Fearow – Battle Styles
Date Reviewed: May 15, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 1.00
Expanded: 1.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Fearow is a baseline Pokémon, keeping things simple. The same goes for its Colorless nature; while there are a few pieces of potentially relevant support, like Powerful [C] Energy, nothing is naturally Colorless Weak (a disadvantage) or Resistant (a minor benefit). As a Stage 1, Fearow isn’t too hard to play, but is a turn slower and one card more demanding than a Basic. 90 HP is an easy OHKO, but at least it is Level Ball legal. [L] Weakness is dangerous, but because of supporting attackers from decks like Pikachu & Zekrom-GX: the heavies score a OHKO regardless. -30 [F] Resistance is appreciated, but with the 90 HP, it won’t be enough most of the time. That free Retreat Cost is perfect, though.
Fearow knows one attack, “Drill Peck”. For [C], it does 70 damage. That is a fantastic damage-to-Energy ratio, but unfortunately, there’s not enough you can do with it to make Fearow pay out. Powerful [C] Energy makes total sense here, in that it can pay the entire attack cost and grant its +20 damage… with the caveat that even for one Energy, 90 damage isn’t likely to score enough key OHKOs or 2HKOs to be worthwhile. If Fearow was a Basic, then its stats actually might lend to some fun swarm strategies, but even doing all that damage with no added costs or conditions, for just one Energy, it won’t really matter.
Ratings
- Standard: 1/5
- Expanded: 1/5
Vince
Fearow from Sword & Shield Battle Styles is a pretty simple card! A stage 1 Colorless type with 90 HP (searchable via Level Ball), Lightning weakness, Fighting Resistance, free retreat, and only one attack call Drill Peck which costs one energy for 70 damage.
For the most part, this Fearow doesn’t have much to offer, and it doesn’t help that it has to wait a turn for Spearow to evolve and being a colorless type means it can’t hit anything for double damage. There are no Colorless weakness unless you look at Unlimited, and the last expansion to have Colorless Weakness is from HGSS Call of Legends! Fearow does pack a punch for one energy, and if it has even one Powerful C Energy attached to it, then Drill Peck does 90 damage for 1 energy! Unfortunately, Donphan from Vivid Voltage does a better job than Fearow. Earthquake does 120 damage for 1 energy and is far bulkier (150 vs 90), so I can’t see Fearow being played at all.
Ratings:
Standard: 1/5
Expanded: 1/5
The bar has been set due to Donphan from Vivid Voltage having one of the best single energy attacks. Fearow doesn’t come close to that!
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