Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Amoonguss
10/101 (Noble Victories)
Hello and welcome to the new week on
Pojo’s
CotD. We
have some interesting cards from the new
Noble Victories set for you this week.
We kick off with
Amoonguss . . . the Pokémon whose
name (when you combine it with the Basic
form) is literally a joke: there’s a
Foongus
Amoonguss –
geddit? But
will the card itself be worth more than
a cheap laugh? Let’s find out . . .
Amoonguss
is a 90 HP Grass Type Stage 1 with the
predictable (and fairly terrible) Fire
Weakness (though it honestly makes
little or no difference when it’s facing
a Reshiram).
Water Resistance is neat though:
Kyurem’s
Glaciate will do a mere 10 damage per
turn to this mushroom. The Retreat cost
of two is enough to make you want to put
a Switch or two in any deck running
Amoonguss.
Toxic is Amoonguss’
first attack, and for the low cost of a
single Grass Energy, you get to Poison
the Defending Pokémon. What’s more, they
take place two damage counters between
turns, so you are getting double the
usual effect. Is this useful? Well, it’s
ok for the cost, and sometimes there are
advantages to being able to inflict a
Status Condition (Magnezone
and Typhlosion
Prime can’t use their
PokéPowers,
for example). As a main attacking
strategy though, it leaves a lot to be
desired as the damage output is low, and
the opponent can always retreat.
There are more low-cost Status
Conditions to be inflicted with Body
Slam. For two Energy of any Colour (so
you could do it with one Double
Colourless attachment), you get Body
Slam. This has a mediocre damage output
of 30, but does give you a coin flip for
Paralysis (the best Status Condition
there is, as it effectively creates a
lock). Yes, you could use Victory Star
Victini to
increase the chances of success to 75%,
but to be honest there are much better
ways to abuse
Fliptini and Paralysis attacks.
Amoonguss
isn’t completely hopeless, but it is
hopelessly outclassed by other Pokémon.
Want to inflict huge Poison damage? Use
Crobat Prime
(not that anyone does). Want to cause
Paralysis and use
Fliptini? Then
Vanilluxe
and even Lilligant
EP are far better choices. For this
reason, I don’t see this
Amoonguss
being among the cards you will see at a
major tournament.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (nice Status effects, but
you can do better elsewhere)
Limited: 4 (heck yes. Status rules in
this format. It’s cheap,
splashable,
and you could pull a
Fliptini to
go with it)
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virusyosh |
Welcome back, Pojo readers! I hope that all of you
had great weekends. We're going to continue reviewing
more Noble Victories cards this week, to be sure to
check back to see what we think of the cards from the
newest set. To start things off, today's Card of the Day
is Amoonguss.
Amoonguss is a Stage 1 Grass Pokemon. As I've stated
many times before, Grass Pokemon don't do so well in
Modified due to Fire running rampant, so in order for a
Grass-type to see a lot of play, it either has to have
something very special about it, and/or not have a Fire
Weakness. Amoonguss has a fairly average 90 HP, which is
just about what we'd expect from most Stage 1s.
Unfortunately, Amoonguss doesn't have a Stage 2, so 90
HP is as good as we're going to get. Fire Weakness is
bad, making Amoonguss susceptible to Reshiram,
Typhlosion Prime, and Emboar. Water Resistance is fairly
nice against Kyurem, Suicune/Entei LEGEND (although it's
a Fire-type too) and a few other rare Water-types, such
as Blastoise, Beartic, or Vanilluxe. Finally, a Retreat
Cost of 2 is a bit expensive, so try to use Switch
whenever you can to retreat Amoonguss.
Amoonguss has two attacks, both of which are fairly
standard for a Grass-type. Toxic Poisons the Defending
Pokemon for a single Grass Energy, but places two damage
counters in between turns instead of one. This attack is
fairly good for Limited as it is fairly difficult to
retreat without major setbacks in game tempo, but the
attack isn't quite so good in Modified as it doesn't do
any other damage and Poison is a traditionally weak
condition in this format (with a few exceptions). Body
Slam is Amoonguss's other form of offense, dealing 30
damage and Paralyzing on a coin flip for two Colorless
(or a Double Colorless). Once again, fairly good for
Limited, but not powerful enough for Modified.
Modified: 1.5/5 Amoonguss doesn't have what it takes
to compete where. Low HP, disappointing Weakness, and
lackluster attacks make for a card that won't see much
play in Modified any time soon.
Limited: 3.5/5 Amoonguss is fairly good in Limited.
Toxic is fairly nice to slowly KO the opponent, and Body
Slam can be used to keep them Paralyzed while they take
Poison damage. This works especially well if you pull a
Victory Star Victini along with Amoonguss, as you'll be
more likely to Paralyze them. Body Slam also has
Colorless Energy requirements, making it easy to splash
into a deck if you need another evolutionary line.
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