aroramage |
Marowak? MAROWAK?! Marowak made it
onto the Top 10 List?!
...no, I'm not actually mad, I'm
just happy to see him on board!
Truth be told, Marowak has a lot of
benefits too, similarly to Barbaracle from yesterday.
Again, he's that Stage 1 100 HP Pokemon that has an okay
attack in Bonemerang - 2 Energy for a chance to hit 0,
60, or 120 damage? Yeah, no thanks - and yet stands out
majestically for his pros, once again starting out with
a unique Ability. This time, it's Bodyguard!
What does it do? Well, Marowak
shields you, the player, from any sorts of effects from
your opponent's Pokemon's attacks. That's not too bad-oh
wait a sec, does it also protect your HAND as well? Umm,
yeah, that's what he does! Well well, not too shabby eh?
But wait, what does all that even mean? What is Marowak
Bodyguarding against? It's not like this is Magic and
you're getting poison counters or anything! You don't
have Life Points like in Yugioh! So what gives?
Well, there are some attacks that
are specifically targeted towards the player and the
player's hand. Maybe you've heard of Seismitoad-EX? And
his Quaking Punch that prevents the player from using
Item cards in their next turn? Or how about Giratina-EX's
Chaos Wheel, which keeps them from using Tools, Special
Energy, or Stadium cards? Yes, there are attacks that
affect the player in Pokemon, and yes, these are
probably some of the most dominant effects in the game.
Not only that, but Bodyguard can also block against
discarding attacks - I don't recall too many off the top
of my head, but I believe Absol-EX has something to that
effect.
So while Marowak won't be blocking
stuff like Barbaracle's Ability, he still has some prime
uses. And just like Barbaracle, he has access to Maxie's
Hidden Ball Trick, which means he can be played in
anything and used as a tech set-up. But similarly to
yesterday's card, perhaps it's just me but he seems a
fair bit niche in his usage to really appeal in the long
run. No doubt he'll play an important role for as long
as Seismitoad-EX and Giratina-EX haunt the format, but
don't expect that he'll be the highlight of every deck.
...course, I could just be full of
it and not even know it!
Rating
Standard: 3.5/5 (once again, a
relevant enough Ability puts a Stage 1 onto our Top 10
list!)
Expanded: 3.5/5 (I mean, there's no
doubt he'll see the play you'd expect from him)
Limited: 2/5 (buuuuut let's not go
overboard with it, okay?)
Arora Notealus: Honestly, I like
Marowak a lot. Sure, there's a lot of grim questions to
ask ourselves, but when you can give your Pokemon a
nickname like, "Marrownin," I think there's a lot to be
said for the design choices that led to such a thing.
Next Time: A legend returns...but
not quite the way you'd expect.
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Otaku |
Our seventh place finisher is Marowak (XY:
Fates Collide 37/124). This is a Fighting
Type, which means it has a lot potentially going for it.
When it comes to Fighting Weakness there are three Types
(Colorless, Darkness, and Lightning) that have it, with
it being a significant portion of Colorless and on
nearly all of the latter two Types. Fighting
Resistance is the most abundant last I checked, though
no Resistance is still far more common and Psychic
Resistance is such a close second that - as my search
couldn’t take into account reprints or what is actually
competitive - it should be pretty easy for them to swap
positions in Expanded. The Reason Fighting
Resistance is so common is that the video game “Flying
Type” is represented as part of the Colorless Type in
the TCG, and when a Pokémon is part Flying in the video
games its TCG self often gets to keep that Resistance.
For all this talk though Resistance is usually a
stumbling block but not a hurdle; remember to adjust for
it and you’ll usually be fine. Weakness on the
other hand is a fantastic boon as doubling damage can
make a mediocre attack into a killer. The Fighting
Type does face some Type specific counters but like most
such cards, they are worth noting but not discussing in
detail because they just aren’t that good or commonly
played. Fighting Type support is great as you’ve
got two Stadium cards (Fighting Stadium and
Scorched Earth), two Supporters (Korrina and
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick), a Pokémon Tool (Focus
Band), a Special Energy (Strong Energy) and
several strong attackers that technically work off Type
but work best with their native support. Did I
mention the new Regirock-EX (XY: Fates Collide
43/124).
Marowak
is a Stage 1; the turn delay and extra card required
make this Stage noticeably less effective than being a
Basic, but also noticeably better than all the others.
