Name: Sableye

Type: Dark

Stage: Basic

HP: 60

Weakness: Fighting

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (C) Supernatural

Look at your opponent’s hand.  You may use the effect of Supporter card you find there as the effect of this attack.  (The Supporter Card remains in your opponent’s hand.)

Attack#2: (DC) Dark Bind [20]

 

Attributes: This is the only Sableye out in English, so no competition or team-up opportunities with itself.  It is a Basic Dark-type Pokémon, which means that it faces steep competition in Unlimited, but little in Modified.  In Unlimited, the main competition for a Dark Basic would be Murkrow and Sneasel, both from Neo Genesis.  In Modified, its main competition stems from the Sandstorm Murkrow and Aquapolis Sneasel.  As we look at the aspects of the card, I will probably compare it to them.

 

Sableye has 60 HP, which is more or less expected for a non-evolving Basic released any time recently.  It is enough that most Stage 1 Pokémon will need at least 2 hits, usually 3, to KO it, while most Stage 1s will usually need two.  For that matter, most Stage 2 Pokémon will need that much as well, since most attacks that do that much damage will have a limiting factor that makes them unreliable: things like flips, only able to be used under certain conditions, or requiring Energy discards.  60 HP also either matches or just surpasses those we are comparing Sableye with.  Next we come to Weakness, which hurts Sableye: Fighting Weakness might be the worse weakness.  Why?  Because fighting Pokémon specialize in straight damage most of the time.  With little effort, any deck can (and really should) include a Basic Fighting Pokémon or two, as it is a pretty common weakness amongst supporting Pokémon types.  This also kicks Sableye down a notch in Unlimited, where Tyrogues are everywhere, and its competition lacks this Weakness.  Resistance is sadly non-existent.  Oh, and what should a Ghost-Type be Resistant to?  Why Fighting-types, of course.  Grrr… As a Dark/Ghost, this card should probably have had no Weakness/Resistance at all, or been weak to Dark and Resistant to Fighting or Psychic-types (preferable to its current state in my opinion).  Until recently, most Dark Pokémon have been Psychic Resistant..  That would have been a welcome bonus for Sableye.  A pity it isn’t there.  The retreat is a single energy.  This is good-you should be able to pay it with ease, unless you rely heavily on Special Energies, which may or may not be a problem depending on how you play this card.  This is inferior to the free retreats of Neo Genesis Murkrow and Sneasel in Unlimited, but on par with the newer Dark Pokémon in Modified.

 

As a whole, I’d say Sableye is a about average attribute-wise for Modified but sub-standard for Unlimited.  The lack of Resistance is the main flaw for this Pokémon, but that can be overcome with strong enough abilities…

 

Abilities: Just to get it out of the way, I’ll cover Dark Bind first.  For (DC), you should do 25 damage.  Here, you just get 20.  Now, normally you would assume the “extra” would be used to cover some other effects cost, like a flip for Paralysis or something.  Instead, you can discard a Darkness Energy for Auto-Paralysis.  Not a good deal.  Normally, the rarity of Darkness Energy is offset by its damage bonuses.  Here, not only do we do 5 less damage than we should, but if we discard a Darkness Energy card to activate an overpriced effect (I’ll get to that), then real Darkness Energy would not provide its damage bonus.  Finally, I think Auto-Paralysis (if you can call it that depending upon a discard of a limited energy type) should only cost (C), like most other Special Conditions.  Most of the time a discard of an energy counts as an extra attachment of that energy, and that’s for energies that aren’t limited to 4 per deck (8 if you use Rainbow and Multi-Energy).  This is neither enough damage potential to compete with Neo Genesis Sneasel or enough “interference” to mess people up like Neo Genesis’ Murkrow’s Mean Look.  For that matter, you are almost as well off with Aquaplolis Sneasel, who’s damaging attack ( (CC) Claw [CC]) will let you laod it with Darkness for some nice damage (DD is a 50% shot at 50).  Note that attack is also over-priced though. At least the attack exists, so it does something. =P

The real bread and butter (hmmmm… butter =P~) of this card is its first attack.  For the cost of any color of energy, you can not only look at your opponent’s hand, but select a Supporter from their hand (if it exists) and use its effect!  In Unlimited, this is pretty poor, as a) Supporters aren’t used a lot, and b) most good Trainers aren’t Supporters.  In Modified, Supporters are everywhere, and most importantly, they are useful to most decks in general.  If your opponent has a Pokémon Nurse, chances are at least one of your Pokémon can make use of it-Sableye probably shouldn’t waste time attacking for damage with, so it should have only one energy, and will have a little damage on you.  You don’t actually use the Supporter up, and this can be a mixed blessing-they will still have access to it, but may have to use it prematurely to keep it out of your reach.  An extra Copycat seems almost Eeeeeeek like…

 

Uses/Combinations: Mainly as some early speed, since it will a) give you an idea of what is coming and b) probably take advantage of the copious amount of Supporter use in Modified.  It’s pretty simple. 

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5-No real use other than filler

 

Modified: 3/5-Possible low end Cleffa.  Sneak peak at what’s coming up.

 

Limited: 1.75/5-Main use would be scouting opponent’s hand, which might be worth it if you don’t think a lot of Fighting was drafted.

 

-Otaku

Watch out for the dark needed for this card however; if you’re only drafting Sandstorm then you won’t get any.

Ralphy-

One strange card...

 

Unlimited- Well the 60 HP is short of the 70 that is to be accepted here, but not that short. Fighting weakness is bad, especially since a Tyrouge takes you out with a heads flip. The one retreat is also not too bad. Now for the negative. Supernatural is useless being that nobody plays Supporters in Unlimited. Dark Bind has the greatest potential in Unlimited, as it is easiest to recycle Dark Energies. Maybe try using recycle with it to have a 50 percent chance to put another Dark back on the top of your deck. Not really worth it, but I give it a 2/5.

 

Modified- Rock is a bit less of a threat, bit it is still there. I might see running this with Furret to get your darks out of your deck and do 20 with guaranteed paralysis every turn. Then when your 4 darks get used up, bring in Sandstorm Linoone to get back all your darks from the discard and reuse them. The ability to use the effect of any Supporter in your opponents hand for a single colorless energy is also nice. Being that the chances that there will be a Supporter there are good in this format, it's kind of like a more random Cleffa. I give a 3.25/5 here.

 

Limited- 60 HP is nice here, as are the rest of the bottom stats to a degree. The chance of getting dark energies is low and the chance of there being a Supporter in your opponents hand is also low. So it's kind of like a useless card. It might be worth a shot for the possibility of draw power. 1.75/5 here.