Today we look at
Amoongus (BW: Next Destinies
9/99).
As a Pokémon, it just looks so
familiar, like what if Homer Simpson was
a Pokémon, or perhaps a Raving Rabbid
that was cosplaying a mushroom.
I don’t much care for mushrooms,
but maybe they make better Pokémon than
food.
Let’s dig in!
Stats
Being a Stage 1 Pokémon this format
seems to hurt.
The ones we had from the previous
format that were actually played back
then and become quite strong post
rotation have become scarce.
This is because this is a format
where Basic Pokémon not only enjoy their
normal benefits this format (one
slot=one copy and just needing an open
bench slot to put into play), but have
lately been receiving stats and effects
that rival Stage 1 (and some Stage 2)
Pokémon, direct supporting cards in a
variety of areas, and generally
benefiting from recent changes to the
rules and card errata (if
Rare Candy functioned as it did for
so many years, Stage 2 Pokémon would be
ridiculously dominating the format – no
I don’t want
Rare Candy restored to its old
functions).
Amoongus is going to need to be
quite special to keep up with the Basics
that dominate the game and the handful
of powerhouse Stage 1 and 2 Pokémon that
seem to accompany them.
Being a Grass-Type is not a promising
start: most Grass-Type support has
fallen flat, the Types that have
succeeded aren’t usually Grass Weak, and
the Grass-Type Pokémon that do succeed
seem to only do so in off-type decks.
90 HP does not help it, as even
if we cut out the top level of decks
just for the sake of simulating a
“casual” format like you might find at
Pokémon League, 90 HP still falls
quickly to the next two levels of
aggressive decks, as they can ramp up to
a OHKO in just a turn or two.
There is a silver-lining:
Amoongus is small enough for
Level Ball to pluck it from your
deck, and since it is
not a Basic Pokémon that ends up
being a good bargain.
Well as long as either
Amoongus proves to be deck worthy
and something else that we’d run
with
Amoongus is also a legal target, and
isn’t a Basic Pokémon (we’ve established
they have their own Support, and it
includes two great search options).
Amoongus
has the common Weakness among Grass-Type
Pokémon, Fire, and Fire-Type Pokémon
have done quite well this format.
Conversely, while
Amoongus is fortunate enough to
possess Water Resistance, Water-Types
are not fortunate enough to have their
decks do all that well.
At least there is Resistance, but
perhaps that shows us even the
developers think Grass-Type Pokémon are
inherently weaker.
The two Energy Retreat Cost that
finishes off the bottom stats is
approximately average, at least it terms
of usefulness.
It is low enough you’ll often be
able to pay it (even if it takes a
Double Colorless Energy), but high
enough you really won’t want to.
I almost wish it was a bit higher
to justify a little more HP and make it
a legal
Heavy Ball target.
Effects
Amoongus
has a single Ability and a single
attack.
I am really missing the old
“Poké-Power/Poké-Body/Two attack”
formula they had finally gotten to
before the game revamped for Black &
White.
Hopefully it will return: when
you only have two “slots” for effects it
seems to put too much demand on them,
and we end up with a lot of misses,
including perhaps the worst, overpowered
Pokémon.
Getting off my soapbox and back to
Amoongus, its Ability is Sporprise,
and it had better be good because it
triggers only when you Evolve (from
hand) a Pokémon in play into
Amoongus.
I think it comes close: your
opponent’s Active Pokémon becomes
Confused
and Poisoned!
Unfortunately, this leads to
another soapbox moment (is this number
three?): Special Conditions are badly in
need of overall improvement.
They’ve generally been pretty
weak the entire run of the game, except
in Limited play.
There have been some exceptions,
but I think the fundamental rules
governing them need to change (as
opposed to just “upping” what they do).
Still, this combination does
provide a form of protection (Confusion
can cause an opponent’s attacks to
fail), guaranteed damage counter
placement (Poison), and possibly more
damage counter placement (when Confusion
causes an attack to fail it also makes
said Pokémon place three damage counters
upon itself).
Now the logical attack to give
Amoongus would be Miasma Wind or
Pester, since those attacks reward you
for Special Conditions, and Miasma Wind
is usually really inexpensive to boot.
Unfortunately, that didn’t
happen.
Instead we get Rising Lunge for
(GC), with base damage of 20 points and
an extra 30 if you get “heads” on a coin
toss.
