|
virusyosh |
Welcome back, everyone! The HS Undaunted prereleases
are finally here, and that means that we can finally
start reviewing more cards from the new set. Today's
Card of the Day is a new rare card, Gliscor.
Gliscor is a Stage 1 Fighting Pokemon. While Stage 1s
generally aren't used that often unless they have
massive HP and a good attack (like Gyarados and Donphan),
a few others have been playable if they have great
effects (like Claydol). 90 HP certainly isn't winning
any defensive awards, as that's about average for a
Stage 1. Double Water Weakness is also not very fun, as
Kingdra, Gyarados, and and the occasional Rain Dance
deck will make quick work of Gliscor. Lightning
Resistance, however, is excellent. Finally, Gliscor has
a Retreat Cost of 1, which is easily payable.
Gliscor has two attacks. The first, Ninja Fang, does
a fairly decent 30 damage for [F] and then if your
opponent hasn't been damaged yet, automatically
paralyzes them. Paralysis is generally an awesome
Special Condition, and anything that automatically
paralyzes is excellent. This attack works well then in a
stalling deck, where the opponent can be hit for 30 and
paralyzed during one turn and then be finished off by
Poison Jab or Gliscor Lv. X's Night Slash on the next
turn. However, there is one major problem with Special
Conditions: Your opponent can simply just Switch/Warp
Point/Super Scoop Up/Poke Turn/whatever to remove the
Pokemon or condition, making the strategy useless.
The second attack, Poison Jab, does 50 damage and
automatically poisons for [FCC]. Automatic poison is
nice, but 50 damage for 3 is very expensive, even if you
are getting the Poison condition as well. If you want to
straight up Poison something, use Crobat Prime or even
Skuntank G.
Modified: 2.25/5 A while back there were a few crazy
Gliscor Lv. X/Flygon Lv. X stall decks around, and this
particular Gliscor would fit pretty well in one of
those, with its ability to Paralyze undamaged Pokemon.
However, I don't know how viable such a deck would be in
the current metagame, as it requires quite a bit of
setup.
Limited: 3/5 Gliscor is pretty good here. 30 damage
for a single Energy is great, and the Paralysis makes
Ninja Fang even better. Even Poison Jab is pretty good
in this format, as it is much harder to retreat your
Pokemon.
|
Mad Mattezhion
Professor Bathurst League Australia |
Gliscor (HS Undaunted)
Damn, with the new set name I'm gonna have to start
calling Unleashed UL like everyone else. Oh well, what
acronym will we use for this exciting new expansion? I
vote UD to keep with the theme.
We start the week with Gliscor (sorry I'm a little late)
and it is a very nice card I was able to use at a
prerelease. Let's see if it will as much fun in a
Modified deck.
We get 90 HP with water weakness, lightning resistance
(oh hell yeah!) and a retreat cost of 1, so it has less
survivability than the other Gliscor occasionally seen
in Modified. However, Gliscor isn't a tank anyway so it
isn't much of a downside.
The attacks are the great part of this card. We start
with the appropriately named Ninja Fang, which deals 30
for F and causes auto-paralysis if you hit an undamaged
Pokemon. Obviously this is awesome, but it is somewhat
less brilliant in Modified due to the ease of removing
Special Conditions (though Paralysis is definitely the
best of the Conditions available). The real problem is
that Gliscor lacks a signiicant second attack with which
to take advantage of Ninja Fang's stall. Instead we get
Poison Jab, which Poisons the opponent and deals 50
damage for FCC, which is frankly underwhelming. A much
more useful but still balanced attack would have costs
FC and done something along the lines of 20 base damage
with bonus damage for damage counters already on the
opponent's Active Pokemon. Sadly, the bad design of the
second attack means Gliscor will never do more than a
quick stall, which is not enough to justify using a
Stage 1 Pokemon in a deck nowadays. However, it will
look so pretty in the binder, holding a Razor Fang in
it's claw.
Modified: 2 (it may fit into a Gliscor Lock deck, but it
probably will be forgotten and pushed out by it's LA and
Lv X brethren)
Limited: 4 (Ninja Fang is the bomb here!)
Combos with: Gliscor Lv X |
