OK, a Venusaur. Big Grass Pokemon 140 HP, weak to fire
+40, resistant to nothing and a 4 retreat cost.
Pokebody of not allowing Grass pokemon to be hit by
special conditions. Kind of helpful. Removes those in
effect, once again, kind of helpful but not breaking in
this envio.
Attack, 1 for 30, and if Venu has 8 or more damage on
it, 3 special conditions for them! Burned, Confused and
Poisoned!
Second attack, 40 plus 40 more for each special
condition on the defending Pokemon. I know, you are all
scheming, well I can use Skuntank SP, and I can use
Magmortar Level X, and use Sceptile to double the
energy, so it is a 2 cost, for what? 120 damage for 4?
Sorry folks, special conditions are NOT at ALL what they
used to be, if they were EVER really good!
Take a deep breath, put down this Pokemon, and walk back
to your Torterras if you really want to play a high HP,
high retreat grass Pokemon. You know, I have a feeling
Tangrowth will want to talk to you too before you jump
off THIS bridge!
As you can tell, like with all Venusaurs, I am not
impressed. Oh, did I mention that Infernape SP Level X
one shots this thing?
Ratings…Modified…1.5/5 Cruel, but true. Sorry folks.
Limited…1.5/5 Stage 2’s, while tempting, and can be game
breaking, until I see the search capabilities of this
set, I have to assume they are minimal for limited, and
therefore, this thing gets put down the well.
See you on Saturday and Sunday! Woot! First Woot of the
season!!!
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Venusaur SV
Venusaur is a very interesting card that seems to offer
a lot to players, yet it has seen little or no hype
since the release of Supreme Victors. Maybe it is part
of a secret deck that you will run into at Battle Roads!
Venusaur certainly boasts some impressive stats. 140 HP
is huge for a non-LV X, even a Stage 2. Only a handful
of monster like Tyranitar SF and Torterra can compete
with that. This is balanced somewhat by the +40 Weakness
to Fire, but at least it isn’t X2. The massive Retreat
cost of four isn’t going to shock anyone: Venausaur
doesn’t look particularly agile, does it? Just make sure
your deck packs some way of getting it out of the active
position if needed.
The Green Aroma PokeBody, which prevents Special
Conditions affecting your Grass Pokémon is pretty nice,
especially as decks which abuse Burn (hello Blaziken FB!)
are seeing considerable play. There are still a few
lists around which make use of Poison (usually via
Skuntank G), so the PokeBody will help out here too.
Venusaur’s first attack, Desperate Pollen, costs only
[G] and does 30 damage. A low cost attack is a real
bonus on a slow Stage 2 Pokémon like Venusaur, 30 for
one is generous in terms of cost, and the attack comes
with a nice bonus: if Venusaur has eight or more damage
counters on it, the Defending Pokémon is now Burned,
Confused, and Poisoned.
What’s more, Desperate Pollen has some nice synergy with
Venusaur’s second attack, Special Reaction. For the much
steeper cost of [G][G][C][C], it does 40 damage, plus 40
more for every Special Condition on the Defending
Pokémon, giving you a potential 160 damage! With all the
Burn and Poisoning going on, this should OHKO even the
toughest of Pokémon.
In actual gameplay, this is going to be very hard to
pull off. A Venusaur with eight damage counters on it is
unlikely to survive another turn, and an opponent’s
Pokémon affected by Special Conditions will most likely
be Evolved, Retreated, or PokeTurned. So to make the
deck work, it makes sense to look elsewhere for combos
which will make the most of Venusaur.
Luckily, there are a few very playable ways of doing
this. You could tech in a Venusaur SW whose Miracle
Aroma PokePower lets you flip a coin each turn to
inflict the Status Condition of your choice. Skuntank G,
with a Stadium in play, will let you poison both Active
non-SP Pokémon every turn (not a problem for Venusaur SV
because of Green Aroma). Gliscor LV X and Wigglytuff GE
also give you ways of triggering the extra damage from
Special Reaction. In addition, the high cost of Special
Reaction can be dealt with by the inclusion of Sceptile
GE whose PokeBody makes all Grass Energy count double
for your Grass Pokémon.
