Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Scrafty (Dark Explorers) Scrafty, the Hoodlum Pokemon, is the designers’ way of getting a laugh at the expense of some people by putting a hoody and baggy pants on a Pokémon and making him a bit derpy. I approve. Not sure I can approve of this card for competitive play though. Yes, being a Dark Type means it gets great support, but being a 100 HP Stage 1 means that it’s going to need all of that plus a whole lot more. And by that I mean some seriously great attacks. Unfortunately, what it gets are some pretty generic and underpowered attacks. Headbutt costs two Energy of any Colour and does 30 damage. That’s not good value for your Double Colourless, and an even worse return if you have spend two turns attaching Energy, or used a Dark Patch. Crushing Blow is a little better. For two Dark and one Colourless, you get 70 damage (still not great) and a coin flip to discard an Energy from the Defending Pokémon. While this can be useful and disruptive in some circumstances (especially against decks relying on Special Energy), there are better cards to play if you want an Energy removal strategy. With Scrafty, it’s just an unreliable bonus on a very mediocre attack. If you enjoy playing Scrafty, there’s nothing around right now that is really competitive, but for fun/casual purposes you are better off with Scrafty BLW than you are with today’s card. He gives you similar damage output, but with the bonus of being able to inflict so nasty Status Conditions. Rating Modified: 1.5 (average filler Stage 1. Find a better use for all that lovely Dark support) Limited: 2.75 (relatively quick and easy to use. Flipping heads will help a lot too
virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Our week of reviewing Darkness-types continues, as today we're taking a look at everyone's favorite hoodlum lizard Pokemon, Scrafty.   Scrafty is a Stage 1 Darkness-type Pokemon. As stated yesterday, the Darkness type is a great type to be right now, as Darkrai-EX is very playable and there are many support cards, including Dark Patch and Dark Claw, that make the type a very threatening option. That being said, some Dark types are notably better than others. Scrafty has a decent but not stellar 100 HP, which is fairly good for a Darkness-type but unfortunately a little bit too low for Modified metagame standards. With 100 HP, Scrafty will be able to take a weak to moderate unboosted hit, but will easily fall to heavy hitters or opposing Pokemon hitting for Weakness. Fighting Weakness is still terrible right now, as Terrakion is still quite popular (with additional capable Fighting Pokemon on the way). Psychic Resistance is still great against the likes of Mewtwo-EX and the very rare Gothitelle, and will continue to be useful as long as Mewtwo-EX is around. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 2 is just about what we'd expect from Scrafty, and is payable in a pinch. Even still, you'll probably want to use Switch.   Like most Pokemon in the Pokemon TCG, Scrafty has two attacks. Headbutt deals a vanilla 30 damage for two Colorless Energy (or a Double Colorless), which is more or less a filler attack that is used until you can power up something better. While notable for having all Colorless Energy requirements (and therefore being useful in Limited formats), 30 damage just isn't enough for a fully-evolved Pokemon in Modified. Crushing Blow is better, dealing a decent 70 damage for two Darkness and a Colorless as well as discarding an Energy from the Defending Pokemon on a coin flip.  While 70 damage isn't powerful by any stretch, the attack can be boosted by Dark Claw and/or Special Darkness Energy, which can push the damage output to acceptable levels. Finally, while unreliable, discarding Energy from the opponent is always good (as Lost Remover, Crushing Hammer, and Enhanced Hammer have shown).   Modified: 1.75/5 While Crushing Blow can be decent, it's just a bit too expensive to see real use in the format. Outside of Crushing Blow, Scrafty has very few qualities that stand out, which will make it difficult to see play in a format as tight and power-driven as Modified.   Limited: 3.75/5 Scrafty is quite good in Limited. 