Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Beedrill
(XY)
Hello and welcome to another week of XY reviews, here on
Pojo’s
CotD. There may be a whole new Generation of
Pokémon out there, but it’s good to see that the TCG
isn’t neglecting some of the originals, so we are going
to kick things off with a look at
Beedrill.
The Poison Bee Pokémon won a World Championship back in
the day, but hasn’t made much impact since then. I’m
afraid that is unlikely to change because of this card.
I say ‘unlikely’, but what I mean is ‘under no
circumstances’. This Beedrill
is a Stage 2 with an under-par 120 HP, and that’s bad
enough, but it’s the attacks that will really rule him
out of contention.
That said, Poison Jab isn’t horrible: it’s just that 20
damage and Poison for a Grass Energy just isn’t worth
the effort of getting out a Stage 2. Then there’s Flash
Needle, which is just bonkers: two
Grass Energy gets you three coin flips for 40
damage each . . . but there’s a bonus! Hit all three
heads and Beedrill is immune
to damage and
effects of attacks during your next turn! Wow, so
generous! And don’t forget we have Victory Star
Victini available so that if
you somehow fail to flip three consecutive heads every
turn, you can try again!
But seriously, even with Fliptini,
the odds of getting three heads are still poor. Too poor
to even consider using this card. The lock isn’t exactly
unbreakable either, with G Booster, Shred attacks,
Escape Rope, and heads on a Pokémon Catcher all allowing
your opponent to attack on their turn. I was tempted to
call Beedrill a ‘fun’ card,
but I can’t imagine there is much fun involved in seeing
your strategy fail 80-90% of the time. More frustrating
than anything, I should think.
With Fliptini on board we
sucked up the coin flips for
Vanilluxe NVI and even
Sharpedo TM, but this is a step too far.
Rating
Modified: 1.25 (novelty card fails to entertain)
Limited: 1.75 (not really worth the effort)
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HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Beedrill.
Standard.
Another set, another Beedrill, it seems to be much
more popular with the card makers than its counterpart
Butterfree and while both aren’t really very good in the
video game Beedrill has had competitive cards in the
past.
Unfortunately the new Beedrill isn’t going to join them.
It’s not a terrible card but as we’ve seen more and more
the last two years, an evolution card has to be
something really special to compete with the power leap
in big Basic Pokémon.
The first attack can do decent damage combined with
Virbank City Gym, but so can any Poison attack. The main
point of interest is Flash Needle, if you can land 3
heads you get to deal 120 damage and Beedrill is
protected from attacks in the next turn. Of course this
is very unlikely even with “Fliptini” Victini in play.
If only 2 heads were required for protection perhaps
it’d be an ok card, but as it stands there’s much better
options in Basic Pokémon when it comes to Grass types.
Unlimited 150.
Beedrill has proven itself as a competitive deck in
this format, with access to cheap, powerful attacks,
Paralysis lock and deck searching all in one evolution
line. If you read card of the day a lot you may have
picked up I’m a Beedrill player myself. This new
Beedrill isn’t enough to knock one of my current 4 out
of the deck though (The 4 being Rising Rivals, Great
Encounters, FRLG & Skyridge). Even if I couldn’t get my
hands on one of those I’d go for Delta Species or Plasma
Freeze.
So, whilst it is an ok card and in a very well supported
evolution line, it just can’t compete with many of its
older versions.
Ratings.
Standard: 1.5
Unlimited 150: 2
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