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And now, today's card!!...well, it
is Carbink, in both incarnations. Figuring it was better
to review the two simultaneously, today we get to see
what makes them so noteworthy in the first place! Aside
from of course evolving into Carbink BREAK.
And looking between the two,
 there
are a lot of similarities. Both of them are Fighting
types with a Grass Weakness and a Retreat Cost of 1, and
each of them has an Ability and an attack. Their HP
scores are pretty close to each other, with Carbink (49)
getting the shorter end of the stick at 80 while Carbink
(50) rests at a nice 90 HP. That's about where it all
ends for these two, because beyond that both of them are
very specialized in what they do.
And no, I'm not talking about 49's
Stone Edge attack that's 3-for-60 with a chance to add
30 more damage, and I'm DEFINITELY not referring to 50's
2-for-40 vanilla Power Gem. It comes down to their
Abilities, and both of them are helpful in their own
way. 50's Ability is Safeguard, which we've seen before
on cards like Sigilyph (DEX) and Suicune (PLB). There's
nothing new to this Ability, only now it can be used to
power up Carbink BREAK as your main Energy accelerator
while avoiding any EX attacks. It's an amazing Ability
as always and never one to be overlooked...even with an
attack like Power Gem.
49's Ability is Energy Keeper,
which is a bit like a Safeguard but in a different way.
It keeps all of your Basic Pokemon's Basic Energy safe
from anything your opponent might try and throw at it -
whether that's an attack, an Ability, or a Trainer card
of any kind (Item, Supporter, or Stadium). It's a nice
protective effect for sure, though I'm a little
concerned that it might be too niche. The Ability would
arguably be better if it designated all Energy or even
just focused on Special Energy, but it's understandable
why they didn't design it that way - it's not like Night
March needs more support, ya know? Still, it has a lot
of potential even outside the Fighting deck to be used
as a tech to protect your Pokemon's most valuable asset.
So what's the verdict on these two?
Well I still personally prefer 50 over 49 - despite
Night March's insistence, EXs are still a major part of
the game, even if they're nowhere near as powerful as
they were back in the BW era. And while 49's attack is
definitely better for that extra Energy, its Ability
feels a bit too narrow for my taste. That all being
said, each of them has their use, and they can both gain
Carbink BREAK's powers, so they've both got a good
chance of being valuable in the future as time goes on.
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (for both of them, as
they've got good Abilities to work with at the very
least)
Expanded: 2.5/5 (arguably 49 is a
little better than 50 here, since 49 can protect the
Energy on the Basic EX in this format while 50 has to
compete with other Safeguard users)
Limited: 3.5/5 (and they've both
got a good set to work with here, though getting BREAK
doesn't hurt)
Arora Notealus: It's funny that the
most viable form of Carbink needed to get a Type change
and a BREAK evolution to be considered good, and now
it's a mainstay as part of the new VirGen with Zygarde-EX.
It's like some kind of..Cargarde? Zybink? ZyBREAK? Oooh,
I like that one! Only with less caps...ZyBreak!
Weekend Thought: What did you think
of this week's cards? Love em? Hate em? Do you wanna
explore new and alternative ideas with them that aren't
part of the standard flow? Could they fit well into a
casual build, or do you think there's potential for them
in competitive play? I mean, aside from Carbink of
course, he's already there raring to go.
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