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Hello once again! It's aroramage here with another
card review! Today we'll be looking at Dusknoir from the
new Flashfire set!
Now Dusknoir here is probably one of the more unique
cards out there today. Its ability and attack both
revolve around damage manipulation, where instead of
dealing regular damage through attacks he moves around
damage counters on the field, like Alakazam from the
days of Base Set and more recently with cards like
Reuniclus (BLW). It's a very Psychic-type strategy
that's lived throughout the years, so let's take a look
and see if Dusknoir's powers are worthwhile:
"Shadow Void: As often as you like during your turn
(before your attack), you may move 1 damage counter from
1 of your Pokemon to this Pokemon."
So right away we're hit with an ability reminiscent
of Base Set Alakazam's Damage Swap. There are some
crucial differences though; for starters, the damage
counters can only move to Dusknoir and not a bulkier
Pokemon. Granted, Dusknoir has 130 HP, so that's already
120 damage that can be moved to him. Not too shabby,
huh?
But it only gets better with his Pain Pellets attack.
After you've stacked up a lot of damage on him (and
given him at least 3 energy, one of which is Psychic),
you can fire off a blast against any opposing Pokemon
for an equal amount to the damage put on Dusknoir!
That's 120 damage to any Pokemon of your choosing!
"Wow! That sounds really neat!" you might say. "I
should start running Dusknoir in my deck too!"
Well, here's the thing. Dusknoir is a Stage 2 Pokemon,
for starters, which means you're gonna need to pack in
Duskull (who also has a way of putting damage on Pokemon)
and either run Dusclops and Evosoda for theming (which I
don't recall that being a thing nowadays) or just skip
straight to Dusknoir with Rare Candy (which you're
matching to your Duskull/Dusknoir count). That'd be
great and all, but that's at least 9-12 cards you're
running, which is a sizable portion of the 60-card deck
you're carrying. Keep that in mind with whatever else
you'd be running to support Dusknoir - or that Dusknoir
would be supporting.
The other thing is that this is a fairly expensive
attack, and the damage is directly tied to Dusknoir's
health. Chances are if you're not KO-ing something with
his attack - and let's face it, 120 is only so much
damage to Pokemon nowadays - you're losing a Prize to
the opponent for it. This may be where a Life Dew is
useful - you deal a lot of damage, and instead of losing
a Prize you break even or even +1 on the KO. Keeping in
mind that would be using an Ace Spec card on one of your
lesser attackers - Dusknoir really shouldn't be the main
offensive force you've got.
Some better alternatives for Dusknoir's Ability would
be to use it in tandem with cards like Max Potion and
the more recent Super Potion. Since he wouldn't be up at
the front anyway, keeping Dusknoir back and having him
soak up all the damage from your other Pokemon while
using these recovery items - which you no longer risk
losing energy to their effects since Dusknoir doesn't
requite energy for its Ability - to remove the damage
entirely. Suddenly all your Pokemon are immortal!...or
at least until you run out of Potions.
Dusknoir falls short of some of the other great
support Stage 2s like the energy accelerators (Blastoise
(PLB) and Emboar (LTR)). He's good for one thing, but
it's not something that will push you through to the
finals of a tournament. But in casual play, he might
just help you out.
...well, unless you're going up against Pokemon-EX-waaaaait
a minute...
Rating
Modified: 2.5/5
Limited: 3/5 (probably better here, except when you
run into a Pokemon-EX)
Arora Notealus: Reaching out his hand for the lost
souls he guides. What a trooper.
Next time: Claws for days!
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