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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Unfezant #80

- Roaring Skies

Date Reviewed:
July 21, 2015

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 2.25
Expanded: 2.50
Limited: 3.25

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being horrible.  3 ... average.  5 is awesome.

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

I'm just gonna say right now, I am absolutely positively sorry if your holo rare ever ended up being Swellow (72). Just...so sorry. 

ANYWHO, ONTO THE REAL STAR OF THE SHOW, UNFEZANT!! 

Unfezant here, like many of the other Pokemon in these past two sets, comes in two forms: one without an Ancient Trait, and one with, tomorrow of which we will take a look at. For now though, we get an...interesting Unfezant. Obviously not interesting for Quick Attack, which is just your basic 1-for-30 strike with a coin flip for an extra 30. 

No, what's more interesting is the Strong Winds attack. Now Strong Winds is apparently so powerful a gust, that for 3 Energy, Unfezant will completely reset the board, blowing all the cards attached to every Pokemon back into the player's deck. Now you might think that that's a crippling a thing for both players - how can anyone come back from such a devastating attack? Well that really depends on how late you play it. 

Early on in the game, both players have access to their Supporter cards, so drawing back into all those cards isn't going to be a problem. Mid- to late-game though - especially late-game - this could be potentially devastating. If your opponent has played out their 4 Sycaper, it's a good bet that Unfezant will completely demolish them. It's a shame we lost Exeggutor though - he and Unfezant could have been potential partners in one of the most terrifying archetypes to arise, with Unfezant blowing away your opponents cards and Exeggutor keeping them from drawing into them! 

...well, maybe not so much terrifying, given that Unfezant is a Stage 2, and you are having to attack first, giving your opponent the potential chance to recover. But with no Tools and no Energy attached, with nothing more than luck of the draw to decide the fate of the battle, what're they going to do? 

Though if you're not holding onto any Supporters of your own, the same could be asked of you. 

Rating 

Standard: 2.5/5 (a tremendous double-edged sword on a Stage 2, which leaves the game up to chance - something competitively-speaking that wouldn't be that great) 

Expanded: 3/5 (again, combining him with Exeggutor or Seismitoad-EX could be a devastating lockdown, if you can get it to work consistently) 

Limited: 3/5 (reset the board, and you'll probably have the advantage if you've got an Energy on-deck) 

Arora Notealus: Unfezant is one of the few Pokemon with gender differences so different from each other, it's a surprise if anyone could mistake a male for a female, like Hippowdon, Jellicent, Pyroar, and Meowstic! Seriously, you should be able to tell which one's male and female as easily as whether or not a Wobbuffet has lipstick!...though come to think of it, that's a pretty obvious one too. *shudders* 

Next Time: DELTA TIME!! 

Otaku

Today’s review will be unpleasant.  No, wait misread that: today’s review will be Unfezant (XY: Roaring Skies 80/108).  Interestingly enough, this Pokémon specie displaces distinct sexual dimorphism: the image on the card is clearly of the male.  This Colorless-Type will enjoy a lack of Resistance and pretty good support: Colorless-Types have their own personal Supporter (Winona) and while it hasn’t been worth it for a while, their own Stadium (Aspertia City Gym) with a couple important Pokémon that don’t require Colorless decks but can work in just about anything.  They do not have their own Type-specific Special Energy card though they can somewhat fake it with Double Colorless Energy.  This is a really good foundation, but they are currently denied one thing: the capacity to exploit Weakness as nothing in the last two blocks has been Colorless Weak.  It isn’t a deal breaker - after all you could go through an entire tournament and never hit something for Weakness - but not even having the chance does leave it without the advantage of something like the Fighting-Type. 

