Otaku |
Our second
selection this week is Beedrill (XY:
Evolutions 7/108). Grass Weakness is found on
many Water Types as well as a decent amount of Fighting
Types, with nothing is Resistant as we aren’t concerned
about the Unlimited Format. Grass specific
counters haven’t proven useful but a multi-Type counter
that includes Grass is Parallel City. It is still
a common sight in decks due to its Bench shrinking
effect, but the other side slaps a -20 damage reduction
on the attacks of Grass, Fire, and Water Types. I
would call Grass Type support a bit unusual except
defying easy description actually is the norm. The
most important bit of Grass support right now is
Forest of Giant Plants, except it cares not about
Typing of Beedrill but of its previous Stages,
Weedle and Kakuna. They are Grass
Types, so this potent Evolution acceleration is an
option. Even without Battle Compressor, the
specifics of Beedrill may make Revitalizer
a solid choice, and in Expanded the combo looks quite
good. Most of the rest is negligible, though
Ariados (XY: Ancient Origins 6/98),
Virizion (XY: Ancient Origins 12/98), and
Virizion-EX may prove worthwhile after all; we’ll
discuss them more (and how they could help Beedrill)
later on.
As a Stage 2,
Beedrill would have been slow, but as stated
we can use Forest of Giant Plants to speed
through Evolving. Still if you can’t get that
Stadium into play, you’ll have to slog through two other
Stages and turns of waiting to Evolve, a serious
drawback when compared to almost all other Stages.
As a reminder, instead of insane Evolution acceleration
like Broken Vine-Space Forest of Giant
Plants I would much rather the designers gave us
Weedle and Kakuna that could carry their own
weight and stop making attackers (Basic or
otherwise) that can hit the field and wreak havoc Turn 2
(or Turn 1 since I really want first turn attacks back).
That’s a diatribe for another time so let’s move onto
the rest of the card’s stats. Beedrill has 120
HP, not quite at the point where I think a Pokémon is
more likely to survive a hit than be KO’d, and
definitely below the point where it could reliably tank
a hit. This means Beedrill will need some
nifty trick to justify the effort of running it.
Fire Weakness is dangerous, but the mixed blessing is
that the relatively low HP means it just makes OHKO’s
easier for Fire Types, as opposed to making them
possible. No Resistance is the worst Resistance,
but it is also the most common; the mechanic is well
balanced (at least compared to Weakness) so it wouldn’t
be game breaking if it were present anyway. Beedrill
has a perfect free Retreat Cost; this means it
can function as a pivot Pokémon and makes it less likely
you’ll need to pack as many alternatives or assists for
manually retreating as you would in other decks.
At least if nothing we might run with it changes that.
Beedrill
has two attacks, so given what we just discussed it is
probably shooting for “glass cannon” status; something
that delivers such a strong hit you don’t mind that it
is probably getting KO’d by your opponent immediately
afterwards. The first attack is “Poison Sting” for
[G], doing 30 damage and Poisoning the opponent’s
Active. While not mind-blowing it is still a good,
solid attack one can fall back upon in emergencies or
while preparing something bigger. The second
attack is “Swarming Sting” for [GC], and it allows you
to select one of your opponent’s Pokémon (Active or
Benched) and do 40 damage per Beedrill you have
in play. This is a very good attack, nearly a
great attack, when viewed in isolation. 40-for-2 with
the option to hit Bench or Active, the minimum this
attack can do unless you copy it from an opponent’s
Beedrill with something like Mew-EX, is
mediocre, but 80-for-two is good, 120-for-two is very
good, and 160-for-two is great. The reason the
overall attack isn’t great, though, is the specifics
of its implementation; the attack is not only on a Stage
2 but one prone to being OHKO’d, with an Energy cost
that is a bit tricky to meet in a single turn.
Don’t forget that you’re normally beginning with six
Prizes set aside; when your goal is four of a Stage 2
line, odds are at least one of those Pokémon will be
Prized. There is a significant (but lower) chance
that two of the same Stage will be Prized as well, thus
dropping the max damage to 80.
Time for lower
Stages and alternatives. For Weedle we are
looking at BW: Plasma Freeze 1/116, XY: Kalos
Starter Set 1/39 (also available as McDonald’s
Collection 2014 1/12), XY 3/146, XY:
Primal Clash 1/160, and XY: Evolutions 5/108.
Kakuna is a bit less prolific with BW: Plasma
Freeze 2/116, XY 4/146, XY: Primal Clash
2/160, and XY: Evolutions 6/108. As for
other Beedrill we have BW: Plasma Freeze
3/116, XY 5/146, and XY: Primal Clash
3/160. All of these are Grass Type Pokémon with
Fire Weakness, no Resistance, no Ability, and no Ancient
Trait. Only the XY: Primal Clash and XY:
Evolutions versions being Standard legal. None
of the Weedle have been reviewed, but Kakuna
(XY 4/146) was
here,
Beedrill (XY 5/146)
here,
and Beedrill (XY: Primal Clash 3/160)
here.
