We have a Reviewer’s Choice CotD for
you, and my choice is EX: Deoxys 51/107,
Weezing!
I chose it in part because it was
part of one of my favorite decks,
Liability (named after its first
attack).
There were multiple versions of
the deck, and recall one doing well
(possibly going undefeated) at the
Grinder before Worlds one of the formats
in which
Weezing was legal.
The deck it ran in requires a lot
of outside-the-box thinking and that is
the other reason I chose it.
Normally I start with a Pokémon’s stats
and then do its effects, but this is a
card that makes more sense if we work
backwards.
This
Weezing has a good stalling attack
called
Smogscreen for (GC) that does 20
points of damage, Poisons the Defending
Pokémon, and that Defending Pokémon you
just hit has to flip a coin if it tries
to attack
Weezing next turn.
If it gets “tails” the attack
does nothing.
Of course the effect can be
removed in the usual ways of Evolving,
Devolving or sending either Pokémon to
the Bench.
Thanks to
Double Rainbow Energy being legal,
Wally’s Training or
Rare Candy (since it was the old
wording) you could even get this out and
attacking your first turn (if you went
second).
It is still a good attack for the
price, though was a little better back
then, but it was just the icing on the
cake.
The real deal was Liability as I
mentioned in my opening paragraph.
Liability reduced the Defending
Pokémon to 10 HP and did 70 to
Weezing itself.
Yes, this usually resulted in a
self-inflicted KO while your opponent’s
Pokémon survived, but as I’ll get to
there were some combos that made it so
this wasn’t the case.
Even as a “doomsday” option this
wasn’t too bad since seriously, against
a wise target (say a Stage 2 Pokémon
loaded with Energy) it is difficult to
recover and you can probably finish it
off next turn.
Even in modern Modified you’d
basically have to try a
Super Scoop Up and hope for heads,
or drop a
Switch and burn your
Seeker use for the turn.
With proper timing, even that is
worth a Stage 1 Pokémon and a single
Energy.
So what about the rest of the card?
Weezing was a Stage 1 Pokémon as
usual, and since this was before the
video game Poison-Type was shifted to
the Psychic-Type, it was also a
Grass-Type Pokémon, and this was to its
benefit due to making it naturally combo
with some important cards.
Weezing only had 70 HP but as I
outlined above, the card was designed so
as not to need much HP, rendering it a
minor problem instead of a debilitating
problem.
Back then the Psychic Weakness
could be a problem but wasn’t crippling,
but it still a problem despite the
suicidal approach of the card.
I would have loved Resistance but
alas, it had none.
Likewise a single Energy Retreat
Cost was great but boy would the deck
have loved it to have had a free Retreat
Cost: there were times when I couldn’t
afford that single Energy!
So what is the rest of this combo/deck?
To stat with, let us look at
Koffing.
While not the only option, the
Koffing from EX: Deoxys (card
number 62/107) was a natural fit because
for (G) it could automatically inflict
Poison, setting up for Liability next
turn if your opponent didn’t shake it.
This
Koffing had 50 HP and otherwise the
same stats as
Weezing.
The meat of the deck was that
Weezing co-existed with several
cards that could KO the opponent
between turns via an effect.
You could use
Victreebel (EX: FireRed/LeafGreen
17/112),
Exploud ex (EX: Crystal Guardians
92/100),
Weezing (EX: Delta Species 33/113),
Desert Ruins (EX: Hidden Legends
88/101),
Cursed Stone (EX: Legend Maker
72/92).
Looking at those cards, you’ll
find they all placed damage counters on
either the Active Pokémon or a class of
Pokémon (Pokémon ex, Pokémon with Poké-Powers,
Poké-Bodies, etc.).
They were not all used in the
same deck of course: usually you packed
something general like the
Victreebel (it placed damage
counters on the opponent’s Active
Pokémon between turns) alongside some of
the Stadiums.