Being a Stage 2 should ultimately be neither an advantage or a disadvantage, merely a “difference” that the rest of the game balances out.  As you know that is the ideal and the reality is that Basics enjoy a major advantage over Evolutions and Stage 1 Pokémon have an edge over Stage 2 Pokémon; faster into play and requiring less space, while Evolutions rarely have anything worthwhile contributed by their lower Stages.  130 HP is enough that you’re more likely to survive a hit than not, but as always remember that guesstimate includes decks that aren’t trying to score a OHKO so your mileage may vary.  Lightning Weakness can be pretty dangerous; M Manectric-EX, Manectric-EX and Raichu (XY 43/146) have proven strong once again and other decks have an incentive to squeeze whatever they can in provided they have room since hey, never hurts to hit the popular Lightning Weak attackers like Yveltal-EX for double damage!  Your 130 HP just isn’t going to hold up barring some serious good fortune.  The Fighting Resistance is appreciated and might have a chance of making a real difference given that it makes the 130 HP act more like 150 against OHKOs and 170 against 2HKOs.  The Retreat Cost of [C] is easy to pay and recover from; it doesn’t get much better.  Still sometimes it will matter because you won’t have a single Energy to spare. 

Unfezant lacks any Ability or Ancient Trait, just having two attacks.  The first is “Quick Attack” for [C]; this version hits for 30 damage plus another 30 if you get “heads” on the coin flip.  For [CCC] its big attack is “Strong Winds”, which allows you to shuffle all cards attached to each player’s Pokémon into his or her deck.  Quick Attack isn’t brilliant (you won’t be building a deck around it) but it looks like an adequate budget attack.  Strong Winds isn’t without precedence but I don’t know if there has been a similar effect that works on all Pokémon in play.  Your opponent can kiss all Energy and Pokémon Tools “goodbye”.  Evolutions (including Mega Evolutions) will remain as they are part of the Pokémon (it would specify otherwise).  Against some decks this will be a minor annoyance and preferable to the cards being discarded; in a typical Landorus-EX deck, you usually don’t have a lot of Energy in play and a Pokémon Tool is just a solid draw or search card away.  Unleashing Strong Winds against something Energy or Pokémon Tool intensive with a manual setup or acceleration that works from the field (Energy transferring effects) or discard pile and/or is not “as often as you like”?  Potentially (if not probably) devastating.  Of course you do the same to your side of the field so it won’t be easy to capitalize upon. 

To get Unfezant into play you need to go through Pidove and then use either Rare Candy or Tranquill.  There are six distinct versions of Pidove though some versions have seen multiple releases.  Black & White 84/114 plus BW: Trainer Kit Zoroark Half Deck 14/30 and 21/30 are all one version.  The next two that are actually one are BW: Black Star Promo BW15 and BW: Emerging Powers 80/98.  The rest are all single releases of different cards: McDonald’s Collection 2011 11/12, BW: Next Destinies 83/99, BW: Boundaries Crossed 123/149 and XY: Roaring Skies 78/108.  Only BW: Boundaries Crossed 123/149 and XY: Roaring Skies 78/108 are Standard legal and post rotation, we’ll be down to XY: Roaring Skies 78/108.  All are Colorless-Type Basic Pokémon with Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], no Ability and no Ancient Trait.  Black & White 84/114 (as well as BW: Trainer Kit Zoroark Half Deck 14/30 and 21/30) have just one attack (Quick Attack), still only requiring [C] but doing just 10 damage plus another 10 on “heads”, unlike the more robust version of Unfezant.  BW: Black Star Promo BW15 and BW: Emerging Powers 80/98 have 50 HP and also have just one attack (Gust) that requires [CC] and hits for 20.  McDonald’s Collection 2011 11/12 has the lowest HP at 40 but enjoys two attacks: “Growl” for [C] reduces damage done by your opponent’s Defending Pokémon by 20 points before Weakness or Resistance is applied and for [C] it can also use “Gust” to do 10 damage (no other effects). 

