Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Beartic
(Next Destinies)
The first thing I want to say about this card is how
completely brilliant the artwork by
kawayoo is. Drawing underwater stuff is
hard and to
make it look as spectacular and realistic as it does
here . . . that’s fantastic. As much as I love looking
at the art though, it would be nice if this card gave me
something else to enjoy.
Beartic
is a Stage 1 with that great Typing which Pokémon is
giving out to Ice Pokémon these days. It’s Water so it
hits stuff like Reshiram and
Donphan for Weakness, but it
has Metal Weakness itself, so there’s not much that
threatens it in the metagame
at the moment now that Cobalion
NV seems to have disappeared. The 120 HP seems solid
enough, but does fall below the threshold for surviving
a Zekrom or
Reshiram OHKO, which is a
bit of a drawback, as is that Retreat cost of three
which you will never ever want to pay.
Beartic’s
first attack, Daunt, costs a Double Colourless Energy
(which is convenient),deals
40 damage for that cost and reduces the damage done by
the Defending Pokémon by 20 on the next turn. It’s
interesting that the effect lies of the Defending
Pokémon rather than Beartic
itself, as this means an opponent can’t work around it
with Pokémon Catcher: if they don’t want to suck up the
damage reduction, they will have to remove the effect by
Benching their active. This
makes Daunt slightly more worthwhile as an attack, but
only slightly. Even with the damage reduction, the poor
output you get from Daunt is so unthreatening to today’s
high HP monsters that they can afford to take the time
to KO Beartic over a couple
of turns instead of just one.
The best thing about Ambush,
Beartic’s other attack option, is that it’s
compatible with the DCE you used to power up Daunt: just
attach a Water Energy and off you go. The worst thing
about it is that all it offeres
is a vanilla 60 damage with a
coinflip chance of adding an extra 30. Even if
the flip works out, this is not exactly spectacular. I
guess the idea behind it is to hit for 40 with Daunt and
survive thanks to the effect, and then do 90 to hit the
magic total of 130. That would be ok if it wasn’t for
two things: the reliance on the coin flip and the fact
that 130 is a lot less of a magic number since
Eviolite and (more
importantly) 170+ HP –EX Basics hit the format.
So what we are left with is another one of those Pokémon
that isn’t exactly bad . . . it’s just made to look it
by all the (mostly Basic) Pokémon that outclass
Beartic in terms of
durability and damage output.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (just a really average card in a format
full of superstars)
Limited: 3.75 (Can tank effectively in a low damage
format)
|
|
virusyosh |
Hello once again, Pojo readers! I hope all of you are
having great weeks. Today we're going to review Beartic
from Next Destinies.
Beartic is a Stage 1 Water Pokemon. Water-types don't
see much play right now due to the prevalence of Zekrom,
but given that Beartic won't have a Lightning Weakness,
it could probably see some play if its other stats and
abilities are good enough. 120 HP is great for a Stage
1, though is still overshadowed by the huge Basic
dragons as well as Pokemon-EX. Additionally, 120 HP
probably won't allow Beartic to survive most huge hits
in Modified, so be prepared if you plan to use it there.
Metal Weakness is great, as Cobalion isn't very common
nowadays, no Resistance is fairly standard on most
Pokemon, and a Retreat Cost of 3 is huge, but expected.
Be sure to use Switch or something like that to move
Beartic from Active, unless it will cost you the game
otherwise.
Beartic has two attacks. The first, Daunt, deals 40
damage to the Defending Pokemon while decreasing its
attack damage during your opponent's next turn by 20 for
two Colorless Energy. This attack is of good use in
Limited, as it is cheap, powered by Colorless Energy
requirements, and blocks damage, all of which are great
for that format. Additionally, since most of your
opponent's Limited attackers won't be doing that much
damage anyway, Daunt really allows you to maximize
Beartic's survivability, especially in concert with
cards like Pokemon Center. In Modified, this attack
doesn't do enough damage to be competitive, and the
damage reduction isn't enough to make a huge difference,
as most Pokemon-EX will still OHKO, although the damage
reduction could save Beartic against Zekrom's Bolt
Strike (or Reshiram's Blue Flare), though those decks
usually have ways to boost the damage output of those
respective attacks.
The second attack is Ambush, dealing 60 damage for a
Water and two Colorless, with a chance of doing 30 more
if you flip heads. Once again, not terrible in Limited,
but not enough to make a difference in Modified.
Modified: 1.5/5 Beartic doesn't do enough to be of
real use in Modified, for reasons I've explained above.
Limited: 4/5 Beartic is quite useful in Limited. 120
HP is great for a Stage 1, and Pokemon-EX are much less
common here. Daunt has Colorless Energy requirements to
allow easy splashing into any deck, as well as providing
damage reduction which will make Beartic a productive
attacker for longer. Ambush is fortunately good here as
well, dealing a decent amount of damage, even if it is a
bit inconsistent. Overall, if you manage to draft a
Beartic, you should run it, especially if you get Double
Colorless Energy and Pokemon Center, as both make using
this polar bear much, much easier.
|
