CotW 18

Slowpoke/Slowbro (First Fossil Pokemon! Well okay I included Magmar L31 but...)

The Ultimate Potion

Name: Slowpoke
Type: Basic Pokemon
Card #: card 55 of 62
Rarity: Common
Color: Psychic
HP: 50 HP
Weakness: P
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1
Pokemon #: 79
Species: Dopey
Level: 18
Attack: [1] Spacing Out
Flip a coin. If heads, remove a damage counter from Slowpoke.
This attack can’t be used if Slowpoke has no damage counters on it.
Attack: [PP] Scavenge
Discard 1 P Energy card attached to Slowpoke in order to use this
attack. Put a Trainer card from your discard pile into your hand.

History:

Not very many Slowpokes in the cartoon. There was that cool one near the Theme Park (and it evolved), but other than that, just cameos. Slowbro is quite elusive in Snap, as well. It was quite common in the Gameboy Game, however. Both Red and Blue had them.

The way Slowpoke evolves is strange, too. It has to dip its tail into the water and hope that a Shellder would latch onto it. Shellders like eating Slowpokes’ tails, though...

Strategy:

Slowpoke is the only real recursion this game has right now. There are the Trainer cards like Recycle, Item Finder, and Revive, but they trade cards 1 for 1, and are oneshot. Slowpoke can potentially get a lot of cards out of the pile. However, it doesn’t have _any_ attacks! And you have to discard a P every time you want to get a Trainer Card out of the pile.

Slowbro is the coolest Potion you’ve seen. That’s what you’ll use it for most of the time. Can absorb 5 damage, better than Super Potion! The catch is that Slowbro has to stay on the bench, and attacks like Spark, Giga Spark, and Dark Mind can get to it.

Strengths:

• Cheap (Common/Uncommon)
• Not that hard to get out
• One of the few recursion elements in the game Weaknesses: Scavenge is fragile
• SlowbroPotion is vulnerable to Bench Attackers and Gust Combos: Slowbro + Mr. Fuji/Scoop Up - bye bye 5 damage - though if you use Scoop, you’ll lose the ‘bro. Remember Mr. Fuji only works on Benched Pokemon
• Slowpoke + Card Drawing (Bill, Oak, Gambler, etc.) - Draw again and again (as long as you have Ps)!

Ratings:

7.0/7.5 - I still think Scavenge is very fragile.