BW: Next Destinies 83/99 jumps up to 60 HP and also has two attacks: “Scout” requires [C] and lets you see your opponent’s hand, while it also sports “Gust” for [CC] and hitting for 20.  BW: Boundaries Crossed 123/149 also has 60 HP but its lone attack (Razor Wind) needs [CC] to hit for 30, and then only with a successful coin flip (tails fails).  XY: Roaring Skies 78/108 can look at the top card of your deck for [C] with the option to shuffle afterwards via its “Homing Pidove” attack or like multiple others can use Gust at a cost of [CC] to hit for 20.  Pick one of the 60 HP versions and remember the attacks are all bad.  Moving on we have four versions of Tranquill spanning five releases: Black & White 85/114 and BW: Trainer Kit Zoroark Half Deck 15/30 are the same card for game purposes, plus we have BW: Emerging Powers 81/98, BW: Boundaries Crossed 124/149 and XY: Roaring Skies 79/108.  All are Stage 1 Colorless-Type Pokémon with Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], no Abilities and no Ancient Trait.  Black & White 85/114 and BW: Trainer Kit Zoroark Half Deck 15/30 and BW: Emerging Powers 81/98 are Expanded legal only and have 70 HP.  Black & White 85/114 and BW: Trainer Kit Zoroark Half Deck 15/30 can use “Gust” for 20, this time only needing [C], and also have another version of “Quick Attack” though this one costs [CC] and does 20 damage plus another 30 on “heads”.  BW: Emerging Powers 81/98 has “Claw” for [C] to hit for 30, but requires a coin flip and does nothing on “tails”.  For [CCC] it can use Wing Attack for a flat 50. 

BW: Boundaries Crossed 124/149 and XY: Roaring Skies 79/108 are both Standard legal and have 80 HP though again, after the next rotation we’ll be down to XY: Roaring Skies 79/108 (barring future releases): each has just one attack.  BW: Boundaries Crossed 124/149 requires [CCC] to use “Air Slash” for 60 damage but it has to discard an Energy from itself afterwards.  That is worded as an effect of the attack so even cards that copy the effects (and damage) of an attack but not its cost will still have to discard.  XY: Roaring Skies 79/108 has “Fly” for [CC]; it hits for 40 and prevents all effects of attacks done to itself including damage during your opponent’s next turn but is yet another attack that does nothing if you get “tails” on the mandatory coin toss.  That protective effect can help it survive to Evolve costs just low enough that a Double Colorless Energy can pay for the entire thing so as it also has 80 HP I recommend using it over the others. 

Lastly there are the other Unfezant to consider; no reprints this time so we have Black & White 86/114, BW: Emerging Powers 82/98, BW: Boundaries Crossed 125/149 and XY: Roaring Skies 81/108.  All are Stage 2 Colorless-Type Pokémon with Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, no Abilities and two attacks with the second attack always needing [CCC].  Black & White 86/114 has 120 HP with a Retreat Cost of [C]; for [CC] has “Fly” with the same effect it had on Tranquill (XY: Roaring Skies 79/108) but doing 50 damage (not 40) and its second attack (Cutting Wind) does 70 damage.  BW: Emerging Powers 82/98 also has 120 HP but this time with a perfect free Retreat Cost; its first attack (Tailwind) allows you to attach an Energy from your hand to one of your Pokémon while the second (Feather Strike) does 40 damage with a coin flip deciding between another 40 damage (so 80 total) on “heads” or discarding an Energy from the opponent’s Active on “tails”.  For the record, this is the only version where the art depicts the female Unfezant. 

BW: Boundaries Crossed 125/149 matches today’s 130 HP as well as its Retreat Cost of [C]; its first attack (Wing Flick) needs [CC] to do 40 and forces your opponent to change out their Active after doing the damage while “big attack” an improved “Air Slash” that hits for 80 damage and gives you a coin flip to see if you need to discard an Energy attached to itself (happens on “tails”; “heads” means you just do the damage).  XY: Roaring Skies 81/108 has 140 HP and a free Retreat Cost plus the “Δ Evolution Ancient Trait, allowing you to instantly evolve from Tranquill into itself, even if you just Evolved into Tranquill or even if it is the first turn of the game (possible if you use a Wally to Evolve Pidove into Tranquill right away).  Its first attack is “Feather Dance” for [CC] and it adds 80 damage to attacks by “this Pokémon” on your next turn.  This means to actually enjoy the first attack you’ll need the second, “Sky Attack” which does 120 damage but is yet another “tails fails” attack.  We looked at Black & White 86/114 it here and BW: Emerging Powers 82/98 here when each card was a recent release while XY: Roaring Skies 81/108 will be reviewed here… tomorrow.  There isn’t really a good reason to run the others on their own or with today’s, except perhaps XY: Roaring Skies 81/108. 

