Name:
Azumarill
Set/Card#:
Sandstorm, #30/100
Type:
Water
Stage:
1 (evolves from Marill)
HP:
70
Weakness:
Lighting
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Drizzle
If you have
any (W) Energy cards in your hand, attach as many (W) Energy
cards as you like to any of your Active Pokémon.
Attack#2:
(WC) Max Bubbles [30x]
Flip a coin
for each Energy attached to all of
your Active Pokémon. This attack does 30 damage times the
number of heads.
Name:
Marill
Set/Card#:
Sandstorm, #68/100
Type:
Water
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
Electric
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
None
Attack:
(WC) Double Bubble [10x]
Flip coins. This attack does 10 damage times the number of
heads. If either of the coins is heads, the Defending Pokémon
is now Paralyzed.
Attributes:
Azumarill is a Stage 1 Water Pokémon. There are other Azumarill,
but I honestly have never card for them. Seen a few interesting
decks for them, but nothing that really grabbed me. Anyway, so
this card does have to compete or work with its siblings, and
compete is probably the best choice. Being a Stage 1 Pokémon
means it had better possess some traits to make it worth the
effort of Evolving it. It Evolves
from Marill, the best version of which is the error printing in
Sandstorm, listed above. Free retreat and an attack that
paralyzes 75% of the time are pretty good. There is a “pre-Evo”
for Marill, but while it has a nice attack, it only has 40 HP so
I am not going to waste any more time on it. Water Pokémon are
kinda needed what with all the Blaziken decks. Weakness exists,
as does Resistance. Resistance is fairly new for Water, so it’s
more a problem in Modified where more new Grass cards [with the
Resistance] see play. 70 HP is minimum you want to see on a
Stage 1. Azumarill is weak to Electric decks, a mixed
blessing. In Modified, the only commonly played Electric
Pokémon is Ampharos ex and Expedition Ampharos, mainly as a
bench sitter, in BAR decks. Sandstorm Electabuzz does show up
though, and if this were to become “big”, Aquapolis Zapdos is
great for Sceptile TecH decks. In Unlimited, you face Base Set
Buzz, the occasional Rocket’s Zapdos, but worst of all…
Elekid. Hey, it’s a Baby Pokémon
that can hide and hit you from the bench, and with no Energy do
40 on a flip! Resistance is… none. -_- Retreat is a very
manageable one, which is nice.
Abilities:
Drizzle can be amazing-a mini Raindance. Mixed blessing is that
it’s an attack and only works for you Active Pokémon. It might
be real interesting in 2-on-2/TMP though. Max Bubbles is
great-dump a bunch of Energy on Azumarill, then next turn make
like Sneasel! Just four Energy let
you average 60. For just (WC), you are getting a slightly
discounted average of 30. Anything more is “fair” for a flat
price rate: WWW would average 45, for example. It’s like having
nearly infinite attacks on this guy (in reality, what, 56 since
you need one Marill, one Azumarill, and one prize left, and you
can’t use the attack with just one Energy
soo…) Too bad that the HP means you might not survive
Drizzling the wad you’d need to make Max Bubble pay off…
Uses/Combinations:
If there was a better way to keep it alive, it could be really
good for Modified. But I can’t think of a good way. In
Unlimited, you might actually consider running it with
Blastoise-turn two you have a better
Sneasel in most respects. With a focus band and Pokémon
Nurse/Center to abuse, it could last. The best use I can think
of for it is in TMP. Either run it so you can power up your
partners Water Pokémon, or Drizzle on itself periodically, then
bench and heal it, and use that Energy to feed Gardevoir ex’s
Psystorm. You could have Gardy ex
doing a reliable 100 by turn 2, and almost certainly by turn 3.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5-I think it might work in
Raindance. Note I said “might”. Plus, Raindance is not the top
deck here anyway.
Modified:
3/5-It’s more useful, but it still has a depressingly short
lifespan.
Limited:
4/5-Possible game breaker. Drop it early and annihilate them
before they can build enough to take it down. Or late game,
just power it on the bench and still take them down.
2-on-2:
3.25/5-You can suicide it to power up its partner. A real
bizarre thought is using it with AQ Blissey
and Gardevoir ex: drop a load of Water Energy on
Blissey, then
send it to the bench. Now Gardevior
ex has this huge Energy to draw upon, and that
Blissey’s Poké-Power means you have
a 50% chance once per turn of healing one damage counter per
energy on one of your Pokémon!
TMP:
4/5-Gardy Battery.
Summary
Niche uses,
but incredible niche uses.
-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)
