Hello pojolanders! I'm here today to talk to you about what I believe is a
highly overrated card. That card is Sneasel. Suppossedly the strongest Pokemon
in existense, Sneasel has found its home in many a Trapper and Slowking lockdown
decks. It's also now being seen in Wiggly decks. I'm here not to trash Sneasel.
It IS a good card, but I believe it is being highly overrated. Let's start off
like I usually do and go over the stats(like I need to):
Sneasel
Basic Pokemon
Color: Darkness
60HP
Weakness:none
Resistance:Psychic
Retreat Cost:none
Attack: 1 Colorless Fury Swipes (10x)
Flip 3 coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of
heads
Attack: 2 Dark Beat
up
(20x)
Flip a number of coins equal to the number of pokemon you have
in play (including this one). This attack does 20 damage times the number of
heads.
BTW, allow to clear that the maximum damage Sneasel can inflict without
help from pluspower is 160(6 flipsx20+40 for Dark energy=160). I WILL say
something about Sneasel's strong points, but he has weak points, too.
First, Strong points (I'm nice, give good before bad)
1.Perfect Bottom stats--Sneasel is one of the few Darkness types. They all
have no weakness and psychic resistance, but Sneasel also has free retreat,
which is useful if he gets Supered.
2.First attack is good--Sneasel's first attack is pretty good, so if get
stuck with him at the start it's not the end already. However, Sneasel's true
power is in...
3.His Second attack!! This is the true power of Sneasel. Beat Up, if used
correctly, can massacre an entire army of pokemon in seconds! He deals an
AVERAGE(this word will come back to haunt Sneasel in his weak points) of 80
damage with a full bench and 2 Darks. Few pokemon can match the power of this
Sharp Claw pokemon.
Now, for Sneasel's "weaknesses"
1.COIN FLIP RELIANT--I think this, other than his energy, is Sneasel's
biggest flaw. BOTH of his attacks flip coins. We know how coin flips are:
sometimes good, sometimes bad. I hear too much about how much damage Sneasel can
inflict. The point is, it's luck. One time, you could flip all heads, but the
next time could also be all tails. If Sneasel happens to leave someone alive, he
could be going down the toilet. After all, 60HP not exactly the best number in
the world. So many pokemon can KO Sneasel in one hit. Wigglytuff, Rocket's
Zapdos, and(*thinking*) oh yeah, Clefable and Ditto.
2.Darkness Energy--This is definitely Sneasel's biggest drawback. His Beat
REQUIRES two Dark energy, and being that it's NOT a basic energy card, it's
kinda hard to get back once in the discard pile. Sure, you could use Ecogym, but
that's what other gyms are for. You could line up an army of Slowkings, or even
Dark Vileplume, but that's what Fossil Muk and Neo Discovery Igglybuff are for.
Sneasel basically doesn't want to end up face to face with these
pokemon:
Dark Muk(No more free retreat, and who wants to discard Dark to retreat?
Hurry, the clock's ticking, and your Sneasel gonna die from poison!)
Blaine's Charmander(Have you ever seen Kindle in action? It totally
destroys Sneasel so long as eco's not out)
Xatu(Neo Discovery)(I know it sounds dumb saying that a Psychic can beat
Sneasel, but do you really want your Dark on Slowking?)
Koga's Muk(I'm warning you, if you even scratch me, I'll steal you're
energy)
Pichu(Bye-Bye Slowkings, Bye-Bye bench)
And some trainers that'll make Sneasel cry:
ER/SER(Even if eco is out, I can play two ER or an SER and slow you
down)
Rocket's Traning Gym(Drop before using ER/SER, and you can kiss your Dark
good-bye)
Recall(Think about a Blaine's Charizard and you'll get what I
mean)
Lass(so much for Energy Charge)
So, even the best cards have their weak points. I'm going to try a Dark Muk
deck, entitled "Stuck with Muk". Let's see how many Sneasel drop to this. I'll
say one more thing about Sneasel. Many Trainers played in Sneasel decks are
coin-flip-reliant. Rocket's trap, Energy Charge just to name a couple.
Please don't send me tons of hate mail. I was not bashing Sneasel, I was
just merely stating that he was a bit overrated. In fact, if I had to give
Sneasel a rating on a scale from 1-10, I'd give him an 8.5. Good attacks, but
coin flips and ER were just too much for me to give any higher(plus the other
stuff i mentioned)
Comments, REASONABLE disagreements? Email me at:
pokemaniac16@hotmail.com
Sudden onslaughts of rotten tomatoes and other stuff I don't want can go
to: whocares@ghosttown.com
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