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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Slaking - Ruby and Sapphire

Date Reviewed: 2.19.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Thundachu	Slaking Overview: Yay, I get to pick the cards this week =). Slaking is my favorite card and one of the most played from Ruby Sapphire EX. Slaking's Pokemon Body, Lazy comes in handy as a new Fossil Muk replacement. Makes your opponent unable to use Pokemon Powers. Drawbacks: you can only use it if Slaking is your active pokemon. That's it. And it doesn't stop if Slaking is paralyzed etc, being a PokeBody. Very nice addition indeed. The attack IMO is great. For 4 colorless energy, Critical Move does 100 damage and you have to discard one basic energy attached to Slaking or it does nothing. ONE ENERGY. Not much of a price for such a large attack doing 100 damage. 120HP for a stage 2 is nice to have. Weakness to Fighting makes Armaldo a problem as well as a few others. Retreat of 3 is a tad high, but expected from a 120HP stage 2. I suggest playing Balloon Berry on it to save energy for attacks or add a few Switch to your deck. Unlimited: 2.5/5- With Hitmonchan and Tyrogue and other great fighting pokemon as well as SER, it is too risky to play in Unlimited. Modified: 3/5-SER2 may be a problem in this format, but not many people play fighting decks, so it could be pretty good here. Draft 3.5/5- If you are able to draft it and Slakoth and Vigoroth, definitely play it. 100 damage for 1 basic energy is too good to let go in Draft. The retreat is a little high for Draft, but I would advise playing it anyways.
Otaku	Hello-we reviewed this card originally on 10/16/03. This review is basically an update of the old one. Name: Slaking Color: Colorless Type: Stage 2 (evolves from Slakoth) HP: 120 Weakness: Fighting Resistance: None Retreat Cost: CCC Poké-BODY: Lazy As long as Slaking is your Active Pokémon, your opponent’s Pokémon can’t use any Poké-Powers. Attack#1: (CCCC) Critical Move [100] Discard a basic Energy attached to Slaking or this attack does nothing. Slaking can’t attack during your next turn. Name: Vigoroth Color: Colorless Type: Stage 1 (evolves from Slakoth) HP: 70 Weakness: Fighting Resistance: None Retreat Cost: C Attack#1: (CC) Fury Swipes [20x] Flip 3 coins. This attack does 20 damage times the number of heads. Attack#2: (CCC) Rage [20+] Does 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each counter on Vigoroth. Name: Vigoroth Color: Colorless Type: Stage 1 (evolves from Slakoth) HP: 70 Weakness: Fighting Resistance: None Retreat Cost: C Attack#1: (C) Focus Energy During the next turn, base damage of Vigoroth’s Slash is attack is 90 instead of 40. Attack#2: (CCC) Slash [40] Does 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each counter on Vigoroth. Name: Slakoth Color: Colorless Type: Basic HP: 40 Weakness: Fighting Resistance: None Retreat Cost: C Attack#1: (C) Claw [20]] Flip a coin. If tails, this attack does nothing. Attack#2: (CC) Slack Off Remove all damage counters from Slakoth. Slakoth can’t attack during your next turn. Name: Slakoth Color: Colorless Type: Basic HP: 40 Weakness: Fighting Resistance: None Retreat Cost: C Attack#1: (C) Lazy Punch [10] Slakoth can’t attack during your next turn. Attributes: There is only one Slaking, so no old versions to compete or partner with. Slaking is a Stage 2 Colorless Pokémon. With the release of Dragons, there are some more Stage 2 Colorless Pokémon available than when I last reviewed this card. Being Colorless is sort of a big deal now in Modified. It’s not that Colorless is the greatest type, but rather with the recent introduction of Colorless Weakness it’s just kind of “weird”. In Unlimited there are two cards that reduce damage done by Colorless Pokémon: Unown N and Sprout Tower. Each reduce damage done by Colorless