If you think this review is too long to read, just skip straight to the scores and then read the summary for a concise overview!

Name: Rocket’s Snorlax ex

Set: EX: Team Rocket Returns

Card#: 104/109

Rarity: Pokémon ex (yeah, it’s also a rarity)

Type: Darkness

Stage: Basic

HP: 100

Weakness: Fighting

Resistance: None

Retreat: CCC

Poké-Body: Dark Healer

As long as Rocket’s Snorlax ex has any (D) Energy attached to it, remove 1 damage counter from Rocket’s Snorlax ex between turns.

Attack#1: (CC) Poison Claws [20]

Flip a coin.  If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned.

 

Attributes: First things first: this card has Rocket’s in its name.  This automatically allows it to combo with nearly all Rocket’s supporting cards.  It also means one or two cards can’t be used by it.  Second, this is a Pokémon ex.  That means it needs to be roughly twice as good as an equivalent Pokémon.  Not exactly, since being a single Pokémon instead of two is inherently advantageous in that it’s one less slot in your deck, you need less attached cards (like Energy and Pokémon Tools).  Of course, that’s all more than offset by losing two prizes, so the card still needs to be pretty potent.

 

Rocket’s Snorlax ex is a Basic Pokémon that has no pre-Evolutions or Evolved forms.  Being a Basic is great: you can just drop it into play so long as your bench isn’t full.  Not having any “supporting forms” means that this card needs to be a bit buffer than those with such forms: Rocket’s Snorlax ex is on its own in this respect.  Rocket’s Snorlax ex is a Darkness Pokémon.  This means there is nothing Resistant to it, but a few things that are Weak.  It also means it can use Darkness Energy for extra damage.  Darkness is more or less tied with Metal for being the best type in the game, so this is a definite plus.  The only downside is the slight type advantage Rocket’s Snorlax “should” have had against the still popular Rayquaza ex.

 

Rocket’s Snorlax ex has 100.  Now, this does not make it like two 50 HP Pokémon.  Why?  Because the more HP you have, the more opportunities you have to heal, be it the actual damage, or extra time to handle Special Conditions, etc.  This can be bypassed, of course, by doing 100 damage in one shot (with respect to this Pokémon).  This isn’t the greatest though: it’s just high enough to trigger Desert Ruins’ effect.  Given that Snorlax has great HP in the video game, along with a good Defense, they could have bumped it up to 110 or even 120.  Oh well, 100 is still pretty good.  The Fighting Weakness that goes with it is a major pain: Fighting decks do exist.  The most popular ones at the moment are Magma decks (on the decline), Hidden Legends Machamp oriented anti-Pokémon ex decks, and Dark Tyranitar decks.  There are also several minor Fighting decks that usually vary from location to location.  Sadly, Rocket’s Snorlax ex has no Resistance.  Naturally, the worst Resistance is no Resistance.  A retreat cost of (CCC) is high.  Anything above (CC) you have to more or less avoid paying in all but the direst of circumstances.  Note that for a Snorlax, it’s actually on the lower side: most require (CCCC).

 

Abilities: Rocket’s Snorlax ex has a Poké-Body and two attacks.  The Poké-Body is pretty nice: Dark Healer triggers if you have any (D) Energy (so anything providing (D) Energy) attached to Rocket’s Snorlax ex.  It lets you remove a damage counter from Rocket’s Snorlax ex between turns: sort of like an “anti-Poison”.  It also essentially cancels out the effects of Desert Ruins.  Given its solid 100HP, this Poké-Body could heal quite a lot of damage… or it might do nothing, given the OHKO-oriented nature of most formats.  Overall, it still proves useful.  The first attack is very.  (CC) for 20 is a fair trade, and you also get a nice “I can’t Evolve” bonus: a flip to Poison.  It’s good since it gives you something to use while powering up Rocket’s Snorlax ex’s second attack.  The second attack is pretty solid on its own: Collapse hits for 60 damage.  For four of any color Energy, that’s pretty good.  Yes, it puts you to Sleep, but that’s a 50% chance of meaning nothing to you.  In very rare circumstances, namely if you are Confused, it is actually helpful: if you successfully attack, you get rid of Confusion, and have a 75% of being neither Asleep nor Confused by your next turn… barring your opponent hitting you with either again.  Long story short, you more or less get an extra 15 damage, very nice for a Basic Pokémon.

