Basculin
(Next Destinies)
Hello, and welcome to a shorter week
than usual here on
Pojo’s CotD.
We’ve still got some of the older cards
to cover before the next set hits, so
let’s crack on with it.
Basculin
is an unevolving
Basic with an unimpressive 80 HP and a
scary Weakness to Lightning which makes
it an easy target for all those
Zekrom and
Thundurus
out there. The Retreat cost of one is
decent and pretty much what you would
expect from a card like this: it won’t
make or break it either way.
Seeing as this Pokémon can’t be relied
on to hang around for too long, it’s
going to need some very good, low-cost
attacks to attract the interest of
players. The first attack, Bite, is
certainly as cheap as it gets these
days, but that one Energy of any Colour
will only get you 10 points of
effect-free damage, making it little
more than a token, really. The second
attack, Bared Fangs is somewhat more
interesting. For just a single Water
Energy it does 40 damage . . . providing
that the Defending Pokémon has no damage
counters on it (if it does, the attack
does nothing). That
40 damage is enough to OHKO
any
Tynamo, any
Baby Pokémon, and a few low HP Evolving
Basics like Solosis
and Oddish.
Oh, and it also knocks out
Cyndaquils,
thanks to Weakness.
So . . . does this make
Basculin a
viable weapon against decks that run
these low HP Pokémon? Well, it does have
some serious competition from
Tyrogue
GS/CL. Unlike
Basculin, the Baby Pokémon has no
Retreat cost, nor does it need Energy to
attack. On the other hand, it is more
vulnerable to KOs itself, can only hit
30 damage, and Sweet Sleeping Face is a
bit of a double-edged sword. In the end
though, I suspect that it’s the specific
Energy cost that will keep
Basculin
from taking over its role as a
searchable ‘donking’
Pokémon. Needing to run Water Energy, or
draw into something like Prism, really
cuts down on the number of decks it can
be used in.
Basculin
is an incredibly situational card that
could give an opponent a nasty shock. I
can’t really recommend its use though,
even in a primarily Water Type deck (ummm
. . . Kyurem?),
simply because it
is so situational. The space will
almost always be better devoted to
another consistency card, or thickening
up the main attacker line.
Rating
Modified: 2 (I still feel
Tyrogue is
the better choice)
Limited: 3.25 (can pick up a cheap turn
1 win here)