All Weedle are Basic Pokémon with Retreat Cost
[C] and just one attack that costs [G], with only BW:
Plasma Freeze 1/116 has 50 HP and the attack “Triple
Stab”, where you flip three coins good for 10 damage per
“heads”. XY: Kalos Starter Set 1/39 has 40 HP
and uses “String Shot” to do 10 damage and (on a coin
flip) Paralyze the opponent’s Active. XY 3/146
has 50 HP and has one of the unsuccessful anti-Grass
attacks in the form of “Leaf Munch”, doing 10 damage
normally but +20 if the opponent’s Active is a Grass
Type. XY: Primal Clash 1/160 also has 50 HP and
its attack is “Multiply”, which has you search your deck
for a Weedle and Bench it. XY: Evolutions
5/108 is back down to 40 HP, and its attack is a weaker
version of Poison Sting, now doing only 10 damage and
requiring a successful coin flip to Poison. No
Weedle is great, but I would favor XY: Primal
Clash 1/160.
All Kakuna
are Stage 1 Pokémon that are very similar but not enough
for me to summarize more. BW: Plasma Freeze
2/116 has 80 HP with a Retreat Cost of [CC] and the
attack “Hide” for [G]. Hide has you flip a coin
and if “heads” prevents all effects of attacks,
including damage, done to itself during your opponent’s
next turn. XY 4/146 has just 70 HP with a
Retreat Cost of [CC] and the attack “Harden”, which also
costs [G] and offers some protection. This time it
just soaks 60 damage from attacks during your opponent’s
next turn, and then only if the attack does 60 or less;
an attack that does 70 or more hits at full force. XY:
Primal Clash 2/160 is back at 80 HP but has a
Retreat Cost of [CCC]. Its “Bugbite” attack still
costs [C] but does 20 damage. XY: Evolutions
6/108 still has 80 HP and Retreat Cost [CC], but has two
attacks. For [CC] “Stiffen” to soak 40 damage
after Weakness/Resistance; attacks that do 40 or less
are completely soaked while those that do more still
have their damage reduced. For [GG] it can use
“Poison Powder” to do 20 damage and flip a coin; “tails”
means just the damage while “heads” means you also
Poison the opponent’s Active. Again none of
these are particularly good, but I’d favor BW: Plasma
Freeze 2/116 or XY: Evolutions 6/108. Kakuna
is meant to Evolve, so the focus is on the attacks that
help it survive, and we have a flippy chance at blocking
everything and a reliable -40 to the opponent’s
damage in these two. Decide between them based on
Energy costs and format.
So now for the
other Beedrill; all are Stage 2 Pokémon with 120
HP and two attacks, with all but XY 5/146
have a free Retreat Cost (XY 5/146 has a Retreat
Cost of [C]). BW: Plasma Freeze 3/116 can use
“Swift Sting” for [G] and “Pierce” for [CCC].
Swift Sting does 20 damage, and if Beedrill
(“this Pokémon”) has full HP the attack does an
additional 40 damage and both Poisons and
Confuses the opponent’s Active. Pierce is simply a
vanilla 60-for-three, at least 10 (and more like 30) shy
of where it needed to be to seem vaguely competitive. XY
5/146 can also attack for [G], but it just has “Poison
Jab” doing 20 damage and (of course) Poisoning the
opponent’s active. Not horrible considering the
price and how there are no additional requirements for
inflicting Poison; a little weaker than the Poison Sting
on XY: Evolutions 7/102 but it might be
functional as a supporting attack. The main attack
is “Flash Needle” and it requires [GG] to flip three
coins; each “heads” is worth 40 damage while each
“tails” is worth zero. It also has an additional
effect should you flip all three “heads”: Flash Needle
protects “this Pokémon” from all effects of attacks
until the end of your opponent’s next turn, including
damage. XY: Primal Clash 3/160 has two attacks
for [G] and [GG] respectively as well. The first
is “Allergic Shock”, which places an effect on the
Defending Pokémon so that if it should be damaged by an
attack on your next turn, it is KO’d. The second
is “Twineedle” which gives you two coin flips good for
50 damage per “heads”.
Some of the attacks
on these other Beedrill are pretty good.
One of first decks for the PTCGO, and maybe my very
first, that really was a deck and not a mishmash of the
best cards on hand was built around Swift Sting. I
used the then still fairly new Dragalge (XY:
Flashfire 71/106) to block my opponent manually
retreating after a Swift Sting. I may have even
had a few Virbank City Gym cards to up the
effective damage from Swift Sting. Properly
competitive decks usually had an answer for this, though
some were surprisingly vulnerable. I may have also
included a copy or two of XY 5/146 in case the
main strategy just couldn’t work; a one-in-eight chance
of being protected during the next turn isn’t great, and
even with tricks to allow a reflip like Trick Coin
the odds still aren’t good, but it was an emergency
fallback for a combination budget/fun deck being run by
someone who couldn’t manage anything better.
Though tempting, I don’t think either of these would
complement today’s Beedrill enough to bother
running them; without support you’re asking for more
luck than you need just focusing on XY: Evolutions
7/108. XY: Primal Clash 3/160 doesn’t even rank
that highly; a “2HKO anything” strategy that goes away
if your opponent can change out his or her Active isn’t
worth it; we have OHKO strategies that involve a
similar effort but haven’t proven competitive.