 

However, this is a Pokémon ex.  None of the abilities, on their own, are good enough to warrant being a Pokémon ex.  The attributes don’t warrant it either.  Fortunately, the sum of the Abilities does (barely) warrant this card being a Pokémon ex.  We basically have three above average Abilities.

 

Uses/Combinations: This is where Rocket’s Snorlax ex really shines: it can take advantage of nearly all the supporting Rocket’s cards.  It can’t make use of Rocket’s Poké Ball, but it can get a precious extra 20 HP from Rocket’s Hideout.  So does every other Dark and Rocket’s Pokémon, but Rocket’s Snorlax ex gets an extra boost since it can heal it self.  A 120 HP Basic that removes a damage counter between turns actually has some staying power.  Being a Darkness type Pokémon is similarly more beneficial since you can optionally use all Darkness Energy to power your attacks.  40 damage with a shot at Poison, thanks to two Darkness Energy cards, is actually pretty nice.  100 damage a turn, through Collapse and four attached Darkness Energy cards, is also pretty potent.  Also important is that you can make great use of R Energy: you can go from having no Energy to hitting for 30 damage and, yes, a 50% chance of Poison.  If you have two Energy, you can jump up to a solid 80 damage (more if there are any real Darkness Energy cards attached).  It also makes a nice “throw away” card for Rocket’s Mission.

 

Are there any decks where it fits in?  If you can make room, it can be nice for Dark Dragonite/Dark Electrode in Modified: 70 to 100 damage a turn means you might be able to compete with the OHKO kings, especially if you keep them from building up any significant threats (20 of their damage will get erased, after all).  It might work in a Rocket’s Sneasel ex deck, as they run a lot of Darkness Energy-providing cards and want Darkness-type Pokémon in play.  Before the errata, I was considering a deck using the Mantine with Ripple, as healing up to 50 damage a turn and being Basic-oriented might help.  Plus, with Dark Electrode or Fire Red/Leaf Green Pidgeot to get the Darkness Energy out it could be even faster… but now I’d have to run Sandstorm Xatu instead, and that would really slow the deck down.

 

For Unlimited, I have been debating altering Turbo Snorlax, a deck utilizing Dark Gloom, Dark Vileplume, and Jungle Snorlax to deny your opponent Trainers while constantly Confusing or Paralyzing them.  Forgoing Confusion, or just hoping to punch through it, the deck would be able to run more Rocket cards to better effect while still locking out opposing Trainers.  When Rocket’s Hideout can’t be gotten rid of, nor can you Energy be nailed by Removals, you get staying power.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 3.5/5-Turbo Snorlax is actually an interesting deck in Unlimited; not strong enough to be a top “archetype”, but not weak enough to be just another “gag deck”.  With a little tweaking, we now have a bolder Rocket flavored variant. ;)  Oh, and on its own, it wouldn’t be too Energy Removal weak as it can attack with either a Double Colorless Energy or R Energy…

 

Modified: 3.25/5-Here, I doubt it will ever make any decks, but it might be some help.  Rocket’s Mission is seeing some general play, since it acts as a slightly sub-par TV Reporter.  Having a Rocket’s Pokémon to chuck for a little extra draw power.  Most of the score comes from potentially helping out some new decks.  However, there are often other alternatives that can be just as good or better.

 

Limited: 3.75/5-This is a base line for it: on its own, it will just be a solid big Basic Pokémon ex that can try to Poison while building up for a solid hit and fits in pretty much any deck.  If you pull some Rocket’s supporting cards, it gets a little better.  Probably +0.1 for each of those cards you pull.  This means if you get lucky and pull more three or more related cards (Dark Metal Energy, R Energy, Rocket’s Hideout, etc.), you’ll have a sick, sick monster.

 

Summary

Rocket’s Snorlax ex is a solid Basic Pokémon ex that relies on its bonuses from being a Darkness Type Pokémon and being a Rocket’s Pokémon to put it over the top.  Unfortunately, it’s not enough to give it a great score, but it is not completely useless.  If you have enough Darkness Energy cards attached, you’ll have a potential OHKO machine that can heal itself, but is very susceptible to being OHKO’d and highly dependant upon Darkness Energy to reach that level (meaning it’s mostly a one-shot deal).  At the very least it can fit into some second tier decks in either format.