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Jigglypuff13 |
12/2 Sceptile Lv.56 (SF)
December already, doesn't time just fly by? Anyway,
enough of that, on today's card, the new Sceptile, and I
think many, if not all, Tortile and Leaftile players
have been waiting for this card. Still, before the
reason why, there's always the basics of the card first,
which are alright. 110 HP on a Stage 2 is just below
average, but that isn't necessarily always bad since
plenty of Pokémon have had similar HP since DP and had
good results (Plox should spring immediately to mind
here), but I still wish it was slightly better. +30
Weakness to Fire is to be expected, as is the -20
Resistance to Water. However, they aren't too bad at the
moment. The only real Fire decks at the moment are those
based upon Heatran Lv.X (SF), and thus there probably
won't be too many of them. -20 Water Resistance is nice,
but a) Sceptile here is only really meant to be a bench
sitter and b) The only big Water deck in the metagame is
Kingdra, but is probably still widely spread enough to
make the Resistance worth while. The single Retreat Cost
is great as well, and is the second thing here that's
better than the GE Sceptile (the other being the HP).
Sceptile shouldn't find itself active too often, but at
least it won't be too hard to retreat if it is active.
Abilities, and lets start with the attacks this time.
First, for CC, Poison Leaf does a solid 40 and automatic
Poison. This isn't too bad really, but if you've already
Poisoned the Defending Pokémon and can use the second
attack, there really isn't much point of this attack.
GGCC for the 60 damage Slice Drain is rather overpriced
really since the healing effect only works on Sceptile,
which is pointless because for the same energy cost, you
can get Torterra (DP), which heals all of your Grass
Pokémon. Maybe it's just me, but I would much rather use
Torterra (DP) for this sort of thing. There is one
important thing I think I should mention here and that
is this can KO Gengar (SF) and Dusknoir Lv.X (SF)
without activating their effects. This is quite big
because, despite it not really being a main attacker, it
can help out a lot in these match-ups if you even KO one
of these two once. In case you haven't figured it out
yet, here's how to do it. Against Gengar, you use Slice
Drain first turn, then Poison Leaf for your second
attack, allowing Poison to get the KO, and thus for
Fainting Spell not to be used. Against Dusknoir Lv.X,
just reverse the use of attacks then after their turn
after you used Slice Drain, it will have taken a total
of 40 damage from Poison, meaning Ectoplasm won't be
activated. If you ask me, that's useful.
Now though, onto the real big thing of the card, Energy
Trans. We haven't had this on a new card since Sceptile
(POP4) I believe, and now we have it again. For all of
those who haven't seen this Poké-Power before, what it
does is, as many times before your attack that you like,
move your Grass energies between your Pokémon. This is
the reason why all of those decks using Sceptile (GE)
will use this card as well, because if you ever need to
move energies from a Pokémon that's about to be KOed, or
need to quickly get something else powered up, then this
just allows it to happen so quickly.
However, you still will only play this card if you were
already planing on playing Sceptile (GE), and even then,
it will only be one SF one. Why? Because, as good as
Energy Trans is, it's not worth any more than 2 slots
really (a 1-0-1 line) since Wild Growth is just so much
more useful. Grass decks that aren't running Sceptile
(GE) at the moment are ones that don't need it because
they don't run enough energies to make it worth while.
It's that simple I'm afraid.
Survivability, and I'm going to wait until after this
weekends round of Cities before brining this back in
depth. However, Sceptile should be able to survive at
least 1 hit with 110 HP. Just don't always count on it,
especially against a Fire deck.
Ratings:
Modified: This is rather specific, being that it needs
to be played in a Grass deck to be used effectively, and
will probably only ever be a one-of tech. However, if
you are using this card, you will find out quite quickly
that this is very useful, since the ability to move
around energies has always been used and abused. The
attacks are alright, but aren't fit for a main attacker,
but can be nice against Gengar and Dusknoir Lv.X, as I
already said. Can be very useful, just on the bench.
3.5/5
Limited: The attacks still aren't great, but their
better than most of what you face here. Also, Energy
Trans may not be quite as effective here as it is in
Modified, but if you have 4 Grass energies in play
before you get this out, then you can charge it up in
one go using Energy Charge, which will be a great
surprise for your opponent. Might be quite useful, but
will be difficult to get out (though easier than in
other sets Limited formats due to Poké Drawer + and
Luxury Ball). 3/5
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