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Huntail...actually hasn't had that
many cards in the TCG. In fact, this is the only
playable version of him currently, given the last one
came out around 7 years ago. Yeah, you read that right,
SEVEN YEARS AGO!! Huntail just doesn't get enough love
for...whatever he is.
Having finally been brought into a
post-B/W EX world, Huntail has needed a hefty power
boost, and he gets it...sorta. I mean, he does have 100
HP, which while that's low for our Stage 1s these days,
that's the most Huntail's ever really had. The scary
thing is, that's not the only thing that's gone higher
by only so much.
Crunch does 3-for-70 damage with a
coin flip to discard an Energy - potentially useful with
Head Ringer, but only really good with Muscle Band
aiding him. Looking back, at least this Huntail has the
luxury of hitting 70 consistently - the others can only
get that high under specific conditions and probably
some of their own Items from their time. Which is sad,
cause that means of the Huntails in the world, this one
really is the best.
Oh, did I skip Powerful Storm? The
1 Energy attack that does 20 damage for every one of
your Energies in play? That would be including any and
all of your Benched Pokemon? You throw a Blastoise with
Deluge down and empty your hand to the Bench, and you've
got a cheap and hefty attack that does way more than it
should. Even in late game, Huntail could surprise
someone by coming into play and wiping up - keep in mind
9 Energy in play is all it takes to KO most EX, and
that's before things like Muscle Band and Team Magma's
Secret Base.
Cheap powerful attacks will always
warrant a second glance - why do you think Empoleon had
a deck for a while? And no doubt there will be plenty of
other Water decks that will be cheaper than Seismitoad-EX
and Primal Kyogre-EX decks that will sweep through with
Huntail, KOing at a rate of 2-for-1 on opposing EX that
never saw it coming. Just imagine this with something
like Bronzong or Landorus or Eelektrik, and that's
either really crazy for what it can do or really crazy
for how much is needed for it.
Seriously...what's Huntail again?
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (a cheap powerful
attack on a Stage 1? I'm sure he'll see play)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (I could see him
doing better here, though by how much I'm not sure)
Limited: 3.5/5 (powering him up
will take time, but you only need so much Energy to
sweep with in this format)
Arora Notealus: Huntail isn't
really that powerful in the video games, to be honest.
Just a really weird and interesting Pokemon. I mean, why
does Clamperl evolve into this guy? Or into Gorebyss for
that matter? What up with this branch of strange
evolution?!
Next Time: Diving in deep to
continue the water theme, it's-
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