With Venusaur, there is definitely the potential to make
a nasty, troublesome deck. Whether or not it can compete
in this format is very much questionable, though. Fire
is an increasingly popular type at the moment and
despite its one Energy attack and the availability of
Sceptile GE, Venusaur still suffers from speed issues
against the lightning-quick decks that are dominant in
tournament play.
Rating
Modified: 2.75 (has a lot to offer, but difficult to get
the best out of it)
Limited: 3.5 (a tank that can do tons of damage in a
slow format . . . if you can get it out)
Steel_Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
Today's card is Venusaur from Supreme Victors, one of
the bigger Pokemon out there TCGwise. Let's look at its
stats: 140 HP on a Stage 2 is great, and practically
ensures that it'll survive at least one hit, maybe even
two. It's a Grass-type, which hits for weakness on
Claydol (GE) and Relicanth (SV), and isn't resisted by
anything. A +40 Weakness to Fire is something to really
worry about, especially since Infernape 4 LV. X can OHKO
it with Fire Spin, so be wary. No Resistance, but that's
expected on most Pokemon. A Retreat Cost of 4 =
Horrendous.
Venusaur has a Poke-Body: Green Aroma, which removes all
Special Conditions from your Grass-type Pokemon and
keeps then from being affected by Special Conditions.
Reminds me of the Safeguard attack from the games. It's
useful against decks based around Sleep (Snorlax,
Darkrai), Burn (Blaziken FB), and Poison (Mightyena,
Skuntank G). Other than those, you probably won't see
many Special Conditions in competitive decks.
Now let's look at it's 2 attacks. The first, Desperate
Pollen, does 30 for 1 Grass energy. Nice cost efficient
attack, but if Venusaur already has 80+ damage on it,
the Defending Pokemon is Burned, Confused, and Poisoned.
So, they'll be taking an extra 10 damage for sure, and
possibly another 20 for Burn, and if they're not smart
enough to keep from attacking next turn, they could wind
up with 30 extra damage. It racks up! However, there is
a downside with this attack: None of these Special
Conditions keep your opponent from retreating. That's
right; one simple action negates all of that good stuff!
There's also Poke Turn and Super Scoop Up to worry
about.
The second attack, Special Reaction, is designed to work
with Desperate Pollen. For 4 energies, two which must be
grass, you do... 40 damage!? Not another Arcanine (SV)!
Oh wait, you do an extra 40 damage for each Special
Condition on the Defending Pokemon, which maxes out at
an extra 120 damage. So you can possibly do 160 from
this one attack. But if the opponent doesn't have any
Special Conditions on it, this attack is useless.
What works well with it? Let's see... Shaymin (Land
Forme) LV. X (PT) gives it +40 HP boost, making it a 180
tank, second only to Torterra LV. X. Sceptile (GE)
doubles your grass energy count to help with the second
attack (and that horrendous retreat cost). Combo it with
Pokemon that inflict Special Conditions outside of
battle: Blaziken FB, Venusaur (SW), Darkrai (MD), even
Wigglytiff (GE) and Skuntank G (PT), since Venusaur
protects itself and your other Grass-types with Green
Aroma.
Ratings:
Modified: 2.5/5 A nice attack when you're on the ropes,
it forces the opponent to switch almost all the time.
This card is great if you love Special Conditions. Still
with Infernape 4 and Blaziken FB running about, this
puts a damper on it.
Limited: 3.75/5 Not many Pokemon can retreat easily in
Limited, and there are very few Pokemon that can KO
Venusaur easily here. It's hard to pull the line, but it
makes a great defense against Blaziken FB's Luring Flame
and Manetric G's Thunder Fang attacks.
