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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Sneasel EX


Date Reviewed: 07.09.03

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.


The Poke`mon Master 1110 
Sneasel EX:

Mixed feelings here.  What we have to remember is that, yes, he has a retreat and yes, his first attack is more expensive and does less, and yes, his second attack costs more, but it's Beat Up with more Hp and it's Modified legal.  That makes him pretty darn nice.  BUT, and EX with 80 HP is REALLY risky.

Unlimited:  No way.  The Genesis version is faster, free retreats, has no weakness and the attacks are better.  Plus 80 HP doesnt do much good for you.  He'll get Knocked out and they'll have two prizes for it.  1/5

Modified:  he could be good.  But EX pokemon are really risky to play unless they have good hp and attacks.  This one prolly won't make the cut.  2.5/5

Limited:  Almost no way you'll see enough Dark energy to power him up.  If you can suport him energy wise, TAKE HIM!!!  3/5

The Bottom Line:  2.25/5

perfectone Sneasel ex

Its cool... but not our sneasel we all know and love.

Unlimited- ...Sneasel is better than Sneasel ex.
rating--- 3.5 (since hes EX and his attack costs 3)

Modified- Very Cool.  We almost got Sneasel back =/.  He needs a whole energy extra and is EX though =/.  I like it but I doubt people will use it for the fact that you only need to take out 80HP to pick up 2 prizes!
rating--- 3.5

darft--- No.  You wont get 2 Darkness energy so its kinda pointless, hes just an 80HP dummy and a free 2 prizes for the opponent.
rating--- 1
 
Thundachu
Sneasel Ex

Overview: Ah, the 1st RS review. Double scratch is nice. For 1 darkness can do 20 for each heads plus 10 extra for darkness. Nice. 80HP for a basic 0wnz all. It is just as simple as that. For 2 darkness and 1 colorless, we have the return of beat up. This could be the return of Sneasel. And it is allowed in Modified. Gasp!. Unlike the Neo 1 Sneasel, this one has a weakness to Fighting, meaning Tyrogue 0wnz it bad. Retreat of 1 as well. I guess thats the price to pay for higher HP. If your opponent knocks it out they get 2 prizes instead of 1. Thats a big drawback. All in all, I say it is an ok card.

Unlimited: Use the original Neo 1 sneasel. Lower HP, yes. But, no weakness, and less energy costs... 2/5

Modified: It is ok, but it is rouge food. I guess it could be ok though. The EX power kind of makes it bad though. =\. 3/5

Draft: Sucks! Both attacks require darkness energy. Odds of you drafting darkness as well as this is slim to none. It is only a rare, so you probably will draft it, but I suggest passing it on... 1/5
X- Act
Sneasel ex
 
Ok we're finally reviewing our first cards from Nintendo's newest expansion. And we're starting with an improved Sneasel.
 
Well, actually, the word 'improved' there is not completely accurate. In my opinion, this Sneasel is worse than the Neo Genesis version.
 
The only thing better than the Neo version is its HP. And 80HP isn't good for an ex Pokemon. Remember that if you KO this, your opponent takes two Prizes instead of one. That means you're almost KOing two 40HP Pokemon.
 
Its retreat cost has been added from zero to one, the first attack isn't for a Colorless Energy anymore, and has one less flip than before. And the second attack (the notorious Beat Up) doesn't go at the second turn anymore, since its requirement is increased from [DD] to [1DD]. It also earns a Weakness to Fighting, a weakness which wasn't present before.
 
In my opinion, the only positive thing about this card, besides its 80HP (which, as already argued, isn't that good) is its Psychic resistance. Having something that resists Mewtwo ex is good. But that's all. Maybe I got accustomed to the brokenness of the original Sneasel, I don't know. But this ex card is a big disappointment for me.
 
Unlimited: I prefer Neo Genesis Sneasel over this one in this format. No weakness, free retreat, faster attacks, and no ex rule. Who cares about the 80HP when Tyrogue can still hit you twice to kill you?
1/5
 
Tentative Modified: Ok, we COTD reviewers are assuming the following tentative Modified format when we're reviewing R/S cards: Legendary Collection, Expedition, Aquapolis, Skyridge, WotC Best Of Promos, EX: Ruby and Sapphire and Nintendo Black Star Promos. Here, this card is better than in Unlimited, for the simple reason that Tyrogue is absent. Maybe it's a counter for Mewtwo ex, I don't know. Make sure you play Furret or something like Linoone to get the Darkness Energies quickly though, since it requires a hefty (in my opinion) [1DD] requirement. It's not really worth it to risk giving your opponent two Prizes though, with that 80HP.
3/5
 
Draft: If you consider drafting this, remember that (1) you need to draft at least one Darkness Energy, just to use its first attack, and (2) Makuhita is Common and one of the Hariyama is Uncommon, both of which own Sneasel badly. And it isn't a very nice tactic to Draft Sneasel just to stall, since you'll provide your opponent with TWO prizes when he or she KOs it.
1.5/5
TR Shadow Sneasel ex

It looks like they toned down the Geneses Sneasel a little bit. First off, they gave it a weakness and a retreat cost. You can't do the damage on turn two anymore because of the extra energy added to Beat Up. They even made it an Ex so your opponent gets two prizes to knock it out. The only improvement, it looks like, it the extra twenty HP. It's just not as good as it used to be. You can't retreat it for free anymore and you have to be careful with it because it's an EX. Flipping six coins is still pretty good, but other than the attack, it's not very good at all. In unlimited, I would suggest playing the original Sneasel; it's a lot better. I would not recommend this to many decks.

Unlimited 2/5
Modified 3/5

~TR Shadow~

BondiBorg A Sneasel, with almost identical attacks to the infamous Neo1 version, but with 80 HP and Fighting Weakness...just in time for Tyrogue to be phased out. -_-''

For Unlimited, I doubt this card will make that much of an impact. Very few hardcore Sneasel decks max out on Sneasel as it is; the idea of using this one because they want more Sneasels in there doesn't apply. Tyrogue IS legal, as are Computer Search and other cards that would make the Energy requirements really easy to meet. In short, it all comes down to the fact that you need a Darkness first turn, and taking one extra turn to power up for Beat Up, making this the older, slower brother of the Neo1 version.

For Modified, I can see this card having a pretty big impact; it's
quicker to pull off a Beat Up with 6 flips than a Heavy Metal with even 4 flips, making it significantly faster than Scizor. Mewtwo EX is proving to be quite a force early-game in the Nintendo Modified Format (Legendary, Expedition, Aquapolis, Skyridge, Ruby/Sapphire, Best Of Promos), essentially being a cross between Rocket's Mewtwo and the old favorite Movie Promo Mewtwo. 60 damage on the second turn is tough to deal with, and Sneasel's Resistance to Psychic certainly helps. With Tyrogue out of the way, Furrets now have nothing to fear...would Furret/Sneasel be worth the attention?

For Limited, stick with the other EX Pokémon. Requiring either one or two specific Special Energy to even attack means you might wait for half the game for any Darkness/Rainbow that you got lucky enough to pull, and by then Sneasel would have long since gone belly-up. The only redeeming factor here is the Nintendo ruling on Darkness Energy (making it so that Darkness Energy only gives extra damage to Dark Pokémon, the rest of them treat it like a Colorless), meaning you could toss a Darkness into your deck without worrying about the fact that you only have one critter to use it on.

Unlimited - 1.9
Modified - 3.9
Limited - 1.2

~{BondiBorg}~

 


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