Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Accelgor
(Plasma Blast)
The Accelgor from Dark
Explorers was a scary combo card that could repeatedly
lock with Paralysis and it went on to win US Nationals.
This Accelgor is a weak and
gimmicky combo card that will go on to win precisely
nothing whatsoever.
The combo it tries to set up involves the equally
useless (in both legal versions)
Escavalier. Assuming an
Escavalier gets KO’d by damage on the previous
turn, then Accelgor can leap
into action with its mighty Retribution attack and do
a whole 20 damage while
returning all Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon
to your opponent’s hand. Now I’m not denying that that
can be useful (though it’s not going to bother someone
playing Blastoise or any
cheap attacker), but it certainly isn’t worth playing
Escavalier for. Even if it
was, the opponent could play around it by knocking out
Escavalier with Poison from
Hypnotoxic Laser, or simply
opt not to attack it at all and KO the
Accelgor instead.
Take away the silly combo (yes, please take it away) and
Accelgor merely becomes a
low HP Stage 1 with a couple of cheap but low damage
attacks . . . and we all know how useful something like
that is in this format (clue: not useful at all).
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (rubbish gimmick card)
Limited: 3 (eh, cheap attacks are still decent here)
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virusyosh |
Hello once again, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing
a new version of a Pokemon that saw quite a bit of play
last format. Will this one see as much play as its
predecessor? (Probably not.) Today's Card of the Day is
Accelgor from Plasma Blast.
Accelgor is a Stage 1 Grass Team Plasma Pokemon. As a
Grass-type, Accelgor shares a type with Virizion-EX and
Genesect-EX, both of which are going to be somewhat
common in the Modified metagame; that being said,
Accelgor probably won't be sharing a deck with them. As
a Team Plasma Pokemon, Accelgor gets to take advantage
of Team Plasma support, so it can be searched out by
things like Team Plasma Ball, recovered with Shadow
Triad, and take advantage of things like Reversal
Trigger. 80 HP is about what we've come to expect from a
Stage 1, and this is a rather unimpressive value that
means Accelgor will likely be OHKO'd by many of the
metagame's common threats; therefore, Accelgor will have
to do something spectacular in its limited field time
for it to see some play. Fire Weakness isn't a major
problem at the moment; no Resistance is unfortunate but
not unexpected; but a free Retreat Cost is the best you
can have, and is always very beneficial and important.
Accelgor has two attacks. Retribution starts off at 20
damage for a single Colorless Energy, but bounces all of
the Defending Pokemon's Energy if you had an Escavalier
that was Knocked Out by damage from an opponent's attack
last turn. 20 for a single Energy isn't bad, and the
additional effect is fantastic when you can get it, but
the only time you'll likely be playing Accelgor and
Escavalier together is in Limited. That being said, 20
damage is not nearly powerful enough to merit use in
Modified, so hopefully the second attack will be better.
Signal Beam isn't a great improvement, dealing 30 damage
for a Grass and a Colorless while also Confusing the
Defending Pokemon. Automatic Confusion is nice, but
since your opponent will likely be able to simply switch
out of it in Modified, the utility is somewhat lost. On
the other hand, this attack is very disruptive for
Limited, where it should go a long way to frustrate your
opponent (or at least make them sweat a little bit with
coin flips).
Modified: 1.5/5 Accelgor's first attack is cute, but far
too narrow to see any widespread use. In addition,
Accelgor has low HP and weak attacks, making it a
suspect choice for Modified at best.
Limited: 4/5 Free retreat, cheap attacks, and built-in
disruption make Accelgor a great Limited Pokemon.
Retribution's secondary effect won't come into play all
that often, but at least Plasma Blast Escavalier is
somewhat playable, too. Signal Beam's light on damage
output, but the automatic Confusion is a great asset for
any Limited build. If you are running Grass and manage
to pick up an Accelgor line or two, putting them into
your deck is usually a great idea.
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