aroramage |
Wait just a second, this is just
Garbodor again! We've already seen Garbodor enough, just
move on from these reprints!
...well, technically, this Garbodor
isn't a reprint.
Garbodor does host the same Ability
of the one we know all about, Garbotoxin, so I don't
have to explain about the whole "Tools are my power, and
Abilities get shut down" with that, but his attack does
change from a vanilla blend of Sludge Toss at 3-for-60
to a modestly improved 4-for-60 Offensive Bomb that
Confuses and Poisons the opponent!...so that's a thing!
Yeah, okay, his attack
"technically" makes him better than the other Garbodor,
but the short of it is he's a reprint for the same
purpose you all would use Garbodor for anyway: Float
Stone + Garbotoxin.
...yeah, no, that's why he's #3.
Rating
Standard: 4.5/5 (I mean, what else
can be said about Garbotoxin?)
Expanded: 4.5/5 (we know it works)
Limited: 5/5 (...there's...really
no surprise here)
Arora Notealus:...Garbodor: the
living dumpster that should've been Poison/Steel.
Next Time: And now for the Tool to
equip Garbodor with! Just kidding, we already know
that's Float Stone. But seriously, have another Tool.
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Otaku |
Our
final Card of the Day this week is… what? Oh,
yeah: due to extenuating circumstances, the entire site
(not just the Pokémon section) are going to have a
four-day weekend. Not so nice for you, but even
though the reason for it didn’t involve us, I at least
badly needed it. Why? Even though I’ve had
errors or oversights on multiple Card of the Days
recently, this top 10 list, I am just striking out.
Thankfully a
corrected review
went up for Max Elixir (missed the clause
restricting it to the Bench) but even though I started
to, in the Puzzle of Time
CotD
I left out how Pokémon like Sableye (BW: Dark
Explorers 62/108) combo so nicely with it. Now
I apparently found out how I missed the Bench
restriction on Max Elixir; I attached it to
yesterday’s
Garchomp (XY: BREAKpoint 70/122) write-up:
its “Turbo Assault” can attach to itself or something on
your Bench, as opposed to just the latter (though given
the likelihood of an Active being KOed, most of the time
one will favor the Bench anyway).
You
still here after all of that? Well now I need to
explain something that is not a mistake, but some
people might think it is (or a deliberate “cheat” on our
part). Our Top 10 lists usually exclude reprints…
but the Pokémon TCG has been known to reuse past effects
on newer cards and this time, they were especially
blatant about it as they took what was once arguably the
most influential Pokémon in the format and all but
re-released it, simply changing its attack (that didn’t
matter on the original). Who’s that Pokémon?
Today we look at Garbodor (XY: BREAKpoint
57/122), the not-quite-reprint of Garbodor (BW:
Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW: Plasma Freeze
119/116; BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113).
So even though it seems like it, this is not a
reprint: the older Garbodor doesn’t become
Standard legal even though this new one is nearly
identical. Just wanted to say that before
we ran through the cards, because they are so similar.
Garbodor
is a Psychic-Type; this means it hits a good chunk of
the Fighting-Type and Psychic-Type for double damage,
but faces somewhat abundant Resistance as nearly all
Darkness-Types and Metal-Types enjoy Psychic Resistance.
Good thing for Psychic-Type attackers that being the
first or second most resisted Type that no Resistance at
all is still by far the most abundant, and that -20
damage is an annoyance more than a serious obstacle.
There are no detrimental effects that specify
Psychic-Type Pokémon as the target, but there also are
only a few supporting cards that explicitly reference
the Type as well, and the only one that is going to
really matter is Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom Forces
36/119), because Garbodor has an Ability but
while Wobbuffet shuts off Abilities while it is
Active, it doesn’t affect other Psychic-Types (so
Garbodor is unaffected). So being a
Psychic-Type actually does benefit it, though as a pure
Poison-Type in the video games, it isn’t like there were
many other options. As a Stage 1 Pokémon, you’ll
have to lose a turn Evolving or else burn your Supporter
on Wally; if you want to get technical there is
at least one more trick (maybe more) but Wally is
the only one that might be worth the effort, with
manually Evolving being the norm. Being a Stage 1
does allow you to benefit from certain effects/ignore
some that can trouble Basic Pokémon, but it is pretty
clearly inferior to being a Basic Pokémon while still
being better than any other Stage.
