We are looking at the
Pignite that is
Black & White
18/114.
Pignite is a Stage 1
Fire Pokémon that can
Evolve into
Emboar.
Currently there
are two
Emboar available (Black
& White 19/114 and
20/114), and both are
good cards (but 20/114
is better and also
better known).
The only reason
to play either
Pignite is expressly
to Evolve it into an
Emboar, except at a
Limited event.
It possesses a
solid 100 HP fore a
transitory Stage 1,
falling outside of the
range to be easily
Knocked Out by a single,
unassisted attack.
“Assistance”
includes the card’s own
Water Weakness, which
will allow a Water
Pokémon to OHKO it with
just 50 base points of
damage.
The lack of
Resistance is
disappointing, but at
least Fire Pokémon
aren’t really known for
Resistance, and this is
common for most Pokémon
so it isn’t a true
disadvantage.
The three Energy
needed to Retreat is a
disadvantage, and even
with Energy acceleration
it is likely to be too
wasteful to manually
retreat.
Pignite
has two attacks.
Rollout has an
Energy cost of (CC) and
does a flat 20 points of
damage.
Weak, but it will
do in a pinch.
Unfortunately it
doesn’t make much sense
to use
Double Colorless Energy
as the next attack has
only a single Colorless
Energy requirement.
Flame Thrower
costs (RRC) and requires
you discard an Energy
attached to
Pignite, but does
deliver a solid 70
points of damage, enough
to OHKO most Evolvable
Basic Pokémon.
Together, we have
two solid but impressive
and uninspired attacks.
The other
Pignite, Black &
White 17/114, has
the same stats but two
different attacks.
The first can be
used with one of any
Energy and searches the
deck for a Fire Energy
card to attach to
Pignite itself.
This is a decent
effect and can be fairly
handy.
The second attack
is a flat 50 points of
damage for (RRC).
Again, it is
unfortunate it can’t be
efficiently powered with
Double Colorless Energy,
but due to the first
attack you could still
have
Pignite ready to for
acceptable damage by its
second turn in play.
Both of these, unless
reprinted at a later
time and without
Emboar 20/114 or at
a Limited Event, should
never see play without
it.
As such the
version reviewed today
is the preferred pick
because in a tight
situation it is a
competent attacker.
If your set-up
doesn’t work out right,
the other
Pignite, 117/114 is
the better pick.
As such I
recommend running both;
since each is insurance
against an incomplete
set-up. As for the
Tepig they can be
run with, none are
especially good but the
70 HP versions are
adequate with slightly
better attacks and of
course more HP than the
60 HP versions.
In Limited play, this is
a good pick only if you
can afford a healthy
amount of
Fire Energy,
probably at least five
and that only works if
you only need it for
Pignite or a later
Emboar, and on top
of that have the room to
work those seven cards
into your deck without
them getting in the way
of everything else.
If you have
enough Fire using
Pokémon (and space for
them) to run seven or
more
Fire Energy, you’ll
have a good attacker as
long as you aren’t
facing Water.
Again, though,
both versions even out
because of the different
match-ups you’ll face.
Ratings
Modified (MD-On):
3/5 – Scored based on
its usefulness in an
Emboar deck.
Modified (HGSS-On):
– Scored based on its
usefulness in an Emboar
deck.
Limited:
3.5/5 – Scored in
general.
Summary
An adequate lead-in to
Emboar.
