Name:
Team Aqua’s Seviper
Set/Card#:
Team Magma Vs Team Aqua, #17/85
Type:
Grass
Stage:
Basic
HP:
80
Weakness:
Psychic
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(C) Call for Family
Search your
deck for a (G) Basic Pokémon or a Basic Pokémon with Team Aqua
in its name and put it onto your bench. Shuffle your deck
afterward.
Attack#2:
(GCC) Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Confused and Poisoned. If tails,
the Defending Pokémon is now Poisoned.
Attributes:
Team Aqua’s Seviper (TAS) is unique in terms of name, and only
one other Seviper card currently exists (you can find its Pojo
CotD review page
here. TAS has the same Attributes (other than name) as
Seviper. Being a Basic is great, and being Grass, in and of
itself is fairly good, seeing as how only Metal Pokémon
possess Grass Resistance. Still, I
was hoping it would be a Dark/Grass. Note that is because of
the Team Aqua influence, and that it’s not a dual-type in the
GBA game). TAS has 80 HP, which is rare for a Basic overall,
but even more so for Modified. That’s definitely nice.
Psychic Weakness stinks, though if the Blaziken variants
weren’t prevalent, just about every other Weakness possible
would also be good so it mainly stinks because of SS Wobbuffet,
who can OHKO it. Resistance is non-existent, which as stated,
is always lame in my opinion unless it is done for game
balance, and I am not seeing that here. The retreat is two,
which as I have oft mentioned I view as average. That is
average as in “not especially good or bad”, not as in the
mean.
Abilities:
Call for Family is the best version of the attack so far, if
memory serves. Why? Most versions of the attack are limited
to specific Pokémon by name or Type… this one is by a “themed
name” (Team Aqua) or Grass Pokémon. That’s right.
It’s “or”, which is why it’s a good attack. The second attack
looks good to me. In my experience, to automatically inflict
a Special Condition should cost (C), with two notable
exceptions: Sleep has been downgraded to a “half” colorless
Energy requirement on many cards, which was necessary to put
it on par with the others, and Paralysis, which would be too
good to be automatic. A third exception I hope they being
making is to downgrade Burn as well, since there is a chance
it will do nothing then get retreated out of next turn.
Anyway, back to TAS: we have auto-Poison (C) and a 50% chance
of Confusion (1/2 C). As you may recall, I treat (C) as
yielding 10 damage, and a Colored Energy requirement as
yielding 15, or being 1.5 (C). So, what does all that
gobbldegook mean? We have (C),
˝(C), and (CC) so far, together that can be 4.5 (C),
ooooooor (GCC). So it’s a fair
attack by my evaluation. Together, these attacks aren’t
fantastic-you have no heavy hitter. However, they do combo
together. Start filling your bench, and if you don’t die
before hitting 3 Energy, you might be able to Poison and
Confuse to allow you to stall and keep building.
Uses/Combinations:
All the Team Aqua cards, really. Call is Colorless, so it can
be used by any deck with Energy, and as most decks run Rainbow
or Multi Energy in my experience, so paying for the second
attack should be easy. Team Aqua Energy can give some
surprise Thick Poisons. This is also good for decks that are
mono-Grass, or at least exceptionally close.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5-It’s a decent Basic, but has almost no use, and MP
Mewtwo and Mewtwo ex can easily OHKO it.
Modified/2-on-2/TMP:
3/5-The card itself is good-too bad the Team Aqua cards aren’t
so hot to begin with. Still, I think there are enough decks
that could use it. Too bad Firestarter decks are so
prevalent, as they seem to hamper Grass decks.
Limited:
4/5-Possibly a top pick-whatever else you got for Team Aqua,
this will fish it out and provide a nice, big,
staller. If you have some real
Grass Energy in the deck, then Thick Poison should nab a one
or two prizes as well.
Summary
Bad in
Unlimited, okay in Modified, and great in Limited-just like
the rest of the set. ;)
