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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Scrafty #69/114 (Black and White)  Scrafty is one of the weirder looking Gen V Pokémon. I had no idea what it was meant to be, so I looked it up on Bulbapedia. Apparently, it’s a lizard that is meant to ‘encapsulate stereotypes of various urban youth subcultures’. Ok, I’m glad that’s cleared up.  Like all of this week’s Pokémon, Scrafty is a Stage 1 with unimpressive HP (90 in this case . . . cards like Donphan Prime and Gyarados SF have spoiled us). Being a Dark Type is good though: you get Psychic Resistance (though I’m not sure how much Psychic will be played for now), and the attack-boosting effect of Special Dark Energy. On the downside Fighting Weakness seems bad. The Retreat cost of one is decent.  And so is Scrafty’s first attack. Spit Acid does 20 damage for a single dark Energy, and inflicts Burn and gives you a coin flip for Paralysis (the best status condition of all). That can be seriously irritating to an opponent. If the flips all go your way, and you have Special Dark attached you could be doing 50 damage a turn to a Pokémon that can’t hit back. Of course it’s nothing that will devastate a decent player’s strategy, but for one Energy? I’d say you’re getting a good deal. High Jump Kick on the other hand seems expensive for what it is. [D][D][C] for a vanilla 70 damage isn’t worth it unless you are hitting for Weakness (against Gengar Prime, maybe?), and there are definitely better choices to tech against Dark-Weak Pokémon (Absol Prime, Liepard BW), assuming that it will even be necessary.  Scrafty is one of those frustrating Pokémon that seems to do some good or useful things, but in the end, none of it is actually enough to make it a good choice for competitive play. That, and the Fighting Weakness, makes Scrafty more of a binder card than a tournament winner.  Rating  Modified (HGSS-on): 2 (it’s just ok, and it needs to be more than that) Limited: 3.5 (status conditions work well here, and Hi Jump Kick isn’t the worst attack for a low-damage environment)
virusyosh	Happy Friday, Pojo viewers! Today we end our COTD week by reviewing a new Stage 1 Pokemon from Black and White that has become somewhat of a fan favorite, at least in my area. Today's Card of the Day is Scrafty. Scrafty is a Stage 1 Darkness Pokemon. Dark-types aren't so common in today's metagame aside from the dedicated starters Sableye and Spiritomb, but with the number of good Darkness Pokemon in Black and White, I think the type will begin to see some more play. Darkness-types are also good because they get hte  90 HP is decent for a Stage 1, although this means that Scrafty won't be able to stand up to big hits from the likes of Reshiram, Zekrom, Magnezone, and Donphan due to its Fighting Weakness, which is unfortunate though expected for a Dark-type. Psychic Resistance is great in the face of the pixies (in MD-on) and possibly Reuniclus and the unreleased Gothitelle (in HGSS-on). Finally, a Retreat Cost of 1 is decent and easily payable. Scrafty has two attacks: Spit Acid and Hi Jump Kick. Spit Acid deals 20 damage and automatically Burns for a single Darkness Energy, with the chance of Paralysis on a coin flip. Although not so impressive on first glance, this attack may actually be fairly decent, in that it gives you the ability to lock up your opponent while they are Paralyzed as they take passive damage from being Burned, which can be great. However, it is important that in both MD-on and moreso in HGSS-on, the big threats that your opponent plays will most likely be able to OHKO Scrafty if they can get through, which ultimately limits this attack's usefulness. Hi Jump Kick does a vanilla 70 damage for two Darkness and a Colorless Energy, which can be useful, although the damage output is unspectacular. Special Darkness Energy can help with this, though. I think the design idea behind this card is to Spit Acid the first turn and then Hi Jump Kick the second, but even still, in a format where there are so many huge dragons, I'm not sure that this strategy will work. Modified: 2/5 Spit Acid is rather interesting, and Hi Jump Kick can be useful. However, in a format with all kinds of big hitters, Scrafty is often relying on a coin flip to paralyze in order get a KO, which is perhaps not the best for Modified. Limited: 3.5/5 Spit Acid is great here, and Hi Jump Kick is definitely usable. If you can find the room for Darkness Energy in your deck, Scrafty is definitely worth running.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Scrafty (Black & White   A Dark/Fighting dual type may well be a great idea in the video games, but I can't help thinking that Poke'mon whose skin doesn't even fit properly just isn't very threatening. Sadly this card seems to be agreeing with me.   Srafty is a Dark type non-evolving Stage 1 with 90 HP, Fighting weakness, Psychic resistance, a retreat cost fo 1 and two attacks.   The words "non-evolving Stage 1" have sounded the death-knell for 3 cards already this week, and that is probably going to jump to 4 cards now. Donphan Prime isn't going anywhere with Zekrom entering the game, and will be more popular than ever since all of the other single energy butchers are leaving the format by September, so Fighting weakness remains a serious problem. Psychic resistance is no longer as good as it was because Gengar SF, Nidoqueen RR and the Pixie trio are all leaving the format but it is still far better than nothing. Finally, the retreat cost is cheap which is helpful because no-one wants to discard Special Dark Energy if they can help it.   The attacks are a mixture of annoying and mediocre so forget about running this card competitively but in Limited Scrafty can be decent.   Spit Acid is the first attack and for [d], you deal 20 damage with auto-Burn and a flip for Paralysis. Quite simply this is a brilliant attack in Limited, as you get straight damage, possible bonus damage-over-time and a chance at completely locking your opponent for a turn, all for a single energy. In fact, if you get lucky with the flips this card could be a match for Reshiram and Zekrom in Limited. The only problem (aside from the flips) is that Full Heal, Switch and Super Scoop Up all appear in this set to ruin your day.   High Jump Kick is vanilla by comparison, dealing 70 damage for [d][d][c]. While this has none of the bonus effects of Spit Acid, it is fairly priced and deals enough damage for a 2HKO against almost anything you will face (and Spit Acid or Pluspower will help take out the 150 HP beasts) so it combos nicely with Spit Acid to provided a well balanced attacker in Limited.   If you happen to pull Zoroark and have plenty of basic Dark energy then I would recommend running Scrafty but the poor mite will never survive in a tournament environment.   Modified: 3 (even here Spit Acid can prove annoying, so I've given the average score. Donphan will wipe it out, but beginning players hsould be able to use Scrafty to good effect while they build up their collection)   Limited: 4 (Spit Acid is pure gold here, and used alongside Zoroark you have a viable deck with a powerful mixture of speed, disruption and attack power. Add Zekrom, [l] energy and serve cold with a side of brutality)   Combos with: a Dark type theme deck, if one gets released with one of the new Black & White sets (I hope so, I need some basic [d] energy).
