Time to look at
Watchog (BW: Plasma Storm
113/135)… you know, the
other “Watchog
[Plasma]”.
Stats
Miscellaneous:
Today’s card is going to mostly be
referred to as… today’s card or
Watchog (BW: Plasma Storm
113/135) if I need to single it out;
calling it
Watchog [Plasma] doesn’t work as
there is another.
The good news (sort of) is that
all versions of
Watchog are so similar, so I’ll
often be able to make a statement that
applies equally to all of them; context
is going to be key.
It is useful that this card can tap Team
Plasma support, though how helpful it
will be is questionable.
Type:
Aspertia
City
Gym
is the one noteworthy piece of
Colorless-Type support, good for +20 HP.
Of course, many decks would
prefer to run
Virbank City Gym; that eat up your
deck space for Stadiums, or you may find
Aspertia City Gym makes a good
counter stadium.
Otherwise in terms of Weakness
and Resistance, Colorless-Types have
been restored to a “neutral” Status; the
good news is you never have to worry
about Resistance; the bad news is that
exploiting Weakness is an important part
of this format.
Stage:
Being a Stage 1 is less clunky than
being a Stage 2 Pokémon, but Basic
Pokémon dominate the format and can go
on the offense the very first turn of
the game, so ultimately all
Watchog are going to prove slow and
a bit unwieldy by comparison.
Hit Points:
90 HP is not safe from being KOed first
turn and is an easy OHKO for most decks.
The only benefit is that it makes
Watchog legal
Level Ball targets.
Weakness:
Being Weak to Fighting-Types is not a
good thing; it enables
Landorus EX to push for a OHKO using
Hammerhead,
Hypnotoxic Laser, and
Virbank City Gym.
Thanks to the low HP, outside of
similar combos the Weakness won’t end up
being terribly dramatic, equivalent to a
PlusPower or nothing at all as the
Weakness damage bonus ends up being pure
overkill.
Resistance:
Watchog has no Resistance, which is
technically the worst Resistance but
also the most common and to be expected.
With its HP it wouldn’t have done
a lot of good anyway, plus video game
Watchog are “Normal-Types” anyway, and
have no plain Resistance, just Immunity
to Ghost-Types which doesn’t translate
well: Immunity doesn’t exist in the TCG
and the Ghost-Type is part of the TCG
Psychic-Type, two-thirds of which should
hit for normal damage.
Retreat:
The single Energy Retreat Cost on
Watchog is easy to pay, and on its
own is good.
In fact, it is probably the best
aspect of the card, which doesn’t bode
well.
Effects
Attack#1:
Second Bite requires (CC) and hits for
20 points of damage plus 10 more per
damage counter already on the Defending
Pokémon.
This attack is as good as how
much set-up occurs before it.
Used completely on its own, it is
poor; you’ll just hit for 20 points of
damage and then get OHKOed in most
match-ups.
If the Defending Pokémon has at
least 40 points of damage already on it,
you’ll get a solid return.
If following up a competent
attacker, Second Bite will often be able
to score a follow-up KO.
Attack#2:
Low Kick requires (CCC) to hit for 60
points of damage; for this price
competitive attacks need to hit for
about 90 points of damage, with some
leeway when (like on this card) the
Energy costs are purely Colorless.
Low Kick isn’t something you
should use unless it will translate into
a KO or some other major strategic
advantage.
Synergy:
The attacks have Basic Synergy; Second
Bite is just a little easier to power up
than Low Kick, and if your opponent has
less than four damage counters on it,
Low Kick will hit harder than Second
Bite.
Usage
Card Family:
Watchog (today’s version and its
set-mate BW: Plasma Storm
112/135), due to their completely
Colorless Energy requirements, can fit
into any hypothetical Team Plasma deck.
This card can’t just tap Team
Plasma support, but is a form of it.
Colress Machine and
Plasma Energy, as is unfortunately
too often the case, are the only Team
Plasma support really worth using…
excluding cards not technically legal
yet that are being released in BW:
Plasma Freeze.
As for the Evolution line, you have six
options for
Patrat: Black & White 77/114,
Black & White 78/114, BW:
Emerging Powers 78/98, BW:
Boundaries Crossed 118/149, BW:
Plasma Storm 110/135, and BW:
Plasma Storm 111/135.
