|
X-Act |
Skarmory Delta
It’s been a long time since I posted anything. Since I
have a Christmas break, I thought it would be a good
idea to write a few COTDs.
Skarmory Delta is an okay Basic Pokemon. It has 70HP,
and, while that number rings a bell somewhere in your
heads as the ‘magic’ amount of HP a Basic Pokemon in
Unlimited must have, it shouldn’t anymore, in my
opinion. Basic Pokemon, with the exception of Sneasel,
Murkrow and the Baby Pokemon from the Neo era, are
pretty much dead now in Unlimited. With the advent of
Suicune ex OHKOing everything in sight, it shouldn’t be
hard to understand why this has happened. So that 70HP
statistic doesn’t say as much as it used to say before.
Now that Poke-Body, Shining Horn, might have been
interesting a few months ago, when stuff like Dunsparce
was all the rage in Modified play. Granted, there are
still similar cards like Plusle DX, but, in my opinion,
these have been replaced by better Supporters. So,
again, we see a case of “that’s so old now, Skarmory”.
Cry for help is what might just save the card. You get
any Metal Pokemon from your deck into your hand,
excluding Pokemon-ex. Now this set is replete with Metal
or part-Metal Pokemon, so, if you’re playing a
Delta-deck, Skarmory might stand a chance of figuring in
your decklist. Or maybe not, considering the multitude
of Trainer cards that get Pokemon off your deck to your
hand…
The second attack, Steel Wing, is clearly filler
material, just so the card has two attacks and not one.
A Pokemon player surely shouldn’t put play Skarmory
because of it.
Unlimited: In Unlimited, it just doesn’t cut it. Maybe
it would be considered to stop your opponent from
repeatedly Eeeeeeeking using that sole Cleffa, but
wouldn’t you rather have an Eeeeeeeking Cleffa too as
your starting Pokemon, instead of a Skarmory that gets
Metal Pokemon? (Although admittedly, this does stop
Snichu dead in its tracks, if it’s still played.)
Speaking of getting Metal Pokemon, there are gazillions
of ways to get Pokemon in your hand in Unlimited, most
of which are better than the way that Skarmory does it.
So it gets a sad no. 1.5/5
Modified: In Modified it might be better, but not by
much. Your opponent would play stuff like Holon Mentor,
or even Great Ball, to get more Pokemon, and they will
evolve faster than saying ‘evolution’, and then you’re
stuck with a single Skarmory. And to get Metal Pokemon,
you can still stick to Trainers as in Unlimited. 2/5
Draft: In Draft, it’s not too bad. The Poke-Body is sure
interesting here, especially if your opponent has
drafted a lot of BBPs, and you can stall with it.
Getting Metal Pokemon wouldn’t be too useful here unless
you drafted a considerable handful of them, and Steel
Wing is next to useless if you hadn’t drafted Metal
Energy, or, at least, Holon’s Magneton/Electrode. But at
least you can stall with it while you get your stuff.
2.5/5
|
