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Exeggcute
(Plasma Freeze)
In the long, long history of Pojo’s
CotD there has never been a
review of Exeggcute. This is
not surprising. It’s almost always a rubbish low HP
Basic that you would only ever play if you were using
its evolution, Exeggutor,
and there haven’t even been many playable versions of
that Pokémon either (honourable exception would be
Exeggutor δ from Holon
Phantoms).
So, why now?
After all, this Exeggcute
has a miserably low 30 HP which renders its Weakness and
Resistance all but irrelevant and makes it an easy KO
for a ton of commonly played Pokémon on turn 1 (Kyurem
PLF, Landorus-EX,
Sableye DEX with a Dark
Claw, Thundurus-EX, to name
but a few). Heck even a Hypnotoxic
Laser and a Virbank City Gym
will KO it – no actual attack required. Even the Seed
Bomb attack is poor: two Energy for
vanilla 20 damage?
Ewww
. . . no thank you.
But, almost uniquely amongst Pokémon (Audino
BCR is the only other example I can think of),
Exeggcute is a Pokémon that
you would play without ever wanting it to hit the Field.
This is because it is meant to serve as perpetual
discard fodder, thanks to its Propagation Ability, which
allows it to return to your hand once per turn if it is
in the discard pile. (Old school Yu-Gi-Oh
players might remember Sinister Serpent – well this is
pretty much the same thing). Remember that the Ability
is optional, so you don’t have to be stuck with it in
your hand if you don’t want or need it.
So, what are the uses for a card that keeps returning to
the hand? Well, the obvious combo is with the
Weavile that we reviewed
yesterday, but really any deck that has steep discard
costs can benefit from running a copy of
Exeggcute.
Blastoise decks, for
example, need to discard a lot because they use multiple
copies of Superior Energy Removal alongside Ultra Ball
and Dowsing Machine. You could also see this card being
used with Empoleon DEX,
effectively cutting out the discard cost for Diving Draw
every single turn.
Of course, even in those decks you have to weigh the
benefits against the dangers of being forced to start
with it, and the last thing
Empoleon decks need is another easily
donked starter. But if you
are running a deck where constant discarding from the
hand often involves a painful choice (second Yu-Gi-Oh
reference), then it’s worth testing a single copy of
this weird little card in your list.
Rating
Modified: 3 (always going to be potential combo
material)
Limited: 1 (if you don’t have
Weavile) 4 (if you do have
Weavile)
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