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Swadloon (Noble Victories)
After last week's action packed lineup, Swadloon
seems anticlimatic. However, the question of which
Swadloon you use could soon become important as the
design team keeps making better Leavanny cards, leading
me to belive that within the next few sets we should get
a Leavanny so powerful that even fear of Reshriam and
its friends won't keep it down!
Until that happy day, we will keep reviewing the
increasingly powerful attaempts at playable cards such
as the Leavanny line from Noble Victories.
Swadloon is a Grass type evolving Stage 1 with 70 HP,
Fire Weakness, a retreat cost of 1 and two attacks.
Those stats are bad even for a Bench sitter, so
Swadloon should not be played unless a) you are sure
your opponent can't hit it before you evolve to Leavanny
or b) don't have any other choice because your starting
hand was terrible and Sewaddle is about to bite the
dust. Although this card is no worse than any other
Swadloon we've seen (except the 80 HP version which is
far superior), a finer argument for Rare Candy has not
been printed (with the possible exception of Seadra UL).
Since the mixture of low HP and easily-exploited
Weakness make Swadloon a sitting duck, it would be great
if the attacks were able to hekp Swadloon survive.
Tackle doesn't fit that bull as a 20 for [g] vanilla
attack, but String Shot has a coin flip for Paralysis
that may buy you an extra turn to evolve. The cost of
[c][c] can be paid with Double Colourless Energy in an
emergency and the 20 damage is better than nothing, so I
could see this Swadloon fitting into a Leavanny deck if
you are short on Rare Candy and don't possess the 80 HP
version.
Until we get a Leavanny worth playing the point is
moot, but this isn't the best Swadloon even out of a bad
bunch. Pray that the Bug/Grass dual type starts getting
some respect soon, its powerful presence in the video
games demands it!
Modified: 2 (never play this card if you can avoid
it, even if you do want to use tomorrow's Leavanny card)
Limited: 3 (support Poke'mon are great in Limited but
keeping this Swadloon alive long enough to evolve into
Leavanny is a doubtful proposition at best)
Combos with: an extra 20 HP would make me feel a hell
of a lot better about this card, but I can't have
everything so I'll take what I can get. Sue me, I like
Leavanny!
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