Squawkabilly ex – Paldea Evolved
Date Reviewed: June 13, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.5
Expanded: 3.0
Limited: 1.25
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Squawkabilly-ex (SV Paldea Evolved 169/193) swoops in the meta. A Basic Colorless type with 160 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, and a retreat cost of C, it has an ability and an attack. Its Squawk and Seize ability states that once during your first turn, you may discard your hand and draw six cards, and you can’t use more than 1 of that ability during your turn. Motivate costs C for 20 damage and lets you attach up to two Basic energy cards from your discard pile onto 1 of your Benched Pokemon.
In hindsight, Squawkabilly-ex seems to pick up where other Rule Box Pokemon left off when it comes to draw power. Most recently, Crobat-V had been rotated from Standard play. While there are other baseline Pokemon such as Liepard and Bibarel that provides draw power via ability, they are both Stage 1 and had to wait for one turn in order to evolve. During that time, your opponent could potentially do something to KO your evolving basics before you get to benefit from repeated use of those abilities (as long as it stays in play). Squawkabilly-ex can be easily put into play and not having to wait for one turn. However, upon reading the restrictions of that ability, it affects the timing of how Squawkabilly-ex could be used. The ability only works when it’s your first turn, regardless of if you’re going first or second. And after the first turn has passed, you won’t be able to enjoy using that ability anymore. It does have a useful attack to help prep up certain attackers, especially since you might have discarded your hand with some basic energies via ability. Giving up two prizes just to do that might not be worth it and the damage output is nearly non-existent, so it won’t be doubling itself as an attacker.
It’s uncertain how often Squawkabilly-ex will see play due to this restriction. Dedenne-GX’s Dedechange and Crobat-V’s Dark Asset might be limited to once per turn, but it can be used at any part of the match. With Squawkabilly-ex not only limited to once per turn, but also during your first turn only, one can hope to put a full four copies of Squawkabilly-ex and even a full four Ultra Ball and Arven in hopes of getting at least one Squawkabilly-ex from your deck. Even with good to great odds, chances are that you may still fail to fetch for one on your very first turn, and suddenly further Squawkabilly-ex cards you’ve acquired other than your first turn have become discard fodder for other cards. Still, if you’re creating an aggressive playstyle to overextend some of your resources on the first turn in the match, then Squawkabilly-ex will serve you well!
It might see some use in Standard, but not to the extent and impact of previous Rule Box Pokemon with draw-based abilities such as Crobat-V and Dedenne-GX, which completely outclasses Squawkabilly-ex, even though it could be used to supplement the other two Pokemon since Shaymin-EX from XY Roaring Skies is still banned there. Even if you managed to pull one from Scarlet & Violet Paldea Evolved booster packs, you have to hope that it’d be in your starting hand before the match begins, otherwise, the ability will be one less thing to worry about.
Ratings:
Standard: 3.5/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 1.25/5
Yes, even after all of my rant regarding restricted use of Squawkabilly-ex, I still gave it a decent score. This ability is too good to pass up, and with many generic staples like Professor’s Research and Ultra Ball, finding specific Pokemon is much easier than before, even during your first turn of the game, enabling explosive plays from your end. Since I’m reviewing at the time when cards from Scarlet & Violet Paldea Evolved are still fresh, maybe as time goes by, I would be fond of having existing options that could be useful then, even if it is the only option in this current format.
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