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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Conkeldurr #65

Noble Victories

Date Reviewed: Feb. 8, 2012

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.50
Limited: 3.30

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst. 
3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Back to the main COTD Page

Combos With: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Conkledurr 65/101 (Noble Victories)

Like you couldn’t see this one coming . . .

Today we also take a look at the uncommon Machamp Conkeldurr from Noble Victories. This too has the quite useful Fighting Type (lots of Lightning being played everywhere), the disastrous Psychic Weakness (only acceptable on a Psychic Type which can at least revenge KO the dreaded Mewtwo-EX), and a nasty Retreat cost (slightly better than the other Conkeldurr, but still not something you want to pay with actual Energy).

No Abilities here, so let’s take a look at the attacks. If there was ever any doubt that Conkeldurr = Machamp, then Chip Away should settle the argument. Recent Machamp’s (SF, TM) have got into the habit of having an attack that does 40 for one Fighting Energy, and now Conkeldurr picks up on that tradition. The 40 damage isn’t affected by any effects on the Defending Pokémon (so it will still hit for full damage through Eviolite or Special Metal), but I honestly don’t see that making it much use. There was a time (before Rare Candy was nerfed and Basics started having 130+ HP) where 40 for 1 from a Stage 2 had its uses. Now though? You are barely scratching the kind of Basics that people play. The effort required in getting a Stage 2 out really needs to be rewarded by some kind of game-breaking Power/Ability (e.g.: Vileplume UD, Magnezone Prime), or a huge OHKO-potential attack (Magnezone again). It’s clear that Chip Away isn’t that, so what else can Conkeldurr offer?

Not much in all honesty. Swing Around costs a fairly steep [F][F][C], so it will take a full three turns to power up (in the unlikely event Conkeldurr survives that long). For that you get a disappointing base damage of 60, with the opportunity to flip two coins and do 30 more for each heads. Average luck means you do 90 for 3 which is ok, but not really what you need from a Stage 2. Good luck (and/or a bit of help from Victory Star Victini) might get you 120 for three, which is nice, but won’t even OHKO a Reshiram unless you have a PlusPower, never mind the scary EX Pokémon.

This Conkeldurr is a very average Stage 2 in a format where you have to be a completely brilliant Stage 2 to stand a chance at being competitive. So yeah . . . so far it looks like the binder is the natural home of Conkeldurr for the time being. It will have to wait before it makes a Machamp-like impact on the TCG.

Rating

Modified: 1.5 (just not good enough for anyone to care about)

Limited: 3 (fairly tough Stage 2 . . . that’s ok I suppose)

virusyosh

Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Due a scheduling conflict earlier this week, we're going to have two Cards of the Day today! Both cards are versions of the same Pokemon, and both are from Noble Victories. Today's Card of the Day is Conkeldurr (#65).

Conkeldurr is a Stage 2 Fighting Pokemon. The only common Fighting types in Modified right now are Terrakion and Donphan, which either are big Basics or have the ability to hit for a lot of damage quickly. 140 HP is fairly good for a Stage 2, allowing Conkeldurr to take at least one big unboosted hit and usually live to tell the tale. Psychic Weakness is problematic against Mewtwo-EX, no Resistance is unfortunate, and a Retreat Cost of 3 is big, and probably shouldn't be paid unless you will absolutely lose the game otherwise. Use something like Switch instead.

Conkeldurr has two attacks. Chip Away deals 40 damage ignoring all effects on the Defending Pokemon for a single Fighting Energy, which is very interesting when you think about damage reduction or protective "Agility" type effects. Sadly, 40 damage is simply not that much for a Stage 2, and this fact is Chip Away's major problem. Conkeldurr's other attack, Swing Around, starts off at 60 damage for two Fighting and a Colorless, and allows you to flip two coins, dealing 30 more damage for each heads for a possible total of 120 damage for [FFC]. 120 damage for 3 is what we've come to expect in our format full of powerful Basics that can easily hit that value, and on a Stage 2, this attack is a bit too unreliable for Modified. In Limited however, Conkeldurr is quite solid.

Modified: 1.75/5 Chip Away is interesting, but that's about it. Otherwise, Conkeldurr's attacks don't do enough damage to cut it in a format of high-powered attackers with huge amounts of HP.

Limited: 3.5/5 Conkeldurr is fairly good in Limited. Chip Away gets around many annoying effects, as well as dealing decent damage for the cost. Swing Around is by no means amazing, but is generally more than serviceable and should easily net you a few KOs. Overall, Conkeldurr is a solid, if unspectacular Pokemon for Limited play.

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia

Conkeldurr 65/111 (Noble Victories)

This is the other Conkeldurr in the Noble Victories set, and it looks even more like a demented crossbreed between the Hulk and the Joker from The Dark Night than the other version. But take away the sinister smile and massive strength and you'll find that this Poke'mon isn't as tough as it looks.