The other
Watchog options total four:
Black& White 79/114, BW: Emerging
Powers 79/98, BW: Boundaries
Crossed 119/149, and BW: Plasma
Storm 113/135.
Yes, I am just including the text
from my previous review because nothing
has changed.
All
Patrat are Basic, Colorless-Type
Pokémon with Fighting Weakness, no
Resistance, a Retreat score of one and
no Abilities.
Black& White 77/114 has 50
HP and can do 10 points of damage for
(C) or 20 for (CC).
Black & White 78/114 has
60 HP and for (C) can hit for 30, but
requires a coin flip and on “tails” the
attack does nothing at all.
BW: Emerging Powers 78/98
is Black & White 78/114 with
alternate art.
BW: Boundaries Crossed
118/149 has 60 HP and for (C) lets you
look at and rearrange the top three
cards of your deck how you wish.
BW: Plasma Storm 110/135
has 50 HP and can attack for 20 with
just (C), but does 10 points of damage
to itself.
BW: Plasma Storm 111/135
has 50 HP, can draw a card for (C) or
for (CC) lets you flip two coins at 20
points of damage per “heads”.
As usual, all of these are bad and
you’ll only run them if you want to run
a
Watchog.
I would pick one of the 60 HP
versions; 10 more HP might barely save
you from a donk, and the two that do
damage (while unreliable) could
themselves donk something if your deck
also runs the
Virbank City Gym/Hypnotoxic
Laser combo (and odds are decent of
that).
The non-damaging 60 HP
Patrat can hopefully improve your
next draw and give you a heads up on
whether to try and use a “shuffling”
effect before playing anything based on
whatever is on top of your deck… like
draw cards.
The
Watchog all have the same Stats as
today’s version, save only BW: Plasma
Storm 112/135 is a Team Plasma
Pokémon; they all even have two attacks!
For (CC), Black & White
79/114 can automatically confuse the
Defending Pokémon or flip to do 60
points of damage; two attacks that might
as well have been one to make room for
an Ability or actually useful attack.
BW: Emerging Powers 79/98
lets you look at the top five cards of
your opponent’s deck and rearrange them
how you like; might have been a good
Ability but would only be a good attack
on a Basic Pokémon (and even then as an
Evolving Basic).
It does have a slightly better
attack for (CC); you can do a flat 20
points of damage or you can flip a coin
and do zero (tails) or 80 (heads).
BW: Boundaries Crossed
119/149 can do 20 points of damage but
with guaranteed Sleep (annoying but not
overly effective) for (C), or for (CC)
do 30 with an effect that makes the
attack 30 more points of damage the next
turn; interesting but not really
effective since you’ll probably be
OHKOed or something more important
forced up via
Pokémon Catcher (and Benching resets
the effect).
Lastly comes BW: Plasma Storm
112/135; for (C) it can discard a random
card form your opponent’s hand, while
for (CC) it hits for 30 (on “tails”) or
50 (on “heads”) points of damage.
I am no where near impressed
enough with discarding a single random
card to recommend it.
Combos:
Besides
Colress Machine/Plasma
Energy and
Aspertia City Gym,
Double Colorless Energy is a natural
choice and really, and any trick to get
damage on the Defending Pokémon before
you attack can allow Second Bite to get
in a solid shot.
Unlimited:
Horribly outclassed here; don’t bother.
Modified:
Horribly outclassed here; don’t bother.
Limited:
As usual, Limited is where this card has
a chance to do something.
There are two versions of
Patrat (both “Common”) and two
Watchog [Plasma], one Uncommon (BW:
Plasma Storm 112/135) and “normal”
Rare (Black& White 113/114).
This gives strong odds of pulling
a more fleshed out Evolution line and
the benefit of tapping the sets Team
Plasma support.
Its low HP, while still not good,
isn’t as bad here and the attacks are
much, much better (for all four cards)
because of less competition and the
increased importance of working well in
a deck using multiple basic Energy
Types.
Future:
While some of the new Team Plasma
support in BW: Plasma Freeze
would help today’s card’s performance
enough to put it over other, superior
choices.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1.5/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary
The only place where you should use this
Watchog is in Limited, it could have
made for an interesting non-Evolving
Basic, used to finish off the opponent’s
injured attacker, but as a Stage 1 it
just isn’t worth the hassle.
This is the better
Watchog [Plasma], but that is about
as meaningful as being an internet
celebrity.
