aroramage |
Skarmory is pretty basic, and I'm
not just saying that cause he doesn't evolve from
anything EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
He's only got two attacks, the
second of whcih is Aerial Ace. And lemme tell ya,
3-for-60 with a 50/50 shot at doing 90 ain't that
appealing.
That just leaves Metallic Sound,
which for the cost of a DCE will get rid of anything
like DCE as part of Skarmory's attack. It doesn't do
damage, but it can definitely hinder a few decks. But
against anything running Basic Energies, which should be
most any deck with an Energy acceleration engine, it'll
be a minor hindrance. He's got niche potential though,
and in a format that's dominated by Special Energies or
against decks that utilize a lot of them, he may be some
great tech to run against them.
If only he too didn't rely on them
for the attack...
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (right now he's
alright, but I'd hang onto him)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (since there's a
lot that can go wrong or right for him in the long run)
Limited: 3.5/5 (course you could
easily run him against the Special Energies of the set
too)
Arora Notealus: Skarmory here is a
lot like Skarmory-EX from a while back. Both have
attacks with specific effects, making them utility more
than anything. Good for teching, not so great for
maining. Such is the nature of card games~
Next Time: Amidst the endless
oceans lies a duck who has one severe headache, evolving
into something with less of a headache...and less
memorability.
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Otaku |
Our second subject
this week is Skarmory (Sun & Moon 88/149).
This is a Steel Metal Type, which carries certain
benefits. They hit all Fairy Type Pokémon and some
Water Types for double damage thanks to those cards
being Metal Weak; Metal Resistance is found on many
Lightning Types (most in Standard play), but dealing
with your attacks doing 20 less damage is not the same
kind of problem as dealing with your opponent’s attacks
doing double damage. I don’t recall if there are
any anti-Metal Pokémon or Energy effects, but there are
a few bonuses they can claim, all of which are various
protective effects. They also have some solid
attackers you can employ as well, and they have some
nifty support based on their Energy Type, but only in
Expanded play. I’m not naming specific cards,
which tells you that they probably aren’t going to be
critical to Skarmory. What is critical is
its Stage; this is a Basic Pokémon, making it fast to
the field and easy to slip into a deck, plus the other
typical benefits I usually list off. Its 110 HP
isn’t beefy, but at least it gets it out of easy OHKO
range (but still a probable OHKO, once an opponent’s
deck is in full swing). Capitalizing on its video
game dual Type, instead of the Typical Metal
Weakness/Resistance combo, we see the Lightning Weakness
and Fighting Resistance typical of TCG (Flying)
Colorless Types. Lightning Weakness may not be
much (if any) safer than Fire Weakness right now, but
being different than the majority within your Type can
often create a small bit of advantage. Any
Resistance is useful, so that isn’t an issue, either.
The Retreat Cost of [C] is good; easy to pay and recover
from having paid, at least most of the time.
Skarmory
brings two attacks to the table: “Metallic Sound” and
“Aerial Ace”. The former requires [CC] and does no
damage, but instead discards all Special Energy
from all Pokémon in play. This could mean a
massive amount of discarded Energy, but it will
hit you as well. Could be a problem, considering a
Double Colorless Energy is the logical way to pay
for the attack in many decks. Of course, with 110
HP that may not be as big of a problem as I first
thought; if Skarmory doesn’t discard enough to
grind the opponent’s deck to a halt, his or her Pokémon
still have a good chance of securing a OHKO.
Aerial Ace requires [MCC] to do 60 damage, and you get a
coin flip where “tails” adds (and thankfully takes)
nothing, while “heads” means +30 damage. For three
Energy, 90 damage is quite appropriate, but the real
concern for me is the lone [M] requirement. Not
impossibly steep, but enough decks that might splash
Skarmory in for the first attack will often have
trouble with the second. Complement each other in
only the most fundamental of ways: the attack costs are
staggered, and one handles disruption while the other
actually does damage.
This card’s true
competition would be other clutch/TecH attackers, I
think, but we’ll run through the other Expanded and/or
Standard-legal Skarmory for the sake of being
thorough; BW: Boundaries Crossed 95/149, BW:
Boundaries Crossed 96/149, BW: Plasma Storm
87/135, XY: Phantom Forces 59/119, and XY:
Roaring Skies 69/108. All are Basic Pokémon
with two attacks, while all but XY: Roaring Skies
69/108 are only legal for Expanded play. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 95/149 is a Metal Type with 80
HP, Fire Weakness, Psychic Resistance, and Retreat Cost
[CC]. For [M] it can use “Claw” to do 20, but must
flip a coin; “heads” means the attack works, “tails”
means it does nothing. [MCC] pays for “Drill Peck”,
which does 50 damage. Poor HP and underpowered
attacks are probably why this wasn’t ever reviewed. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 96/149 is also a Metal Type with
Fire Weakness, Psychic Resistance, and Retreat Cost
[CC], but with 100 HP and the attacks “Metal Sound” and
“Swift”. Metal Sound requires [M] and a coin flip;
“heads” Confuses the opponent’s Active, “tails” does
nada. “Swift” costs [CCC] and ignores all effects on
the opponent’s Active plus Weakness and
Resistance for damage calculation purposes; handy to get
around several protective effects, but hurt by not
applying Weakness. The damage output was a bit low
for it as well, but I thought we had reviewed this one;
turns out we hadn’t.
BW: Plasma Storm
87/135 is a Team Plasma Pokémon, so for what it is worth
it can tap their support but has to deal with their
counters, and if we have to name it again we’ll just
address it as Skarmory [Plasma].
