Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Muk
(Plasma Freeze)
A couple of weeks ago, someone on a forum asked if a
deck could be made with the Muk
from Plasma Freeze. I was intrigued by the question, so
I decided to take a closer look at the card and see if
it had any strengths that
could be used when constructing a deck.
I quickly dismissed the second attack, Sludge Crash. It
is far too expensive and therefore slow. Yes, the
flippy Energy disruption is
nice, but two Psychic and two
Colourless for 80 damage simply isn’t going to work.
Especially on a Stage 1 with just 100 HP. Instead I
focused on two things: the Poison Suction attack and the
fact that Muk is a Plasma
Pokémon.
Poison Suction costs one Psychic, two Colourless Energy
and only hits for 60 damage.
However, if the Defending Pokémon is
Poisoned, it will heal 60 damage from
Muk. Inflicting Poison is
the easy part: Hypnotoxic
Laser will do that for you, and you can even use Shadow
Triad to recover them enough to make constant use
practical. The real problem is that healing isn’t really
relevant on a 100 HP Pokémon, as so many things can just
OHKO it. To try and solve this problem, I turned to
Umbreon PLF, whose Dark
Shade Ability gives each of your Plasma Pokémon another
20 HP. With four of these on the Field,
Muk has 180 HP and is much
more difficult to take down in one hit, which brings the
healing factor into play (somewhat). Meanwhile, Poison
Suction, with Virbank City
Gym and Hypnotoxic Laser, is
capable of KOing and EX in a
couple of turns.
Was the deck any good? Not really, not in a competitive
sense, but I enjoyed looking at a card which at least
had something to offer deckbuilders
instead of the same old vanilla attacks. Even
Umbreon can’t guarantee that
Muk will take a hit, and the
deck is rather slow and depends on a lot of support. Oh
well, at least it was fun.
Rating
Modified: 2 (a bit better than the usual Stage 1
mediocrity)
Limited: 2 (If Laser was in the set, it would be great .
. . but it isn’t)
|
Ness
Two-Time World Champion
Check out The Klaczynski Open. August 31, 2013 |
Muk
Muk actually has two unique, solid attacks, but each of
them is weakened by Muk's low HP and their high energy
costs. While Hypnotoxic Laser pairs easily with Poison
Suction, you'll rarely have an opportunity to heal a
Pokémon like Muk, which is OHKO'd by so many attacks.
Sludge Crash is almost good, as you could pair it with
NVI Victini (Victory Star) to get a re-flip, but for
four energy, it's just too slow. It isn't worth
dedicating so many energy to a Pokémon that will be
easily OHKO'd. In limited, though, this attack is quite
solid.
Modified: 1.5/5
Limited: 2/5
Combos with: Hypnotoxic Laser, Victini (Victory Star)
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virusyosh |
Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Rotation time is once
again upon us, and now that we know for sure that next
format is NXD-on, we can finally start tweaking our
decks for the upcoming changes! In the meantime, we'll
keep reviewing cards from Plasma Freeze (and Plasma
Blast, once it's released), so be sure to check back
daily for updates! Today's Card of the Day is Muk.
Muk is a Stage 1 Psychic Pokemon. As I briefly
touched on yesterday, Gothitelle and Deoxys-EX are the
two most commonly played Psychic Pokemon, so Muk will
have to fill a niche in order to see some play. 100 HP
for a Stage 1 isn't a great start, as this means that
Muk is easily OHKO'd by any common attack + Hypnotoxic
Laser/Virbank City Gym, which is a very common play in
today's Modified. Psychic Weakness isn't terrible, as
Gothitelle doesn't attack and Deoxys-EX will likely OHKO
anyway; no Resistance is again disappointing; and a
Retreat Cost of three is very large, so be sure to use a
card effect to Switch as opposed to paying the Energy.
This sludge Pokemon has two attacks. Poison Suction
does an expensive 60 damage for a Psychic and two
Colorless, but also heals 60 damage from Muk if the
Defending Pokemon is Poisoned. This attack works nicely
in theory when combined with HTL and Virbank, but Muk's
low HP score means that this attack isn't quite
effective as it should be. For the second attack, Sludge
Crash does a very expensive 80 damage for two Psychic
and two Colorless, with the additional effect of
flipping coins until you get tails, and discarding an
Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon for each heads.
Once again, 80 damage for four Energy isn't going to cut
it in Modified, especially on a Pokemon with only 100
HP. That being said, Energy discard is always a very
powerful mechanic, though you're still probably better
off using something else like Crushing Hammer or
Enhanced Hammer.
Modified: 1/5/5 Muk has some potentially interesting
attacks, but they are too expensive for the damage
output. Likewise, with only 100 HP, Muk is easy prey for
pretty much every attacker in the metagame, so steer
clear of using it here.
Limited: 3/5 Muk is decent in Plasma Freeze Limited,
though not great. Poison Suction is somewhat expensive
for its damage output here, and without a way to
reliably inflict the Poison condition, the attack's
power is diminished. Likewise, Sludge Crash's secondary
effect is decent, but it can be difficult to power up a
Pokemon with only 100 HP to four Energy, even in a very
slow format like Limited. All in all, Muk has lots of
potential, but is also incredibly slow. If you are able
to build it up and get it attacking, you should be able
to perform admirably. That being said, it doesn't fit
into every deck, and isn't always worth building around.
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