Pokémon by 30, and can stack with each other for a total of -60. Nothing is resistant to Colorless Pokémon yet, so that’s kinda nice. As for its remaining attributes, it has a “perfect” 120 HP (since it’s not a Pokémon ex), but a lousy weakness to Fighting. In Unlimited, Tyrogue is everywhere and eats you alive with two successful hits. In Modified, A Solrock and Sandstorm Onix can be annoying. Slaking has no Resistance (which seems like a poor idea with Psychic on the rise). Rounding out the bottom, Slaking has a retreat of 3, which is poor, but not as bad as one would expect for a Pokémon like this. Well, Slaking is a Stage 2, which means it has got to come from somewhere. As I have mentioned, being a Stage 2 is always worse than a lower Stage, since they are harder to get into play. This is one reason why evolutions tend to have better ability and attributes. Anyway, back to where Slaking comes from: a Vigoroth, which in turn comes from a Slakoth. There are two Slakoths available: one from Ruby/Sapphire and one from Sandstorm. Both have a pathetic 40 HP, plus they both suffer from a Fighting weakness and a retreat of 1. The Sandstorm version has the pathetic Lazy Punch, and should be avoided at all costs. The R/S version is a tad better: if necessary it can attack for little energy or heal itself. The Vigoroths, on the other hand, are both solid. 70 HP is acceptable for a Stage 1, as is a retreat of C. Both have solid attacks, and it’s more or less your choice as to which one to use. Abilities: Slaking has a decent Poké-Body, Lazy. While Slaking is active, none of your opponent’s Poké-Powers work. Sadly, it’s only while active, but at least it doesn’t affect both of you (like Armaldo). This Poké-Body may not sound like much, but here’s a quick list of cards that are part of established (though not always dominant) decks: Furret, Gardevoir, Firestarter Blaziken, Energy-draw Delcatty, Water Call Swampert, Energy Trans Sceptile, Sandstorm Xatu and all baby Evolution Poké-Powers. Also, all but Furret are from the first two Nintendo sets. Decks that use these cards also tend to rely on or be built around the Powers, so it can be devastating to lose said Powers. We sort of get a less powerful but more combo friendly Muk ex with this. As for Critical Move, it’s kinda like Hyper Beam in the GB games: a big hit at the cost of doing nothing the next turn. (CCCC) would normally buy 40, and a discard buys between 10 and 20 extra damage-it varies quite a bit. Still, we have a semi-restricted discard, so for the sake of argument, we’ll say it’s worth 15. Now this attack is going to be every other turn, so we should take what we have so far, 55 (40 + 15), and double it. That’s 110. Even though that is a bit low, this would be good on a lot of Pokémon, and is solid for Slaking. But really, as a Stage 2, would it have been too much to ask for another 10 damage? ;) Or to lose the “basic energy discard” requirement, given that even with Recycle Energy, this thing ain’t broken? Uses/Combinations: This Pokémon really needs to have a deck built around it and either it’s attack or it’s Poké-Body. Neither is really worth it for Unlimited, but there are some uses for Modified. For one thing, though tricky, in 2-on-2 matches, you might consider pairing it up Armaldo: you can save some space with Rare Candies, and you only need two Slakings really, as they are the “icing on the cake”. Just send them both up, and alternate between attacking with each to average a nice 80 a turn. Still, running dual Stage 2 lines is difficult. Other than that, most would try to exploit its attack. One way is are several Pokémon Switching cards and a free retreater (of which the “error” Sandstorm Marril is the only free-retreating basic I can find in Modified) so that you can Switch out Slaking, then retreat you new active which should remove the “can not