Name:
Machamp
Set:
Hidden Legends
Card#:
9/101
Type:
Fighting
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Machoke)
HP:
120
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Poké-Body:
Overzealous
If your
opponent has a Pokémon-ex in play, each of
Machamp’s attacks
do 30 more damage to the
Defending Pokémon.
Attack#1:
(CF) Brick Smash [40]
This
attack’s damage isn’t affected by Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Power,
Poké-Body, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.
Attack#2:
(FCCC) Cross Chop [60+]
Flip a
coin. If heads, this attack does 60
damage plus 30 damage.
Attributes:
Machamp is a Stage 2 Fighting Pokémon. This means that it’s
comparatively hard to get into play. In most cases you’ll
need or want to Evolve it. The
Basic Stage of the Machamp line is of course
Machop. The Modified legal
Machops (from Hidden Legends,
Expedition, and Skyridge) all have the same Attributes and
good abilities, so chose what works for you. The
Machokes are the same way. Both
of these are positive cases, as the Pokémon involved seem
solid. In Unlimited, you have a few more options, but of
those only the Base Set Machop
is worth considering, and Rare Candy should probably replace
the Machokes. Also note that
there are several Machamps
available, and could be mixed with this one to provide some
variety.
Getting
back to Hidden Legends Machamp, we see the perfect HP for a
non-Pokémon ex, 120. Though this is the best it can hope
for, it is desperately needed as this is a Stage 2. We see
a Weakness to Psychic Pokémon. This is expected for most
plain Fighting Pokémon, but is devastating-most Psychic
Pokémon of any real worth will be able to knock you out in
two hits, and often one. No Resistance is the worst
Resistance. As for the retreat, it is the average two-not
going to help you, but paying for it won’t cripple you.
Abilities:
Overzealous is a nice and almost familiar Poké-Body. Some
may remember how strong the early Dark-type Pokémon were.
Light Machamp was designed to combat them (but more or less
failed miserably). One reason Light Machamp didn’t do too
well was that it had to use its more expensive second attack
to get the damage bonus.
As for
this cards attacks, we have two
great ones. Brick Smash ignores
all effects on the Defending Pokémon. Unfortunately, that
includes Weakness, and other effects that would increase
your damage. Still, it means that even if your opponent has
no Pokémon-ex in play, you will hit for
40 damage (unless there is an effect that prevents
the attack from going through). For just (FC), which should
yield 25 damage, we get 15 extra damage and an overall
beneficial effect: Weakness and Resistance cancel out, but I
can think of maybe one effect that resides on the Defending
Pokémon that increases damage (and thus would be ignored)
versus Trainers like Defender and Buffer Piece, defensive
Pokémon Powers, and of course Metal Energy that can all drop
damage done to a Pokémon.
The last
ability of this card is a big second attack, Cross Chop.
Cross Chop does base damage of 60, and gives you a coin flip
to get another 30. (FCCC), the cost of the attack, only
pays for 45 damage. So we are
getting an average damage bonus of 30 (15 base but n average
of 15 from the flip). Definitely worthy
of a Stage 2.
Overall,
these abilities have good synergy with each other. However,
I wonder if it might not have been better were things
reversed: the first attack being for big, quick damage, and
the second for ignoring things like Resistance. Now, this
would make it less effective against a lot of things, but
Pokémon that were Weak to Fighting, and just low HP Pokémon
in general, would then have been easy prey. Still, as is
these attacks do compliment each other, and the Poke-Body
acts as the icing on the cake.
Uses/Combinations:
Simply put, this is designed to be the focus of an anti-ex
Fighting deck. Some like to run it with the other major
anti-ex Pokémon, Sandstorm Wobbuffet and Hidden Legends
Ninetales. The Wobbuffet sounds like a good partner to me,
but the Ninetales was way over hyped. I think I’ll try it
with… yes, guessed it, Sandstorm Xatu.
On the
Trainer front, use whatever draw engine you think works.
The only real suggestions I can make here are the Stadium
and a healing trick. Since you have an attack to by-pass
Resistance already, Magnetic Storm seems a waste: go with
Ancient Tomb (so you can keep up with opposing Wobbuffets on
damage) or Desert Ruins (the damage counter placement should
make some attacks into OHKOs).
You might also consider Pokémon Nurse for healing,
especially if you are not running those Xatu. The reason is
what Energies this card can abuse. Boost Energy can allow
for second turn Cross Chops, while DRE ensures that, even if
you just dropped it into play (or Nursed),
Brick Smash will be ready. Yes, DRE will drop your damage
and Boost will go away, but played right, this won’t matter.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-Solid card but there are so few Pokémon ex that’s all
it will be. The one or two Pokémon ex that I do see here
can OHKO you with little difficulty. You can run it, but I
don’t think it’s worth it, especially when you could run,
say, the Skyridge Machamp.
Modified:
3.5/5-If enough people play this, we might see some
semblance of balance return to the format.
No guarantees, but if it’s played, Pokémon ex give it a
permanent, free, triple Plus Power!
Limited:
4/5-If you pull one of these, and of course the supporting
lines for it (not too bad, I saw a lot of
Machokes at our pre-release, and
I was running two myself), then you have some serious
Power. This also works nicely against the clutch Pokémon ex
that people draft.
Summary
Could be a
game changing card, or more shoe box fodder.
-Otaku
