If you are reading this, I forgot to
write an introduction.
Stats
Miscellaneous:
Watchog is a Team Plasma Pokémon,
allowing it to tap their currently
available support.
You can get an idea of what that
amounts to
here; no ratings but a simple
article listing out the Team Plasma
cards, there most basic uses, and if
you’re a very new or recently returning
player, how the Team Plasma affiliation
mechanic works.
Being a Team Plasma Pokémon is useful,
but it isn’t “great”, at least not yet
and there are no drawbacks to being
affiliated with them so better to be
than not to be.
I also will
not be referring to this card as
Watchog [Plasma], but for the
opposite reasons I usually cite; there
is actually another Team Plasma
affiliated
Watchog, released in this same set (BW:
Plasma Storm 113/135).
Context will make it clear if I
am talking about today’s CotD or all
Watchog in general… and they are a
rather homogenous lot so in most cases
even when actually discussing today’s it
can apply to the rest.
How unusual.
Type:
Colorless Pokémon enjoy one noteworthy
card of Type support, and that is
Aspertia City Gym, good for +20 HP.
The good news is that Stadiums
have become more important with the
release of BW: Plasma Storm, and
the bad news is that Stadiums have
become more important with the release
of BW: Plasma Storm;
Virbank City Gym is potent and
popular so while decks will want to run
Stadiums anyway to knock
Virbank City Gym out of play, it can
do the same to the other Stadiums.
This makes it more likely your
opponent can eliminate that bonus while
setting up for do more damage to you, at
least as compared to just a short time
ago.
Offensive (as opposed to Defensive)
Type-Matching doesn’t apply as
Creatures, Inc. seems to have phased it
out and returned to nothing being
Colorless Weak or Resistant.
Stage:
Being a Stage 1 Pokémon is not terrible,
but it isn’t encouraging.
This is a format for big Basic
Pokémon by big Basic Pokémon.
Evolutions see play, but mostly
as Bench-sitters.
They just tend to be too slow to
function as an attacker in a format of
OHKOs and 2HKOs.
Hit Points:
90 HP is small for a Basic, and bad for
a Stage 1.
It doesn’t guarantee
Watchog won’t see play, there have
been successful Stage 1 Pokémon that are
this small:
Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories
40/101) and
Accelgor (BW: Dark Explorers
11/108).
Eelektrik exists purely to power-up
better attackers and tries to swarm and
hide on the Bench; taking out one
Eelektrik usually doesn’t do you
enough good if there are two more still
in play and your Pokémon-EX attacker is
going to be OHKOed next turn.
Accelgor sends itself to the deck.
There is a small benefit to all of this;
Level Ball snags
Watchog (any currently legal
version, actually) and unsurprisingly
all options for
Patrat.
Weakness:
Fighting-Type Weakness is not good; it
isn’t the absolute worst, and with 90 HP
it only matters when you save something
like
Landorus EX (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 89/149, 144/149) can set-up
combos to 2HKO two different copies of
Watchog with its first, inexpensive
Hammerhead attack; first hit the
currently Active copy for 60 (due to
Weakness), then next turn use a
Pokémon Catcher to force the Benched
copy Active and KO both.
That basic combo is quite, quite
simple in the current format.
This is going to save
Fighting-Type Pokémon the extra effort
they could use to KO
Watchog anyway.
Resistance:
Watchog has no Resistance; it
wouldn’t have done it much good and “No
Resistance” has been the default for at
least the Black & White-era of
sets.
I still don’t like it, but
honestly it is appropriate here.
Retreat:
Watchog needs just a single Energy
to retreat; this is pretty easy to pay
and relatively painless for most decks.
One its own, it is good, but less
so when you consider it is a very, very
small Stage 1 Pokémon.
Effects
Attack#1:
Fast Swipe requires (C) and discards a
random card from your opponent’s hand.
This is a decent return for the
Energy.
When considering it is on a 90 HP
Stage 1 Pokémon in a format full of
OHKOs and 2HKOs of larger Pokémon, it
becomes much less impressive.
If we could build a deck where
the opponent’s hand and field were
decimated and even the turn’s draw was
unlikely to replenish the hand, it would
be very useful indeed.
Without such a specific set-up,
this is pretty weak and would be much
better as an attack on an opening
Pokémon that would still need another
effect (and or to be capable of
Evolving).
Attack#2:
Biting Fang does 30 points of damage for
(CC), and if you get “heads” on the
required coin toss for the attack you
score another 20 points of damage for 50
total.
This would be a decent
opening/fall back attack, but
disappoints as the card’s “big” attack.
The return on the Energy would be
solid for a Basic Pokémon that didn’t
further Evolve, but on such a Stage 1 as
this is frankly bad.
Synergy:
The only synergy is perhaps the most
basic of all; the first attack requires
(C) and the second requires (CC), so any
two Energy can power first one then the
other.
When you stop and think for even
a moment, this becomes pretty bad when
you realize that the format is loaded
with Energy acceleration, much of which
this
Watchog can tap; you should seldom
fail to access the second attack
immediately after Evolving into
Watchog in a well made deck.