attack the next turn” clause. You could pair it up with Expedition Vileplume so that the Poison damage from its Poké-Power can tack on the extra plus 20 the attack could use. ;) Another option (and one that can be combined with others), would be to toss in a few Memory Berries. This would not let you attack immediately after a Critical Move, but would let you heal all damage (with Slack Off) or get some sweet hits in with Furry Swipes, Rage or Slash. One last way to maximize Critical Move could be Boost Energy for a “fast” opening. A few recent decks have been shown to me that use Slaking. One combos it with Sandstorm Xatu, since that provides a) a free retreater and b) a source of constant healing. The other with runs it with Aquapolis Espeon, which has an interesting Poké-Power called Energy Return. Said Poké-Power let’s you return an energy from one of your Pokémon back to your hand. Sadly, both decks have vulnerabilities. Still, they look fun and do show promise. Ratings Unlimited: 1.5/5-I suppose a critical move based deck could work… Modified: 3.5/5-lotta decks hurt by this-you just have to keep Slaking alive long enough to finish them off. 2-on-2: 4/5-Here it gets good, since it can have a partner to help with another strong attacker (or source of denial… he he he) Draft: 4/5-It’s a big tough Gorilla. The Poké-Body won’t do much but Critical move can fetch some prizes. Summary Keep an eye on it-it might pull a Critical move up the ranks. -Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)
Hedge	Slaking (R&S) Hm… I remember reviewing this card before. Ah well, never hurts to review. I like power. I know I’ve said that before. However, this card may be powerful, but I find that it really never gets more than one hit in. Boost is your best choice then. I also like surprise cards, and boost is one of those for sure. Also make note of Slaking’s Poke Power, which has the potential to keep blaze decks on their toes. Use this with Muk ex and see Blaze decks do ballet. ~_^ This card also scares dragons, and it’s stage one can also be fairly deadly (The SS version). One final trick is using this card with memory berry and rs slakoth to heal up to 110 damage from Slaking. 0_o Modified: 3.8/5 – Try him out, see what you can do. If you get lucky enough, a 2^nd or third turn slaking could easily take out anything you foe has built up quickly. Unlimited: .5/5 – Rofl. Watch tyrogue, hitmonchan, sneasel, and MPM2 mize you here. Draft: 2.7/5 – I’m undecided here… Obv. If you get it out, you have a good chance of winning, but if you don’t slakoth is just bait. And powering it up is a problem too… Slaking needs good trainer support, like switch, warp point, and balloon berry, and he most likely won’t receive that in this format. Written by: ~Hedge Written February 18^th, 2004.
Ralphy	I knew I had done this card before, but I just could not find it in the COTD index. But, then I saw Slakoth on the index and I thought, why would we have reviewed Slakoth when R&S was hot. Sure enough, I found my previous Slaking review. A nice little story, no? Unlimited- I still find this to be a good card, just not here. It has far too much going against it. 4 energy, Tyrouge, and not being a basic to name a few. However, if you can get it running and keep the energy on it, maybe with a little Slowking action, it could run with the best of 'em. or maybe the average of 'em. 2/5 here. Modified- You could still combo with Blaziken to take advantage of the discard. Switch and Warp Energy are still usable with it too. Everything has been more or less covered before. 3/5 Limited- Not easy to produce in a Draft, but he will be tough to take down without tranquilizers. Splashable line, but much of it is rare, so it isn't that good. However, if everything works out nicely, it's like having a straight flush in Poker, not much can beat you. 3.5/5 here.
