Cacturne – Crimson Invasion – Pokemon Review

Vince

I can’t believe a year has gone by when I chimed in on the review crew. The card that I chimed in was Golisopod Guardians Rising. Today’s card is another Grass type!

This week, we’re looking at cards that were runner ups from the Sun & Moon Crimson Invasion set. Today, our subject is Cacturne, and it has two good attacks that might see potential. It would’ve been a better Pokemon if Forest of Giant Plants wasn’t banned, but it is, so you’ll have to deal with waiting a turn for Cacnea to evolve, or burn your Supporter usage of Wally.

Spike Rend costs G for 20 damage, plus 60 more if the Defending Pokémon already has damage counters on it. Hunt costs GC and acts like Gust of Wind and doing 40 damage to the new Defending Pokémon. Those attacks have some synergy, you bring in a new target while damaging it, and then use Spike Rend to hit even harder.

Of course, such a two-turn strategy gets interrupted much frequently. The opponent can switch a damaged Pokémon out with a healthy one, and Spike Rend will be a paltry 20 damage. If the second attack was made an ability, or if you find other sources of damage counter placement, then you wouldn’t have to resort to the two turn strategy.

Standard: 2/5     Expanded: 2/5     Limited: 3/5

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PokeDeck
Central

Cacturne (CIN 6) meandered into the meta out of the Crimson Invasion expansion set. Yes, that’s right, Crimson Invasion WAY back in November of last year. This week we’re covering some of the notable CIN cards we missed reviewing because of the end of the year. And a lot of these are Harvey specials (well except for Thursday’s Throwback and Friday was really MarquisEXB’s unbelievable ability to find hidden combinations), cards that I have tried and even reviewed previously on PDC. Some of these are clunkers… but others might actually be pretty good, especially post rotation.

But anyways, Cacturne immediately caught my eye because it’s a single attachment attacker that can potentially hit for ninety plus damage on that single energy. If you know me, you know I love single attachment Grass Pokemon that can hit for triple digit damage (I did, after all, take Golisopod to Collinsville). Decidueye GX is the perfect pairing with Cacturne. If you can drop a Feather Arrow on your opponent’s active Pokemon, Spike Rend actually does 110 damage (30 + 60 + 20). That’s pretty good for a single attachment on a single prize Pokemon. I used Kricketot’s (BKP 5) Bug Hunt to set up Cacturne and Decidueye. Kricketot is a card that has been extremely overlooked. Bug Hunt lets you grab any three Grass Pokemon out of your deck and put them in your hand. This works extremely well to accelerate the Stage 1 and 2 cards you need to get into play. Plus, it’s a great way to thin Pokemon out of your deck. A couple Bug Hunts, and you’re much more likely to top deck Supporters and energy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any more success with it this past weekend than I did when I first tried it back in November 2017 when I went 7 W 8 L. I went 4 W 6 L with this decklist. I had a couple of good moments – I beat two Buzzroc decks, a Zoropod, and a Dusk Mane Necrozma, but overall, this deck just doesn’t have what it takes to be competitive in the Standard format today. I think the worst testimonial for this deck is that I faced two Greninja decks and lost to both of them. Normally, a Grass deck is an autowin against the Blue Frogs. To lose both matchups against Greninja to me says that this is not even a decent novelty deck, and that the Cacturne Decidueye combo just didn’t work out as well as I thought it might.

Rating

Standard: 2 out of 5

Conclusion

I don’t know how I beat two Buzzroc decks. I really don’t – I can’t remember much from either of the matches. I know that I had a three prize turn that helped me bypass the Beast Ring turns, and I know that the math worked out perfectly against baby Buzzwole (90 + 2 Feather Arrows = OHKO on baby Buzz). Unfortunately, however, the Cacturne Decidueye pairing was mediocre last November and hasn’t improved any in the seven months since then.