Averaging 25 points for that much
Energy is fine… if you’re a Basic
Pokémon that doesn’t Evolve.
For a Stage 1 that can’t Evolve
further, it’s poor.
I guess Sporprise is supposed to
be really powerful, or we’ll find a
great combo for it.
Usage
Before we look for combos with other
cards, let’s check out the
Foongus we need to Evolve
Amoongus from and the other versions
we have of
Amoongus.
Both versions of
Foongus are Basic Grass-Type Pokémon
with Fire Weakness, Water Resistance,
single Energy Retreat Costs, and
dangerously low 40 HP scores. BW:
Noble Victories 9/101
Foongus can do 20 for (G), which
might be tempting if you ran
PlusPower and still face a lot of
the HeartGold/SoulSilver block
“baby” Pokémon, but probably not since
it only has 40 HP.
BW: Next Destinies 8/99
barely ekes it out by having Find A
Friend for (C); if you get “heads” on a
mandatory coin flip you can search your
deck for a Basic and add it to your
hand.
If you actually were desperate
and invested (GC) you get a smaller
version of Lunge, with base damage 10
and only an extra 20 points of damage if
you get “heads” on the coin toss.
Honestly, every
Foongus has poor attacks: BW:
Noble Victories has a solid
offensive move, but it’s the only attack
it knows and it isn’t worth the almost
guaranteed follow-up KO it invites.
On the BW: Next Destinies
version, like I said the Rising Lunge
Amoongus has was priced for an
Evolving Basic Pokémon, ergo you know I
consider this version to be quite
underpowered.
Find A Friend shouldn’t require a
flip, but since it doesn’t specify what
kind of Pokémon it is okay that it adds
it to the hand (you can get non-Basic
Pokémon!) and I’d rather have a shot at
getting the
Amoongus I desperately need to
Evolve
Foongus into, a replacement
Foongus, or just another Pokémon
entirely.
It is much easier to explain
Amoongus (BW: Noble Victories
10/101): same stats as today’s version
with two attacks.
For (G) it can use Toxic for no
damage, but the classic “double Poison”
that places two damage counters on the
afflicted Pokémon between turns.
Body Slam is almost vanilla,
doing 30 for (CC) and giving you
Paralysis on a successful coin toss.
Without something protecting them
or exacerbating the Special Conditions,
these two solid attacks aren’t enough
for the poor stats.
It doesn’t matter too much since
today’s version would clash with this
older
Amoongus: Poison conditions replace
each other, and Paralysis and Confusion
replace each other.
This would make it too awkward
running them in the same deck.
Obviously double Poison is
greater than single Poison, but while
Paralysis is better short term, it is
only short term (it cures itself at the
end of your opponent’s next turn) while
Confusion isn’t reliable but it sticks
around.
I can actually think of one use for
Amoongus, though how potent it will
be is questionable.
There’s even an alternative Stage
1 that may be easier for some decks to
use.
So what is it?
Eeveelutions backed by
Vileplume (HS: Undaunted
24/90).
Shutting off Items is handy, and
of course makes shaking the Special
Conditions harder for a Basic Pokémon,
so that is kind of obvious.
So is running
Leafeon (HS: Undaunted 17/90,
Call of Legends 13/95): it is
another Stage 1 and you’ll be tight on
space, but it will easily score 100
points of damage for a single Energy
with this combo, plus another damage
counter before your opponent’s turn even
begins to threaten an effective OHKO
against anything with even 110 HP.
120 isn’t much safer; if your
opponent doesn’t Retreat they’ve got to
not attack, attack successfully through
Confusion, and in the end they still are
KOed by the next damage counter.
Even something like
Reshiram (multiple printings) and
Zekrom (multiple printings) are
going to have a tough time
when this is all backed up by
Vileplume; no
Switch and maybe only one or two
Eviolite that sneak into play before
Vileplume hits the field.
Even with its 130 HP protected by
Eviolite, the Dragons are in trouble
after one hit: they’ll be down to 40 HP
and if they attack and fail their
Confusion check, they’ll be KOed by
Poison before your next turn begins.
So what about when
Mewtwo EX comes to easily
overpowered you?
Well, the Brightside is
Leafeon needs just one Energy for
either attack, so your standard
Double Colorless Energy fueled
X-Ball only hits
Leafeon for 60 points of damage.
Mewtwo EX will have to get two extra
Energy attached (for a total of four) in
order for X-Ball to deliver the OHKO.