Bullados	Slaking Attributes: 120 HP is very good, best in the game. Healing will be nice, but not necessary. Weakness to fighting is really nothing to worry about in Modified as there are relatively few fighting decks out there, and very little fighting TecH outside of Meditite and Solrock (and I haven't seen either in a serious deck lol). Retreat is just plain nasty. I'd say use a Switch if at all possible. Actually, Switch is a great combo for this card. PokeBODY: "Lazy" This is pretty nice, stops Gardy and a few others pretty nicely, although this isn't the reason to use this card because Muk ex has a better version of this. Attack #1: "Critical Move" This attack is pretty decent, ranking up there in terms of raw damage with drawbacks with Charizard (virtually any of them). The auto-non attacking ability is very similar to Charizard, however there are ways to get around it. One of the little ideas that I had using this card was a 4 Switch and 4 Warp Point deck that focused on getting out 2 Slaking quickly and keeping him switching with one on the bench using Switch and WP, maybe using Wobbuffet or something to stall for a while, something with relatively high HP for a basic (possibly Chansey ex or something). Ratings: Unlimited: Not so great here. There are so many ways to kill this guy before he becomes a big hitter (not the least of which is Rogue), and ER kills him, especially with the ER attack. 1.25/5 Modified: Not that much better, although the fighting cards are less here. It's kinda difficult to judge him because I've never played with him, so I don't really know how best to use him. He could be powerful, but the 8 turns to power up is just too long. 3/5 Limited: Here, he is a definite powerhouse. 100 damage every two turns is pretty good, especially considering that there is very little in RS that can easily OHKO him AND that he can OHKO virtually everything except for Chansey ex and a couple others. 4.5/5 (take a Birch before him) ~Bullados ~~Bull23924@aol.com
Heidi Craig	Slaking Modified 5/5 I have found this card to be very powerful. Using trainers that allow mobility and healing. Since, this card is colorless it allows flexibility in the other basic Pokemon you can use. With a couple of strong basics to support this card this deck is quite effective. Unlimited 1/5 I wouldn't use this card. It uses to much energy and attacks to slow in this kind of environment. Draft If you could draft all three stages and get to use them I think this card would be very good in draft.
perfectone	Slaking I've thought about this guy, and I don't think he'll be seen in OP. Unlimited- Stage 2 in unlimited? Colorless? Needs 4 energy? Forget him. Sprout Tower, Unown N, (S)ER, and Sneasel all totally destroy his hopes of doing anything at all. rating--- 1.5 Modified- With Warp energy and possibly switch, you might be able to use his attack every turn, but you need a long time to set up all the energy =/. Memory berry can let this beatstick use Slack Off to heal or, more importantly, Rage! With Rage and 120HP he can tear up the field! If only he wasn't so slow he really would be good... With Rage, not much can stop him, but you will evetually run dry on memory berries and your opponent will adapt to your Rage strategy. rating--- 3.675 Draft- If he hits the field, you'll probably win. Slakoths are easy to draft, but if you do get them and a vigoroth, use them! Slaking will never fall in this format... nothing much can stop him! rating--- 4.5 2 vs. 2- Being able to still use someone else to attack after slaking uses critical move is really great! Still use memory berry, but try using a pokemon with energy support like manectric. rating--- 3.875 Multiplayer- He will stop the poke-powers of both opponents, but that long wait to attack again can easily make the king fall quickly =/. rating--- 3.5
Patriarch	Oooooh, today, we'll review that seems to be a fatter, stronger version of Muk! Wonder how he stacks up? Read down, my friends...read down... Unlimited (2/5): Poke-Powers are far less potent here. A clunky card that will be murdered by Tyrogues, stalled by Focus Band, and mercilessly crushed by Sneasels. Modified (3/5): The Poke Power is a huge force to be reckoned with. Since he's fat enough to begin with (120 HP), you won't usually fear putting him out to freeze those powerful, archetypical cards: -Blaziken -Delcatty -Baby Powers Also, it splashes well: Meaning that you may play it with any of the Sandstorm babies, or work on an ex counter strategy. The attack's name is self-explanatory: Use only in critical moments, or play Memory Berry to get back a Ruby/Sapphire Vigoroth's Rage. Draft (3/5): If you find the Slakoths, and Vigiroths/Rare Candies, then you'll be in a decent situation. However, Weakness is one of the nastiest things in Draft: watch out for Nintendo's small Fighting Pokemon, such as Solrock or Hitmonchan ex. Also, don't forget that Critical move freezes your attacks for one turn, and that retreating him is only a last-resort. ~Patriarch