Stage 1 Pokémon have been able to function as the main
attacker, Bench sitter, and sometimes even secondary
attacker or Bench sitter in both recent and less recent
successful, competitive decks. You can use
Wally to get it into play without waiting a turn at
the cost of your Supporter or Maxie’s Hidden Ball
Trick just as fast while trading away needing a
Cubone for more restrictive usage requirements, but
we’ll have to see how this pans out to know if either
are worth it. Marowak has 100 HP, which means
most of the time it’s going down in one hit; if an
opponent has a lackluster set-up or using attacks that
aren’t meant to hit the opponent’s Active hard in the
first place, it can survive, but otherwise it’s OHKO
territory. Grass Types especially will have an
easier time and while normally with 100 HP it wouldn’t
make much of a difference, at least in Expanded I can
name an important setup attack (Emerald Slash) that does
50 damage exactly (plus attached up to two [G] Energy
from deck) that isn’t the only reason people use
Virizion-EX, but is important to key decks (like
VirGen). Marowak lacks Resistance, which might
have helped in edge cases but isn’t critical so moving
on, we have the Retreat Cost of [CC]: low enough you can
probably pay it if you must, but high enough you would
prefer not to give up that much Energy.
Marowak
has an Ability and an attack. The Ability is
“Bodyguard” which actually does protect a part of the
body: your hand! Apparently people with my sense
of humor get to name these things. Bodyguard
prevents effects of your opponent’s attacks done to you
or your hand as well as canceling out any existing ones,
which is a pretty specific role. If you’re not new
to the game, this is an almost straight up counter to
two attacks that have been doing reasonably well since
the cards featuring them released: “Quaking Punch” on
Seismitoad-EX and “Chaos Wheel” on Giratina-EX
(XY: Ancient Origins 57/98, 93/98). Since a
Card of the Day is most likely to help new players, I’ll
state what even slightly experienced players ought to
know by heart: Quaking Punch does a paltry 30 damage but
also blocks the opposing player from using Items during
his or her next turn for a cost of [CC] while Chaos
Wheel needs [GPCC] to do 100 damage while locking the
opponent out of playing Stadium cards, Special Energy
cards, or Pokémon Tools from hand during his or her next
turn. You expect Quaking Punch to be powered up in
a single turn but the collective player base realized
pretty quick the same went for Chaos Wheel in decks
focused upon it (except perhaps when teamed up with
Seismitoad-EX, where it still only took two turns
thanks to Double Colorless Energy and Double
Dragon Energy).
So Bodyguard is in an odd place; attacks that place an
effect on your hand (as opposed to your Pokémon in play)
aren’t all that common, but those two I just named are
powerful and at times have been the dominant force of
the metagame. Even when they haven’t been as
important, they remain significant and predictions of
their demise as a factor in competitive play have always
been premature and greatly exaggerated. Bodyguard
alone is enough to strongly consider Marowak in
any deck where you can work it in but what about the
attack? “Bonemerang” is an iconic attack for Cubone
and Marowak cards, with this version requiring
[FC] to flip two coins; each “heads” is worth 60 damage
while “tails” are worth zero. Four possible
outcomes in coin flip results (heads/heads, heads/tails,
tails/heads, tails/tails) but only three for damage: 0,
60, or 120. 60 damage average isn’t bad for two Energy,
it just isn’t good either, and while 120 for two is, it
isn’t so good as to be worth the risk of whiffing on
damage entirely, especially with the split looking like
25%/50%/25% for 0/60/120. I wouldn’t even have
spent this much time on a vanilla, filler attack but
besides Bodyguard requiring so much discussion that we
spilled over into a second paragraph that then needed
filling out, we’ll get to a related card that means the
attack has a little more significance.
We only have two Cubone to pick from: BW:
Dragons Exalted 60/124 and XY: BREAKthrough
77/162. Both are Basic Fighting Type Pokémon with
70 HP, no Ancient Trait and no Ability. BW: Dragons
Exalted 60/124 is only legal for Expanded play, has
Water Weakness, Lightning Resistance, Retreat Cost [C]
and two attacks: “Headbutt” for [F] to do 10 damage and
“Beat” for [CC] to do 20. XY: BREAKthrough
77/162 has Grass Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost
[CC] and a single attack (Whimsy Tackle) that does 50
damage for [FC] but requires a coin flip (“tails”
fails). As usual neither is great, though BW:
Dragons Exalted 60/124 seems to be the better of the
two except remember how one of the main threats
today’s Marowak counters is Seismitoad-EX.
When you’re countering a Water Type that has horrible
damage output, you probably don’t want the Basic from
which you Evolve to sport damage doubling Weakness.
If Marowak is the kind of Bench-sitter you don’t
play down unless you know you need it, then XY:
BREAKthrough 77/162 becomes the obvious choice.
Running a split of the two if you are uncertain (like
myself) about the actual state of your metagame is thus
my recommendation.
