Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats |
Kabutops (Arceus)
There has been a bit of low-level hype about the new
Kabutops. The Arceus set brought with it some
potentially decent support for Fossil Pokémon, mainly in
the form of an Aerodactyl whose Pokémon Power allows you
to search out Fossil Basics. Is Kabutops a worthy
partner for it? Let’s take a look.
With 130 HP, Kabutops has the ability to take a hit
or two. It has a Weakness to Grass which shouldn’t be
too much of a problem unless the new Tangrowth or
Sceptile decks prove to be popular. No Resistance is
typical, and the Retreat cost of two isn’t great, so be
prepared to make room for Warp Point.
What is getting Kabutops some attention is its first
attack, Primal Scythe. For a single Fighting Energy, it
does 20 damage. Nothing special there, but if you
discard a Fossil Basic from your hand, that damage is
increased by 50, taking Kabutops into the realms of
those Pokémon that can get a potentially game-winning KO
on their first turn (see also: Machamp, Kingdra,
Rampardos). The Fossil Basic, Dome Fossil, even gives it
a hand in getting set up on the game’s first turn as its
PokePower lets you evolve into Kabuto when you attach a
Fighting Energy. Kabuto in itself has a useful Power,
benching Fossil Basics for you if you can flip heads
(which is the only way the deck can get around a Trainer
Lock).
Kabutops’s second attack, Rock Slide, is less
impressive. 60 damage to the active and 10 damage to two
Bench Pokémon for [F][C][C]. Not terrible, but a little
overpriced.
So, with its built-in support and ability to get a
quick KO, is Kabutops a serious contender in this
Format? Well, there are a few things that count against
it.
Firstly, there is the fact that it is a Fossil.
Fossil decks have not been truly successful for a long
time now. The Basics cannot be searched out with
Roseanne’s Research or Call Energy, nor recovered with
Night Maintenance or Time-Space Distortion. For that,
you need Fossil Excavator, which uses your Supporter for
the turn and only nets you one Fossil. Secondly, there
is the problem of Trainer Lock. The new Spiritomb and
Dialga G’s Deafen attack will make it impossible for you
to bench Fossil Basics, unless you can get Kabuto MD out
somehow. Thirdly, there is the cost of Primal Scythe.
With no practical way of returning the discarded Fossils
to the deck or hand, unless you run a huge number of
them, you will eventually run out and be forced to rely
upon Kabutops’s second, slower attack.
These disadvantages may be enough to prevent Kabutops
becoming a top deck in this Format. It has good support
and potentially good speed, but the downsides of being a
Fossil really hurt. It isn’t a terrible card by any
means but I don’t expect it to have any more of an
impact on the format than Rampardos has. If Spiritomb
turns out to be as popular as people think it will be,
then it may not even manage that.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (hope to avoid Trainer Lock and get a
quick win . . . otherwise you will struggle)
Limited: 2 (you are unlikely to be able to boost the
first attack)
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Guy |
Here is another good card that I think we will be
seeing decks built around: the Arceus set Kabutops. The
Kabutops has 130 hp, and weakness to grass. Grass is
going to give this deck fits, as Kabutop's partners (Omastar
and Iron Skull Rampardos) are all weak to grass.
Bastiodon MIGHT be useful in this deck, I'm not sure
though...it needs to be tested. Anyways, back to
Kabutops. Kabutops' first attack, Primal Scythe, is
really it's main attack. This attack allows you to
discard a fossil and add 50 damage to the attack for
only 1 energy. This does require a bit of set up though.
Obviously it should be combo'd with Arceus set
Aerodactyl so you can search out a fossil card and put
it in your hand. You can either play the fossil to
evolve it or discard it to do 70 damage with Primal
Scythe (or 90 with an expert belt). The second attack
isn't too shabby, but the first one is really the focus
of Kabutops. Here is the problem with this deck however:
I think it could be slow. You cannot use Call energy,
Roseanne, Great ball, etc. etc. to search out fossils.
What you should do though, is use 4 Fossil Excavator, 4
Bebe's Search, 3-4 VS Seeker, Cynthia, and a few
Felicity's Drawing (to discard fossils for Omastar's
attack if you chose to play Omastar with Kabutops. If
not, then it's probably not a good idea to play
Felicity), and Aerodactyl's power to get what you need.
Broken time space would be critical in this deck as
well. Claydol probably should be played, but there needs
to be some other basic pokemon in the deck besides
Baltoy, Unown G, and Uxie. I would suggest MAYBE a 2-1
line of Dialga G / Dialga G X to cancel out pokebodies
(if you aren't running the Rampardos version of the deck
becasue you wouldn't want to cancel out Rampardos'
pokebody). The reason I suggest potentially playing
Dialga G X or even Luxray X is because of the Arceus set
Spiritomb. That Spiritomb forbids any trainer cards to
be played, and until the fossil is down on the bench it
must be treated like a trainer. If all you have are
fossil in your hand and your opponent has Spiritomb up,
you better hope something changes quick. Your best bet
would be Luxray gl X, Palkia X, or Dialga G X in this
deck to either gust away the Spiritomb or cancel out
it's pokebody. Kabutops can work, but it will take a lot
of testing to figure out exactly how it should be
played.
Modified: 3.25/5 (it has potential)
Limited: 2/5
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