Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
#6 Blacksmith
We end the week, and the first half of our top 10
countdown, with a look at Blacksmith. It’s a bit of an
odd one this as I don’t remember a Blacksmith featuring
in any of the games, but here he is with his very own
Supporter.
It’s quite an unusual Supporter too, as it is devoted to
Energy acceleration for Fire Pokémon only, letting you
attach two Fire Energy from your discard to one Fire
Pokémon. Is this a good thing? Certainly, especially
considering how Fire Pokémon tend
to have massive Energy costs (Charizard)
and like to discard that Energy when they attack (also
Charizard, but
Reshiram and
Blaziken do it too). Is it
Supporter
good though? After all, the opportunity cost of using a
card like Blacksmith is missing out on a draw Supporter
for that turn.
Luckily, Fire decks have ways to compensate for that
too. Fiery Torch (which we may or may not be reviewing
next week) is one way, and another would be
Delphox XY with its Mystical
Fire Ability. If it weren’t for these cards (especially
Fiery Torch) I would hesitate to even call Blacksmith
playable. With them in the format though, this card
provides excellent support for present and future Fire
decks. It’s not quite Dark Patch for Fire Pokémon, but
it’s not too far off.
Rating
Modified: 3.5 (nice with Charizard
and Pyroar now,
may combo with other things
in future)
Limited: 3.75 (if you have Fire Pokémon then play it)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
6. Blacksmith.
Unlimited 150 review.
Fire decks are some of the easiest to put together in this format,
there’s just so many good cards to choose from! If you
want an alternative to Claydol then there’s Ninetales
(HGSS) which draws 3 cards in exchange for discarding 1
Fire energy. To recycle these Fire energy you then have
Blaziken (Ruby & Sapphire) or Typhlosion (Mysterious
Treasure / HGSS Prime) to take it from your discard pile
and attach it to a Pokémon. All 3 of these Pokémon have
plenty of strong options in their lines, making them
versatile and unpredictable.
Blacksmith easily slips into any of these decks! It plays along with
what the deck is already doing; discarding and reusing
Fire energy. The sudden boost in acceleration will be
handy for any heavily Fire deck in fact. Reshiram (B&W)
continues to be the premier “Big Basic” for Fire decks
and Blacksmith allows it to use Blue Flare 2 turns in a
row without any other support. The plan of “KO the
Typhlosion/Blaziken” won’t be enough to stop Fire decks
in their tracks any more. As long as the player can find
their Blacksmith they’ll have an opportunity for a
devastating counter-attack.
Rating: 4 (100% necessary for all Fire decks from now
on!)
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