Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Venomoth
(Triumphant)
I know the whole Pokémon concept was inspired by the
creator’s childhood hobby of bug collecting, but does
anyone else feel that we have more than enough of this
type of Pokémon? Butterfree,
Mothim,
Beautifly, Dustox . .
. all pretty much the same.
Anyway, Venomoth is a low HP
Stage 1 Pokémon (you can already see where this is
headed can’t you?) with Fire Weakness and a Retreat cost
of one. It does however have both a
PokePower and an attack, so let’s see if it can
make itself useful.
That Power, Poison Moth Wind, is a real double-edged
sword. Once per turn you get to flip a coin. Heads and
your opponent’s active is
poisoned; tails and
your active
takes the poison. Now Poisoning
for free is obviously nice, but is it worth the risk?
Not normally, no, although there is a possible combo
with Steelix Prime which
can’t be affected by Status Conditions.
Steelix decks often run
Skuntank G to do this job
against non-SP Pokémon. On the plus side, unlike
Skuntank G,
Venomoth will affect SP
Pokémon as well (and doesn’t need a Stadium in play to
do it); on the minus side, it’s
slower being a Stage 1, and the Power is
flippy. Flipping for
Conditions, even with a Power, doesn’t really seem to
work in this format . . . ask
Houndoom Prime just how much play he has seen
recently.
Venomoth’s
attack is nothing special either. True, for [G][C] you
get 30 damage and a coin flip for the best Status
Condition in the game (Paralysis), but the unreliability
and low damage of the attack, combined with
Venomoth’s frailty, means
you don’t really want to be attacking with it except as
a desperation move.
Really, Venomoth is an
incredibly niche tech that will almost always lose out
to more consistent options. After all,
Steelix Prime doesn’t really
need a Skuntank to take down
SP Pokémon.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (I wouldn’t personally run it in
Steelix, which is the only
reasonable deck I can think of that could use it)
Limited: 2.75 (both the Power and the attack can really
annoy your opponent, but the risk of Poisoning your own
active is a very big one here)
Combos with . . .
Steelix
Prime
|
|
conical |
12/9/10: Venomoth(Triumphant)
I...liiiiivvvvveeee agaaaiiin!!! *ahem*
Anyways, sorry for my absence, my dedicated (and
possibly imaginary) readers. I had some finals to study
for, and with those out of the way, I can return to
reviewing Pokemon cards. For those interested in my
opinion on the rest of the week's cards, I suppose I can
give them a brief review:
Rapidash: Pretty mediocre, there's better trapping
attacks; however, I for one like the art.
Solrock: Inferior to Mesprit as a tech, could still be
an archetype with Lunatone SV.
Spiritomb: Despite almost reaching Imposter Professor
Oak levels of pointless disruption, might still work in
Gengar Prime.
With that out of the way, I can talk about Venomoth, and
it's a good thing I spent time talking about other
cards, because Venomoth isn't that good. Most Venomoth
aren't, but most of them are also uncommons, which make
them useful in no-rare tournaments or in limited. This
Venomoth, on the other hand, is a rare. Which is to say,
this card can't even claim much success in limited,
apart from having a useful power and a cheap attack.
Modified: 1.5/5
Limited: 2.75/5
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