psychup2034	Slaking Wow! This is a great card. Um, this is one of the newest archtypes in the new format, especially since Nintendo kept in all of the trainers from expedition, (which I personally don't like). Let's take a look at the card... Slaking [C] 120 HP Stage 2 Pokemon Evolves from Vigroth (POKE-Body) Lazy As long as Slaking is your active Pokemon, you're opponent's Pokemon can't use POKE-Powers. [C][C][C][C] Critical Move 100 Discard one basic energy card attached to Slaking or this attack does nothing. Slaking can't attack during your next turn. Weakness: [F] Resistance: --- Retreat Cost: [C][C][C] Slaking has a solid 120 HP, even though it is a Stage 2, 120 is still a nice number, considering the fact that it doesn't have the two magical letters "ex" in its name. =D 120 isn't bad, that's the max you can get without being an ex, and its still the best. 3 retreat is kinda awkward, since Slaking has 100 base speed in the game boy game, making it one of the faster pokemon. Weakness to fighting can't be good, in fact, any weakness can't be good. On top of that no resistance, making it one of the average weakness/resistance groups, and with colorless having lost its psychic resistance, Mex can dominate this guy... However, that's what you have to expect from a card that can deal 100 damage (every turn if you know how to). So let's take a look at its POKE-Body, lazy, which disables all POKE-Powers as long as its active. That could be of use, as it cripples Blaziken (Firestarter), Swampert (Water Call), Sceptile (Energy Trans) and many others. More importantly, it destroys some archtypes. However, this power isn't without flaw. Being only useable when Slaking is active, your opponent can warp point or pokemon reversal it away for one turn just to use POKE-Powers. Sometimes, your opponent's deck may not rely in that one pokemon power to function. Such as cards like the future cargo ex which can ohko slaking, but then again, it takes 4 energy discard to do that. Ok, so now to its attack, which if you look at the base damage for the cost, seems rather nice. 4 Energy for 100 damage means 25 damage per energy, which is above the 17.5 damage for an average attack. The side effect is that it can't use the attack next turn (without being benched), and you have that one basic energy discard. However, the bright side has many things. You can use the Trainer card Switch or Warp Point and choose another slaking for attacking. Another option is to keep him out there, and then 2 turns down the road use Memory Berry and Slack Off from Slakoth. (Note that you can't use Memory Berry to attack the turn after using Critical Move because Critical Moves says no attacks next turn, not just no using Critical Move.) This can be bad, meaning you can't attack two turns in a row. Also, if you want to use Switch or Warp Point, that's another use of a space (I tried to stay away from the word waste) =P Of course we always have to take into consideration card efficiency. It takes 3 cards to actually get Slaking out... (Slakoth, Vigroth/Rare Candy, Slaking) and it takes 4 cards to power it up usually (4 basic energy) OR if you use boost (Boost Energy, Basic Energy). That's 6-8 cards, which is 10% of your deck. You'll be using sometihng to acutally get out the evolutions in terms of draw power so that will add one more. Most of the time, you will be using a Memory Berry, or even some aditional energy or any benching trainer to take full use of slaking's power. Is it all worth taking 1 or 2 prizes? My answer is yes. You need backup with slaking, and that usually comes in the form of Scyther EX, Mewtwo EX, or Wobbuffet (or at least in my metagame). Scyther and Mewtwo are both EX pokemon, meaning they will draw double prizes for your opponent. Blaziken ohkos Scyther EX, and Wobb/Mex ohkos Mex, and those are all really popular cards. Fighting weakness isn't big, but quite a few people do run Hariyama decks, and that 80 damage to ex thing is just killer at times. Another option to run with Slaking is the Furret, which I think is a neat combo, since it pulls the Boosts right out of the deck. Anyway, I don't have time to examine each card in each format, since I have school tomorrow. So I'll leave you with my ratings... Unlimited: What did you say? Stage 2 in Unlimited that takes 4 energy? Fighting Weakness? Nah, I'll pass. 1/5 Nintendo Format: Um, its playable, trainer support from Expedition is always there. Bottoms stats don't hurt it, 100 damage is killer. 