aroramage |
So yeah, here's the big surprise of
the week: we're starting up Throwback Thursdays! Here we
get to take a look at an older card just for kicks! We
can see where it's gone competitively, what it's been up
to in its spare time, how its teeing off has vastly
improved since last year...good times...
Today's throwback is to Weavile
from Plasma Freeze! That would be nearly 4 years ago -
how about that nonsense? We did have a review on this
card from back then, but that was done by entirely
different staffers - ain't that just crazy! otaku and I
hadn't even been reviewing stuff back in those days! And
now here we are, ready to go on reviewing it again.
First let's take a look at
Weavile's attacks - the 1-cost Hail can dish out 10
damage to every opposing Pokemon, and Villify costs 2
Energy and can get you to discard a bunch of Pokemon in
order to deal 30 damage for each one. Well that's an
interesting pair of attacks. On the one hand, you've got
okay spread, and on the other you've got OHKO potential,
if you're crazy enough!
Thing is, though, the game has
changed a lot since Weavile's introduction, so what's
his potential? Well for starters there are those Mega-EX
that are hanging around, and the new Pokemon-GX just hit
the scene as well. That means overall there are higher
HP scores to hit, and if you thought discarding 6
Pokemon to achieve the rare OHKO on a Pokemon-EX was
hard enough, you can imagine how much harder it is to
obtain 8 or 9! Okay, it's really just a couple more
cards - but I don't think you wanna go tossing that many
Pokemon JUST to one-shot something. But it's not all bad
news!
Being Dark-Type, Weavile does get a
lot of the support for Dark Pokemon in recent years like
Yveltal and Shadow Circle, and while being a Plasma
Pokemon was only really good in a short period, he does
have those advantages as well. The good thing is that he
also doesn't require Plasma Energy for his attack, so he
can be run in a pure Dark build that profits off of
Vilify. But how does one do that? Well Exeggcute (PLF)
and his Propogation are the main appeal here -
discarding him lets you get him right back thanks to his
own Ability! But are there other Pokemon that can profit
from being discarded?
How about Night March or Vespiquen?
Yes indeedy, Weavile could be a potent fueler for
Vengeance-style decks easily with his attack - dealing
out massive damage while loading the discard pile with
lots of Pokemon for heavier offenses later on, all while
spreading Hail to weaken the opponent's defenses! This
could've comboed well with Flareon as well, which along
with Night March and Vespiquen need only DCE for their
attackers and can reserve the Dark Energy for Weavile!
How nifty is that?
...wait Battle Compressor exists to
make this all go by faster.
...welp...guess Weavile's stuck in
the dust at that point.
Rating
Standard: N/A (what a surprise! he
can't be played in Standard!)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (and his range in
Expanded...is surprisingly limited)
Limited: 3/5 (though in a vacuum,
he's a bit better)
Arora Notealus: I never did run
into this Weavile back in the day. I'm sure there'd have
been a rally behind Villify before Flareon in the same
set would just trample over a few decks with Vengeance.
Perhaps in the days before Battle Compressor, Weavile
had a place...if not...well who knows what he'd do?
Next Time: Yo yo, back to present
day with the new crew in school!
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Otaku |
Welcome to the Pojo
version of Throwback Thursday. No, we aren’t going
to post old photos or CotDs with a quick hashtag, but
we are going to take this opportunity to look at an
older card once per week. “Older” is a relative term,
and that is intentional so we aren’t locked into only
focusing on a specific time period. Some of this
is so that we can just have some fun looking at what
once was, and other times it is because something old
will be relevant to what is or what will be… and
specifying a time frame other than “not new”
could just be setting a rule we’d have to break in the
future. Yes, somehow I made being laidback sound
uptight; I am just that talented. As you
might expect, I’ll be discussing not only how this card
performs at present in the formats for which it is
legal, but how it has done since it released.
Our first subject
is Weavile (BW: Plasma Freeze 66/116); the
reason why should become quite clear by the end of this
review. To begin with, this card was originally
released (along with the rest of its set) in Japan back
on December 14, 2012 and in North America on May 8,
2013; this is not an ancient card, and is, in fact,
legal for use in the Expanded Format, as well as the
PTCGO exclusive Legacy Format. We originally
reviewed it
here,
except I had to skip the review because I was in the
middle of moving at the time. This Weavile
is a Team Plasma Pokémon, giving it access to additional
support based on this characteristic, but meaning it
also must deals with counters for Team Plasma cards.
It also means I’ll be referring to it as Weavile
[Plasma] henceforth. Team Plasma really does have
some amazing support, but little (if any) of it seems
suited to Weavile [Plasma] because it simply has
access to something better due to another aspect of the
card. Team Plasma counters have too narrow of a
focus to be worth including in the Expanded format,
but back when this card released and in the
Legacy Format, where multiple strong Team Plasma decks
made or make up a significant part of the competitive
metagame, stuff like Silver Mirror did or does
range from a minor nuisance to a game-ending play.
