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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Whimsicott
- S&M: Guardians Rising - #GRI 91

Date Reviewed:
June 28, 2017

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Standard: 1.75
Expanded: 1.50
Limited: 2.75

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

Back to the main COTD Page


aroramage

Ahhhh, the Wages of Fluff... 

...yeah, no, you're not playing Whimsicott. 

Cute and fuzzy and adorable as ever, you're not gonna run a Stage 1 that says, "Hey if the Defending Pokemon gets KO'd on your next turn, take 2 more Prize cards." I don't care how cheap it costs. I don't care that you could potentially be nabbing up to 4 Prize cards by KOing a GX or EX. I don't think you even want to consider running it, consider the other attack is 1-for-30 vanilla. 

Whimsicott suggests an idea that you want to go with, that you think would be amazing, but chances are you're using an Energy you'll need on an attack that basically gives your opponent a Prize - 80 HP isn't that much at all these days, so it'd be more surprising if your opponent DIDN'T KO Whimsicott. You're also relying on your opponent not to Switch out their Defending Pokemon to something else by your next turn, and you also have to already have something that could either finish something off - which requires set-up in terms of damage anyway - or can OHKO something easy enough. Keep in mind that for the most part, you need at least 170+ damage for EXs or Basic GXs and as much as 250 damage to KO anything in the game. Choice Band makes that easier by tacking on 30 damage for those EX/GX Pokemon, but that still leaves you with a range of 140 at the last, 220 at the most for damage to OHKO Pokemon. 

Never mind that Whimsicott takes up at least 2 spaces in your deck to be playable. I can just about guarantee you won't run Whimsicott unless you rely solely on the off chance your opponent doesn't switch out their Pokemon and you have that set-up required to pull Whimsicott off. 

Rating 

Standard: 2/5 (trust me, it ain't happening) 

Expanded: 1.5/5 (not at all) 

Limited: 2.5/5 (nope) 

Arora Notealus: I love love LOVE Whimsicott, but please don't pretend Whimsicott is competitive. There are way too many factors to incorporate to make her work - the set-up, the space taken up in the deck, the execution, the reliance on the opponent to not change their set-up so your set-up works - it's a lot to figure, and I don't think it'll bring as much success as some might hope for. 

Also my thoughts briefly on Metagross-GX: it's a great card with great acceleration and one of the better GX attacks in the game, but it might just be too slow with its Giga Hammer move to be more than just set-up for others, and right now that doesn't make it amazing. It is solid though, and it's even started showing up in tournaments, so don't knock it till you try it - 3.5/5 

ALSO also my thoughts briefly on Dhelmise: Seriously, what is this thing? Well it's a great addition for Metal decks at the least, and its Psychic typing does give it an edge against Psychic-weak decks...but Metal decks don't usually run Psychic Energy, so it's a bit of a hit-or-miss? It's probably the card behind the Metagross-GX success, considering multiple copies of this plus a Choice Band will KO a lot of stuff with Giga Hammer - 3/5  

Next Time: AND NOW WE GO BACK IN TIME TO...wait this was only a few years ago.


Otaku

Whimsicott (SM: Guardians Rising 91/145) is our subject today.  It is a Fairy-Type, but based on the rest of the card I don’t think that will prove relevant.  It is a Stage 1, which is definitely relevant: you’ll need to run at least two cards to get a single copy of Whimsicott into play, and unless you use a trick like Wally, you’ll have to wait a turn to Evolve Cottonee into Whimsicott.  This is actually more favorable than most other Stages of Evolution, but Basics still reign supreme for needing the least investment, the best speed, and working well with various game rules and mechanics.  80 HP means Whimsicott ought to be a OHKO; even decks focused on attack effects (or otherwise don’t do much damage) are likely to manage it.  Metal Weakness is typical, but I’m not sure if enough contemporary Metal-Type attackers would fail to score the OHKO even without Weakness; Metagross-GX (for example) scores a OHKO almost twice over before applying Weakness.  Darkness Resistance might barely help; it means 100 damage instead of 80 for a OHKO, and that could actually matter to Yveltal-EX or Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) with their varying amounts of damage.  The free Retreat Cost is perfect and very welcome… though a tad bittersweet if we were going to use this in a Fairy-focused deck, as they tend to use Fairy Garden to zero out Retreat Costs.  As stated, though, I don’t think Whimsicott will be running around in many Fairy-Type decks. 

Whimsicott has two attacks.  The first is “The Wages of Fluff”, a name I find quite funny.  It costs [C] and states “If the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out during your next turn, take 2 more Prize cards.”  I’m not sure, but I believe the wording means that this effect rests on the Defending Pokémon; that means your opponent can shake it by retreating or Evolving that Defending Pokémon, in addition to more extreme measures like using Pokémon Ranger.  If you can get the effect to stick, it might be worth it.  Why “might”?  You’re investing a Stage 1, Energy, and attack to use it; if you’re using a deck that needs to take most of its Prizes all at once, that’s handy.  If you’ve got something that can’t attack many times but is likely to score a OHKO when you use it, I guess that this combo could give it some teeth, but for the most part, you could just use a better attacker.  Even for a single Energy, you’ve got things like Garbodor (SM: Guardians Rising 51/145).  Sure, it requires some setup, but you’ll need that to pull off The Wages of Fluff.  The second attack is “Fairy Wind” for [Y], which does 30 damage: a filler attack, but decent damage for the Energy. 

Due to time constraints, I can’t get really deep with this card… or rather, I cannot take the time to run through every single Whimsicott and Cottonee.  This card is waiting for something that can copy attacks and/or hit the opponent with a serious lockdown effect.  Maybe Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98) might help with that.  For that matter, Decidueye-GX could help as well; even if you wish to score the KO with something else, its “Feather Wing” Ability can soften up a target for your actual attacker.  This card seems like it could be nasty in Limited play; scoring a OHKO against a 2 Prize attacker is unlikely here, which means the Wages of Fluff can set up a 1 Prize attacker to be KO’d for 3 Prizes, which is well worth sacrificing the fluffball and an attack.  At least, it is if things work out well. 

Ratings 

Standard: 1.5/5 

Expanded: 1.5/5 

Limited: 3/5 

Conclusion 

Whimsicott is here to torment Johnnies.  There is still a piece of myself screaming that there has to be a killer combo that utilizes The Wages of Fluff, but at least for now, I am pretty sure there isn’t.  Enjoy it in Limited or casual play, and don’t forget it in case we get a combo partner that can pull it off. 

Whimsicott tied with yesterday’s Dhelmise, having four voting points.  I rolled off to see who would come out on top, and Dhelmise got a “5” while Whimsicott only rolled a “2”.  They were one voting point below the three-way tie that preceded them, and one voting point ahead of this Friday’s CotD.  As you probably guessed from my review, Whimsicott didn’t make my own Top 10, or 15 or 20 or… anything.  It isn’t the worst card in the set… unless we dock it for looking like it has potential that will likely never actually amount to anything.


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