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Blastoise (Unleashed)
Today’s card is the Promo card from the set. It seems
that with HGSS sets we are getting Promos that are at
least semi-playable, and that’s a very good thing.
This card even got some proper hype when the Japanese
translations came out. If you go on Pokémon websites you
will see more people trying to build decks with this
card than anything else from the new set. Let’s see if
it deserves all of this attention.
Blastoise is a Stage 2 with a good 130 HP, an unpleasant
Retreat cost of three (better find room for those Warp
Points), and the very worst Weakness in the game (x2
Lightning). See Monday’s review for details of why this
is an appalling handicap for any card. If you can’t be
bothered, I’ll just say one word: Luxray.
Blastoise comes with a Pokémon Power, which is almost
always a good thing. Wash Out allows you to move one
Water Energy per turn from a Benched to an Active
Pokémon. That’s a fairly useful ability which can act as
pseudo acceleration and conserve the Energy you have on
the Field.
The thing that really gets Blastoise noticed is the
attack. Hydro Launcher can hit ANY of your opponent’s
Pokémon for 100 damage. That’s huge. That’s a OHKO and a
Prize on any Claydol, Uxie, Azelf, un-Levelled Up SP
Basic, most Stage 1s and even the odd Stage 2 (like . .
. ummm . . . Jumpluff). Before we get carried away
though, it’s obvious that such a ludicrously powerful
attack is going to come with some serious drawbacks. In
this case, Hydro Launcher costs [W][W][C][C] to use, and
it sends two Water Energy back to your hand.
Normally, that massive cost would be enough to condemn
Blastoise to the binder. It seems that it would take at
least 3-4 turns to get it powered up, and even then you
could only use the attack every other turn. Luckily,
there is a solution in the shape of Feraligatr Prime.
Feraligatr Prime’s Rain Dance Power lets you attach as
many Water Energy as you like per turn to any of your
Water Pokémon. So, with enough Water Energy in hand, you
could get Blastoise using Hydro Launcher in one turn,
and have it attacking every turn. Sounds pretty
broken doesn’t it? Until you realise that this combo
relies on setting up two Stage 2 Pokémon, one of which
is an easy OHKO for the most popular card in the format,
and on maintaining a hand full of Energy.
For those reasons, Blastoise/Feraligatr just seems too
slow and clunky to make a really big impact in a
metagame characterised by very fast, disruptive decks,
most of which seem to play Luxray GL. If you CAN ever
get this set up, and avoid the OHKOs, then this deck
would be a serious beast. Would you be able to do that
consistently in today’s TCG environment? I doubt it.
Maybe when and if the format slows down . . . but not
until then.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (Ridiculously powerful in theory, but
waiting for a slower format)
Limited: 2.5 (maybe if you also pulled Floatzel UL . . .
but getting a combo like that is unlikely in Limited)
Combos with . . .
Feraligatr Prime . . . bringing back memories of old
school Rain Dance decks!
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