Arcanine
#12 (Next Destinies)
I always felt a bit sorry for
Arcanine:
although its species name is ‘Legendary
Pokémon’, it has never had the status
and rarity of a true Legendary or the
power of the pseudo-Legendaries (like
Metagross
and Tyranitar).
The Pokémon Yellow
Pokedex (in a rare real-world
reference) tells us that he is Legendary
in China so maybe that explains it.
Today’s card is the better of the two
Arcanine
from Next Destinies. It’s a Stage 1 that
hits the ‘magic’ HP number of 130 which
is pretty much the most you can expect.
The Fire Typing should make it good
against Durant but, as we shall see, it
doesn’t really have the right kind of
attack for taking on the annoying Metal
bug. Water Weakness is solid at the
moment, thanks to an almost complete
lack of that Type in the game (a few
Kyurem,
that’s all). The Retreat cost of three
seems a bit harsh and certainly doesn’t
do the card any favours.
What is good though, is to see that
Arcanine has
an Ability.
Blazing Mane states that, if
Arcanine is
active and damaged by an attack (even if
KO’d) it inflicts Burn on the Defending
Pokémon. I would consider an Ability
like this to be a nice bonus: Burn isn’t
really something you can build a
Strategy around, as the damage is fairly
minor and flip-dependent, but on the
other hand it can inconvenience an
opponent and make for an easier KO on
your next turn. An
Ability like this won’t make a
card playable, but on a playable card it
just makes things better.
Will Arcanine’s
Fire Spin attack elevate it to the level
of playable cards though? It costs a
substantial [R][R][C]
and does 100 damage. There is also the
drawback of a coin flip chance to
discard two Energy
from Arcanine.
That cost, and the possibility of
discard, means that you would probably
have to run
Arcanine alongside some form of
acceleration, such as
Typhlosion
Prime or Emboar
BW . . . and I think you can all see
where this is going.
Yes the Dragon in the room is
Reshiram of
BW and numerous
reprint fame. A
Basic Pokémon with the same HP as
Arcanine
that does more damage, has less Retreat,
and has a great first attack in Outrage.
The very existence of
Reshiram
means that Arcanine
was obsolete from the moment it was
released. There simply isn’t any reason
to play it instead of the Dragon. In
some previous formats,
Arcanine
would have been a powerhouse. In this
one, it gets sent to the binder,
completely
outclassed.
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (sort of a Stage 1
version of Reshiram
BW . . . but who needs that when you
have Reshiram
BW?)
Limited: 3.75 (flipping tails on Fire
Spin can set you back, but overall HP
and damage output are very good)
