Awww… I will love you and cuddle you and call you
Skorponok!
Attributes: Drapion Lv.44 is a stage 1
Pokémon that Evolves from Skorupi.
Interestingly enough, there are two Skorupi
(both of course Modified Legal); one is a Grass-Type
and the other a Psychic-Type. Both have 60 HP,
Psychic Weakness +10, no Resistance, and a Retreat
Cost of (CC). I like the attacks on the new,
Grass-Type version better: it can prevent an
opponent from retreating while doing 10 points of
damage for just (C), or for (GC) it can hit for 20
and either Paralyze or Poison them, depending upon
if the coin flip is heads or tails, respectively.
The slightly older Psychic version can only Poison
with heads on a coin toss for (P) and does no
additional damage with that attack or for (CC) flip
four coins and do 10 damage per heads. I’d say the
new version is the clear winner there. There is
also an older version of Drapion, which is a
Grass Pokémon that has 10 less HP than the new
version but the same Weakness, lack of Resistance,
and Retreat Cost. It can hit for a 20 for (CC) with
“heads” on the coin toss making it 40, or for (PPC)
do 50 damage and automatically Poison the Defending
Pokémon.
Now that the “background” information is out of the
way, let us examine the new version of Drapion.
It is a Dark-Type, which I think is a definite
advantage: being able to use the Special Energy
version of Darkness Energy has always been
handy. It has 110 HP. In Modified, I only see a
handful of Pokémon that beat that score, and maybe
two or three times as many that tie with it, so I’ll
take that as 110 HP being pretty good for a Stage 1
right now. If memory serves, it seems like big
attacks either hit for 100 or jump all the way to
120 or more, making that last 10 HP all the more
important. The Psychic Weakness of +20 doesn’t seem
too bad: a lot of Pokémon I’ve seen since I came
back have +30 if they are the end stage of their
line. It isn’t great, but it seems to be within
reason. Maybe that is why there is no Resistance on
this card. I greatly enjoy Resistance as I feel it
fleshes the game out more. A lack of it is thus
annoying, but it rarely makes or breaks a card to
have Resistance, and if it would have resulted in a
great Weakness, it might be to this card’s benefit
after all. The last bottom stat is the Retreat Cost
of (CCC). This is that tipping point where you have
to accept that you’ll only Retreat this card
manually when you would lose otherwise or for some
reason retreating will help you win. Find a card
effect that can get Drapion to the Bench and
run it in your deck.
Drapion Lv.44 has three attacks. The first
is Scorpion Grapple. For just (D) you hit for 10,
which isn’t that great. The good news is that you
get to flip a coin as well, and if it comes up
“heads”, the Defending Pokémon is Paralyzed. A
result of “tails” doesn’t fail completely, either:
the Defending Pokémon still can’t retreat. Factor in
that the Special Energy version of Darkness
Energy can reliably boost the damage done and
this becomes a passable attack. Factoring in the
next two attacks almost makes it good. The second
attack on the card is Cross Poison. Only requiring
(CC), you get to flip four coins. You do 20 points
of damage for each “heads” you get, and if at least
two coins are “heads”, you also Poison the Defending
Pokémon. One good shot of this and then you can use
Scorpion Grapple to force the opponent to succumb to
Poison or burn another card to ditch the Poison. If
you have multiple copies of Darkness Energy
for the +10 it grants, and got lucky and scored
three or four “heads”, that could actually work.
With just two heads, they might have the HP and the
attacks to take you out before the combo is
complete. The third attack, Derail would have been
huge in older formats. Derail costs (DDC) but hits
for 60 and has a strong effect: you discard all
Special Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon.
The last two or three formats, when we had Double
Rainbow Energy and later Scramble Energy,
this attack would have been huge. Open with Derail,
then either Derail again if they are low enough to
OHKO, Scorpion Grapple if they have no hope of
fighting back, or risk a Cross Poison.
Unfortunately for Drapion, the current
metagame won’t be as profitable to Derail in: while
we have several Special Energy cards, they aren’t
the type to be solely powering a Pokémon.
Discarding a spent Cyclone Energy, Warp
Energy, Health Energy, etc. is annoying,
but not crippling. Multi Energy is a bit
worse to lose, but will almost always be the only
Special Energy attached.
Uses and
Combinations: Sadly, here is where I am
least useful. I am still so very, very ignorant of
the card pool, let alone the actual metagame, that I
can’t really tell you any good combos. I can tell
you what to look for, but it shouldn’t be too hard
to figure out on your own. Like nearly all Pokémon,
you want to keep it Active and attacking. This card
seems fairly easy to set up (being a Stage 1), so
you may not need something on the bench to cycle
through your deck as bad as in other case.
Naturally you want to up your damage: Darkness
Energy, Plus Power, and maybe Buck’s
Training Method. Disruptive cards (Absol
from Secret Wonders, Team Galactic’s Wager,
and Team Galactic’s Mars) will slow an
opponent’s set up, hopefully preventing
retaliation. Lastly, I’d look for healing,
especially re-useable healing. On its own, healing
isn’t enough: your opponent will probably KO you too
fast for it to matter. Combined with Drapion’s
natural style and some disruptive helping cards, you
can hopefully minimize damage to the point that they
can’t OHKO you very easily.
Ratings
Unlimited: 3/5 – Another card I so want to
try in Unlimited, Drapion would often be
fighting low HP, heavy Special Energy using cards
that often expect to be able to retreat for free or
are meant to be bench sitters. And Poison gets
around Focus Band. Once again, I don’t
expect it to dominate the format, but to become
another one of those decks that show up from time to
time, and if you ignore it, you lose to it.
Modified: 3/5 – A solid card that would have
been great if there were more Special Energy cards
in use. It might be the card to prevent certain
Metal- or Dark-Type Pokémon from dominating, but I
don’t know if it can sneak into other decks, and as
a deck’s focus I don’t think it could handle a raw,
aggressive deck.
Limited: 4/5 – It has a good Basic and
Special Conditions are always extra nasty here.
Summary
Poor Drapion appears late to the party, but
still could be worth it in the right deck,
especially if Metal or Darkness Pokémon are big in
your area.
-Otaku