So what looks like an advantage for Weavile
[Plasma] is actually a bit of a disadvantage.
Weavile
[Plasma] is a Darkness Type, which was more impressive
back then (or in the current Legacy Format) than in
present day Expanded play. The Darkness Type was
really the first to get some serious, strong Type
support in the BW-era. Dark Claw was their
Muscle Band before anything had Muscle Band,
which is why it is obsolete in modern decks. Dark
Patch is Item based Energy acceleration from the
discard pile; this is still good now, and was incredible
back in the day. Darkrai-EX (BW: Dark
Explorers 63/108, 107/108; BW: Black Star Promos
BW46; BW: Legendary Treasures 88/113) allowed
anything with a [D] Energy attached to retreat for free
via its “Dark Cloak” Ability and was otherwise one of
the top attackers of its day. Sableye (BW:
Dark Explorers 62/108) was frequently used in decks
with access to [D] Energy for its “Junk Hunt” attack;
even if Sableye didn’t survive, regaining two
Items of your choice from your discard pile was often
worth it, especially when one was an Ace Spec card.
These two are still good now with Sableye
recently performing well once again as a deck focus in
Expanded. Darkrai-EX isn’t the big deal it was
back in its Modified (a.k.a. Standard) legal days, but
both of these two are important parts of the
Legacy Format. Darkness Weakness hasn’t often been
a big benefit, and it isn’t too important in the current
Expanded or Legacy Formats, either. What does
matter for contemporary Expanded Format play is the
Fairy Type’s introduction, as all of them are Darkness
Resistant. As we’ll see, Weavile [Plasma]
is going to suffer for that, even though it is just -20
to damage. Even at the times when Darkness Types
have ruled the format, the anti-Darkness Type cards
haven’t been worth the effort, so that is one for
Weavile [Plasma].
Weavile
[Plasma] is a Stage 1 Pokémon; being a Basic has been,
is, and will most likely continue to be better, but
waiting a turn to Evolve and needing two cards to get a
single copy of your chosen Pokémon into play has proven
manageable for competitive decks, whether for a
Bench-sitter or Active. It has been more of a
problem at certain times since this card released than
others, but overall it has proven adequate. 90 HP is
fairly low; when the card first released, competitive
decks were expected to hit at least this hard each turn
once they were fully set up. All that has changed
since then is an increasing typical damage output; now
it is more like 120 damage per turn for a deck to be
remotely competitive, save the few not focused on
damaging a single opposing Pokémon. Even a partial
setup is likely to OHKO Weavile [Plasma].
It does make it a legal Level Ball target, at
least. The Legacy Format falls somewhere in
between, owing to a few specific decks capable of
blistering speed upping the performance averages of the
others. Fighting Weakness was and remains
dangerous to this card. Perhaps not as much in
present day Expanded play, but both back then and
presently in the Legacy Format, it is typical to see
Landorus-EX either scoring some effective OHKO’s
thanks to hitting both Active and a Benched Pokémon, or
with Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank City Gym.
Psychic Weakness doesn’t mean a whole lot with just 90
HP in the present, but it came in handy in the late BW-
and early XY-eras, and yet again is still helpful in the
Legacy Format. The Retreat Cost of [C] is low and
usually easy to afford but can come back to haunt you if
Energy gets tight.
Weavile
[Plasma] has two attacks, “Hail” and “Vilify”. The
first costs [C] and does 10 damage to all of your
opponent’s Pokémon (both Active and Benched) while the
second costs [DC] and allows you to discard Pokémon from
your hand to do 30 damage for each to the opponent’s
Active. Hail isn’t bad, but it isn’t especially
good, either; the winner here is Vilify. Though it
will usually require about six Pokémon be discarded from
your hand, it allows you to OHKO typical Basic
Pokémon-EX. The rising HP scores of competitive
Pokémon, thanks to Mega Evolutions, BREAK Evolutions,
and Pokémon-GX, are a real problem for Vilify in present
day Expanded play, but it does help somewhat that
Weavile [Plasma] is only worth one Prize (and not
the two of Pokémon-EX or Pokémon-GX), and can be swarmed
with the proper deck build. Back in the day, it
enjoyed a brief period of success but is one of the top
decks in the Legacy Format at present. We’ll
discuss how and why in a moment, but we’ve got several
Sneasel and Weavile to look at; after all,
the Legacy Format means I’ll need to go back five sets
further than usual. For Sneasel we have
HS: Undaunted 68/90, BW: Next Destinies
69/99, BW: Plasma Freeze 65/116, XY: Flashfire
50/106, XY: Flashfire 51/106, and XY: Steam
Siege 60/114. For alternate Weavile we
have HS: Undaunted 25/90, BW: Next Destinies
70/99, XY: Flashfire 52/106, and XY: Steam
Siege 61/114. All are Darkness Type Pokémon
with Fighting Weakness and Psychic Resistance. All
Sneasel lack an Ability. They also
all have 60 HP with Retreat Cost [C] except
HS: Undaunted 68/90 (60 HP with a free Retreat Cost)
and BW: Plasma Freeze 65/116 (70 HP with Retreat
Cost [C]). All Weavile have 90 HP and
Retreat Cost [C] except HS: Undaunted
25/90; it has 80 HP and a free Retreat Cost.