Garbodor
has 100 HP; this isn’t horrible, but it is low enough
that most decks will score a OHKO without more than
their standard level of effort. It might actually
be better if it had 10 less HP; while just a hair
easier to KO it would become a Level Ball legal
target, though as most decks favor Ultra Ball
since that can also snag any other Pokémon, including
the oh-so-important Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring
Skies 77/108, 106/108), working with Level Ball
is no longer the bonus it once was. The Psychic
Weakness is dangerous: you’ve got Pumpkaboo (XY:
Phantom Forces 44/119) in Night March, Mew-EX
which shows up in a few decks but mostly Night March,
and all versions of Mewtwo-EX that are going to
reach OHKO levels of damage if they can attack at all,
barring some very bad luck in setup (technically, each
has a narrow range where they might whiff on the OHKO).
Speaking of range, most of the examples have damage
outputs that scale or increase and as such the Weakness
isn’t as bad as it first seems; something that would
probably score a OHKO anyway now just does it with a
little less effort. It is still dangerous, though.
The lack of Resistance is typical and while it might
have been helpful to Garbodor, wouldn’t have
likely made a huge difference anyway. What will
make a difference is the Retreat Cost of [CCC].
Bulky enough that Mystery Energy can’t wipe it
out completely, you’ll definitely want to include
something to lower that cost or bypass paying it.
Not sure if it will matter, but it does have the small
upside of allowing you to use Heavy Ball and/or
Heavy Boots with Garbodor.
Garbodor
has the Ability “Garbotoxin” and it works just like its
predecessor; I didn’t even see any difference in
sentence structure or punctuation. So once again,
Garbodor can use it to shut down all
Abilities on Pokémon on the field, in the hand or in the
discard pile, so long as it has a Pokémon Tool attached
to itself. This applies to both players, and the
fact that it doesn’t apply to Pokémon in your deck just
means they still have no plans for an Ability that
activates there (not a surprise, that would be rather
awkward to implement). We know from experience
that this Ability is very potent, though its exact
usefulness is likely to fluctuate as people run fewer
Abilities as Garbotoxin becomes more common, but that in
turn leads to fewer people using Garbotoxin and then
Abilities start to see more play again until Garbotoxin
usage spikes and the whole thing repeats. The one
new aspect of this card (besides inconsequential matters
like card art) is the card’s attack: “Offensive Bomb”
requires a hefty [PCCC] to use, does 60 damage, and
leaves the opponent’s Active both Confused and Poisoned.
The damage is quite low for the Energy involved, though
the dual Special Conditions are solid. Not
something you’ll often use, but at least it is there on
the rare occasion you could make use of it.
Garbodor
must Evolve from Trubbish and we’ve got six
options: BW: Noble Victories 48/101, BW:
Dragons Exalted 53/124 (reprinted with new art as
BW: Legendary Treasures 67/113), BW: Plasma Storm
63/135, BW: Plasma Storm 64/135, BW: Plasma
Storm 65/135 (yes, three different cards in the same
set) and XY: BREAKpoint 56/122. All are
Basic Psychic-Type Pokémon with Psychic Weakness, no
Resistance, no Ancient Trait and no Ability, while only
XY: BREAKpoint 56/122 is Standard legal. BW:
Noble Victories 48/101 has 60 HP with a Retreat Cost
of [C] and two attacks: “Garbage Collection” costs [C]
to allow you to put a discard pile from your discard
pile on top of your deck, while “Sludge Bomb” costs [PC]
and hits for 20. BW: Dragons Exalted 53/124 has
70 HP with a Retreat Cost of [CC]: it can use “Pound” to
do 20 damage for [CC] or for [PCC] it can use “Poison
Gas” to do 30 damage while afflicting the opponent’s
Active with Poison. BW: Plasma Storm 63/135 has
60 HP and a Retreat Cost of [C]: it can use “Pile Up” at
a cost of [P], allowing you to flip a coin and (if
“heads”) search your deck for a Pokémon Tool to add to
your hand (“tails” does nothing), while for [CC] it can
use “Sludge Toss” to do 20 damage. BW: Plasma Storm
64/135 also has 60 HP and a Retreat Cost of [C] with two
attacks seen on previous versions but with altered costs
and damage: Pound returns to do 10 for [C] this time
while Sludge Bomb now costs [PPC] but does 40 damage. BW:
Plasma Storm 65/135 is well known; it has 70 HP with
a Retreat Cost of two and just one attack - Tool Drop -
that costs [PC] but does 20 damage per Pokémon Tool in
play (both sides of the field). Finally we have
the new XY: BREAKpoint 56/122, which also repeats
by having 70 HP and a Retreat Cost of [CC]. For
[P] it can use “Acid Spray” to do 10 damage and flip a
coin; “tails” means you just do the 10 damage while
“heads” has you discard an Energy from our opponent’s
Active.