conical Deck Garage	5/13/11: Scrafty(Black & White) Gotta say, the design for this Pokemon looks OK. Not a fan of the name, though. It's like this card should be like a Poison-type or something. Spit Acid can paralyze, which is a forever underrated status effect, but you'd ideally want more damage from a Stage 1 with relatively low HP. High Jump Kick does more damage, at least, and also has a higher energy requirement. The energy requirement is unsurprisingly more important than the damage boost, as the damage is still not worth the energy required. I don't have much to say about this card. I don't like it, and thankfully it's bad, so I won't have to see it. Modified: 1.5/5 Limited: 2.75/5
Otaku	We close the week with Scrafty, the “Hoodlum” Pokémon. You know, looking at it for some reason reminds me of Jesse from the cartoon? Angry red head vibe… but enough color commentary. Scrafty is a Stage 1 Darkness-Type Pokémon. Now that Rare Candy works like the old Pokémon Breeder Trainer, being a Stage 1 lines up a lot nicer with Stage 2 Pokémon, presumably sacrificing some power for speed and a lower card count. Being a Darkness-Type is usually good: even if it isn’t a strong type in the format, at least it can get a damage bonus from the Special Energy version of Darkness Energy. The 90 HP is a bit low for a Stage 1: I don’t like seeing anything less than 100 but if the rest of the card is good, 90 HP won’t keep it from seeing play. Fighting Weakness, on the other hand, might be enough to warrant avoiding it: the Fighting decks I’ve seen (mostly Donphan Prime and/or Machamp Prime) easily OHKO this, and more importantly, their lower Stages come awfully close as well. We do get to enjoy Psychic Resistance, which is nice though often bypassed given Psychic Pokémon often attack indirectly (Special Conditions, damage counter placement, other alternate effects). A single Energy Retreat Cost is easy enough to pay, though since this is on the smaller side I and looks like a runner, I think a free Retreat Cost wouldn’t be asking too much. Then again, I don’t know this thing’s video game stats and even then, cards don’t always match up. Scrafty has two attacks. The first is Spit Acid, and I like it. For (D) you get to do 20 points of damage and Burn the Defending Pokémon. Then flip a coin and if it is heads you also score Paralysis! Special Conditions, at least through attacks, aren’t going to carry a deck, but it is a nice early game move. The second attack, High Jump Kick, suffers. It almost worked. It needs (DDC) and does 70 points of damage. Since damage is being forced back down, that makes it underpowered compared to the oldest cards left in the format, and even with the newer it is one turn too slow. If the Energy cost was (DCC) it’d have worked beautifully. It is still functional, as you could Spit Acid twice before going into a High Jump Kick, or open with Scraggy, hit for a vanilla 10 damage, attach a second Energy and Evolve and Spit Acid, and finally High Jump Kick turn three. With Darkness Energy damage bonuses and decent luck with the coin flips, you might score two KOs pretty fast. Pity Scraggy is a vanilla Basic: 60 HP, Darkness-Type, Fighting Weakness, Psychic Resistance, single Energy Retreat, and an attack that does 10 points of damage for (C). If it had a decent set-up attack, it would have flowed fairly well into its Evolution. I don’t think this will see much any serious play in the twilight of MD-On Modified. When we switch to HGSS-On, it might see some minor play supporting other Darkness-Type Pokémon, but the problem is we already have options for that niche. At least this looks like another solid Limited pull. Energy might get a bit tight, since it always needs at least one Darkness Energy and preferably two. I say just one because Spit Acid is the attack that cleans up in this format: Special Conditions are quite good in Limited play, where there often aren’t a lot of ways to affordably get rid of them. You’re still going to need a deck that is probably running a third of its Energy as Darkness Energy, but between the amount of Darkness-Type Pokémon in this set and other Pokémon that can still use Darkness Energy, you should still be able to fit Scrafty in quite often. Ratings Modified (MD-On): 1.75/5 Modified (HGSS-On): 2.25/5 Limited: 3.25/5 Summary Another card that is going to mostly see play in Limited tournaments, it sadly tries to be a supporting Darkness-Type Pokémon when we already have several, many of which do a better job. Yes, I am going to link to my eBay auctions here: I still need money and have stuff to sell! Please give them a look, and remember that Pojo is not responsible for any transactions.