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Accelgor
12/101 (Noble Victories)
What happens to a Shelmet
when it ditches its armour? It turns into an
Accelgor, apparently, and
I’m sure it feels a lot better as a result. (I believe
that Karrablast picks up the
discarded armour and uses it to become an
Escavalier . . . something
like that anyway).
Free of the extra weight, Accelgor
is no longer burdened by the massive Retreat cost of its
Basic and becomes one of only a very few free retreaters
from the Black and White series. Free Retreat is a very
good thing to have: it conserves Energy and makes it
easier to get out of Status Conditions and Effects of
the Defending Pokémon. So score one to
Accelgor. Not so impressive
is the low-ish 90 HP. This
card isn’t taking many (by which I mean more than one)
hits in a format full of monstrous Dragons, regardless
of its Fire Weakness.
Acid Spray is Accelgor’s
first attack. It’s very low cost (one Energy of any
Colour), but then it only does 20
damage: not terrible value, but not something you
want to set up a Stage 1 for. It also gives you a coin
flip chance of discarding an Energy
from the Defending Pokémon, which is a nice bonus I
suppose and could be annoying if it hits. This isn’t the
attack that players have been looking at, however: that
would be Accelgor’s second
option, Slashing Strike.
Slashing Strike is also very cheap to use (just one
Grass Energy). It also does a big (for the cost) 60
damage. There is the drawback that it can’t be used on
successive turns, but with free Retreat and a couple of
Accelgor in play, that
shouldn’t be an issue. In the past, attacks that do 60
for one have always been considered pretty great: think
of Donphan Prime or
Kingdra LA. Does this mean
that Accelgor is ready to
take its place alongside them as a real tournament-calibre
card?
Hmmm . . . I’m not so sure. There are quite a few
reasons why those Pokémon are superior to
Accelgor. For a start, they
are/were a lot more durable. They also have other things
going for them as well (Donphan
can abuse its own Bench damage by powering up Outrage
attacks from the Dragons, while
Kingdra had a bonus snipe for 20). Then there is
the matter of Typing. Being a Fighting Pokémon,
Donphan can hit key
metagame cards for Weakness
(Magnezone,
Zekrom).
Accelgor on the other hand
is not going to encounter much that is weak to Grass:
Feraligatr Prime?
Just maybe.
Kyogre &
Groudon LEGEND? Not really.
Gigalith?
Don’t make me laugh.
Yes, Accelgor is capable of
dishing out 60 damage on the player’s second turn (and
possibly KOing a Basic), but
we have other cards that can do as much or better. The
Weather Genies (Tornadus,
Thundurus, and
Landorus) are all Basics
that can all do a second turn 80 damage; then there’s
Zekrom with
Pachirisu and
Shaymin that makes 120
possible on the
first turn! If it’s quick wins you are after, then
any of those cards (and Donphan
Prime) are superior to
Accelgor.
If we ever get a metagame
deck that features Pokémon who are Weak to Grass, then I
can see Accelgor being a
useful tech. Until that day arrives though, there are
better alternatives out there.
Rating
Modified: 2.5 (it’s hard to give a low rating to a card
that does 60 for 1, but power creep, frailty, and poor
Typing all combine to keep the score down)
Limited: 4.25 (don’t worry, a Stage 1 with cheap attacks
is still brilliant here)
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