Unsurprisingly, it is also a Metal Type with Fire
Weakness and Psychic Resistance, but at least we split
the difference between the last two HP scores as this
version clocks in at 90, plus its Retreat Cost is only
[C]. For [C] it can use its “Cargo Jet” attack to
have you discard a Team Plasma card from hand, then if
you did, draw three cards; for it does 40 damage and
reduces the damage it takes (during your opponent’s next
turn) by 20. I didn’t chime in
the day it was
reviewed,
and as they realized these attacks were junk even back
then; it hasn’t gotten better with age. XY: Phantom
Forces 59/119 sees our last Metal Type Skarmory
out of this bunch, and the shift to Lightning Weakness
with Fighting Resistance. It has 100 HP again, but
this time with Retreat Cost [C], also showing some of
the power creep between generations. For [CC] it
can use “Slash” to do 30 damage, while [MMC] pays for
“Iron Wing” to do 90 damage and discard one [M] Energy
from itself. The attacks are better than
Skarmory [Plasma], but probably not as good as
BW: Boundaries Crossed 96/149, which is probably why
we didn’t bother reviewing it. Last up is XY:
Roaring Skies 69/108, our one Colorless Type
Skarmory, which is why it is rocking that Lightning
Weakness and Fighting Resistance. Its 100 HP and
Retreat Cost of [C] keep pace with the previous
iteration and is just 10 HP shy of today’s Skarmory.
For [C] it can use the attack “Call for Family” to
search your deck for up to two Basic Pokémon to put
directly onto your Bench; a decent attack but a
questionable inclusion for a card that released
alongside Winona. “Blow Through” requires [CC]
and does 30, plus another 30 if a Stadium is in play.
Though not mind-blowing, that is the best of the damage
oriented attacks we’ve seen. It received an
overly generous
review…
from me (the others were on point).
As I said, though,
none of these are competition for today’s
Skarmory, just a good reminder of how far the card
has come. All the stuff you’d be more inclined to
run instead of it reminds us of how far it has yet to
go. This really is only worth considering if your
deck has a terrible match-up against one of the
few decks that are not only Special Energy heavy but
inclined to have multiple Special Energy in play
at a time. Plus, your deck cannot be that
way as well, unless you want to set yourself back at the
same time. I’ve actually seen a couple decks
lately rocking a lot of Special Energy. Solgaleo-GX
has a GX-attack that attaches up to five Energy from
your deck, Carbink BREAK can attach from your
discard with its attack, Dragonair (Sun & Moon
95/149) can attach multiple Energy (as many as you want
and have in hand) with its first attack. Carbink
BREAK has had some success already, but it
also attaches from the discard while doing a bit of
damage; it might be able to just go back to attaching
forcing you to keep attacking with Skarmory.
That probably won’t do you much good. Those other
two might, depending upon the deck. In particular,
I’ve run into two Solgaleo-GX (possibly more, as
some with Cosmog and Cosmoem have lost
with obviously incomplete setups). Solgaleo-GX
was used in some of these to attack multiple
Double Dragon Energy to Giratina-EX (XY:
Ancient Origins 57/98, 93/98), basic Darkness
Energy to Darkrai-EX (XY: BREAKpoint
74/122, 118/122), and/or some Rainbow Energy to
itself (its second attack does pack a punch).
One of these times, I was able to force the Energy laden
Giratina-EX up front for a OHKO, plus use
Enhanced Hammer to take out a Rainbow Energy
attached to Solgaleo-GX; my opponent was quick to
forfeit at that point. The other time, I had a bad
setup. If you can’t deal with the massive amount
of [D] Energy built-up on the Bench, this might be a
viable new Darkrai-EX deck.
Which means maybe
Skarmory has a shot at being a counter to such a
thing, but that is not only a niche usage but still
unconfirmed. It is better than nothing at all,
though, for Standard and/or Expanded play. A few
older decks, though I’m not sure if they are considered
competitive anymore, also tended to be Special Energy
heavy and would field multiple Special Energy at
the same time. That could help this card out a
bit. You also have Dimension Valley so that
Mew-EX or Mew (XY: Fates Collide
29/124) can copy and then use the attack for just [C].
For Limited play, it isn’t great but it’s good; while
discarding Special Energy becomes even less important,
being a decent sized Basic and not too terrible to work
into your typical multi-Type Limited format deck is
enough. I’ll indulge in a little hypothetical,
however; if Aerial Ace was priced at [CCC], or had
higher base damage, then there would be enough notable
Metal Weak Pokémon - any Fairy Type, Regice,
Glaceon-EX - that it might be a worthwhile splash
in certain decks for that as well.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
2/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary:
Though not much of a step up from yesterday, I believe
this Skarmory is an improvement; mass Special
Energy discard on a Basic that can attack for [CC] has
some potential, even if it hits your side of the field
at the same time.
I am experimenting
with a new-ish approach to scheduling this week;
sometimes we’ve done themed weeks, sometimes we’ve done
weeks of cards of about the same caliber, but this week
I’ve mixed it up. When I made my top 10 list, I
went through every card in the set and gave it a
grade based on my initial impression. Then I did
it again. We had our “F” card yesterday,
while today’s was a D+, though the first time through I
was way more impressed and gave it a C. Based on
my number grades, “D-” was probably a bit more accurate.
Still, that means we have a C range, a B range, and a
surprise card left for this week (not necessarily in
that order).
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