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The
fundraiser
that originally led me to come back to CotDs is still
going on due to some odd circumstances, but hopefully
will be more or less finished soon. As such I can’t
justify spending as long as I usually do on CotDs. This
week I have tried to condense my writing process; it
still isn’t as concise as some, but it is shorter than
what I normally write. Hopefully the quality is
undiminished; I just left out some of the less poignant
or redundant details, including ditching most of my
formatting (though I liked that formatting). Also,
should the announcement for when and what sets will be
rotated occur this week, it hasn’t at the time of
writing.
We begin this week looking at Meowstic (XY:
Flashfire 43/106). Pyroar (XY: Flashfire
20/106) has confirmed its perceived standing within the
competitive scene thanks to its strong U.S. Nationals
showing; at least in the short run decks will need a way
to deal with Intimidating Mane and for many the easiest
route is running an Evolution. This has gotten many
Evolutions a second glance and a first or second chance
at seeing some real play, but being an Evolution is
still a drawback when compared to being a Basic Pokémon;
the resource and pacing difference is still too great.
Being a Psychic-Type does little for Meowstic, at
least in standard; hitting for double damage will only
matter on occasion (more on that when we get to the
attacks) and the only real Type support is Gardevoir
(BW: Next Destinies 57/99; BW: Dark Explorers
109/108) which doesn’t see much play. You will
occasionally get stuck with Resistance, but again, it
probably won’t matter much for how you should use this
Pokémon. Its 90 HP makes it very vulnerable the average
deck should OHKO it without its potentially problematic
Psychic Weakness, and sadly while it may run into
Psychic Resistance, it possesses no Resistance of its
own. At least it has a single Energy Retreat Cost; easy
to pay, though most decks will probably zero it out or
use an alternative to manually retreating, anyway.
Its first attack is the one that gives it hope, even
though I dismissed it completely at first. Ear
Influence is an attack that allows you to move around
the damage counters on your opponent’s side of the field
as you wish. While this does not additional damage, if
used correctly you can simultaneously earn Prizes while
disrupting (possibly crippling) your opponent’s set-up.
The second attack is Psychic, requiring a hefty (PPP)
to use and only hitting for 60 points of base damage,
with another 10 per Energy attached to the Defending
Pokémon. This attack has a long history with the TCG,
appearing on cards in the original Base Set. It
pales in comparison to Mewtwo-EX and its X-Ball
or Yveltal-EX and its Evil Ball, but if you can
power it up, it might do some serious damage. For its
cost, you would expect it to hit a lot harder than it
does; instead of upping the base damage, perhaps 20 or
even 30 per Energy attached.
I had written this card off until Pooka showed off a
Youtube video about a deck built around Gourgeist
(XY 57/146) and Garbodor (BW: Dragons
Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116;
BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113). Garbotoxin slows
down opponent’s by denying them access to Abilities but
also prevents you from using your own, like Sinister
Hand, the Ability on Dusknoir (BW: Boundaries
Crossed 63/149; BW: Plasma Blast 14/101).
There is also the slight advantage of being a Stage 1
versus a Stage 2 (and a Level Ball friendly one
at that). I don’t know if it can truly cut it as a
“competitive” deck, but it certainly looks fun. Meowstic
also comes in the “Mystic Typhoon” Theme Deck that
released with XY: Flashfire. Unfortunately it is
another “meh” Theme deck when compared to several
others, though not the worst. Being so easy to get also
makes it more appealing for Casual play, though finding
a good source of spread damage may be difficult on a
budget.
Ratings
Standard:
3/5 - Thanks to Pooka, I’ve seen how this can work, but
I am not convinced it works well enough to do
significantly well on the tournament scene, though I
will be pleased if it does. It is also the weak link in
its deck; Gourgeist and Garbodor still do
their thing without the other two.
Limited:
3/5 - Ear Influence can be great if there is already
damage on the board. Psychic is very demanding. If you
can afford to run at least a few basic Psychic Energy,
I believe there is a good enough chance that Ear
Influence can be used to good effect, though with the
standard issues of Limited, it may not show up at the
right time to be used or used well.
Theme Decks:
3/5 - As with Limited, though here you almost wonder
what happened; the Mystic Typhoon Theme Deck is one of
the many that feels like two unrelated decks were
stripped of all but a few key Pokémon, Trainers, and
basic Energy and smooshed together, with semi-random
Pokémon and Trainers added in to make-up the difference
in card count.
Casual:
4/5 - A very enjoyable card that can pull of some
amazing plays (and wins) and is fairly available, though
what it needs to pull of said plays might be harder to
come by.
Summary:
Overall Meowstic is a good card that might have
been great with a different second attack or an Ability
in place of said second attack. If you’ve got a good
way to spread damage counters but Dusknoir
doesn’t work, this might be the card for you… especially
if you don’t need to move damage counters around all the
time, but probably just once or twice.
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