Allergy Shock might have made for a good Ability (though
hard to balance out), and just to annoy me a bit more,
they couldn’t even have the KO effect be more easily
triggered (it has to be one of your Pokémon
attacking on your next turn).
So can Beedrill
(XY: Evolutions 7/108) hack it in its own deck?
Not at a serious, competitive level I am afraid.
It comes reasonably close, but the issue is reliability.
Forest of Giant Plants can give you the needed
speed to that Evolving is only an issue in that we are
talking a lot of cards here: ideally four each of
Weedle, Kakuna, and Beedrill plus
anything (like Forest of Giant Plants) you use to
help them out. You need to meet an attack cost of
[GC] as well, and probably the best option is Max
Elixir onto your Weedle… even though you want
to Evolve them ASAP. Exp. Share might work in
Standard, but it keeps you from running other important
Tools so maybe not. Either way that is more cards,
plus for Max Elixir you need a healthy amount of
basic Grass Energy cards in your deck to keep its
odds up. Pulling all of this off reliably
is a challenge, even if you’re also using Shaymin-EX
(XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108) and all the
other typical tricks to help out. You really want
at least three Beedrill on your side of the field
when you attack, because 120 damage is enough to OHKO
your opponent’s Shaymin-EX on his or her Bench.
Assuming your opponent isn’t running something to
protect said Shaymin-EX, or lacking one on the
Bench (for reasons that could be good or bad for you),
you’ll need that at least three Beedrill to shoot
for 2HKOs unless your opponent has other small,
important things unprotected on his or her Bench.
If your opponent just has a non-Grass Weak Beatdown deck
without such Bench-sitters, or where they are optional…
...well that is why
I said Beedrill isn’t going to cut it as a
competitive deck. You’ll need all four Beedrill
hitting the field ASAP, a way to constantly recycle
them, set them back up, and probably a little
something else as 160 falls short of OHKOing your
typical big beatstick that can OHKO Beedrill.
There are additional tricks like Bursting Balloon
or (in Expanded) Muscle Band/Silver Bangle
that can help but for the effort involved? Only
players looking for a (hopefully) fun challenge need
apply. Assuming you get the full line, Beedrill
is a decent pull for Limited play; fantastic if you pull
multiples of everything and can get them out, but
realistically you use its Poison Sting and free Retreat,
maybe a weak Swarming Sting to finish something off
something that retreated to your opponent’s Bench (or
soften it up if it is being built there). There is
one more thing I’d like to cover though before wrapping
this review up: the original Beedrill that
inspired this card.
Beedrill
(Base Set 17/102; Base Set 2 21/130;
Legendary Collection 20/110) is a Stage 2 Grass Type
Pokémon with 80 HP, Fire Weakness x2, Fighting
Resistance -30, a free Retreat Cost, and two attacks.
The first attack is Twineedle, which back then was
priced at [CCC], still gave two coin flips, but they did
only 30 damage per “heads”. For [GGG] it had
Poison Sting, doing 40 damage and Poison, but the latter
was only if you flipped “heads”. Now adjusting for
differences in the rules and card pool, this card is
better than it looks but probably only about as good as
today’s Beedrill. I remember some decks
being built around it, but against a properly outfitted
competitive deck of the time, it probably meant the
Beedrill player would feel the sting defeat and not
the opponent. There are a few areas where the
original does surpass its modern counterpart, like
having Resistance and the HP perhaps scaling better (at
least if we ignore things like Pokémon-EX as there was
no similar mechanic back then). I won’t detail
them, but other Beedrill between then and
now have also re-imagined the original, but without
reusing the art and with just as many tweaks… including
attack similar to Swarming Sting. Weedle (Base
Set 69/102; Base Set 2 100/130; Legendary
Collection 99/110) actually is the same as
Weedle (XY: Evolutions 5/108) save a very
slight update to the wording of Poison Sting, making it
actually a reprint. Kakuna (Base Set
33/102; Base Set 2 47/130; Legendary
Collection 50/110) is almost in the same boat;
besides a slight wording revision that don’t really
change Poison Powder, though, Stiffen works differently.
The original was a “tails fails” attack that when it
worked, protected Kakuna from all damage done to
it during your opponent’s next turn (other effects of
attacks still happened). As I’m still struggling
to properly apply the rules for cards that are
practically reprints saved for updated text or slightly
tweaked text, I am uncertain how the older Weedle
and Kakuna would be handled.
Ratings
Standard:
1.65/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
2/5
Summary:
I so want to like this Beedrill; it may not be my
favorite Pokémon but various other hobbies plus some of
my past decks have given me a soft spot for the Pokémon.
Obliterating an opponent’s Benched Shaymin-EX in
a single shot, with a non-Pokémon-EX and for two Energy
is just so tempting but the odds of pulling it off
reliably aren’t high enough… and when that isn’t an
option and you have to go toe to toe (wait, do
Beedrill have any toes?) with some of the other
strong beatsticks (…which also may not have actual toes
because pocket monster) requires a massive early
game set up that a single piece Prized can ruin, but a
little additional luck on the side.
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