Today, we’re looking at Wishiwashi (Dragon Majesty 31/70). The rest of the card is unimpressive so I’ll get it out of the way; it is a Basic Water type with 30 HP, weak to Lightning, a retreat cost of one, and the Water Gun attack that does 20 for W. I’ve gotten some considerations about Hustle Belt being very good for this Pokémon, as it already has 30 HP, and as long as the Hustle Belt user has damage on it, its attacks do 60 more damage to that Pokémon. From there, any water weak Pokemon with less than 170 HP will get obliterated by this puny Pokémon. Oops, looks like I gave a micro-review of this Pokémon Tool card; whether or not it gets reviewed by the crew remains to be seen.
Wishiwashi is all about the ability called Meet Up. It states that your Wishiwashi-GX gets 20 more HP and its attacks do 20 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokemon. This ability stacks but you can have up to four of any card sans Basic Energy and other scarce mechanic such as Prism Star and Gold Star cards from extremely past eras. With four Wishiwashi in play, you’ll be providing Wishiwashi-GX +80 HP and doing 80 more damage before factoring weakness and resistance. While it does a good job helping another Pokémon, the target in question would have to be worth using to make the most of it.
Well, there is a Wishiwashi-GX in the card pool: Wishiwashi-GX (SM Guardians Rising 38/145, 133/145, 151/145). This card was reviewed by the crew once (https://www.pojo.com/COTD/2017/July/14.shtml) and opinions were mixed. It is a Basic Water type with 210 HP, weak to Lightning, and a retreat cost of three. As a GX Pokemon, it gives out two prizes if it is knocked out, and you may be excluded from certain card effects and you could be countered by cards that give GX Pokemon trouble, such as Choice Band hitting GX Pokemon for 30 more damage, or Hoopa (Shining Legends) taking no damage from GX Pokemon due to its Scoundrel Guard Ability. With four Wishiwashi, this brings the HP to 290, just like Wailord-EX with a Fighting Fury Belt attached to it. Though if you did equip Fighting Fury Belt to Wishiwashi-GX, that’ll bring the HP upwards of 330! Almost impossible to OHKO outside of Choice Banded Charizard-GX Crimson Storm or the new Pikachu & Zekrom Tag Team.
Wishiwashi-GX sports three attacks. Water Gun does 20 for W; Torrential Vortex costs WWWCC for 120 damage while discarding a Special Energy from the Defending Pokémon; Blue Surge GX also costs WWWCC for 220 damage, and you must move all energies attached to this Pokémon to your Benched Pokemon in any way you like. With four Wishiwashi in play, those attacks will do 100, 200, and 300 damage respectively. Water Gun is probably the MVP than its other two attacks, mostly because it does 100 damage for one Energy. Max Potion and Super Scoop Up would be viable for tanking and healing strategies, as Water Gun is just a single energy attachment away. Add in a Choice Band, and Water Gun is starting to reach 2HKO levels.
Now that the good part ends, you have to deal with cards that will disrupt your strategy. Having your HP boosted is not always a good thing due to being unsustainable; that boost can be taken away. The damage that you currently have can actually Knock Out the Pokemon if your HP boost got taken away. Like Wishiwashi-GX for instance, it may have 290 HP, but it if has 210 prior damage, taking the HP boost away brings its Max HP down from 290 to 210, and that damage it had will knock it out right away. The small Wishiwashi is super fragile; at 30 HP, even snipe and spread damage will spell doom for these little critters. Kingdra-GX’s Mealstrom single handedly destroys all 4 little Wishiwashi in play and get four prizes in the process. Tapu Koko – the promo version – can even take all six prizes and win the game! Ability lock is also a problem as it also takes away your boosts. Standard has Alolan Muk that you have to deal with because it shuts down Abilities from Basic Pokémon, and Expanded has Garbodor that shuts down ALL abilities. Pretty much mandates you have something to protect your Bench, like Sky Pillar and Machoke’s Daunting Pose.
This is one of those cards which did a good job supporting another Pokémon, but doesn’t have durability to keep itself intact, which can cause your setup to fall apart. Couple things that’s too much to ask for is no Ability denial and spread attackers, but unfortunately, those things exist, so a dedicated Wishiwashi player will have to accept the shortcomings and to cope with what’s being taken away and to find an answer against what’s thrown at you. There’s no Prerelease for Dragon Majesty, and even then, there’s no Wishiwashi-GX at all, making today’s card useless.
- Standard: 3/5
- Expanded: 3/5
- Limited: N/A
Conclusion: So I already mentioned various counters that can disrupt the strategy regarding Meet Up, yet I’ve still scored a three-out-of-five. What gives? Part of me thinks that someone will eventually make a deck out of it. Yet at the same time, this would be – at best – a functional and fun deck that could win matches if the opponent wasn’t prepared, but not good enough that it would be taken into a tournament because competitive decks will pack answers that can disrupt it. Also, the Lightning weakness will eventually become a very bad weakness once Lost Thunder comes out.
