Ferrothorn
73/98 (Emerging Powers)
Today’s card features one of the
stranger designs from Generation V:
Ferrothorn
looks like a cross between a UFO and
some kind of spiky plant thing to me. In
the videogames its unique Metal/Grass
Typing gives it some hugely impressive
Defensive stats. Unfortunately, in the
TCG, it just makes it extremely
vulnerable to the many, many players who
are bringing
Reshiram decks to tournaments.
For a Pokémon that is so famously
durable in the VG,
Ferrothorn has a less than
impressive 90 HP which, coupled with the
Fire Weakness, means that the current
metagame is
not a good place for it to be active.
Even the Metal Typing which gives access
to the defensive boost of Special Metal
Energy won’t be any help at all when
your opponent announces ‘Blue Flare’.
The Psychic Resistance is better than
nothing and could come in handy against
Gothitelle,
but most of the time, it won’t count for
much. The Retreat cost of three is very
heavy and would actually be a
disincentive to use this card . . . and
it doesn’t need any more of those.
Ferrothorn’s
first attack, Iron
Defense, costs only one Metal
Energy and gives you a coin flip for
immunity from damage and effects on your
opponent’s next turn. It may sound like
a reasonable delaying tactic, but it’s
really not. For a start you are relying
on a flip; for another having a
protected active Pokémon does not give
you an unbreakable wall in a format
where most decks are playing Pokémon
Catcher in multiples; finally (and to
me, this is the most important point),
is this really what you go to the
trouble of getting out a Stage 1 for?
A 50-50 chance of
walling your opponent? I don’t
see that as being a productive use of
your resources somehow.
Of course, where Iron
Defense
could be good is if it is saving
your Ferrothorn
for some spectacularly hard-hitting
second attack . . . only it isn’t. Power
Whip costs [C][C]
and does 10 damage to one of your
opponent’s Pokémon for each Energy
attached to
Ferrothorn. We have seen very
similar attacks on other Pokémon in the
past (Lickilicky
TM and Tangrowth
GE for example), and it never really
works. Why? Because to do significant
damage requires a large amount of Energy
invested in a Pokémon that is easily
KO’d, that’s why. By way of a
comparison, it would take
Ferrothorn
four Energy to do what
Yanmega
Prime can do for no Energy whatsoever
and although
Ferrothorn’s snipe damage isn’t
capped, the chances of getting it to do
more than that are very slim.
Basically,
Ferrothorn is a Pokémon that asks
for a lot, and gives very little in
return.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (Not an efficient use of
your precious resources)
Limited: 3.5 (Not bad at all here. Can
buy you time and clean up late game by
sniping damaged Pokémon)
