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Ariados HGSS
Today’s card is another Grass Pokémon, Ariados, a
creepy-looking bug.
It’s a Stage 1, which is never a good start as Stage 1s
have to be verging on broken to be playable. The 80 HP
is barely acceptable and it has the typical double Fire
Weakness. The Retreat cost of one is decent . . . I
suppose.
Ariados’s first attack, Leech Life, does 30 damage for
[G][C] and heals the same amount of damage that you do
from Ariados. It’s not the worst attack in the world and
it could even allow Ariados to tank slightly against
Grass-Weak Pokémon like . . . ummm . . .Feraligatr and
Swampert. The trouble is, with only 80 HP, neither of
those Pokémon will have much trouble getting a OHKO on
Ariados, so I can’t really recommend it as a counter to
those Pokémon.
The second attack, the charmingly-named Poisonous
Saliva, does 50 damage and auto Poison for [G][C][C].
Again, there are much worse attacks out there, but at
the same time, it doesn’t do enough damage for the cost
to be remotely competitive in Modified format.
Limited is a different story though. In a low damage,
slower format, Ariados is a very decent Pokémon: hard to
KO, thanks to Leech Life, and very annoying thanks to
its ability to Poison. Ariados is a solid Pokémon for
use in a prerelease, but too weak and underpowered to be
successful elsewhere.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (not quite good enough to be called
mediocre)
Limited: 3 (a solid choice for this format)
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