So what are we reviewing today?
I’ll take “Cards Crowded Out” for
$500, Alex!
Normally I try not to bias my
readers by flat out naming what I think
of a card before breaking it down, but
today I am trying something a little
different.
Plus I
really wanted to use that opening.
Stats
This
Victini is a Basic Fire-Type Pokémon
that doesn’t Evolve.
The bad news is that means you
get what you get with it, but it can
make full use of cards like
Eviolite that only have an effect on
Basic Pokémon.
The Type doesn’t really help in
terms of Fire support, and I’ll be
honest I am uncertain of how useful
hitting Fire Weakness is or will be now
or in the coming months: it really
depends on what the players collectively
choose to play.
The only real advice I can offer
is know your metagame.
70 HP is no longer the “magic number”
like it was in the beginning of the
game.
Besides its normal usefulness,
until the release of
Erika’s
Jigglypuff in Gym Challenge
(sixth English set, not counting Base
Set 2), this number meant you were safe
from your opponent scoring a lucky first
turn KO, barring Weakness.
Usually this meant a Base Set
Hitmonchan using Jab for 20 plus 40
thanks to four
PlusPower.
If you aren’t aware,
Gym Challenge wasn’t released in the
U.S. until October of 2000, so that
means nearly two years of this being the
standard.
Even after a decade of stat inflation,
70 HP remains a good, solid amount.
Against the strongest and/or most
popular decks, it is still within OHKO
range, though the slowest/weakest of the
top decks aren’t guaranteed to take the
Prize.
Against less competitive decks,
you probably survive one hit outside of
the card’s Water Weakness.
Water Weakness, just like the
Type, is murky as to how dangerous it is
to know you the metagame: in one area it
might be non-existent while in another
it might be common.
The Retreat Cost of one is easy to pay,
but I wouldn’t have minded a free
Retreat Cost: that seems to be the only
thing left to give anything that isn’t a
“big” Basic Pokémon and doesn’t Evolve,
and while
Victini isn’t a Flying-Type, doesn’t
learn Flying-Type moves, and doesn’t
come with Levitate, it is depicted in
the animé as flying around.
Yes, another example of why I
would love for the video games to
re-evaluate their Type-system.
Kind of like how I wish the TCG
would embrace Resistance again, as this
card has none (which is automatically
the worst possible option for it).
Effect
Victini
has a single attack, V-Create, and it
is… actually quite reasonable, requiring
(RC) and a full Bench, but then giving
you a great 100 points of damage.
Note that while I said full
Bench, that is if nothing is altering
Bench size. The wording is specifically
the attack doesn’t work if you have four
or less Pokémon on your Bench.
Some effects to shrink your
allowable Bench size, and one of the old
Team Multi-Player formats restricted
your Bench to three Pokémon, so
sometimes this will render the card
useless.
Overall though this is quite a solid
attack; while it is nice to keep a
single slot open on your Bench “just in
case” it isn’t that big a concern and
most decks like a fairly robust Bench
anyway.
In short, most decks will be
geared toward quickly filling their
Bench anyway.
The Energy cost is fine with
almost any form of Energy acceleration;
though Fire based Energy acceleration is
preferable.
This is because if you can’t meet
the (RC) requirement in one turn, odds
are
Victini isn’t lasting another one.
Use
So how and why would you use this card?
Sadly, the actual question should
read “would have”.
Without
Reshiram, the format would certainly
be different, and we would be lacking a
big, basic Fire Pokémon.
Typhlosion Prime and
Emboar w/Inferno Fandango decks
would find it to be a great opening
attacker, though they probably would
like something else for back-up since
some games it would just be too hard to
fill one’s Bench and keep it full.
Plus we have two other
Victini and the one most people
would use is the version with the
Victory Star Ability, allowing you once
per turn (as in doesn’t stack) to
re-flip all the coin tosses used for an
attack.
Still needing just (RC) besides
the full Bench makes it reasonably easy
to splash, and so if Fire Weakness
climbs (or is just your deck’s poor
match-up), after said Fire Weakness a
Metal-Type Pokémon needs a lot of extra
help to survive.
After all, 100 doubled
is 200, so
even with four Special Energy
Metal Energy a Metal-Type Pokémon
with 160 HP just got
slagged.
Unlimited might have a small niche use
for this card.
With the restoration (for the
most part) of the older Trainer usage
rules, Unlimited is plagued by decks
that win first turn and decks that gain
so much advantage (or rob you of so much
of your set-up) that you might as well
be losing to them.
Still if you aren’t quite facing
such steep odds, this card isn’t bad.
It is Unlimited: OHKOs happen
frequently, and many smaller Pokémon
with vicious effects still see play.
Likewise filling your Bench is
almost effortless, and you even have
some Energy acceleration/manipulation
options that won’t require huge amounts
of your deck.
I wouldn’t count on seeing
someone play this card, but if you feel
like it you should be able to cobble
together a good second/third string
deck.
You know the drill: Bench full of
Slowking and the usual staples of
the format.
The hard part will be finding
targets not wearing
Focus Band to OHKO.
In Limited, this isn’t a must pick, but
it rates pretty high with only one real
provision: can you afford to run some
Fire Energy?
If you can, yes the card is all
but useless until you fill your Bench,
only capable of being a small meat
shield.
Yes in Limited play filling your
Bench can be a bit challenging… but just
a bit.
Normally your deck in Limited
play is between 40-60% Pokémon, with the
rest divided between the few Trainers
you were lucky to pull and the rest
being basic Energy cards.
My personal experience is that
about every three games, you’ve got more
Pokémon in hand than you can play, about
one in three your struggling, and about
one in three if you could fill your
Bench if you needed to, but don’t want
to because the Basics you’d be dropping
aren’t that good.
Well if you’ve got this
Victini, that last outcome becomes
“fill your Bench”.
It is a crude estimate, but I’d
say being great 2/3s of the time makes
it worth it.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3/5
Modified:
2/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary
Poor
Victini: if you could have beaten
the Dragons to the format, you might
have enjoyed some time in the sun…
assuming you weren’t stampeded to death
by
Donphan Prime and
Yanmega Prime.
Not a bad card, just not good
enough with the behemoths we currently
have available.
This comes as no surprise to most, but I
am still selling my former collectibles
on eBay
here and would appreciate people
taking a look.
Just remember that Pojo.com is in
no way responsible for any transactions,
just kind enough to let me link to the
auctions.