Plus, this combination provides
an unusual counter to
Mewtwo EX:
Espeon (HS: Undaunted 81/90)
“Prime”.
Espeon Prime has that handy
Evolution Memories Poké-Body that allows
it to tap the moves of any
Eeveelution in play, so a Benched
Leafeon allows it access to Miasma
Wind.
Sporprise plus Miasma Wind = 100
points of damage for one Energy, and
when used by
Espeon Prime that hits
Mewtwo EX for Weakness: 200 points
for a OHKO.
Unfortunately the rest of the
Eeveelutions are less useful; maybe
the other
Espeon (HS: Undaunted 2/90,
Call of Legends 4/95) for a
semi-desperate sniper (if your opponent
is able to hide stuff on the Bench) or
if you can afford to run
Water Energy (just
Rainbow Energy sadly isn’t enough)
Vaporeon (HS: Undaunted
41/90, Call of Legends 52/95); it
is pricey but probably the better
sniper.
All of this sounds quite fun, but it
also sounds
clunky.
I’m afraid it is, especially
because in order to re-use
Amoongus you’re going to have to
both run several copies, and send them
up periodically to attack (and be KOed),
and probably use
Seeker.
Seeker is great
if you scored a OHKO with Miasma Wind;
if you didn’t, it backfires: your
opponent knows for certain after the
first one that Retreating something
nearly KOed is worthwhile, hence the
need for a follow up sniper.
Which brings us to the
alternative to
Amoongus in this crazy deck, but it
too has failed because of its Energy
intensive needs:
Roserade (HS: Unleashed
23/95).
If we had the right kind of
Energy acceleration for Grass,
Roserade could use Energy signal
turn after turn to Confuse and Poison
the Defending Pokémon.
The catch is that you then need
to get that Energy onto where it is
needed more and Energy signal only works
with attachments from the hand.
This is why trying to repeatedly
Evolve
Amoongus actually has a better
chance.
Now you may be thinking “We
actually have everything you said we
need for
Roserade to work”, and you’d be
right, except while we have it, it won’t
all fit into the same deck both due to
space requirements and clashing effects.
Plus to get two Special
Conditions at once, we’d have to attach
two Energy from hand, still need a third
(or something to move it) to get
Leafeon powered in a single turn, or
two Energy and the one attached to
Roserade needs to be a
Rainbow Energy.
So after all that, there probably isn’t
any true use for Modified.
Unlimited fairs no better: there
are easier “donks” than trying to spam
Special Conditions for Miasma Wind.
I’ll give it some credit, here it
has the support that a 1-1 line could
actually be spammed several turns in a
row: too bad matches aren’t likely to
last long enough for it to matter, even
backed up by superior Trainer denial.
As part of a fun deck built
around Miasma Wind (now with superior
support it lacked in Modified), I guess
it at least could function.
Still if you’re going to the
effort of spamming a “coming into play”
effect, this format has some much better
ones.
It is a very specific fun deck we
are talking about.
In Limited play,
Amoongus is not surprisingly a good
pull.
Foongus has a shot at surviving one
hit if you have it Active at the right
time (namely opening turn), and suddenly
Find A Friend is amazing, even with the
even odds of failing.
Getting
Amoongus itself out shows us what
happens when Special Conditions are a
pain to ditch, and the low HP and damage
output are at least average here, maybe
just a bit above.
Amazing how much better your poor
Stage 1 stats are when you’re mostly
facing filler Basic Pokémon, eh?
Plus, most decks can afford to
run even a few copies of
Grass Energy so that it can actually
attack.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.75/5
Modified:
1.75/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary
Another Pokémon that will only shine in
Limited,
Amoongus actually has a solid
Ability, even restricted to
“coming-into-play” status.
It just needs too much support to
turn that into a deck.
If it had Miasma Wind or Pester,
that would have been a huge help.
If we get
Retro Energy reprinted, it might
help.
At least we know what kind of
effect to look for.
This didn’t make my honorable
mentions, let alone my list, but it did
catch my eye when I was searching for my
Top 10.
Please check out my eBay sales by
clicking
here.
It’s me whittling away at about
two decades worth of attempted
collecting, spanning action figures,
comic books, TCGs, and video games.
Exactly what is up is a bit
random.
Pojo.com is in no way responsible
for any transactions; Pojo is merely
doing me a favor by letting me link at
the end of my reviews.
