Efficient Attacks and How to Recognize Them
Spencer Nall May 06, 2003
Usually when I'm checking out a card to consider making a fun
deck for a tournament, I try to use cost-effective attacks. When I saw
Aquapolis Octillery I bet my friend twenty-five bucks that Wizards (or
Nintendo of America) will ban the card after the upcoming Super
BattleZone. This card isn't just for fun decks. It's really good. But
I'm not here to focus on the whole card, just the attack.
Smokescreen: (W**) 40 damage: I use * to symbolize colorless. I
consider a colored energy worth twenty damage and a colorless worth
ten. You can see that smokescreen does this. Because it has one
colored and two colorless, it should be worth 20+10+10=40, and it is.
But you also get a baby rule, which is totally awesome.
Now let's look at Base Kadabra and Discovery Xatu's Super Psy:
Super Psy: (PP*) 50 damage: two colored and one colorless=50
This is a very cost effective attack.
Base or promo Hitmonchan's jab attack is probably one of the most
cost-effective moves in the game, since this guy is only a basic.
Jab: (F) 20 damage: Very cost effective.
I think we get the deal. However, some moves like Base Nidoking's
Toxic are often overlooked, since it's base damage is 20 but auto
heavy poison makes it sixty, which, on my scale, is cost effective.
Paralysis is always something that boosts an attack's value. So is
auto-sleep, but ONLY auto-sleep, which is pretty much on a
heads flip paralyzed.
There are many factors to consider: bench damage, flips (I don't go
for the averaging thing: flips screw me) and the list goes on.