Sneasel
(HS: Undaunted 68/90) can use “Fury Swipes” for
[C] to flip three coins (good for 10 damage per “heads”)
or for [DD] can use “Beat Up” to flip a coin for each of
your Pokémon in play (good for 20 damage per “heads”).
It is only legal in the Legacy Format. BW: Next
Destinies 69/99 can use “Corner” for [D] to do 10
damage and prevent the Defending Pokémon from
retreating, or resort to “Scratch” for [CC] to do 20
damage. BW: Plasma Freeze 65/116 has only “Quick
Attack” for [DC], which does 20 damage with a coin flip
to determine if it does an extra 20, for 40 total on
“heads”. XY: Flashfire 50/106 also has Scratch,
but this time for [C] and doing 10 damage, with its
second attack “Flash Claw” costing [DC] and doing no
damage, but discarding a card from your opponent’s hand
(your opponent chooses which card). XY: Flashfire
51/106 can use “Icy Wind” for [C] to leave the
opponent’s Active Asleep or can use Scratch, but its
version costs [DC] to do 20. XY: Steam Siege
60/114 only has “Nyan Roll” for [D], which does 10
damage and has you flip a coin; if “tails” Nyan Roll
just does the 10 damage but if “heads” Nyan Roll
prevents all effects of attacks (including damage) done
to Sneasel itself. It is the only option
for Standard play. None of these Sneasel
cards received its own review, which probably isn’t much
of a surprise. HS: Undaunted 68/90 is almost a
reprint of the dread Sneasel (Neo Genesis
25/111), but power creep and the addition of Fighting
Weakness just means it is the best of the bunch.
That free Retreat can be mighty important in a tight
spot, as can the still decent Beat Up (assuming your
Bench is full). For Expanded and Standard play, I
would go with XY: Steam Siege 60/114 to try and
stall if you are stuck with Sneasel up front.
Weavile
(HS: Undaunted 25/90) is legal for the Legacy
Format only, and has the Poké-Power “Claw Snag”.
Poké-Powers are one of the precursor effects to
Abilities; they work in a similar fashion but
effects that refer to one do not apply to the
other. Claw Snag triggers when you Evolve one of
your in play Pokémon into this card from hand; you may
look at your opponent’s hand and discard a card you find
there. It may also use “Feint Attack” for [DC] to
do 30 to the opposing Pokémon of your choice, ignoring
all effects plus Weakness and Resistance on the target.
Feint Attack was a bit better when it first released
during the HS-era, though not great. I wasn’t
active at the time, but I suspect it had some use
because of the “baby” Pokémon (not an official
designation, hence the quotation marks) of the sets
released at this time. They had 30 HP and a
protective Poké-Body (another precursor to
Abilities) that would make them totally immune to damage
and attack effects while Asleep, and all had no Energy
attacks that did something at least a little useful but
also put itself to Sleep. What I do know is that
there is a vicious, though not heavily played, control
deck built around this card in the Legacy Format.
I don’t think the two cards can work well together in
the same deck, so if you go with one, you won’t be able
to include the other. You may read a review of
this card
here.
BW: Next Destinies
70/99 can use “Dark Penalty” for [D] to do 90 damage,
but only if the Defending Pokémon has a Pokémon
Tool attached to it. This isn’t as good as it
might sound, even though Tools have often been important
to competitive play. This Weavile may also
use Fury Swipes, its version costing [CCC] and doing 30
damage per “heads”, but still giving you three coin
flips. Even back then, you wanted to do about 90
damage for three Energy; the all Colorless cost might
have allowed it to get away with more like 70, but not a
mean damage output of 45. Could be why I am not
seeing a review for this card. XY: Flashfire
52/106 has “Call for Family” at a cost of [C], searching
your deck for up to two Basic Pokémon and immediately
putting them on your Bench. [DCC] pays for “Claw Rend”,
which does 60 damage; if there are any damage counters
on the opponent’s Active, it will do another 30 for 90
damage total. These attacks were already outdated
by the time they appeared on this Weavile, though
Call for Family isn’t totally worthless when it still
shows up on a Basic Pokémon. This version still
received a
review,
though. XY: Steam Siege 61/114 is the only
Standard legal option, and has the Ability “Tear Away”,
which allows you to return to hand a Pokémon Tool
currently attached to one of your Pokémon. For
[DC] it can use “Slash” to do 40 damage. The
attack is mediocre filler, but Tear Away has proven
useful enough for some to use it in their Standard
format decks, bouncing around useful Tools like Float
Stone, Spirit Link cards, etc. You can
read our review of it
here.
