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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Houndoom #5/90

HS Undaunted

Date Reviewed: September 1, 2010

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.75
Limited: 3.75

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With:
 

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Houndoom (Unleashed)

 

You know when reviewers give slightly higher scores to a Pokémon because it’s one of their favourites? Well, that’s probably what’s going to happen here. Just warning you . . . I love me some Houndoom!

 

Luckily for me and whatever credibility I have left as a reviewer, this Houndoom isn’t completely terrible.

 

True, 90 HP on a Stage 1 with double Fighting Weakness isn’t going to win it a lot of friends, even though the Psychic Resistance is useful and the Retreat cost is acceptable. What Houndoom does have going for it though are a couple of cheap but decent attacks and the ability to take advantage of Special Dark energy to boost its damage output.

 

Fire Counterattack is Houndoom’s first option, and it’s a bit of an unusual one. For [D] it does 20 damage, but if your opponent has a Fighting Pokémon in play, that is increased to 80! That’s huge for one Energy and might have been good last format when practically every deck played Claydol. Now though, it’s a different story. Sure, you can do big cheap damage against the likes of Machamp and Donphan, but thanks to Weakness, they will just OHKO you right back. Maybe it could be good against a deck which teched Relicanth SV, or an SP deck with Toxicroak G Promo out, but that’s far too situational to be worthwhile most of the time.

 

So, generally, you will want to use Dark Roar, which is still relatively inexpensive with [D][D] getting you 50 damage(not bad, especially with Special Dark) and discarding a card from your opponent’s hand. Unfortunately, your opponent gets to choose the card, so they will do what hurts them least. This limits Houndoom’s effectiveness somewhat.

 

But I’m not giving up on it as easily as that. Maybe it could find a place in a Hand Disruption deck using cards like Weavile UD, Judge, Let Loose Giratina, and Team Rocket’s Trickery to reduce the opponent’s hand and their options. Maybe such a deck might even be viable in a format with no easy draw coming from Claydol . . .

 

 . . . eh, I’m probably deluding myself, which is a sign that it’s time to stop this review!

 

Rating

 

Modified: 3 (ok, ok, knock off .5 for bias)

Limited: 3.5 (cheap attacks will be very good here and Special Dark is in the set)

 

Combos with . . .

 

Giratina PL (Let Loose)

Weavile UD

Judge

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia
Houndoom (HS Undaunted)
 
This card just feels like it came in at the wrong time, with Claydol leaving the format. Damn.
 
Houndoom (the normal version) is dark (yay for the damage boost, fire-type Houndooms are usually terrible), has 90 HP, fighting weakness (get that Donphan out of here!), psychic resistance (goody!) and a retreat cost of 1 to round out the stats. A nice set of stats for a revenge/backup attacker.
 
Houndoom has 2 attacks, both of which are pretty interesting. Fire Revenge is the better of the 2, dealing 20 damage for D with a bonus 60 damage if the opponent has any fighting Pokemon in play. This attack alone would make Houndoom a must-have in a Tyranitar or Dark Flygon deck if Clydol was still usable (and if Weavile SW was still usable, damn the loss of that cool power!), but as it stands Fire Revenge is simply a nice option to return fire (excuse the pun) against Donphan and Machamp after they take out one of your Pokemon. Or for ripping apart Gengar decks that use Relicanth SV.
 
Dark Roar costs DD and deals 50 damage, while forcing your oppoent to choose a crad form their hand to discard. The effect is useless against NinePhlosion decks and any Raindance deck running a Starmie RR, but otherwise a nice interruption and the damage is quite acceptable, considering Houndoom's role.
 
All in all, this is the best non-Prime copy of a card I have seen so far, and while I don't expect to see it around (T-Tar decks took a hit with the loss of Moonlight Stadium and the more important Claydol while no other dark decks exist due to the death of the Weavile/Flygon combo) Houndoom has a home in any dark deck while Donphan and Machamp exist.
 
Modified: 2.5 (good anti-tech potential, but the loss of Claydol and lack of dark decks really pull this great card down)
Limited: 4 (if you can get the energy, you have a real weapon in Houndoom, especially next to the Prime)
Combos with: Hard to say, it really is more of a case of which combos it ruins for your opponent. A good T-Tar deck with the Prime and SF versions that gets around the draw problems would be a good start though. Or a good Umbreon deck (I think Wes just started an evil laughter session).


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