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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Aggron #1/102

HS Triumphant

Date Reviewed: Nov. 24, 2010

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.75
Limited: 2.75

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

Aggron (Triumphant)

 

There’s never any messing around with an Aggron card: you pretty much know what you are going to get right out of the pack: a big tank-y Pokémon with massively expensive attacks and a horrific Retreat cost. The question is: is there any way such a Pokémon can be made to work?

 

This Aggron sure has that tank quality: 140 HP, and a Metal Type (meaning access to the damage-reduction effect of Special Metal). Psychic Resistance is pretty good too, making this a tough KO for common attackers like Gengar and Uxie LV X. The Fire Weakness may or may not be a problem: Blaziken FB is seeing a bit more play these days, but Aggron is tough enough to even withstand a OHKO from that Pokémon under the right circumstances. The Retreat cost is four: is that horrific enough for you?

 

Aggron comes with two expensive attacks. The first, Second Strike, costs [M][M][C]. That is somewhat annoying, as it won’t work with Double Colourless (which would speed things up a little). It also conflicts with the Energy needs of the second attack which CAN use a DCE. As Second Strike only does 40 damage, or 80 if Aggron has any damage counters on it, making it DCE-compatible would not have been in any way broken. That’s poor card design in my book.

 

Guard Claw, Aggron’s other attack, is much more appealing. We have seen this type of ‘reduce damage by 20 next turn’ attack before, and it has even seen some moderate success in Garchomp SV decks. Aggron’s version is much more expensive, costing [M][M][C][C], but is actually a lot better. For a start, it does 60 damage (as opposed to Garchomp’s 40). For another thing, it has great synergy with Aggron’s type: stick a couple of Special Metals and an Expert Belt on this thing and you will have a 160 HP beast dishing out 80 per turn and reducing any damage done to it by 40. That means even a Fire Pokémon will need to do 100 base damage for the OHKO. Combine it with healing cards (Blissey PL, Nidoqueen RR, PokeHealer+), and your non-Fire playing opponent will have a serious headache getting rid of this thing.

 

So . . . is all that enough to make this Aggron a contender? Sadly (because I do like the card), I suspect not. The attacks are extremely costly and slow (even if you can get some acceleration with Lairon UD’s flippy attack), it’s vulnerable to Status Conditions (watch Crobat G Toxic Fang it to death), and many SP decks will just snipe around it while Poke Turning anything that Aggron damages (seeing as it is unable to OHKO anything apart from Basics).

 

That said, throw this together with Spiritomb AR (to slow the opponent down), a few Twins and Black Belt (for when you go behind in Prizes), and maybe even a Skarmory UD to help with the Energy, and you have a deck that is fun, league-viable, and will at least surprise your opponents. For actual competitive play, though, I consider the even tougher and harder-hitting Steelix Prime to be the better choice.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 2.5 (too slow for this format . . . which is a shame because it does have its good points)

Limited: 3 (well, if you get it out, it will be very hard to KO . . . but Stage 2s aren’t that easy to use here)

conical

11/24/10: Aggron(Triumphant)
 
Before we cease COTD reviews early this week for Thanksgiving, we review a Pokemon that to my knowledge, has received absolutely no love from anyone.
 
At this point, it's way too easy to dismiss a new Aggron as a heavy-energy attacker for dismal damage, and leave it at that. This one doesn't seem much different at first glance, what with its four-energy attack for 60 damage. And yet, that four-energy attack is what could make Aggron playable someday.
 
Guard Claw seems really basic, and it is: 60 damage and reduce 20 damage to yourself. However, another Pokemon shares the same attack: Garchomp SV, an often overlooked card, possibly due to how basic Guard Claw seemed, but more likely because with Garchomp C also in Supreme Victors, it was the 2nd best Garchomp in the set. Nevertheless, despite its obscurity, it made Top 8 at US Nationals. Its strategy was simple; Guard Claw with a Nidoqueen on the Bench to heal, slowly whittling down the opponent and using Garchomp's second attack whenever necessary. Now, Guard Claw has been printed, now doing more damage, on a card with 20 more HP, and the ability to abuse Special Metal Energy to defend further...with the drawbacks of a four-energy retreat cost, a less damaging second attack, and two more metal energies in its attack cost. Here lies the problem.

Unfortunately, not even Garchomp may be playable after Claydol rotated; though, no one played it despite its success, so who knows. In this format, however, Aggron might be the better choice; it doesn't need to run Nidoqueen because Special Metals help Aggron about the same, only with less setup. It has some very real problems with speed, especially in this format, but I'd say it's the best Metal-type tank in the format...except Steelix. And Scizor. And Dialga G. And Metagross UD, whom I've already written about. Still, I feel comfortable ranking Aggron TRI no less than the fifth-best Metal -type tank in the format.
 
Modified: 3/5(I'm overrating here, but I feel that it's necessary.)
Limited: 2.5/5
Combos With: Skarmory UD


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