Both XY: Roaring Skies 80/108 and XY: Roaring Skies 81/108 have some useful tricks but I’m not sure if they do them well enough to justify attacking with them.  So what would you do?  Well you could try to run XY: Roaring Skies 80/108, backed by hand control elements to set-up for a lock deck but I wonder if instead today’s would be worth using with Mew-EX; Dimension Valley would drop the attack cost to [CC] so that a single Double Colorless Energy could wipe out basically everything in play but Pokémon and the current Stadium.  If your opponent goes after Unfezant they aren’t hitting Mew-EX and odds are you don’t need to attack with Strong Winds again.  There might be some combos available from XY: Roaring Skies 81/108 that would also be worth considering, but if there is we’ll go over those tomorrow.  Otherwise I don’t see much use for this card.  I am uncertain if this card gains anything in Expanded and for Limited play, just being a Colorless Stage 2 Pokémon meant it was a solid pull; if you can run it it should be pretty good.  The lower Stages aren’t without merit here and the other Unfezant can help you run a more robust line if you are fortunate enough to get both. 

Ratings 

Standard: 2/5 (deck specific) 

Expanded: 2/5 (deck specific) 

Limited: 3.5/5 

Summary: A very niche card but Unfezant just might have a decent combo that will allow it a deck or two that can use it.  Such decks aren’t all that great though so I may still be overly generous scoring it as I did.  The thing is I am uncertain what could be done to make the card better; Strong Winds can easily be an amazing attack and anything to make things “better” could easily tilt this into “broken” territory.


Emma Starr

 

            Today we take a look at Unfezant, who actually may at first glance be one of the least interesting Stage 2s in this set, actually becomes one of the most interesting ones instead. Why? Well, let’s take a look. *logo fills the screen, with a whoosh sound effect, then goes away* Yes, I envision this whenever I write these reviews as well, so don’t worry, you’re not crazy if you see this whenever I type something like that.

            Quick Attack does 30 damage for one Colorless, and lets you flip a coin to do 30 more damage. So, best case scenario, you’re going to do 60 damage with this Stage 2 (Trick Coin helps, but you knew that, and there are much better Pokémon out there to equip with that), and in the worst case, you do 30 damage. You must be glad you got this Stage 2 on the field now! …Alright, don’t worry, he does get better.

            For three Colorless, he can use Strong Winds, which shuffles all cards attached to everyone’s Pokémon, benched or not, into each player’s respective deck. So, this means all Tools and Energy you may have attached to all of your Pokémon are gone now.  A sneaky little tip is to make sure you have some Sycipers or even Shaymin EX in your hand before you use this, to make sure this doesn’t absolutely wreck you. If you’re opponent has already used their fair share of Sycipers so far in the game, that’s all the better! If you time it right, you can easily turn the tables in your favor just by having access to more cards than your opponent, which could be very crucial if you decide to use this. However, if the opposite is true, and your opponent hasn’t played many Sycipers or you don’t have access to any at this time, you’ve basically set yourself up for a slow (…or not) defeat. You know how crazy Seismitoad EX can get just by stopping you from using Item cards for a turn? Imagine not being able to use anything, due to all of your precious cards being scattered in your deck. Thus, I feel Unfezant is the ultimate double-edged sword, as if the conditions are right, it can be a very crucial point to your victory. If things don’t go so well, you got a Stage 2 onto the field for nothing. It’s evilly surprise cards like this one that I personally find immensely fun to play. :3           

            Standard: 3/5 (It’s a Stage 2, so if it didn’t require as much work to get out for an effect you may or may not want to use, I would have rated it higher.)

            Expanded 3/5

            Limited: 2/5 (This can card is actually even more reliant on luck here, since draw/searching power is decided by the amount of these cards you pull. If you don’t get enough cards like these, I suggest not running Unfezant here.


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