Today we look at
Grumpig.
Grumpig tends to be one of those
overshadowed Pokémon: many of its past
iterations were poor, and whenever one
showed potential, another Pokémon would
be released (similar or not) that drew
all attention away.
The best have merely replicated
older strategies, sometimes better and
sometimes worse than past decks.
As someone who has toyed with
some of those decks (and is just fond of
pigs in general) I’ll have to fight a
positive bias.
Grumpig
is Psychic, which will allow it to slam
the Weakness on a few popular cards,
such as
Uxie and
Uxie Lv.X.
It is a Stage 1 which is still a
mixed blessing.
Harder to splash into a deck than
a Basic but easier than a Stage 1, power
creep has blurred the lines on what is
appropriate for each level: you can’t
count on a Stage 1 to be stronger than
the average played Basic Pokémon or
faster than (a regularly played) Stage 2
Pokémon thanks to the support enjoyed by
both.
90 HP is the least a Stage 1
Pokémon can get away with (barring some
compensation in terms of raw power).
Yes, 80 HP Stage 1 Pokémon see
some play but they tend to be protected,
Bench-sitters, or simply so powerful
that it’s just okay to regularly lose a
Prize for them.
The Psychic Weakness x2 is expected, but
also hurts the wonderful type-matching
this card would enjoy: if it doesn’t
take out an
Uxie/Uxie
Lv.X,
Uxie Lv.X just needs a
Double Colorless Energy to OHKO
Grumpig.
Taking out
Uxie was why being a Psychic Pokémon
was useful, so this is both a mark
against it and diminishes one of the
cards potential perks.
The lack of Resistance still irks
me, since I can tell you now this card
doesn’t have enough raw power to justify
dropping it as a matter of balance.
The two Energy required to
retreat I would normally score as
“average”: in terms of usefulness two
Energy is a bit too high to Retreat
easily, but when you have to you can
without crippling your set up.
The thing is, this card isn’t
looking all that great and I’ll tell you
now, it doesn’t get a whole lot better.
A
lower Retreat Cost would have been just
one more little thing that would have
helped compensate for the other less
impressive aspects.
Grumpig
has two attacks to choose from, and both
seem to be underrated from what I heard
and read.
How so?
Psychic Lock is a good attack,
but not strong enough to build your
entire deck (and strategy) around.
(PC) for 20, even with the
excellent effect of preventing your
opponent from using Poké-Powers during
his/her next turn, is a little low.
It isn’t that far off, though: it
really is a potent effect, as can be
attested to by the popularity of the
Gardevoir (Secret Wonders) that
possessed a beefier version of it.
Everyone praising that card
should remember the raw power
Gardevoir enjoyed when we had
multiple potent versions that combined
well (and a great
Gallade on top of all that).
The second attack, Bench Manipulation,
is also recycled.
It needs (PCC) to attack, and
that is pretty reasonable provided this
is a “good” big attack.
Thanks to
Double Colorless Energy, you can get
it off in two turns.
Is it worth it?
The answer is “maybe”.
The attack has your opponent flip
a coin for each Benched Pokémon they
have and does 40 points of damage for
each result of “Tails” they get to their
Active Pokémon.
It also ignores Weakness and
Resistance, which is unfortunate: right
now scoring off of Psychic Weakness is
useful while running into Resistance is
quite infrequent.
If your opponent has a full
Bench, you may score 0, 40, 80, 120,
160, or even 200 points of damage.
While striking out with 0 points
of damage is horrid and getting a mere
40 points is poor for three Energy, 80
points is solid, 120 really good, 160
great and 200 probably overkill (but
still a happy thing).
The problem is that you can’t
always guarantee a full Bench.
If you’re swinging against a
Bench with at least three Pokémon, the
attack is still alright, but once you
get below that you work too hard for the
return.
The more vulnerable your opponent
is, the less this attack can do (like
nothing when they are down to just an
Active).
Then again, you can also look at
it as the attack having the most
potential when your opponent is
strongest.
Ultimately I think it is a good
attack, but only just.
The format seems to favor decks
that try to focus on a single strong
Pokémon and speed for a First/Second
turn KO, often for game… or that have a
good two or three Pokémon set-up.
The latter have that as a minimum
and usually prefer to have a duplicate
of each piece in play if possible.
To play
Grumpig we should examine where it
comes from and what other versions are
available.
The Modified legal versions
aren’t “good”, but they aren’t bad: they
are Basic Pokémon you would only play to
use their Evolved form.
Both have attacks to get them
back to the Bench, which is where I’d
want them since
Grumpig won’t have any HP to spare.
I’d go with the Legends Awakened
version as it has a better Weakness,
though with only 50 HP neither will last
long in the Active slot.
The other legal
Grumpig is one of those cards that
makes me think “There has to be
something I can do with that!” as it has
an attack for no Energy that inflicts
Confusion that places six damage
counters if the afflicted Pokémon fails
in an attack (instead of three).
It can also hit with Grind for a
decent 20 points of damage per Energy
attached to its self, thus you can’t hit
for less than 40 points of damage.
Three would still yield a solid
60 points of damage, and anything else
would become a poor yield but would
still be possible.
As a tag team you’ve got more
options, though there isn’t any special
synergy between the two.
How can you maximize the effectiveness
of
Grumpig?
Simply put, your Bench is your
friend.
Try to cut off access to another
resource (like Trainers via a benched HS
– Undaunted
Vileplume) and/or add extra damage (Drapion
Lv.X).
Both seem a bit fragile, but what
if you have a
Vileplume deck that already also
uses Psychic Energy?
Locking down Powers the first few
turns (even though your opponent will
have to get one or two turns at first)
is quite handy.
You can’t really rely on Bench
Manipulation to carry a deck, but as a
fallback option it isn’t bad at all.
Not just because it can hit
fantastically high damage if your
opponent has no choice but to fill the
Bench, but because it may scare them
into playing light, further limiting
your opponent’s set up.
If your opponent tries to
completely nerf Bench Manipulation by
forgoing a Bench, they can lose from a
single Take Away by
Driftblim (HS – Undaunted).
If you go the opposite route, you
can run
Honchkrow from Supreme Victors to
fill your opponent’s Bench with your
choice of their discarded Basics.
There are only nine Pokémon I can find
with Poké-Powers in HS – Triumphant, so
you probably won’t be locking away much
of anything with
Grumpig.
Bench
Manipulation becomes a good attack here,
though.
Besides the nightmare scenario of
facing a single, Psychic Resistant
Pokémon you should find your opponent
has a large enough Bench to be swinging
for good damage or such a bad set up
that you can keep
Grumpig in reserve and let something
else peck away at the Defending Pokémon.
Ratings
Modified:
2.75/5 – I really think there is some
potential to this card, but it will
require a near perfect build: there
isn’t raw, reliable power to fall back
on.
Limited:
3/5 – A bit small but forces the
opponent to keep their Bench low or
create a powerhouse.
The fact that it only needs one
actual
Psychic
Energy makes it easy to work into
multi-color decks.
I am still selling my former
collectables on eBay. I’ve had a
lot of hobbies over the years, so at
various times I’ll have comic books,
manga, action figures, and video games
on the auction block. You can take
a look at what’s up for bids
here. Just a reminder, Pojo is
in no way responsible for any
transactions and was merely kind enough
to let me mention the auctions here. ;)
