Milotic – Evolving Skies
Date Reviewed: October 18, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Milotic (SW – Evolving Skies 038/203) is almost a baseline Pokémon. I’m going to continue covering Abilities first with this card, because I think it is its defining trait. “Dew Guard” is technically always on, but it won’t mean anything until your opponent plays a Supporter card from their hand that would affect you or your hand. I’m not going to lie, I don’t recall any Supporters that place an effect “on you”. A few that remove effects on you, like Pokémon Ranger: maybe that is what they mean? Supporters that affect the opponent’s hand, though… yeah, two easy examples are Marnie and N. Your opponent can still use those Supporters, but the effects that apply to your hand just don’t happen while the part that applies to your opponent still works.
We may as well get the attack out of the way right now; “Double Smash” costs [WC] and has you flip two coins. For each “heads”, this attack allows Milotic to do 70 damage to your opponent’s Active. Two flips means four possible outcomes:
- Tails-Tails for zero damage
- Tails-Heads for 70 damage
- Heads-Tails for 70 damage
- Heads-Heads for 140 damage
Half the possible outcomes result in 70 damage, while a fourth result in 140 damage and the remaining fourth is Double Smash whiffing. Besides the obvious minimum damage (zero) and maximum (140), the mean, median, and mode are all 70. Meaning the mathematical average damage, the middle value between the min and the max, and the most common value are 70. Not worthless if you can easily power-up up and/or are attacking something Weak to Milotic, but underwhelming otherwise.
Okay, now for the rest of Milotic. There are no name alterations, so it counts against all the other cards named “Milotic” with respect to the 4 Copy Rule. Milotic is not a Rule Box Pokémon, so no extra headaches there. Milotic does have a Battle Style. As a Rapid Strike Pokémon, you can tap their support but… I don’t know how useful it will actually prove. Maybe Spiral Energy and/or Rapid Strike Energy could prove useful. Similarly, I don’t know if Milotic’s [W] typing actually matters. It isn’t that Water types lack support or that Water Weakness is non-existent, it is that Milotic seems like a Bench-sitter you use because you specifically need its Ability, not just to round out a Water deck or a Rapid Strike deck.
Milotic is a Stage 1 Pokémon, so it isn’t as convenient as a Basic but it isn’t as tricky to effectively run as a Stage 2. Milotic has 120 HP, which is on the high end of low scores. No, that isn’t an oxymoron; what I mean is that it will probably only survive against attackers with a poor setup, or those focused more on attacking for an effect. [L] Weakness isn’t good; it isn’t the most abundant type but there are still some solid, more technical Lightning attackers and an Active Milotic will be OHKO’d where it otherwise would have just squeaked by. No Resistance is the worst but is also the most common, so it isn’t really a drawback. The Retreat Cost of [CC] is neither low nor high in general, but Air Balloon can reduce it to “free”.
One aspect I glossed over is what Milotic evolves from: Feebas. Unfortunately, Feebas is one of those Basics intended to act as a built-in drawback. All Feebas of which I know have just 30 HP, as low as it gets! Breathe on them wrong, and they’re KO’d. In Expanded, I might go with Feebas (Dragon Majesty 28/70), because this Feebas is on your Bench, its “Submerge” Ability prevents it from being damaged by attacks. Otherwise, you may as well go with Feebas (SW – Evolving Skies 037/203) just so you’re using a Rapid Strike Pokémon with a Rapid Strike Pokémon. No, I’m not changing my mind about Rapid Strike support not meaning much to Milotic, I just figured they may as well match if nothing else really matters.
Having to evolve from Feebas isn’t happy. Yes, there are alternatives, but even using Archie’s Ace in the Hole or Rapid Strike Style Mustard doesn’t seem “worth it”. I’m not saying Milotic is a bad card, I’m just saying you may as well suffer through Feebas in Standard. In Expanded, if you can spare your Ditto {*}, I think Milotic is a nice choice for most decks. Hand disrupting supporters aren’t what they once were, but with both Marnie and N legal and VS Seeker still being a staple, Milotic has a good chance of carrying its own weight… or seeming important enough your opponent burns a turn forcing it Active (Boss’s Orders) and OHKOing it instead of messing with your main attacker. Milotic is thus odd in that it is a “general usage” card, yet it isn’t because a deck has to be very sensitive to having its hand disrupted for it to truly be worthwhile. The Ditto {*} angle means I actually favor Milotic in Expanded.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 3/5
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