4/5 Sealed: Nope, you don't get the full Stage 2 chain a lot, and if you do, 4 energy with the evos is about 1/4 of your deck, and that's not going to help. 1/5 Booster: Same as sealed. 1/5 Rochester: Not one of my stronger spots, I'd like to think that you aren't getting Slaking out. 1/5 Overall: I'm not sure on this one. This is one of those cards great in one format but not so good in the others. I'd have to give it a lower rating for its unversaility, but of course 100 damage isn't sometihng to be looked down upon, espeically with a body that shuts off all powers. 3/5 Thanks for reading, --- psychup2034
coolhedgie	Slaking (R S) I’ve got quite a lot to say about this card. First off, I have a thing about getting rid of my opponent quick; “Kill it before it multiplies!” So the temptation to use boost energy on this card is great for me, which is not the correct thing to do. You should try to get two slaking up, one active and one benched, with four basic energy each. Then, Critical move, warp energy (or switch, warp point, etc.) Critical move again and again and again. Another neat trick is memory berry; slaking has 110 damage, pop down a memory berry, (assuming you’re using r&s Slakoth) and slack off to get rid of it all. And then you always use Scyther ex or Dusclops for that pesky fighting weakness. Unlimited- 1/5 – Too slow. Slakoth only has 40hp, one out of six rolls for Sneasel, one blow from MPM2, one blow from hitmon, etc., etc… Modified (EON)- 4/5 – Got some potential here. Blaziken could be a problem, but throw in Pelipper and you’re covered everywhere. 2on2 – 4/5 -- Even when it can’t attack, your other active can. Draft- 3.5/5 – Good luck getting it up. If you do, it’s GG.
AuSeNsTrAk	Way back when RS first came out, people speculated what the new format would be. In Expedition on, Feraligatr, Scizor and tons of other cards were played and did well. In RS on, people bowed to Slaking. Why? No pokemon did 120 damage, which meant with a Switch, Slaking would do 100 every turn and not die...all you had to do was go 2 for 1 on prizes and it was "good game...w/e". The card itself is decent. With a lot of powers being played in the new Modified (Gardevoir, Cradilly, Shiftry, Delcatty, Blaziken...), his Poke-Body works well. HOWEVER, you've got to have him active....where's he's vulnerable to be taken down by some monster who wants to OHKO him...oops. Anyways, the ratings... Unlimited: Don't. If you want lots of damage, play something better than him. Even Recycle+Boost for ONE KO doesn't make him worth it. Stay away. 1/5 Modified: He's what I term a "Compokemon"; you never want to run him alone in a deck. His attack, although very nice, is slow to power up and burns through energies. Decks with him will (duh) run 4 Warp Point and 4 Switch to get around the "No Attacking Next Turn" deal. Slaking will (Obviously) have problems with things over 100 HP (Sceptile, Gardevoir EX, Kabutops EX, Typhlosion EX, Feraligatr) and is just too slow to power up and continuously use. CAN he work? Yes. Will it be hard to make a good deck with him? Yes. Will he do well competitively? I highly doubt it. The 'Body is nice, but he's too slow, burns too many energies and trainers to use well and can't deal with a lot of the major decks now. 2.5/5 Draft: Stage 2, OOPS. High energy requirment, OOPS. Can only attack every other turn, OOPS. If you can get a decent line, he'll take a prize for you....but by the time you get him out, your opponent should have a significant advantage and/or a means to ko him. 1.5/5 The Bottom Line: A nice card, a nice poke-body, a decent attack....but there's no synergy and nothing that really lets him break apart from the pack, like Scizor in MMF or Gatr in Old Modified or Sneasel in Unlimited. ANY DECK can work, but this guy is just not worth the hassle.

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