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Scolipede (Emerging Powers)
Today is the evolution to yesterday's card, the
world's meanest Bug Poke'mon. Scolipede is back with a
second printing, which at first glance is an improvement
over its predecessor.
Scolipede is a Psychic type Stage 2 with 140 HP,
Psychic Weakness, a retreat cost of 2 and two attacks.
The HP is 10 lower than the last printing but is
still respectable and the Weakness is nowhere near as
terrible as it used to be. The retreat cost is lower
than I expected and can be payed if you have to,
although Scolipede would benefit from having Switch or
Metagross UL in your deck.
Since the stats are high enough to make Scolipede a
nasty foe, it's in with a chance provided the attacks
can deliver.
Toxic Claws is a good start, although I will admit I
have a pro-bias towards anything that will inflict
Poison with more than 1 damage counter in between turns.
For [p][c] you deal 30 damage (a poor return at the
Stage 2 level) and you inflict auto-Poison which places
2 damage counters in between turns instead of 1 (much
better). However, inflicting Poison is only helpful if
you have a second attack that brings the pain against
the Bench (either to hit the wounded Poke'mon that has
been switched out, or to take out soft targets while the
Posion eats away at the opposing attacker).
Wild Horn is nothing of the sort, being a flippy
attack that only does damage against the Active Poke'mon.
Specifically, it costs [p][c][c] and deals 50 damage
plus 2 coin flips, adding 20 damage for each Heads. An
average of 70 damage for 3 energy on a Stage 2 is
absolutely abysmal, and even the maximum damage of 90
isn't going to make the cut
If Toxic Claws was cheaper (say [p] just to inflict
the double Posion) and Wild horn was something along the
lines of "Discard 2 energy. Choose 3 of your opponent's
Poke'mon. This attack does 50 damage to each of them"
then we might have had a contender, using Jirachi UL/CL
and Mismagius UL to recover the necessary energy to use
multiple attacks. Instead, we get a clearly inferior
version of Crobat Prime, which is powerful but remains
supremely outgunned bY the other snipers in this format.
Until we get a Trainer (Item, Supporter, Stadium or
otherwise) that stops your opponent switching out for a
turn, Posion and the other Special Conditions will
remain as nothing more than a useful annoyance employed
by used up Techs and small Poke'mon waiting to evolve.
Modified: 2.5 (decent survivability is ruined by a
complete lack of properly offensive attacks, although I
still think Posion is the best Special Condition)
Limited: 4 (if you can set Scolipede up then Toxic
Claws will spell doom for your opponent)
Combos with: a phone call to the exterminators to get
this Bug the heck out of your garden!
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