Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Kricketune
(Triumphant)
This card takes me back a couple of years to the time
when a Kricktune deck was
actually playable (for a few weeks). It featured
Kriketune MT and tried to
swarm fast to do some decent damage. By the standards of
today’s format though, it was very weak and relatively
slow.
This version is not even as good.
The HP is a low, low 80 . . . in a format where most
decks hit that number from turn 2 onwards, that’s just
not going to cut it. The Fire Weakness and Retreat cost
of one aren’t terrible, but won’t save the card from the
binder either.
It’s the attacks that really seal
Kricketune’s unplayability
though. A low HP Stage 1 needs to be
fast if
nothing else. Kriketune is
not. Enchanting Melody costs [G][C] and does 30 damage
with a flip for Confusion (the lamest of all the Special
Conditions), while Fury Cutter demands [G][G][C] (yeah,
like it will survive long enough to build up three
Energy) and is a terrible coin flip attack, doing
somewhere between 20 and 120 depending on how lucky you
are. I don’t know about you, but before I pile a load of
Energy on an 80 HP Pokémon I want to
know that it
will be doing something amazing . . . not trusting to
coin flips for a very sub-par average damage.
It’s true that Grass Pokémon are the best supported type
in the game (Shaymin
Lv X,
Sunflora, Metapod
etc), but if you really want to devote that support to a
slow-ish Stage 1 Pokémon,
you would still be a lot better off using
Scizor SF . . . and I
wouldn’t even recommend taking that to a tournament.
If someone gives you a Kricketune
TM for Christmas, ask them nicely if they kept the
receipt.
Rating
Modified: 1.25 (weak, slow, underpowered,
flippy)
Limited: 1.5 (still not good)
Ok, that’s the final whistle on this week’s reviews. The
only thing I have left to do is to wish everyone a happy
Christmas, and may all your coin flips come up heads in
the New Year (except for the one that decides who goes
first, of course!).
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conical |
12/23/10: Kricketune(Triumphant)
Happy holidays! This will be the last COTD before the
holidays, so in the spirit of the season, we're
reviewing a...cricket. With a mustache. Erm...OK.
I'll be honest, I've always had a fascination with any
Fury Cutter attack printed. I know they're always flippy,
but there's so many options! You could deal 40 damage,
or you might deal 120! The possibilities!
This doesn't mean I'll be any kinder to Kricketune,
however. As cool as Fury Cutter is, it's still a 3
energy attack that won't do enough to justify its cost.
Entrancing Melody might be a decent backup attack on
something with a better second attack, but there's not
much to say about it on this card. In short, if you
really want to play a bug with a curly mustache for some
reason, play Kricketune PL.
Modified: 2/5
Limited: 3/5 |
Otaku |
We end our short week with
Kricketune,
who always reminds me of Mario (I blame the red coloring
and the mustache).
I guess since we have a red insect on a green
(Grass-Type) card, it works as a Christmas theme (since
there won’t be a card on Christmas Eve Day or Christmas
Day). Merry
Christmas!
Kricketune
is a Stage 1 Pokémon Grass Pokémon.
Grass Pokémon have some interesting support but
not much in the way of strong decks this format.
Being a Stage 1 should be good but with the
current card pool usually isn’t: instead of being a
compromise between the speed of Basic Pokémon and power
of Stage 2, Stage 1 Pokémon end up being the worst of
both worlds.
80 HP is bad.
I usually considered that a low score in the past
and with power creep, it keeps getting worse.
It can still work, but it needs to do a lot.
The Fire Weakness isn’t crippling right now, as
Fire decks are prominent, but they have a tendency to
flare up and burn out multiple times in a format, so
don’t forget about it.
The lack of Resistance is lame: something is
better than nothing.
A single Energy Retreat Cost is good, but with
the HP so low they probably could have gotten away with
make it free.
Kricketune
has two attacks.
The first is Entrancing Melody hits for 30 and
Confusion on a successful coin toss and requires (GC).
Even ignoring power hitters like
Gyarados and
Donphan
Prime, that’s a poor return.
At the very least Confusion should have been
automatic given how easy it is to shake Special
Conditions.
The attack probably needed to cost only (G) or (C),
inflict guaranteed Confusion, and hit for 30 or even 40
damage to really keep up with current standards.
The second attack is Fury Cutter and it doesn’t
fair much better.
You have to invest (GGC) to use it, and hit for
20 points of damage and flip thee coins.
If you get no “heads”, you still hit for 20
points of damage. If
you get one, you’ll hit for another 20, two “heads” for
plus 40, and if all three come up “heads”, get an extra
100 points of damage.
So, four possible results; roughly one in eight
uses will result in 20 damage, three in eight will
result in 40, three in eight will result in 60, and one
in eight will result in 120 points of damage.
Mostly you’ll
get a 40/60 split and your mean result will be 55 points
of damage.
Since this is the “big” attack of the final stage of
Evolution possible, that’s pretty lousy for (GGC).
The sad part, if they had made both attacks
Double Colorless
Energy compliant (that is (CC) and (GCC)
respectively)
Kricketune might have stood a chance of being
played.
First, it would have been a slightly better return on
investment.
If you really want to use this card, I’d back it up with
Shaymin Lv.X
(Platinum, 126/127) so that your HP is boosted to 120.
I’d also split with the
Platinum
version of
Kricketune as well: same Stage and Type, 90 HP, Fire
+20 HP and same Retreat Cost.
So besides slightly better stats, you get
slightly better attacks.
Revenge Melody only requires (CC) and hits for
20 damage times the number of
Kricketot and
Kricketune in
the Graveyard.
While not on par with
Gyarados,
with some dumping you can hit a quick 120 points of
damage (max).
Bug Buzz will require some combos to hit its 80
damage through its effect, so I’d just settle for the 50
for (GG).
That isn’t good but it isn’t bad.
In a deck built around this
Kricketune,
today’s version can serve as a back-up, probably at a
single copy, just in case something went wrong.
As I like to be thorough, I’ll point out that the
Kricketot
from Platinum is the clear best pick to run with either
Kricketune
due to slightly better stats and attacks.
Ratings
Modified:
1.5/5
Limited:
2.5/5
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