Name:
Sceptile ex
Set/Card#:
Team Magma Vs Team Aqua, #93/95
Type:
Grass
Stage:
2 (Evolves from Grovyle)
HP:
150
Weakness:
Grass, Fire
Resistance:
Water
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(G) Green Heal
Remove 4
damage counters from each of your Pokémon that has (G)
Energy attached. If that Pokémon has less than 4 damage
counters, remove all of them.
Attack#2:
(GCC) Poison Ring [40]
The
Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned. The Defending Pokémon
can’t retreat until the end of your opponent’s next turn.
Attack#3:
(GGCCC) Slashing Strike [100]
Sceptile
ex can’t use Slashing Strike during your next turn.
Attributes:
The only Sceptile ex, it is a Stage 2 Grass Pokémon that
evolves from Grovyle just like a normal Sceptile does. As
such, it faces steep competition from itself, as it is
already common to run both normal Sceptile in the
same deck. As far as which Grovyle and Treecko to Evolve
from, the only real preference I have is the Dragons Treecko,
and that’s just because it has 50 HP. Rare Candy is also a
good option. Being a Grass-type is pretty good: Weakness is
not unheard of, but Resistance is confined to just the bulk
of Metal Pokémon. 150 HP is not too bad for a Pokémon ex,
but remember, this gives up two Prizes when KO’d, so it’s
not unlike having two 70-80 HP Pokémon that share Energy.
It gets a double Weakness: Grass and Fire. Grass will not
cause too much of a hassle-it gets used, but not everywhere,
but Fire matches up to one of the biggest decks (for
Modified-both are easy to add to a deck in Unlimited).
Water Resistance is solid (though I am just happy to see any
Resistance at all). Finally, the retreat is two, which is
low enough to be manageable but high enough that it can’t be
paid without a thought.
Abilities:
Sceptile ex tries to earn it’s “ex-dom” by having three
attacks (in addition to the higher HP). The first attack,
Green Heal, looks good to me-if a Pokémon of yours has a
Grass Energy attached, then bam-free Super Potion without
the discard. It’s inexpensive too. Poison Ring looks
pretty good as well-you pay for 35 but do 40, and Poison,
and keep them stuck up front to take damage form the
Poison. The last attack is Slashing Strike. You do 100,
but can’t use the attack during your next turn. So it
essentially averages 50, which is about 20 less than you
paid for (15 per Grass, 10 per Colorless, and an extra 10
for being more than four Energy). Still, it serves its
purpose as a finisher.
Uses/Combinations:
Another card for Sceptile TecH. This thing is nasty,
capable of sitting up front for a long time. With Energy
Trans Sceptile, it will be hard to keep damage on any of the
Pokémon you team this with, and a combination of Poison Ring
and Slashing Strike will fell a lot of opponents. Just
watch out for Fire. Oh, and for a Stadium, I’d go with Low
Pressure System (the ones that prevent retreat don’t matter
since Poison Ring stops retreating anyway).
Ratings
Unlimited:
2/5-Too slow and unwieldy for this format, and
OHKOing big things bye a Basic
is not uncommon here.
Modified/2-on-2:
3.75/5-The only thing I see blocking this bringing
Sceptile-TecH decks to the top is that Firestarter decks
dominate here.
Limited:
0/5 if only team Magma Vs Team Aqua is used, 4/5 if a set
containing Treecko and Grovyle is included-it will be hard
to draw the full line, but if it gets set up, your opponent
is in real trouble unless they are already set up or running
Grass and/or Fire.
TMP:
3.85/5-Using two decks, you can accommodate just about all
the Sceptiles you need to get
really, really sick.
Summary
A great
card that only is being held back by the brokenness of
another deck.
