OK, 100 HP Basic Pokemon. That alone should turn some
heads.
Weakness to psychic, 3 retreat cost…oops, we just lost
the audience.
3 energy attack that does 30 or 50 against an evolved
Pokemon (OK 2 energy with Energy Gain), not good at all.
We have 2 energy attacks that do much better than this
in the envio.
4 energy attack that shuffles the defending Pokemon and
all cards attached to it away.
Can’t use it to win the game though, and an unown G just
stops this attack cold.
I can’t think of a single deck I would put one of these
in, even as a tech.
Modified 1/5 If your opponent flips this over, it is not
a question, but an answer. You WIN.
Limited.1/5..If you opponent flips this over, once
again, you win. Never play this, EVER.
Have I made myself clear? What a disgrace to the Pokemon
that is Machamp. Shame.
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats
Machamp GL
Aaaargh . . . the last thing this game need is another
silly/broken lucksack Machamp like the one from
Stormfront!
It’s ok, you can relax as this one is pretty terrible.
True, it has a very nice 100 HP, not that it will help
much with its X2 Psychic Weakness. That Retreat cost of
three won’t get it out of trouble in a hurry either. Oh
well, it at least you can PokeTurn it.
SP Pokémon are great because they are fast and because
they have relatively cheap and powerful attacks. This is
where Machamp GL fails. Its first attack, Cross Cut,
certainly isn’t cheap at [C][C][C]. It isn’t especially
powerful either, doing only 30 damage to Basics and 50
to Evolved Pokémon (which have higher HP anyway.
Machamp’s second attack is more interesting and is
potentially very disruptive. Brush Off allows you to
shuffle the Defending Pokémon and all cards attached to
it back into your opponent’s deck. Now that could be a
great way of getting rid of a big threat, and it could
be combined with Luxray GL LV X’s Bright Look Power (so
that you can return the Pokémon of your choice). Sounds
good, doesn’t it? Until you realise that Unown G makes
it useless and that it costs [F][F][C][C] to use.
That’s FOUR Energy . . . and you don’t even get to take
a prize!
Any decent opponent will see Machamp GL coming a mile
off and will be prepared to take an easy prize. It’s
horribly slow, easily countered, and shouldn’t see any
competitive play at all.
Ratings
Modified: 1.25 (I’m feeling generous)
Limited: 2 (fewer counters, but still too slow)
Steel_Winger
Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD!
With three new Supreme Victors cards out of the way, we
return to more Rising Rivals cards. Today's featured
card is Machamp GL. The (in)famous Machamp has an SP
version. How good is it? For starters, 100 HP on an
non-LV. X SP is great, being up there with Dialga G and
Palkia G. A x2 Weakness hurts with Gengar and Gallade 4
being played quite a bit. No Weakness, but that's
expected of a lot of Pokemon. A Retreat Cost of 3 is
horrible. Use Poke Turn. It can also use all of the SP
support cards as well.
No Powers or Bodies, but there are 2 attacks. The first
one, Cross-Cut, does 30 damage for 3 Energies of choice
(2 with Energy Gain). Very bad attack. Oh, wait, you do
an extra 20 if you're attacking an evolved Pokemon. Then
it's a somewhat decent attack. Situational, but decent.
Brush Off, on the other hand, needs 4 Energies (3 with
Energy Gain) and 2 of them must be Fighting. You get to
make your opponent shuffle his/her active into the deck.
It can be okay it your opponent has something
troublesome active. Just remember, it doesn't count as a
KOed Pokemon because... well, you didn't actually KO it,
did you? At the very least, your opponent will have to
put in a bit more work to get the Pokemon back out.
I suggest that you don't have Machamp GL active until
it's ready to be unleashed. It can be a bit slow to
power up unless you're using Flint's Willpower. I'd like
to see this combined with Luxray GL LV. X or Infernape 4
LV. X since they can force switches. Or you can use Warp
Point or, even better, a couple of Poke Blower +. I feel
that the reason most people don't play this card is
because there are other Pokemon that do good damage for
less energy and they can KO an opposing Pokemon in 1-2
turns. Taking Prizes leads to victory. Shuffling your
opponent's Pokemon back into the deck by using an attack
doesn't, especially if they have ways to get it back to
the field almost instantly. All the search in this game
makes Brush Off kinda useless.
Ratings:
Modified: 2/5 I believe it's only really useful if yor
opponent is having trouble setting up. Use this in
tandem with Flint's Willpower to throw your opponent off
early.
Limited: 1.5/5 A lower rating here because of all the SP
Pokemon in this set which lessens the power of
Cross-Cut, and many of them who can possibly KO this guy
before it does any real damage.
This is Steel_Winger, until next time!
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