like the Team Magma/Aqua Pokémon, the “true” type can be subverted by the influence of “Dark” people.  Being a Basic is great: you can put it into play without any restraining conditions.  I can’t confirm this, as no scans of it will load, but Rocket’s Scizor ex is supposed to Evolve from this card.

 

Rocket’s Scyther ex has 80 HP.  Even with the threat of Desert Ruins, it could have 10 more HP and still be unaffected by said Stadium.  So the HP is definitely sub par.  This is further bad since we have a Weakness to Fire.  With just 80 HP, most Fire decks will find this an easy two prizes.  At least this card does have Fighting Resistance, which is bad.  A lot of anti-ex decks I have seen focus on Fighting.  Unfortunately for Rocket’s Scyther ex, many Fighting Pokémon can ignore Resistance now.  Finally, we have a Retreat Cost of one.  This is nice: you can afford to retreat with little worry.

 

Abilities: Instead of just making Rocket’s Scyther ex a dual-type, they made it contingent on a Poké-Body and having Grass Energy attached.  Given that I already know the rest of the card and feel Scyther got gypped, I can say this Poké-Body is bad.  Normally, I go on about how an option is usually better than no option, but this isn’t really the case.  It should have just been a dual-type.  The slight advantage of not always being Grass (not applying Resistance against most Metal Pokémon and a few “Dragons”) is not worth the hassle.  Either no Poké-Body, so that would wouldn’t be vulnerable to certain game effects (Zzap comes to mind), or one that let you shut off being Grass or just flat out by-passed Weakness would have been better.  So this must have been meant as a limiting factor, and it was not needed.

 

The attacks are a little better.  Bounce is a tiny 10 damage for one of any Energy, with the option of benching Rocket’s Scyther ex after damage is done.  So we have a slight (at most another Energy of any type) discount.  The next attack, Slashing Strike, is poor. In exchange for not being able to use that attack next turn, you get… an extra 10 damage?  The attack only costs (CCC), which should yield 30 damage to begin with.  Considering Bounce is mostly a fall back attack, they could have at least given 50 damage.

 

And to think, I haven’t even factored being in a Pokémon ex yet: the abilities would be substandard even for a normal Rocket’s Scyther.  I had so hoped we’d see a permutation of the original Rocket’s Scyther.  I suppose Bounce is a fair attack for a Pokémon ex.

 

Uses/Combinations: Generic Team Rocket support cards.  The new Rocket’s Hideout effectively errata’s the old one, so it can give a 20 HP bonus.  Rocket’s Tricky Gym gives you access to Neo Genesis Murkrow’s Feint attack, but only requiring a single Energy.  Rocket’s Mission would draw four cards if you discard this.  Since it is a Dark Pokémon, it can use Darkness Energy to boost it’s damage, and it can make use of R Energy, which provides (DD) for a turn and +10 to damage… but is discarded at the end of the turn.  Yes, I took those last two things into account when I read the attacks.  Still sub par.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1.3/5-I think it is the only Basic Dark Pokémon that is Resistant to Fighting.  So I gave it a whole 0.05 bonus.  Since you have the old Rocket’s Pokémon here, I feel there are enough that even a mono-Rocket’s deck can do better.  Also, it is needed for Rocket’s Scizor ex.

 

Modified: 2/5- Rocket’s decks can’t be as picky here, and Rocket’s Scizor ex may be better here.

 

Limited: 2.5/5-It’s okay.  I pulled one, but it didn’t really help me out a whole lot.  Basically it lucks out that it can use any color of Energy and it can make use of a lot of the Dark/Rocket’s combo cards in the set.

 

Summary

Rocket’s Scyther ex is another sub-par Pokémon ex.  It has HP that is a little too low and abilities that would be considered poor for a normal Basic Pokémon.  It’s only saving grace is that it can Evolve, something no other Pokémon ex or Rocket’s Pokémon can do.

 

 


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