So with all of this
out of the way, how does Weavile [Plasma] fair in
the various formats? It isn’t legal for Standard
play, though when it was it did periodically see surges
of (successful) competitive play. I recall it
being one of those decks that wer very sensitive to the
metagame, showing up and scoring some wins when we
weren’t expecting it. Exeggcute (BW: Plasma
Freeze 4/116; BW: Plasma Blast 102/101) was
an obvious partner, as its Ability allowed you to
constantly discard four Pokémon for Vilify. Lileep
(BW: Plasma Blast 3/101) and Tirtouga (BW:
Plasma Blast 27/101) had an Ability called
“Prehistoric Call” that allowed you to put them on the
bottom of your deck from your discard pile; while meant
to help them use the cumbersome Fossil mechanic
of that era, it was a less direct Pokémon recycling
option. Lopunny (XY: Flashfire 85/106)
would partner up with it some of the time, as you could
leave it on the Bench until you needed it thanks to its
Ability to bounce to your hand. All of this is
still available to Weavile [Plasma] in Expanded
play, as is Dark Patch, necessary for powering a
Weavile [Plasma] up in a single turn.
Besides the rising HP costs and presence of Darkness
Resistance, several better swarm style decks have
emerged since this card’s release; Night March and
Vespiquen (XY: Ancient Origins 10/98) to name
just two. Hex Maniac can leave you without
discard fodder for a turn as well and is a common enough
piece of TecH.
The Legacy Format,
however, is a place where Weavile [Plasma] can
stand triumphant. I am uncertain as to whether it
is the absolute best deck in the format, but it is one
of the powerhouses. Here, HP scores are rarely
above 180, and you have Silver Bangle to so that,
apart from a few seldom used exceptions (including
combos!), you won’t need to discard more than five
Pokémon from hand at a time. The aforementioned
Exeggcute, spare copies of supporting Pokémon, and a
clutch Lileep or Tirtouga provide this.
The Darkrai-EX and Sableye mentioned
earlier are also on hand, and plus a few other commonly
run supporting Pokémon that means the deck often has a
few spare bodies when needed. This format also
includes Junk Arm, which makes all that discard
fodder even more useful, as you can quickly reclaim and
reuse key Item cards, plus it prevents Junk Hunt from
telegraphing exactly what you are planning for
the next turn. This means counts like Silver
Mirror or Garbodor (BW: Dragons Exalted
54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW:
Legendary Treasures 68/113) and its “Garbotoxin”
Ability requires some bad luck and/or resource
management to shut you down cold, but it does still
happen some of the time.
As for Limited
play, this card is great… if you can somehow find sealed
BW: Plasma Freeze product with which to actually
run a Limited Format event. I know some folks
actually do have procedures for reusing opened product,
but odds are you’ll never get to enjoy this card in a
Limited event unless you attended a Pre-Release way back
when. For the record, though, as long as you also
got a Sneasel to run alongside it and did not
pull a Pokémon-EX worth using solo, this was something
to work into your deck for at least a single, big
attack. Vilify probably needed too many Pokémon to
use over and over again, but Hail and its damage spread
are also more useful here, so whether you used Vilify
right away or were saving up for it, you had a good
option. This set contains some of the Team Plasma
support that Weavile [Plasma] couldn’t use
optimally in constructed play, which was a nice help.
This set also contains Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma
Freeze 47/116), so be aware that Hail may not
always be an effective option as its Bench Barrier
Ability can protect one’s Bench. You still have a
chance of pulling Exeggcute, though Limited play
only uses four Prizes and with less draw/search,
you are at more of a risk of losing due to opening with
it.
Ratings
Standard:
N/A
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Legacy:
4.5/5
Summary:
Weavile [Plasma] was a solid card when it
released but not good enough to become a major factor
for competitive play. It saw a little success, but
not enough to widely remembered or even felt at the time
even though it had the combos to swarm a Stage 1 capable
of OHKOing almost anything. Now that we have more
Pokémon with over 180 HP (and those faking it with
Fighting Fury Belt), Weavile [Plasma] just
can’t cut it in Expanded play, one of the two formats
where it is still legal. Fortunately, on the
PTCGO, we have the Legacy Format and Weavile
[Plasma] will cut through most other decks, at least
offering an even match-up and usually finding things are
in its favor.
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