|
Rapidash Lv 41
The firey unicorn has never seen much
play in the TCG. Will this be the card that changes all
of that?
With an HP of 80, Rapidash is not the
toughest Pokémon around. Water Weakness isn’t much help
either, as Gyarados, Palkia G, and Kingdra are all
fairly popular decks right now. On the plus side, free
retreat means that it isn’t hard to Bench if facing one
of these Pokemon.
It’s also worth mentioning that
Ponyta Lv 8 from the same set has an Ascension attack
which makes it very easy to get Rapidash into play
without having to search it out. But why would you want
it active? Certainly not for the attacks. For [R] you
have a no effect 20 damage attack in Fire Mane. For
[R][C][C], Rising Lunge will do 50 damage + another 20
on a coin flip. Not outrageously expensive, but not
exactly devastating either. As an attacker, Rapidash’s
damage output is hardly impressive.
But then the attacks are not the
reason to play this card. That would be down to
Rapidash’s PokeBody, Wild Guard, which prevents all
damage and effects done to Rapidash by SP Pokémon.
Sounds useful, right? Sounds a bit
like Mewtwo LV X, in fact, and we know that is a very
effective SP counter. Well, not quite. There are two
major differences. Firstly, Mewtwo stops attacks by ALL
Basics. Not just SP, but also Basic Pokémon LV X like
Regigigas, Cresselia, Darkrai, Giratina as well as
opposing Mewtwos and AMU decks, making it much more
versatile. Secondly, Mewtwo is actually a pretty decent
attacker in its own right: not only can it block, it can
also dish out 120 damage by itself.
Of course, just as SP decks have
answers to Mewtwo, they also have ways of dealing with
Rapidash. Luxray GL LV X and Infernape 4 LV X can switch
it out and attack something else, while Dialga G LV X
shuts Rapidash’s Body down anyway.
Rapidash could find a place as a weak
SP counter in a Fire deck which does not have the room
for the Psychic Energy that Mewtwo needs. It might even
be a useful tech in a deck featuring Charizard AR as it
will boost Charizard’s attack just by being on the
Bench. For everything else, though, there is a clearly
superior alternative.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (flawed SP counter:
unless you play Fire, there is no reason to run this
over Mewtwo LV X)
Limited: 1.75 (only 2 SP Pokémon in
the set to counter)
|
