Name:
Sableye
Set:
EX Holon Phantoms
Card#:
31/110
Rarity:
Rare
Type:
Darkness
Stage:
Basic
HP:
60
Weakness:
None
Resistance:
Colorless
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Paralyzing Gaze
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now
Paralyzed.
Attack#2:
(DC) Knock Off [10]
Choose 1 card from your opponent’s hand without
looking and discard it.
Attributes:
Sableye is a Basic Darkness-Type Pokémon.
This is about the best you can be without being a
Dual Type. This type combination allows it to use
Darkness Energy to boost the damage its
attacks do, and as a Basic it is quite easy to get
into play. Sadly it is an “isolated” Basic; it
lacks a Stage 1 to Evolve into or a pre-Evolution.
Needless to say, a Stage 1 would be handy, since it
means that is Sableye is good, it gets
played, but if the Stage 1 form would be good,
Sableye could still see play. A pre-Evolved
form has rarely mattered, but one or two have proven
quite useful.
Sableye
has 60 HP. This is a bit low for a Basic that can’t
Evolve. I am starting to think that 70 HP has
become “the magic number” for Basics once again (if
it ever wasn’t), at least when they are isolated
like this. So the HP is a bit low. It is still
playable if it has some really potent or useful
ability, like EX Deoxys Jirachi, or for you
Unlimited fans, Neo Genesis Sneasel.
Something that will make that 60 HP last for a while
is a lack of Weakness, as good as it gets. So no
lucky “30 points of base damage for a OHKO” match
ups. While nice, I wonder if this is good for the
game: much like no Resistance, no Weakness feels
incomplete. However, if it is for game balance, its
okay, and I sincerely doubt they’d do this with all
cards: Sableye just has a somewhat odd video
game type mix (Dark/Ghost). This also leads it to
not only have a Resistance, but an interesting one:
Colorless. This is reasonably nice since at least
for now Pidgeot from EX Fire Red/Leaf Green
is still a common sight. A retreat cost of one is
nice and low: it’s pretty rare you can’t afford to
discard an Energy.
Abilities:
In a word, Paralyzing Gaze is just weak. You pay
for 10 points of damage, and get a mere 50% chance
at Paralysis. A Colored Energy requirement, that is
to say (X) where X is one of the eight Basic Energy
types (yes, Darkness and Metal are still Basic
Energy types even though no Basic Energy card exists
for them), normally yields 10 damage and a flip to
inflict one of Burn, Confusion, Paralysis and
Poison, or automatically inflict Sleep. That is the
cost even on a Basic Pokémon with two Stages of
Evolution available to it. I have often argued that
Burn should be downgraded to the cost point of Sleep
(as there is often a 50% chance that Burn will do
next to nothing as on a Heads, they take no damage
and then can retreat out of it or Evolve). If you
recall in past instances, I have pointed out that (CCC)
= (XX) = 30 points of damage, or that (C) = 10 and
(X) = 15 points of damage (which is usually put
towards a secondary effect or altered by assorted
bonuses/penalties from other aspects of the card.
So if (X) normally yields 10 points of damage and a
flip to inflict the more costly Special Conditions,
then that means the cost of said Special Conditions
is about 5 points worth of damage or half of (C).
So for twice that amount (a full Colorless Energy
requirement) one expects automatic success on the
Special Condition. Granted, Paralysis is the
exception, since automatic Paralysis is very, very
potent (no attack, no retreating out – it requires
another card to break a “Paralysis Lock”). Still,
it is overpriced and they should have added either a
secondary effect or just upped the cost to make it
better.
Unfortunately for this card, Knock Off is also a
weak attack. You have paid for 25 points of
damage. Instead you get 10 points of damage and an
interesting effect: randomly discard one card from
your opponent’s hand. Discard effects are pretty
rare in modern Pokémon play, and for a very, very
brief time there was a potent combination that had a
good chance of annihilating one’s opponent’s hand.
That was then, this is now. Now, hand control is
very hard to accomplish, and the best trick is to
use a Rocket’s Admin. Now, unless you are
behind in Prizes, this isn’t a huge thing. So all
in all, Knock Off is pretty weak. After all, this
format has Pidgeot and its Quick Search as
well as Magcargo with Smooth Over, both
making it quite easy to get a draw card and
replenish your hand. Plus, you might not even hit
anything especially vital.
Uses and Combinations:
If you feel you have to run this, right now the best
I can think of is using the standard “forced prizes”
set up: Electrode ex, EX Team Rocket Returns
Magmar, Pow! Hand Extension, and
Rocket’s Admin. Dump Energy like mad (and draw)
with the Magmar, blow up an Electrode ex
or two to help set up fast and lower your opponent’s
Prize count, use Rocket’s Admin. to drop
their hand size, and finally try to keep them low on
cards in hand (no cards in hand, if you are
fortunate). Dark Slowking could also be
helpful, just to have some control over the
opponent’s topdecks.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5 – If you wish to go for a “control” theme, focus
on making cards in hand useless, like with
Vileplume ex or Neo Genesis Slowking.
Even the old fairly potent control Trainers just
aren’t used as often here: a lucky topdeck basically
makes all the control cards wasted: Professor Oak,
Neo Genesis Cleffa, etc. You can even use
something like Neo Discovery Tyrogue to stall
like mad while trying to draw into something.
Modified:
2/5 – I can think of only one high risk, low return
deck for it.
Limited:
1.75/5 – Paralysis is a bit more useful here, the HP
is a bit better here, if you manage to pull a card
that can meet the Darkness Energy requirement
randomly discarding a card is better here, but over
all it just isn’t worth much.
Summary
Good idea, poor execution, yet ultimately, I’d
rather this was next to useless (which it is) than
some new hand control staple.
-Otaku
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