You have two other Marowak to either compete with
or compliment XY: Fates Collide 37/124: BW:
Dragons Exalted 61 and XY: BREAKthrough
78/162. Both are Stage 1 Fighting Type Pokémon
with 100 HP, no Ancient Trait, no Abilities, and two
attacks. BW: Dragons Exalted 61 is only an
option in Expanded play; it has Water Weakness,
Lightning Resistance, a Retreat Cost of [C], the attack
“Bone Lock” for [F] (30 damage and the Defending Pokémon
can’t retreat during your opponent’s next turn), and
attack “Vortex Chop” for [FCC] (60 damage, plus 30 if
the opponent’s Active has any kind of Resistance). XY:
BREAKthrough 78/162 has Grass Weakness, no
Resistance, a Retreat Cost of [CC], the attack “Sharp
Shooting” for [F] (30 damage to the opponent’s Pokémon
of your choice), and the attack “Bone Windmill” for [FC]
(60 damage, if the opponent’s Active is a Pokémon-EX,
you switch this attacker with something on your Bench).
There is also Marowak BREAK (XY: BREAKthrough
79/162), the BREAK Evolution of a Stage 1 that is a
Fighting Type with 140 HP and the attack “Bone Revenge”
for [FC] (does 20 damage plus 40 more for each Prize
card your opponent has taken). Marowak BREAK
received a past review
here.
We haven’t heard much from Marowak (XY:
BREAKthrough 79/162) and/or Marowak BREAK in
terms of competitive play recently, though it had a few
strong finishes but for the 2015-2016 City Championship
series it looks like a deck starring the two managed
three Top 8 finishes in the Masters Division.
So what does that mean for Marowak (XY: Fates
Collide 37/124)? It may end up reinvigorating
that deck, which used the many damage boosting tricks
found on Fighting Types coupled with a few useful
“blockers” (Robo Substitute or Pokémon that are
difficult to damage) to employ the hit-and-run tactics
that are still strong even in a format with Lysandre
to counter the strategy. A few other things have
changed since late last year/early this year, and must
once again leave you hanging as I am uncertain if this
approach just needs that favorable matchup against
attacks that affect your hand or not. More likely
is just working in a 1-1 or 2-2 Marowak into a
deck with the space or (as so few decks have said space)
that is great except for its terrible matchup against
things like Seismitoad-EX. Then there is
the third and perhaps most likely use, and that comes
because of cards like Archeops (BW: Noble
Victories 67/101; BW: Dark Explorers 110/108)
and Gallade (XY: BREAKthrough 84/162).
How? These cards either currently or during
earlier this format have seen competitive success worked
into decks without their lower Stages thanks to
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick. So instead of
trying to rebuild a deck and add in the resources needed
to pull off a reliable Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick
or including (and Evolving) from Cubone,
you just add in a TecH copy of Marowak (XY:
Fates Collide 37/124). Just one card
difference from the current list. Just don’t
forget that since Bodyguard is an Ability, your counter
can be countered by things like a Hex Maniac.
What about Limited play? XY: Fates Collide
doesn’t have a Cubone or alternate means of
playing Marowak, so unless you’re using multiple
sets it isn’t an option. At recent Pre-Releases
this card was a dead pull. Now Limited play
includes some official rules for things like using
multiple sets in one go, they just aren’t used often
because the main Limited tournament is the Pre-Release.
So if you do blend Marowak in with a set that
contains a Cubone, it becomes a decent but not
great pull. You can’t splash it into just any deck
because it required a source of [F] to attack and while
said attack is more impressive in Limited play than in
Standard or Expanded, it still isn’t great. The
Ability will rarely matter.
Ratings
Standard:
3.75/5
Expanded:
3.75/5
Limited:
N/A or 3.25/5 (see previous paragraph)
Summary:
Marowak releases well after it would have been a
deck staple, but in enough time to still have a
significant presence. Thanks to Maxie’s Hidden
Ball Trick and there being sufficient decks that
affect your hand (there is a little more than just
Quaking Punch and Chaos Wheel), it is something most
decks wish they had room for but don’t. Decks that
really need it (like those the aforementioned attacks
cripple) will have to make room for a 1-1 or 2-2 line,
or a slot (maybe even two) if they already can handle
Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick. Bodyguard is in a
rather dynamic position, as several other facets of the
game could make it more or less important. If it
works a little too well, we might get a cycle of hand
effects diminishing, then Marowak diminishing,
then hand effects escalating, then Marowak
escalating, etc.
Marowak
is an interesting contrast to
yesterday’s pick
Barbaracle (XY: Fates Collide 23/124).
Its Ability had far more general application but
also was more easily countered and I can think of fewer
decks that use Archie’s Ace in the Hole for a
splashed in Water Type (they tend to use them for
something more essential instead). Since I didn’t
state it yesterday, Barbaracle earned 18 voting
points to secure its eighth place finish, beating out
ninth place
Delphox BREAK by only two points. Marowak
earned 23 voting points to take seventh place, so unlike
our other CotDs, it wasn’t really close going this
direction; Marowak missed tying for sixth place
by only one voting point. Personally, I had it as
my seventh place pick, which still seems about right.
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