For
other Garbodor we have BW: Noble Victories
49/101, BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124 (reprinted
with alternate art as BW: Plasma Freeze 119/116
and BW: Legendary Treasures 68/113), BW:
Plasma Storm 66/135 and BW: Plasma Storm
67/135. All have the same attributes as today’s
Garbodor except BW: Plasma Storm
66/135 and BW: Plasma Storm 67/135 each have 110
HP (instead of just 100) and are Team Plasma Pokémon and
none are Standard legal. BW: Noble
Victories 49/101 has two attacks, “Gentle Wrap” for
[PC] which does 30 damage and prevents the Defending
Pokémon from retreating during your opponent’s next turn
as well as “Gunk Shot” for [PPC] which does 60 plus
Poison. It was reviewed when it first came out
here;
I don’t have a review but the only issue with the ones
there is that power creep has left this Garbodor
even more outclassed. BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124
and its reprints also have Garbotoxin which made
it an important card most of the time; its “Sludge Toss”
attack costs [PPC] and does only 60 damage, which is
poor. It was first reviewed
here,
then
here,
and finally
here;
the general consensus is that it is a very good card,
with later reviews treating it as more of a great card
and I haven’t changed my mind about it. All that
has changed is I finally realize its cyclical nature,
that it (and general Ability usage) waxes and wanes in
potency, but is never particularly bad. I’d call
it obsolete now, except neither it nor today’s version
have relevant attacks, so the only real strike against
it is that it is Expanded only.
BW:
Plasma Storm
66/135 can use its “Bio Smog” attack for [C], which does
20 damage, Poisons the opponent’s Active and (on a coin
flip) discards an Energy attached to said Active
(“tails” still does the damage and Poison). Sludge
Bomb once again returns, this time doing 70 damage for
[PPC]. BW: Plasma Storm 67/135 also has two
attacks: for [CC] it can use Ensnarl to do 20 damage
times the number of [C] in the Retreat Cost of the
Defending Pokémon. Seems okay except Darkrai-EX
and Float Stone predate it and have always been
legal alongside it. For [PCCC], the same cost as
Offensive Bomb on today’s Garbodor, it may also
use “Double Ducts” to flip two coins good for 80 damage
per “heads” (“tails” are worth no damage). This is
actually better than Offensive Bomb I think, though
neither attack is good. We reviewed the two
together
here,
I overrated the one as neither proved worthwhile, even
TecHed into a Garbotoxin deck. Nothing has changed
with regards to Garbodor; use a version with
Garbotoxin or don’t bother with them at all. For
Trubbish, you have no choice but to use the
newest version in Standard, but in Expanded BW: Noble
Victories 48/101 is a decent pick because it can get
cards back from the discard, BW: Dragons Exalted
53/124 can use Pound with just a Double Colorless
Energy (or any attachable Energy card if
Dimension Valley is in play), BW: Plasma Storm
65/135 can be the basis of a deck so as long as you can
meet the cost of Tool Drop it can be a surprise attacker
in other decks while XY: BREAKpoint 56/122 is
still tempting because Acid can discard Energy, helping
you possibly survive being stuck Active. The last
three also have 70 HP instead of 60.
Using
Garbodor… probably hasn’t changed compared to its
predecessor. Use it if you aren’t especially
dependent upon Abilities and if your deck can
accommodate a Stage 1 Pokémon and extra Pokémon Tools,
with Float Stone still being the obvious choice.
A 1-1 or 2-2 line is possible, if it is there mostly to
sabotage a specific match-up and not for its general
usage. As Garbotoxin wasn’t already available in
Standard, it is a pretty big deal that it can show up
now, while it doesn’t matter much for Expanded. In
Limited play it may be harder to get a Pokémon Tool to
trigger Garbotoxin, but remember that Spirit Link
cards still work for that. The splashable nature
of the attack combined with lower average damage outputs
and HP scores, further aided by decks having less
readily available options to ditch Special Conditions,
makes it a desirable pull even when you aren’t shutting
down Abilities with Garbotoxin.
Ratings
Standard:
4.25/5
Expanded:
4.25/5
Limited:
4.8/5
Summary:
Garbodor makes no real difference to Expanded but
will likely be a serious force in Standard until
Garbotoxin again rotates out. I had this as my
ninth place pick because again, this will barely affect
Expanded even if it is so significant to Standard play.
I actually had it higher until I remembered to try and
factor in both formats, and I probably should have rated
it a little higher than I did even considering both
formats equally. Still it managed to take third
place with 22 voting points, just missing a tie with our
next CotD by one.
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