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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Umbreon #60

Dark Explorers

Date Reviewed: June 14, 2012

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.67
Limited: 3.50

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: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Umbreon #60 (Dark Explorers)

Our last Eeveelution for the week is one of two Umbreon from the Dark Explorers set. I’ve always felt that Umbreon was the coolest looking of the Eeveelutions – partly because he’s a Dark Type, but mainly it’s because he just seems to have the nicest proportions of all of them.

Being a Stage 1 in this format is not a good thing, given that Basics are so incredibly powerful and well supported right now, and Stage 2s (with Rare Candy) are just as fast. 100 HP isn’t going to impress many players, and neither is that Retreat cost of two or the Fighting Weakness. Being a Dark Type, Umbreon does get some great support from Dark Claw and Dark Patch, but that doesn’t mean a thing unless he has attacks that can make the most of it.

The first, Shadow Drain, cost two Energy of any Colour (or a DCE) and does just 30 damage. It also has the effect of healing the same amount of damage from Umbreon as you just did to the Defending Pokémon. With a Dark Claw and Special Dark Energy, this means you could be hitting and healing for up to 70, but that is a really poor return for the investment of so many important cards. When a Pokémon has just 100 HP, healing strategies tend to become irrelevant anyway because the risk of OHKO is so great. Even if your opponent’s Pokémon can’t knock him out in one hit, Shadow Drain is going to be unlikely to save Umbreon from the 2 hit KO he was going to suffer anyway, especially as the damage output is too low to seriously threaten another attacker.

This leaves Umbreon with his second attack, Slashing Strike. For one Dark and two Colourless Energy, this does 80 points of vanilla damage. Again, you could boost that to 100-130 with Dark Claw and Special Dark, which would make it decent in terms of damage output, but too costly in terms of what you are having to attach to get it. Slashing Strike is such a mediocre attack that I don’t understand why they felt the need to give it a drawback – it cannot be used on consecutive turns. Oh well, it’s not like Umbreon would likely survive long enough for that to become an issue anyway.

As far as Dark attackers are concerned, this Umbreon is a long way down the pecking order. Darkrai-EX stands miles above everything else of course, but even Zoroark DEX and BLW, the Honchkrows from UD, and Mandibuzz BLW are better than this. Even when it comes to Umbreon himself, the other version from DEX and the UD one with Moonlight Fang are both superior (but still not good). Play him at Prerelease by all means: there’s Dark support in the set, and his healing effect could be useful in a low damage environment. When it comes to modified tournaments however, leave Umbreon in the binder.

Rating

Modified: 1.75 (Unnecessary restrictions on the second attack make a weak Pokémon even weaker than it needed to be)

Limited: 4 (can hang around for a bit and make use of those Dark Trainers)

virusyosh

Hello hello, Pojo readers! Today we're continuing our reviews of more Eeveelutions from Dark Explorers. Today's Card of the Day is Umbreon (#60).
 
Umbreon is a Stage 1 Darkness Pokemon. Darkrai-EX is by far the most commonly played Dark-type, and it has been paired with other Dark Pokemon (like Zoroark and Sableye) or more commonly without (Tornadus-EX, Klinklang). Dark-types also got all sorts of new support in Dark Explorers, so Umbreon can make great use of Dark Patch and Dark Claw. 100 HP is decent for a Stage 1, allowing Umbreon to take an unboosted hit before going down, but still falling to most of the metagame's common heavy hitters like Zekrom and the aforementioned Tornadus-EX. Fighting Weakness means that Terrakion easily lands the OHKO, Psychic Resistance makes Mewtwo less of a pain, and a Retreat Cost of 2 is payable if you absolutely have to.
 
Umbreon has two attacks. Shadow Drain deals a paltry 30 damage for two Colorless Energy, although it does heal Umbreon equal to the amount of damage done to the Defending Pokemon. This is an attack that will be relegated to seeing use only in Limited, as 30 damage is very weak for Modified's high power level. The healing can be nice in Limited though, keeping Umbreon alive for much longer than it normally would. Slashing Strike is Umbreon's second move, dealing 80 damage for a Darkness and two Colorless, with the added effect of not being able to use the attack next turn. 80 damage for three Energy isn't terrible, but the effect is somewhat of a dealbreaker in Modified (though Darkrai tends to outshine Umbreon in this format, anyway). Slashing Strike is usable in Limited, doing strong, reliable (if not consistent) damage, but the effect is still disappointing.
 
Modified: 1.5/5 Umbreon doesn't do enough to merit play here. Darkrai, Zoroark, and other Darkness-types will see lots of play here first.
 
Limited: 3/5 Umbreon isn't so bad in Limited. Shadow Drain is a decent attack with Colorless Energy requirements, and Slashing Strike deals decent damage when you can use it. Just be sure to watch out for Fighting-types.


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