Stoutland V – Battle Styles
Date Reviewed: April 23, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.00
Expanded: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
We’ll begin our review of Stoutland V (SW – Battle Styles 117/163, 157/163) with one of its most obvious traits: it is Rule Box Pokémon. When it comes to drawbacks, this means it so it gives up an extra Prize when KO’d, is excluded from certain beneficial effects, and included in certain detrimental ones. One the benefits side, Stoutland V gets to be a Basic instead of its usual Stage 2 self, as Pokémon V are either Basics or VMAX. Being a Basic is the best Stage overall, owing to minimum time and cards to hit the field, and some additional perks when it comes to certain game mechanics. Another benefit is that – so far – all Pokémon V have substantially more HP than their baseline counterparts. In this case, 60 more than Stoutland (SM – Cosmic Eclipse 176/236, 248/236). 210 is on the lower-end for typical Basic Pokémon V, but it is still reasonably sturdy for a two-Prize Pokémon.
Stoutland V is a Colorless Pokémon, and that isn’t good. Nothing in the Standard or Expanded Formats are [C] Weak, nor do they have great support available. Nothing is Resistant and anti-[C] effects are non-existent (Standard) or also not heavily used (Expanded), so it isn’t all bad. It is just any other Type right now would be at least marginally better (not that any others suit Stoutland). No Weakness is “good”, and Fighting is probably not the worst to have, but it is pretty dangerous even with their tiny share of the metagame. No Resistance is the worst, but is also so common it doesn’t actually take away from Stoutland V. A Retreat Cost of [CCC] is almost as painful to pay as [CCCC], but without qualifying for cards like Buff Padding.
Stoutland V knows two attacks, and we’re going to start with the more expensive one for reasons that should become clear. [CCCC] pays for “Wild Tackle”. Unless you have incredibly generous Energy acceleration, this is expensive. Wild Tackle does 200 damage to your opponent’s Active and 30 to itself. This is disappointing; given both costs, I’d at least want Stoutland V to OHKO typical Basic Pokémon V. Yes, all Colorless Energy requirements make it easier to pay for its cost but not that much easier. It isn’t like Stoutland V can make use of Twin Energy or Triple Acceleration Energy. Even in Expanded, that’s two Double Colorless Energy to pay its cost. I won’t call it bad, but “mediocre” might be apt.
We’re here for the first attack, “Double Dip Fangs”. For [CCC], this attack does 40 damage. That is actually bad but it has a killer effect; you take an extra Prize when you KO a Pokémon through the damage from Double Dip Fangs! I suppose this almost makes Wild Tackle make sense; together, you can 2HKO most Basic Pokémon V, most Pokémon-GX (even a TAG TEAMs!), nearly all Pokémon-EX, and nearly all single-Prize Pokémon! Is an extra half-Prize per turn worth it? Maybe, but the real appeal of Stoutland V is likely going to be finding a way to buff its attacks so you can take two Prizes off of single-Prize attackers, finding a way to power it up quickly, or both.
I’m starting to wonder if Cramorant VMAX/Porygon-Z (SM – Unbroken Bonds 157/214) is the obvious place for Stoutland V. Slap as many Powerful [C] Energy to Stoutland V as you can afford, and go for broke. That is up to 80 extra damage, bringing up to 120 HP Pokémon down in one shot… but taking two Prizes while doing it. If a deck already using Arceus & Dialga & Palkia-GX can accelerate Energy onto Stoutland V, that seems like another good fit. A full-effect “Altered Creation-GX” means Double Dip Fangs do 70 and both extra Prize effects stack! Really makes me wonder if you could combine both approaches into one deck… or rather, if you can do so and have it actually be efficient and reliable enough to still hang with competitive decks.
The Expanded Format adds Double Colorless Energy for extra speed, but perhaps more importantly, more ways to increase Stoutland V’s damage output. Fighting Fury Belt only adds 10 to its damage, but also 40 to Stoutland V’s HP. Muscle band adds 20 against anything, while Choice Band adds 30 against Pokémon-EX/GX. You cannot have more than one of these attached at a time, but it helps. While also available in Standard, Leon might be a bit easier to use here thanks to VS Seeker. Attack copiers are another option; Marshadow-GX is a Fighting type, its Ability lets it copy attacks from Basics in your discard pile, and there are so many ways to increase damage from [F] Pokémon.
In both Formats, effects which place damage counters before you attack can also help, but not things like Poison as it places it damage counters between turns, and thus the Poison scores the KO and not the damage from Double Dip Fangs.
Ratings
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 3/5
I’ve been saying it a lot lately, but I am being a bit generous with Stoutland V. At least, this early in its lifespan. With the right Energy acceleration and damage buffs available to it, Double Dip Fang could be amazing! Even as is, I think it has solid potential as TecH. I almost included it in my Top 15 for this set, but unless it suddenly starts winning major events, looks like I made the right call in not keeping it on the list.
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