Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Leavanny
7/98 (Emerging Powers)
Ok, so here is the reason why
people might
want to bother with the Swadloon
we have looked at this week: the better of the two
Leavanny from Emerging
Powers. Except that they most likely won’t, as I will
explain later.
Leavanny
is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon, which is just about the
worst Typing possible right now, considering that Grass
is weak to all the commonly played Fire decks out there
and hits virtually nothing of significance for Weakness
(ummm . . .
Feraligatr?).
The 130 HP is decently average though, and the
Retreat cost of one is positively good for the Black and
White Block, where free retreaters are rare.
Leavanny
even has an ok-ish offensive
attack. X-Scissor has a poor base damage of 30 for [G][C],
but gives you a coin flip chance to do an extra 50.
Yeah, it’s not exactly reliable, but in a pinch you
could find it useful I suppose. The real reason for this
card getting any attention though,
is Nurturing. This attack costs a single Energy of any
Colour and allows you to search you deck for a Pokémon
that evolves from one of your other Pokémon and play it
down.
Sounds familiar? Yep, Nurturing
does exactly the same thing as
Spiritomb AR’s Darkness Grace – and we all
remember how good that card was. Does this put
Leavanny in the same league
of usefulness? Hardly: Spiritomb
was a Basic
Pokémon, not a Stage 2, and it also had that
Trainer-Locking Body going for it. No-one is going to
want to put the effort into evolving a Stage 2 just so
that they can evolve another Pokémon. I mean, why not
just put those resources into getting out the evolution
you wanted in the first place?
But there is just possibly a more
efficient way to use Leavanny,
and that is with Mew Prime. See Off a tech
Leavanny to the Lost Zone,
and then your Basic Mew is free to use Nurturing
whenever it wants. Is this a viable strategy though?
Well, it sure is a lot more practical than trying to get
a Leavanny in play by
conventional means, but it’s still rather slow and
whether it is the best use of a Mew is highly
questionable. Wouldn’t you rather be using
Muk’s Sludge Drag,
Jumpluff’s Mass Attack, or
Gengar Prime’s Hurl on Turn
2? Yes, the Mew/Leavanny
combo might be useful in getting a
Vileplume up and running, but to be honest, you
are probably better off using
Sunflora HGSS to help out with that.
Since the rotation of Broken
Time-Space and the Rare Candy rule change, evolution
decks have taken a hit to their speed and playability.
It’s to wonder then, that people are giving
Leavanny a second look, but
I fear it is not going to be the answer they are looking
for.
Rating
Modified: 2 (Maybe someone can make
Nurturing work, but I can’t)
Limited: 2.25 (getting a Stage 2
out is hard work here, and this isn’t really
game-winning enough to be worth it)
Combos with . . .
Mew Prime
Vileplume
UD
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virusyosh |
Happy Friday, Pojo viewers! Since we had our 2000th
COTD earlier in the week, today's COTD is a twofer:
we're going to be reviewing both Leavanny from Emerging
Powers. One of them was originally in the Japanese Black
and White expansion (#7), while the other has so far
only been released in the Emerging Powers set. I'll
start with #7, then talk about #8.
Both Leavanny have the same top and bottom stats, so
I'll talk about them generally here. 130 HP is pretty
good for a Stage 2, it's about the average of what we
get right now, and should allow both Leavanny to take a
few unboosted hits. Sadly, 130 HP is still within OHKO
range for many powerful attacks in our metagame,
especially with PlusPower. Fire Weakness is quite bad,
meaning that Reshiram, Typhlosion, and Emboar easily
OHKO. No Resistance is somewhat to be expected, and a
single Retreat Cost is fairly good.
Both Leavanny have two attacks. Leavanny #7 has
Nurturing for a single Colorless, which allows you to
search your deck for an Evolution card, show it to your
opponent, and evolve one of your Pokemon, shuffling
afterward. This attack is great for its cost, only it
has the problem of being on a Stage 2 already. The
attack would have been much more effective on a Basic or
even a Stage 1, as the early-game is when Nurturing
would be most effective, and if you already have a
Leavanny out, chances are you should be able to have
your attacker out as well. It is worth noting, however,
that if you See Off a Leavanny with Mew Prime, Mew can
then use Nurturing to quickly evolve your other Pokemon.
X-Scissor is this Pokemon's only form of offense,
starting with a decent 30 damage for a Grass and a
Colorless, but does 50 more damage if you flip heads.
This is an average of 40 damage a turn, and while 80
damage for two Energy is fairly decent, our Modified
metagame is in a place where that value is too low to be
effective, especially for a Stage 2.
Leavanny #8, on the other hand,
is all about offense. It has Slash as a cheap vanilla 30
damage for a single Colorless Energy, and Triple Cutter
allows you to flip three coins, dealing 60 damage times
the number of heads for two Grass and a Colorless.
Neither of these attacks are really going to have much
impact on Modified play right now, but both are quite
decent in Limited. Triple Cutter may end up working well
with Victory Star Victini (which we'll probably get in
Noble Victories), but there are generally better options
to pair that with as well.
Modified (#7): 2/5 I can't really see Leavanny making
that much of an impact in Modified any time soon, but
Nurturing is quite a nice attack that can be abused by
Mew Prime. It's probably not the most reliable strategy,
but it can definitely help with evolution acceleration.
Limited (#7): 4/5 Nurturing is excellent here, and
X-Scissor can also be quite nice. Search is always great
in Limited, and searching and evolving together is
great. X-Scissor is also fairly cheap for the cost, and
can end up dealing decent, if not amazing damage.
Modified (#8): 1/5 This Leavanny probably won't see
play in Modified, even when Victini comes out. Slash is
too vanilla and weak to be useful on a Stage 2, and
Triple Cutter is too flippy.
Limited (#8): 3/5 Unlike in Modified, Leavanny #8
isn't terrible in Limited. Slash is a good attack to use
while waiting to power up Triple Cutter, and a few lucky
flips with Trriple Cutter can easily get a few KOs in
your favor. While it's not the most consistent attacker
in Emerging Powers, it's quite serviceable, especially
if you draft a lot of Grass. Just wish it had slightly
nicer Energy requirements, though.
Combos With: Leavanny #7 combos with Mew Prime.
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