This Conkeldurr has 140 HP, a retreat cost of 3 and two attacks that you will probably get to use, which is a good start for a Stage 2, especially a member of the Fighting type which is known for hard hitters with massive HP. That's where the good news ends, because neither of the attacks deals enough damage to matter.

Chip Away follows a noble tradition of Fighting type Poke'mon and attacks who, with good reason, get seriously annoyed by the number of Poke'mon who block their raw physical power with such trifles as Defender, Eviolite, Poke-bodies and Abilities. As such, the attack ignores all effects on the Defending Poke'mon when dealing damage. With an easily paid cost of [f] and a decent damage output of 40, this attack is actually fairly handy for starting your assault but quickly gets left behind in the damage race, especially if Fighting Resistance rears its ugly head (Weakness and Resistance are considered game rules and not effects, so they apply to Chip away's damage as usual).

That is when you turn to Swing Around, which quite clearly references the two concrete pillars that Conkeldurr likes to carry about. The problem is that the deigners decided that two pillars should be represented by two coin flips, which should be ringing alarm bells for all of you in the audience. With a cost of [f][c][c] and a base damage of 60 plus each coin that comes up Heads adding 30 damage, I can see a lot of good arguments for skipping the hard part and playing a Dragon instead. Even with Victini in the picture, you aren't ever going to deal enough damage with Swing Around to justify the effort in Modified.

Conkeldurr has my respect for daring to be ugly when so many of the critters around are sickeningly cute, but I can't bring myself to like or reccomend this card.

Modified: 1.5 (the term 'random Stage 2 deck' was coined for decks that use uncompetitive monsters like Conkeldurr)

Limited: 3.5 (it's big, it fits in with the other Fighting types pretty easily and you probably won't have many other options)

Combos with: nothing at all


Otaku

It is a special double CotD today! We’ll be looking at both Conkeldurr. This article is for Conkeldurr (BW: Noble Victories 65/101). If you’ve read the CotD for the other version, you’ll notice the shared text: I simply do not have time to come up with a new way to describe the shared characteristics of the cards.

Stats

Conkeldurr a Stage 2 Pokémon, which is unfortunately a disadvantage right now: you’ll need two other cards to get it into play (Timburr and either Gurdurr or Rare Candy), and with the incredibly aggressive nature of this format you have to Bench multiple “targets” to have a prayer of getting an Evolution up and running. It can be spamming the basic you want to Evolve, it can be your own attacker that is already to go and that your opponent can’t afford to ignore, but it has to be something. If it is your second turn or later, you get the other option of running a Trainer lock, but that takes over your deck so it is pretty specialized. Alas this seems to be the struggle for TPC: either Basic Pokémon dominate (like both now and when the game first came out) or Evolutions dominate (like most of the time in between).

Conkeldurr is a Fighting-Type Pokémon with is both a blessing and a curse. The good news is Fighting Weakness is everywhere right now! Sure Resistance is popping up as well, but mostly to cover that Weakness. Plus, no other big Fighting deck seems to be able to capitalize upon it. The bad news is no other big Fighting deck seems to be able to capitalize upon it, including some that were good until a few sets ago; this is a very hostile format for Evolution decks, so Conkeldurr will really need to be something special not to go the same way as other, well made Stage 2 Fighting Pokémon that haven’t found a toehold. Plus Fighting-Type Pokémon have no real support worth mentioning; what I can remember actually “supports” Fighting-Type Energy and not the Pokémon themselves, but either way it hurts.

Conkeldurr has 140 HP, which should be good, but isn’t. This is in the middle of the expected range for Stage 2 Pokémon (130 HP to 150 HP). 130 HP usually means a great effects and/or Bench-sitter status (at least if it wasn’t for Pokémon Catcher it would be), with anything lower possessing some truly amazing effects (almost always an Ability by this point since attacks usually can’t offset significantly low HP). Something with 140 or 150 HP should be big enough to get by on bulk alone so long as the rest of the card isn’t actually bad.

That is how it “should” be based on the history of the game and seeming intentions of the designers. I could be wrong though. What actually is, on the other hand, is not open to interpretation. We have Basic Pokémon with great HP scores themselves, sometimes even before factoring in that they are a Basic Pokémon! More importantly, these same Basic Pokémon get fantastic attacks, often enough to OHKO Stage 2 Pokémon with a little help. Finally street legal today are Pokémon EX, so far all of which are Basic Pokémon and worth two Prizes when KOed. The most notable amongst them can also OHKO Stage 2 Pokémon, but without any help (other than the set-up almost every Pokémon requires).