100 HP is good for the slower Limited format, and Fighting Weakness is less of a problem here, as well. Headbutt, while not spectacular, can be powered up using Colorless Energy, and Crushing Blow has the excellent effect of possibly discarding your opponent's Energy, greatly slowing them down while dealing decent damage. Overall, if you are running Darkness-types anyway, Scrafty should be worth a look, even if it doesn't hit particularly hard, as its disruptive potential can be great in the Limited format.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Scraggy (Dark Explorers)   Another day, another Dark Poke'mon to review. Today we have Scrafty, another critter notching up a third printed version in Dark Explorers.   Like Krookodile yesterday, Scraggy could well be expected to be a Fighting type sometime in the future due to the Fighting/Dark typing in the video game. That has yet to happen though, as the other Scrafty have also been Dark types.   Both of the previous versions have flown completely under the radar as nothing more than Limited fodder, so this Scrafty at least doesn't face competition from that quarter. But looking into my crystal ball, I don't see that changing this time around either.   Scratfy is a fully evolved Stage 1, which in the HGSS-on format is a considerable handicap. Fortunately, the 100 HP and Psychic Resistance help to make up for the deficiency somewhat. The retreat cost of 2 is negligible since anyone playing Dark would have to be crazy not to play Darkrai EX, but it does mean that neither Level Ball nore Heavy Ball can locate this card in your deck. Oh well, rely on Poke'mon Communication and Ultra Ball to do the job instead.   The Fighting Weakness is only to be expected, but it is just one more reason why any deck running Prism Energy should make room for Terrakion NV or Groudon EX to hit that sweet spot for double damage. During actual play, most Poke'mon either deal 90 damage and below (Darkrai, Groudon, Entei EX, Hudreigon NV, etc) or else deal 120+ damage (Mewtwo, Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem EX, Empoleon DEX, Regigigas and so on). Scraggy will likely survive a tussle with the first group if your opponent is stingy with the Pluspowers (which will be a likely symptom of Junk Arm Withdrawal post-rotation) but will flattened by anything in the second group, Resistance or no Resistance.   So Scraggy is a middleweight, which translates to it needing an awesome disruptive attack or a really cheap aggressive attack to support the current strategies if it wants to see play.   Headbutt fits neither of those categories, being a [c][c] for 30 damage vanilla attack which is neither disruptive nor likely to score a quick KO. Crushing Blow is better as a [d][d][c] attack for 70 damage and a coin flip to discard an Energy from the Defending Poke'mon, but it still isn't the exceptional attack Scraggy needed to find a home in today's tournament scene.   Umbreon DEX has a better chance of seeing play than Scraggy ever will, so stick this card in the binder.   Modified: 1.5 (Outclassed in every category by other Dark powerhouses)   Limited: 3 (somewhat splashable and somewhat disruptive, Scraggy gets by on belonging to the set's premier type)   Combos with: an Ability that can be used from the Bench to discard energy and support the Sableye/Crushing Hammer deck, but that would be broken.
Jebulous Maryland Player	Scrafty   Scrafty is a Stage 1 Dark Pokemon with 100 HP.  It has a Fighting Weakness, Psychic resistance, and 2 retreat cost. *sigh* Right away I can I wouldn't use this.  It is 10 HP short of being searched by Level Ball and 1 retreat short of being searchable by Heavy Ball.  100 HP means it can be OHKOed by a lot that's out there now.   'Headbutt' costs 2 colorless energy and does 30 damage.  This is a little better than what some of the tiny Basics can do.  Other than that, it’s a bad attack.  Low damage output for a price that isn't worth it.  DCE helps do it faster, but it comflicts with the second attack.   'Crushing Blow' requires 2 Dark and 1 Colorless energy.  It does 70 damage and if you flip heads you discard an energy from the Defending Pokemon.  Good point: it is any kind of energy.  Other than that, nothing else makes it worthwhile for me.  Darkrai EX has an attack with the same cost but does so much more damage.  And I don't like coin flips.   I won't be using this card.   Modified: 1.5/5 Limited: 3.5/5 Combo's With: ...   Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com