Krookodile
(BW: Dragons Exalted 127/124)
accomplishes what no previous version
has before; it does
not automatically make me think of
Cookie Crisp cereal.
It is a reprint of
Krookodile (BW: Dark Explorers
66/108).
It is also “pretty”.
Stats
Being a Stage 2 is still a hurdle for
cards, even if they've got stuff that
would have dominated past formats: such
is power creep.
You’re going to need the maximum
amount of space for running
Krookodile, whether you stick to its
Stage 1 form or use
Rare Candy (the latter vital for
speed).
Krookodile has the current
maximum printed HP for a Stage 2, but
most Pokémon-EX will beat that by 20 or
30 points.
It does benefit from being a
Darkness-Type, as they have both some
Type support and some pseudo-Type
support that favors Darkness Energy.
Fighting Weakness is scary as always (at
least for this format and most of the
last), and most prominent Fighting-Types
will be scoring a OHKO while weaker,
more technical Fighting-Type Pokémon
that rely on effects will still probably
enjoy a rare (for them) 2HKO.
Unlike most cards, this one
actually enjoys Resistance, and even a
useful one; Psychic Resistance.
It isn’t much, but on top of 150
HP Psychic Pokémon will struggle for a
OHKO, and even a 2HKO will require
effort.
The Retreat of three is a concern, but
in a format with many tricks to lower or
even zero it out, you may be able to
simply enjoy being able to use
Heavy Ball for added search.
So the Stats are actually
somewhat promising; with only the
Fighting Weakness being a serious
concern.
Effects
Dark Clamp is the first attack; it
requires (DCC) and hits for 60 points of
damage, with the added bonus of
preventing the opponent from retreating
during the next turn.
The damage output is a bit low;
with most modern cards, three Energy
should be good for at least 70 points of
damage even for such a supporting
attack, and taking into account a
slightly beneficial effect.
If you can catch a Bench-sitter
up front and lacking the Energy to
attack, many decks have gotten used to
inexpensive Retreat scores and thus
skimp or completely ignore
Switch.
So while a bit weak, this tactic has
proven useful with some other cards, so
I won’t write it off and I do need to
acknowledge that requiring only a single
Energy yield (D) opens the card up for
most forms of Energy acceleration, not
just
Dark Patch.
As a Stage 2 it doesn’t need to
be blazingly fast anyway, but having the
capacity to be set-up in a single turn
is always useful.
The second attack actually continues
this trend; while Bombast does need
(DDCC), keeping it from being an easy
splash, at least you still could drop
something like
Double Colorless Energy to speed
things up.
Unfortunately as the “big”
attack, we run into some damage yield
issues: it does 40 times the number of
Prizes you have taken, which means early
on, it is rather weak.
Barring some kooky antics, you'll be
looking at 0 with no Prizes taken, 40
for 1, 80 for two and all three of those
are gradually improving shades of "bad",
starting with "abysmal" for no damage.
Though 80 is bad, it is high enough to
legitimately consider using since it is
better than Dark Chomp's damage.
Once you have four Prizes (and
technically are in the last half of the
game), Bombast turns into a decent
attack; 120 for four Energy isn't bad,
it just isn't especially good.
While you’ll only enjoy it in end
game, hitting for 160 is great (Dark
Claw would allow you to OHKO
unprotected Pokémon-EX, for example)
after you taken four Prizes. Of course,
the attack is amazing for delivering the
final blow; 200 for four energy is
stupendous, and enough to OHKO anything
currently Modified legal that lacks
“protection” (and even many things that
posses it!).
Usage
So clearly this version of
Krookodile can't carry a deck on its
own... but there are two other versions
of Krookodile:
Black & White 65/114 and BW:
Emerging Powers 62/98. Neither
version was especially good enough when
they were new, but perhaps the shifting
format has finally unearthed some
potential?
Let us examine them: both are
Fighting-Type Pokémon, making them
useful for hitting Weakness on most
Colorless, Darkness, and Lighting-Type
Pokémon. The older versions have 10 less
HP, but while worse that is still
roughly average for a Stage 2 Pokémon
right now and usually can survive a
single hit. A tolerable Water Weakness
and useful Lightning Resistance come
next for Stats, and they also require
three Energy to retreat. While they
can’t tap Darkness-Support directly,
they can Evolve from Darkness-Type
Pokémon, allowing them access to
Dark Patch.
So if I really wanted to run
Krookodile, I'd grab that one, new
Darkness-Type Sandile, and be ready to
Dark Patch it to full power to
attack with the original
Krookodile
early game. It's first attack requires
forethought, but isn’t bad; 30 for (CC)
while blocking access to one of your
opponent’s attacks (your choice) can do
some amazing things with the right
backing, owing to so many Pokémon being
dependent on a single attack (either by
design, deck build, or
Crushing Hammer abuse).
The second attack is pretty weak,
doing 60 for (FFCC) unless the Defending
Pokémon is already damaged, in which
case it does just a slightly sub par
100.
Then there is the third
Krookodile.
It only has one attack that hits for 70
points of damage and requires (FFC), and
uses a coin flip to determine if it hits
for another 20 or if
Krookodile does 20 points of damage
to itself.
Its Ability acts as built in,
once-per-turn, re-usable
Crushing Hammer, but one that can
only hit the Defending Pokémon.
I am thinking “skip this one”.
For that matter, probably only
use the other two for a “fun” deck as
well, at least for Modified.
In Unlimited, just skip it; way too much
work.
In Limited play, skip it; besides
being a Secret Rare and thus having
increased value, you lack the lower
Stages to play it anyway; there is no
Sandile or
Krokorok in BW: Dragons Exalted!
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1.5/5
Limited:
N/A
Summary
While I didn’t pick
Krookodile for review, I do like to
give the Secret Rare cards another look,
even though they are almost always
reprints.
Sometimes I wonder if that is TPC
saying “this card should be good now!”
The format is too fast for a dual
Stage 2 deck, otherwise I would consider
using the Black & White
Krookodile alongside
today’s
alongside
Hydreigon (BW: Dragons Exalted
97/124); Torment could exploit Weakness
and builds of several modern decks
reasonably well, while still running on
just basic
Darkness Energy cards.
Once you have managed a few early
Prizes, switch to today’s version and
Bombast away!
At least, you can still try that at
League.