So 140 HP now means Conkeldurr should survive one shot if your opponent isn’t fully set-up, hitting your Weakness, or seeking to win through raw brute force. Today is the official release date for BW: Next Destinies, which means Mewtwo EX is now legal for Modified play and thus Psychic Weakness like that of Conkeldurr is the worst Weakness in the format. Fully powered a Mewtwo EX will OHKO Conkeldurr, and it has a nasty Energy counting attack that will also usually do the job. Irritatingly, there is no Resistance to help offset this even a smidge. I really feel that diminishes the game when they skimp on Resistance. Last we come to the Retreat Cost of three. This is better than the other Conkeldurr (BW: Noble Victories 64/101), but not by enough. You still don’t want to ever pay this: pack an alternative like Switch or prepare to “tank out” Conkeldurr. Odds are you’ll want to plan on doing both.

Effects

Conkeldurr has two attacks. The first is Chip Away for (F). It does 40 points of damage and gets to ignore effects on the Defending Pokémon. Note that Weakness and Resistance are not considered “effects” on the Defending Pokémon. This is a good attack: while getting blocked by Resistance can still be a problem, Fighting Weak Pokémon can’t hide behind defensive effects that reside on them. Of course, only a few that do are worth playing anyway. You can also still layer effects onto Conkeldurr to boost the damage of this attack, like PlusPower.

The big attack on this card is Swing Around for (FFC). It does 60 points of damage no matter what, plus it lets you flip two coins to get another 30 points of damage per “heads”. I think I’d rather just average the 90 points of damage, but either way this isn’t going to cut it unless you’re exploiting Weakness (and sometimes not even then). If the Energy cost was (FCC) at least you could use Double Colorless Energy, but even then this kind of attack shouldn’t be the “big” attack on a Stage 2 Pokémon. Swing Around is just too slow and weak given the rest of the format, and what is required to get it going.

Usage

Covering the basics, what Timburr and Gurdurr should you use? If you read yesterday’s Gurdurr CotD, you’d know that I recommend Timburr (Black & White 59/114) because none of the versions we have of Timburr have useful attacks, so we might as well enjoy the 70 HP this version has (the other two only have 60 HP). Gurdurr (Black & White 60/114) requires one less Energy to Retreat and has a little bit better attacks than the most recent version released, so I recommend it, though only because I dislike relying entirely upon Rare Candy to Evolve.

Should a Conkeldurr player run this over the other Conkeldurr (BW: Noble Victories 64/101)? If you also plan on running Shaymin (HS: Unleashed 8/95)to move Energy around en masse, might consider running a single copy of this, the no Ability Conkeldurr, since it can hit faster than the other version (barring combos) and possibly harder if you are lucky with some coin tosses. Not without Shaymin to move Energy around, though, and no more than one copy. See that review for a more details on running the other Conkeldurr. Despite a good “small” attack, the big attack just doesn’t justify the effort. With Psychic Weakness being so nasty right now, I don’t see why you wouldn’t use Donphan Prime (HeartGold & SoulSilver 107/123) if you just want a fast, hard-hitting Fighting line. The fact that Donphan Prime usage seems to have plummeted is an excellent indicator that Conkeldurr isn’t going to cut it either.

What of Unlimited? The usual reminder: Unlimited not only has access to the best decks (and cards) ever released, but horrific combos that allow a player to win the first turn of the game, or strip an opponent’s hand away so that they are top decking, etc. Conkeldurr isn’t completely useless here, but is shown up by too many past cards. Chip Away won’t ignore the Baby Rule (it is a rule, not an “effect”), so even if I wanted a Stage 2 Fighting-Type Pokémon with a nasty first attack, I’d have access to greats like Machamp (EX: Hidden Legends 9/101), which for (FC) has an attack similar to Chip Away and more importantly, a Poké-Body that increases the damage Machamp does when an opponent has a Pokémon ex in play (the old Pokémon ex, which are still a reasonably common site in Unlimited when not facing FTW decks). Machamp (DP: Stormfront 20/100) also has a great attack for (F) that allows it to automatically KO a non-Evolved Pokémon, two better follow-up attacks, better Weakness, and better Retreat Cost. The only drawback is 10 less HP. Since these are both Machamp, nothing stops a player from running both. This Conkeldurr doesn’t really stand a chance, since I wouldn’t even bother adding a single copy to a deck using the other Conkeldurr (Unlimited provides more efficient options).

In Limited, Conkeldurr shines. A second Conkeldurr in the set makes just a little easier to pull a fleshed out line. The lower average damage output and HP scores means your HP should last longer, especially the lower average HP your attacks are encountering increases the likelihood Conkeldurr is scoring OHKOs. Many attack effects are heavily relied on here, which makes Chip Away more useful as well.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1/5

Modified: 1/5

Limited: 3.25/5

Summary

Conkeldurr feels like filler thanks to the second attack. Actually, it feels like a so-so Basic Pokémon got an extra 20 to 40 HP and was called a Stage 2. For the record, such a Basic Pokémon probably wouldn’t have been all that good either, but it wouldn’t have been as comparatively bad. Cards like this make me really think the old “Poké-Power/Poké-Body with two attacks” formula needs to return: in this kind of format Stage 2 Pokémon need a fast attack and a big attack, really restricting design choices.


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