Marshadow – Mythical Islands
Date Reviewed: January 25, 2025
Ratings Summary:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
The seventh best card of Mythical Island, Marshadow (Mythical Island 047/068, 074/068)! This (F) Type Basic Pokémon has 80 HP, (P) Weakness, (C) Retreat Cost, and one attack. For (F)(C), “Revenge” does 40 damage, plus another 60 (so 100 total) if one of your Pokémon were KO’d by damage from an attack during your opponent’s last turn. Marshadow is available as both the ♦♦♦ and ★ rarities. I personally like that its numbering on each version mirrors the other. I mean, when you don’t have an “/068” under it, and also don’t have a zero in front of the two digit number…
As a (F) Type, there’s no Type support to benefit Marshadow, but at least it does score a OHKO against Pikachu ex (Genetic Apex 096/226, 259/226, 281/226, 285/226) and Weezing (Genetic Apex 177/226, 273/226) it would otherwise have missed. Due to its video game typing of Fighting/Ghost, its plausible we could have had this as a (P) Type. That would have provided more support for Marshadow, but no extra KOs via exploiting Weakness. (P) Types don’t need another good attacker, so being a (F) Type was for the best.
Being a Basic Pokémon is the best, needing no extra time or cards to hit the field. 80 HP has some chance of surviving a hit, though once your opponent has a decent setup, it’ll be due to things like missed coin flips. (P) Weakness enables some extra and/or easier KOs, but none that seem particularly critical. The Retreat Cost is good; (C) means the odds are decent that you can afford it or zero it out with support.
As for Revenge, we wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t a really good attack. 40 for (F)(C) is close to the going rate, and a conditional 100 for (F)(C) is great… because the required trigger is reasonable. You don’t get the bonus if one of your Pokémon is KO’d during your own turn or during the Pokémon Checkup between turns. Nor do you get it when an Ability finishes off one of your Pokémon. The most chances you’ll get to use Revenge at full power is “two”, since every Pokémon in the cardpool gives up at least one Prize.
Being halfway to a KO against everything in the game (barring effects) is quite handy. It lets you finish off something injured that just took out your previous Active, or set it up for a 2HKO if it is still fresh and uninjured. It wouldn’t be that good if you had to run a Stage 1 (let alone Stage 2) to access it. The lone (F) Energy in the attack requirement is still enough to keep most decks from incorporating Marshadow. Splashing in Pocket just isn’t as good as it is in the full TCG. If Revenge was priced at (C)(C), it would have had a shot at being number one.
Rating: 3.5/5
If your deck already needs (F) Energy, you need a good reason to not include Marshadow. If your deck could switch over to (F) Energy – thank you (C) Energy requirements! – you’ll need to rule that out, also. Marshadow even has its own archetype. Guess Revenge is a good thing in Pokémon, eh?
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