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Jigglypuff13 |
4/14 Dugtrio Lv.50 (PL)
Hello, and welcome to the new week (well, one day after
it started, at least), and we have yet more Platium
cards to be reviewed this week, starting with a trapper,
Dugtrio! I'll come to the trapper part later after I do
the basics of Dugtrio. First of all, 90 HP is about
average for a Stage 1 at the moment, and should survive
at least one hit. +20 Water Weakness is rather nasty
with Palkia G (PL) and Kingdra (LA) running around the
format at the moment. -20 Lightning Resistance is
generally useless, unless you run into an AmphyTric
somewhere along the line. Free Retreat Cost is perfect,
so there isn't anything to talk about really.
Now, the explanation of why I said trapper. To be
honest, you should already know if you've even glanced
at the card. Yep, Sinkhole, it's Poké-Body, is why it's
a trapper. Your opponent retreats, that Pokémon takes 2
damage counters. You see, if that threat is looming over
your active Pokémon, you will generally think twice
about retreating. Of course, Switch, Warp Point,
Teleportation, Restructure and other such trainers and
Poké-Powers don't count as retreating, so Sinkhole won't
take into effect, so it's fairly easy to work your way
around it. Still, it is rather nasty. The last time we
had anything similar was Skarmory Ex (PK), and even then
they had to have at least 40 HP remaining before
retreating to deal 3 damage counters worth of damage.
Skarmory Ex was rarely used, and thus it will probably
be the same for Dugtrio as well.
The attacks aren't much better. Push Down is an attack
that kind of combos with Sinkhole. FC for 30 isn't great
really, but forcing your opponent to switch might be
disruptive. However, your opponent choose who to bring
active, meaning they could just bring another main
attacker active, making it pointless. If they can't do
this, for some reason, then you'll force your opponent
to either retreat, causing them to take damage from
Sinkhole, or use up a Switch/Warp Point/etc. meaning
they have less to use later on in the game. Not a great
dilemma really, but still, it might give your opponent
something to think about.
Magnitude is like every other Magnitude attack really.
High price, high damage, and bench damage to all. 70 for
FFC is alright, but dealing damage to both yours and
your opponents benched Pokémon can be dangerous.
Personally, I don't like it, but, there are many people
(possibly) who do.
So, combos, and they are few and far between. For
Sinkhole, you need to use something that will force your
opponent to retreat for some reason or another.
Personally, I like Palkia Lv.X (GE) might be useful for
this. Use Restructure, and bring up one of your
opponents bench sitters, whilst using a Switch or
something to get your main attacker back active, and
then your opponent will have to either retreat their
bench sitter or use a Switch/Warp Point/etc, where if
they retreat, they take damage. It's pretty obvious
really, and not that great because to deal major damage,
you need at least 3 Dugtrios in play, which isn't always
as easy as it sounds. Another combo is to use Manectric
(PL) to stop bench damage to your own bench whilst using
Magnitude. It could work, but it's not that great since
you need 2 Stage 1's out, of which one needs 3 energies
to attack. Probably a little too slow for this format
really.
There is one major counter to this card, Dialga G Lv.X
(PL). It's obvious really, since it stops Sinkhole and,
if you use it, Manectric's Poké-Body. OK, so not every
deck will be using Dialga G Lv.X, but it's still a big
part of the metagame, so it will shut down Dugtrio quite
often.
Ratings:
Modified: We don't have any effective trapping combos at
the moment. If we did, then Sinkhole might be worth a
second look with it. However, we don't, and it's easy
enough to get out of anyway because of Switch and Warp
Point. Push Down doesn't help it's trapping part, and
Magnitude is just a waste of an attack slot. It, and one
of it's combos, are shut down by one of the biggest
cards of the format, which really doesn't help Dugtrio a
lot. Not going to cut it in this format I'm afraid.
1.5/5
Limited: Here, however, it might be worth a try. Without
Switch or Warp Point, people will have to retreat their
damaged Pokémon, leading to Sinkhole actually being
worth while. OK, Dialga G Lv.X is here, but who is
actually going to be able to use it? Manectric is also
here, meaning you could try the Magnitude combo, which
could be quite nice here, OHKOing many Pokémon, and
weakening others. Definitely worth a second look here.
4/5
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