Usage
Card Family:
Watchog (today’s version and its
set-mage BW: Plasma Storm
113/135), due to their completely
Colorless Energy requirements, could be
fit into any hypothetical Team Plasma
deck.
This card can’t just tap Team
Plasma support, but essentially is a
form of it; if it seemed more promising,
that would be more enticing.
Colress Machine and
Plasma Energy are once again the
only support really worth using.
Though
I would probably derive a somewhat
perverse pleasure in tossing them with
Team Plasma Grunt, it doesn’t make
any of the cards involved “good”.
As for Evolution line, you have six
options for
Patrat: Black & White 77/114,
Black & White 78/114, BW:
Emerging Powers 78/98, BW:
Boundaries Crossed 118/149, BW:
Plasma Storm 110/135, and BW:
Plasma Storm 111/135.
The other
Watchog options total four:
Black& White 79/114, BW: Emerging
Powers 79/98, BW: Boundaries
Crossed 119/149, and BW: Plasma
Storm 113/135.
All
Patrat are Basic, Colorless-Type
Pokémon with Fighting Weakness, no
Resistance, a Retreat score of one and
no Abilities.
Black& White 77/114 has 50
HP and can do 10 points of damage for
(C) or 20 for (CC).
Black & White 78/114 has
60 HP and for (C) can hit for 30, but
requires a coin flip and on “tails” the
attack does nothing at all.
BW: Emerging Powers 78/98
is Black & White 78/114 with
alternate art.
BW: Boundaries Crossed
118/149 has 60 HP and for (C) lets you
look at and rearrange the top three
cards of your deck how you wish.
BW: Plasma Storm 110/135
has 50 HP and can attack for 20 with
just (C), but does 10 points of damage
to itself.
BW:
Plasma Storm 111/135 has 50 HP, can
draw a card for (C) or for (CC) lets you
flip two coins at 20 points of damage
per “heads”.
As usual, all of these are bad and
you’ll only run them if you want to run
a
Watchog.
I would pick one of the 60 HP
versions; 10 more HP might barely save
you from a donk, and the two that do
damage (while unreliable) could
themselves donk something if your deck
also runs the
Virbank City Gym/Hypnotoxic
Laser combo (and odds are decent of
that).
The non-damaging 60 HP
Patrat can hopefully improve your
next draw and give you a heads up on
whether to try and use a “shuffling”
effect before playing anything based on
whatever is on top of your deck… like
draw cards.
The
Watchog all have the same Stats as
today’s version, save only BW: Plasma
Storm 113/135 is a Team Plasma
Pokémon; they all even have two attacks!
For (CC), Black & White
79/114 can automatically confuse the
Defending Pokémon or flip to do 60
points of damage; two attacks that might
as well have been one to make room for
an Ability or actually useful attack.
BW: Emerging Powers 79/98
lets you look at the top five cards of
your opponent’s deck and rearrange them
how you like; might have been a good
Ability but would only be a good attack
on a Basic Pokémon (and even then as an
Evolving Basic).
It does have a slightly better
attack for (CC); you can do a flat 20
points of damage or you can flip a coin
and do zero (tails) or 80 (heads).
BW: Boundaries Crossed
119/149 can do 20 points of damage but
with guaranteed Sleep (annoying but not
overly effective) for (C), or for (CC)
do 30 with an effect that makes the
attack 30 more points of damage the next
turn; interesting but not really
effective since you’ll probably be
OHKOed or something more important
forced up via
Pokémon Catcher (and Benching resets
the effect).
Lastly comes BW: Plasma Storm
113/135 and for (CC) it does 20 points
of damage plus 10 more points for each
damage counter on the Defending Pokémon,
allowing it to finish off anything that
is at least close to half-KOed.
For
(CCC), it can deliver a solid 60 points
of damage; overpriced but at least
fairly easy to hit, all things
considered.
BW: Plasma Storm 113/135
is probably the only one really worth
running, but even that is a long shot
and as such, not much help for today’s
CotD.
Unlimited:
Horribly outclassed here; don’t bother.
Modified:
Horribly outclassed here; don’t bother.
Limited:
Finally a format where today’s
Watchog is worth running (its
set-mate too).
There are two versions of
Patrat (both “Common”) and two
Watchog, one Uncommon (BW: Plasma
Storm 112/135) and “normal” Rare (Black
& White 113/114) but both Team
Plasma Pokémon; this gives strong odds
of pulling a more fleshed out Evolution
line and the benefit of tapping the
set’s Team Plasma support.
Its low HP, while still not good,
isn’t as bad here and the attacks are
much, much better (for all four cards)
because of less competition and the
increased importance of working well in
a deck using multiple basic Energy
Types.
Future:
Horribly outclassed here; not even the
pending Team Plasma support we know of
should help it, and in fact having more
Team Plasma Pokémon actually gives you
even less reason to need it!
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary
The only place where you should use this
Watchog is in Limited, and even then
it benefits heavily from everything
else.
This card would make for a decent
Patrat, but makes for a lousy
Watchog.
