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Mandibuzz (Emerging Powers)
Hey Pojo readers, I hope it's a beautiful Wednesday
wherever you are (or a Thursday, depending what side of
the International Date Line you are on). Today we have
another Dark card that has previously filled a small
niche in dedicated Dark decks. For the second time,
Mandibuzz takes the stage.
Mandibuzz is a Stage 1 Dark Type with 90 HP,
Lightning weakness, Fighting resistance, a retreat cost
of 1 and two attacks. Aside from the Fighting resistance
which is a welcome sight in any deck the mostly runs
Drak and Colourless Poke'mon, Mandibuzz doesn't have
much to reccomend it as far as stats go. Except when you
get it into play on the second turn, you can't expect
Mandibuzz survive more than a single hit.
Since Dark Poke'mon don't currently have any energy
acceleration, this means that Mandibuzz has to have
cheap and useful attacks, rather than the expensive and
devastating variety possessed by powerhouses like
Tyranitar Prime. The design team seems to agree with me
as this card might just find a home alongside it's last
release.
The first attack is Bone Rush, which costs a single
[d] energy to flip a coin until you get Tails, dealing
30 damage per Heads. While this is completely unreliable
with a 50% of doing absolutely nothing (and more than
likely sealing your fate into the bargain), it is also
potentially devastating if you have an obscene amount of
luck for a single turn.
Imagine for a moment that you have a Voluby sitting
quietly on the Bench and your opponent has just removed
whatever expensive attacker you had Active. You promote
the harmless Voluby, attach an energy and evolve before
offering a prayer and flipping that coin. Once in a
while, you'll get lucky and find yourself back in the
game with a surprise Knock Out and breathe a sigh of
relief while your opponent looks on in stunned
disbelief.
I know that the above scenario won't work out well
very often and you can't rely on Bone Rush to either
save you or give you an early edge because of the
flippiness, but it is better than most first attacks we
see and fits the theme of the Vulture Poke'mon well.
Dark Pulse is the other attack and it also starts out
poorly, dealing a measly 20 damage for [c][c], but it
deals an extra 10 damage for each [d] energy in play on
your side of the field. Yes, the math works out terribly
with you needing a whopping 11 Dark energy just to KO
one of the Dragons but I can see a possible way around
that (bear with me, this explanation is lenthgy and
involves a lot of 'what-ifs').
The Hydreigon card being released in Noble Victories
has an Ability that turns all energy atttached to it
into Dark energy, and an attack that deals 60 damage to
the Defending Poke'mon as well as 40 damage to 2 other
Benched Poke'mon of your choice. Most importantly, it
has 150 HP so it is a tough KO even with Fighting
Weakness. With FanBoar around to drop lots of Fire
energy onto any Poke'mon you want, the potential exists
to get a lot of Dark energy into play very quickly!
Sure, getting a Stage 1, two Stage 2's and 11 energy
into play without your opponent interfering is next to
impossible and you'd be crazy to try (not that I'm
trying to discourage you, I love rogue builds!). The
more likely scenario is that you've managed to get
Emboar, Hydreigon and a Voluby into play quickly enough
to get off a single attack to soften up your opponent's
side of the field. More than likely Hydreigon will take
a not-quite-fatal beating when your opponent returns
fire with one of the Unova Dragons or a Donphan Prime
(even with Weakness, 150 HP is tough to KO on a single
hit). Next turn y ou'll be forced to drop a Switch to
get your heavily damaged Hydreigon out of harm's way, at
which point you promote the Voluby and evolve to
Mandibuzz EP. Drop a couple more energy with FanBoar
and/or move them around with a Shaymin UL (that little
blighter is great for moving Special Dark energy to
where you need it most!) and you should be able to reach
the required amount of damage to get rid of the attacker
that is giving you trouble
This may or may not work, depending on how much
damage Hydreigon did, and whether or not the attacker
did some self damage (as Reshiram tends to do when
paired with Typhlosion Prime and as Zekrom does with
Bolt Strike). Donphan Prime will prove the most
difficult to destroy due to its Exoskeleton Poke-body,
but Mandibuzz's Fighting Resistance will give you a
second shot.
If a Hydreigon/Emboar deck does emerge after the
release of Noble Victories then both of the Mandibuzz
cards will make good choices to cover the Fighting
Weakness in the deck, with the BW version adding to the
sniping capabilities and this version providing the
"In-case-of-emergency-break-glass" countermeasure. Also,
if we see another way to accelerate Dark Energy printed
before it rotates out then this card would become almost
a staple in Dark decks, at least as a single copy.
I can't help rooting for this card. Sure, my entire
review is based on the assumption that you can get two
Stage 2 Poke'mon into play and keep them there (the
massive HP of both Emboar and Hydreigon helps a lot) and
I'm also assuming that intentionally falling back with a
damaged Hydreigon is a smart move in this era of
snipe-happy Yanmega Prime players. I go even further out
on a limb by further assuming that your opponent won't
simply heal the spread damage from Hydreigon's attack
before you can do anything with it. Worst of all, I'm
assuming that your opponent won't see this coming
because Mandibuzz EP is a reactive card which means your
moves are dictated by what your opponent does (usually a
recipe for disaster). But even with all of these
negative points, I still can't escape the feeling that
this vulture is just waiting to rock the tables. So, if
you like big combos and think that the idea of a vulture
picking over the bones of a weakened Poke'mon is awesome
foresight by the designers, grab a copy and go rogue!
Modified: 3 (I'm probably being overly optimistic and
it is absolutely uesless without the energy
acceleration, but it does have a useful niche due to
that Fighting Resistance and in the end it is easier to
replace Mandibuzz in a Prize exchange than having to
replace your Hygreigon each time your opponent swings
hard)
Limited: 2.5 (if you feel like gambling then Bone
Rush will look good to you, but in general the necessity
of having a specific energy just to flip coins and the
usually weak damage output of Dark Pulse will make you
feel cheated)
Combos with: a Hydreigon/Emboar deck using a Shuckle
HGSS Promo to draw lots of cards (you draw a card each
time you attach an energy to the Shuckle with FanBoar)
before dropping Seeker or Shaymin UL to move the energy
to its intended home. If I can get the cards together,
I'm going to give it a whirl because it should be fun at
League even if it never covers itself in glory at
competitive events
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