Krokorok
61/98 (Emerging Powers)
One thing I really like about the whole
Kookodile
line in the BW set is that they kept a
theme (attack lock) running through all
the Pokémon Stages. The (English
Exclusive!) version of
Krookodile
from Emerging Powers has Energy
discarding as its main feature and
attempts the same kind of mechanic with
this Stage 1 version.
Krokorok
is an evolving Stage 1 which doesn’t
offer much to make waiting on the Stage
2 worthwhile. It has an acceptable 90
HP, a Water Weakness which isn’t a
problem right now, but most likely will
be in a few week’s time when we get
Noble Victories (featuring
Kyurem and
Cryogonal),
and a slightly inconvenient Retreat cost
of two. Certainly
nothing to get excited about there.
As far as attacks go,
Krokorok has
the underwhelmingly
generic Bite (one Energy of any Colour
for 20 damage), and the very expensive
Crunch: [F][C][C] to do just 40 damage
and get a coin flip for an Energy
discard from the Defending Pokémon.
Yeah, it’s on-theme with
Krookodile
EP, but seeing as the Stage 2 gives you
the same effect (minus the damage,
obviously) in the form of an Ability,
there’s nothing to make you want to use
Krokorok as
an alternative. In fact, even if I
was running a fun Energy denial deck
with Krookodile
EP, I’d stick with
Krokorok BW just because it does
offer some chance of survival via attack
lock if you are forced to have it
active. The BW version also has
a handy
Lightning Resistance which is
inexplicably missing from today’s card.
So, plus points to the designers for
going with a theme, but minus points
when it comes to playability.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (pretty standard for an
evolving Stage 1, the only surprise is
that the other one is better)
Limited: 2.25 (reasonable HP, cheap
attack . . . unexciting, but not
terrible at a
prerelease)