There were also Pokémon that
could Poison via a Poké-Power but the
only one I recall having any success
with (limited as it was) would have been
Vileplume δ (EX: Holon Phantoms
17/110).
Unfortunately its Poké-Power
required a successful coin toss and so
the other methods were usually more
reliable even if it required a diverse
deck.
There were a few tricks to allow
Weezing to survive using Liability,
but usually you wanted it to fall so you
could bring up something like
Victreebel.
If you did want it to survive, I
remember two cards that were sometimes
used:
Low Pressure System (reprinted as
OP Series 3 11/17) for an extra 10
HP or
Energy Root (EX: Unseen Forces
83/115) as the drawbacks didn’t matter
for
Weezing.
If you are wondering
Energy Root shut off Poké-Bodies/Poké-Powers
on the equipped Pokémon, and couldn’t be
used on Pokémon-ex or those with “Dark”
in their name.
This generally worked best when
using something that didn’t need to be
Active for the final damage counter, of
course.
The other huge boon to the deck was
cards that rewarded you for having more
Prize cards left than your opponent.
This was recently revisited by
some modern cards, but they pale in
comparison to what we had back then:
Pow! Hand Extension (EX: Team
Rocket Returns 85/109),
Rocket’s Admin. (EX: Team Rocket
Returns 86/109),
Solid Rage (EX: Unseen Forces
92/115), and
Scramble Energy (multiple printings,
originally EX: Deoxys 95/107).
Solid Rage was the least of these
and quite frankly all of the rest were
brilliant, though I suppose
Pow! Hand Extension or
Scramble Energy was best.
Now put this all together.
There were generally three plans
of attack once the game actually began.
If your opponent failed to get a
second Pokémon in play, you could go for
broke and a second/third-turn donk.
Normally I would consider such a
tactic cheap but by that point it meant
your opponent was playing foolishly,
built a bad deck, or just had rotten
luck (and what’s the difference between
taking full advantage of that kind of
bad luck versus another?).
If your opponent played poorly,
you might push to KO something (through
a Liability Combo) and seek to dominate
in a more traditional manner.
Most of the time, though, you’d
intentionally let your opening Pokémon
aide your set-up but get KO’d first,
then assault them with come from behind
cards while carefully timing your deck
to jump from being behind a Prize to
being ahead a Prize.
How could you do that?
This was the era of Pokémon-ex:
few decks lacked them and those Pokémon
were worth two Prizes a pop and often
vulnerable to the more specialized
damage counter placement cards,
including an easy to run Stadium (Desert
Ruins).
Liability decks were not especially easy
to run but they were fun and I honestly
believe the reason they didn’t win any
significant major events is that for
whatever reason, most skilled players
seemed to avoid them.
Even if it did go undefeated at a
pre-World’s Grinder (and I am fairly
certain it did), I can understand why
many people would avoid it: most of the
time you were engaged in “controlled
losing”.
Still this is the kind of
creative thinking you need when trying
to create a powerful rogue deck.
For the record, the card is almost
totally useless in Unlimited play: much
as I love it so many Pokémon can just go
for a OHKO instead.
It was wonderful for Limited
play, since it only required one
Grass Energy to run, was an Uncommon
that Evolve from a Common, the usual
lower average HP/lower average damage
for the format, and both attacks were
great here.
Smogscreen could stall quite well
without Trainers or Evolutions getting
in the way, and you could either lead
into the Poison/Liability combo with it.
Liability could also just be used
as a crazy deathblow, though you either
had to send up something else as a meat
shield or give your opponent a free shot
at your next attacker.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – No point to the combo here.
Modified:
N/A - I’d put it at a 3.25/5 if legal,
and back in the day I’d have… well
probably overrated it but it deserved a
3.75/5.
Limited:
4.75/5 – Too bad it’s so expensive to
experience this now.
Summary
Weezing
was a fascinating card that required
creative thinking and combos to bring
about brutal not-quite-OHKOs.
Check out my
eBay auctions!
Pojo is in no way responsible for
any transactions, though.
