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Stunfisk
68/101 (Noble Victories)
Our last card for this week is
Stunfisk – the derpy
Pokémon. Just look at his face and you’ll know why.
Stunfisk
is an unevolving Basic
Pokémon with a decent 90 HP (actually, that used to be
very good until we saw the Unova
Legendaries). The Weakness to Water isn’t too bad as
only Kyurem really gets
major play and that tends to spread damage rather than
go for OHKOs, meanwhile, Stunfisk
has an apparently useful Lightning Resistance. I say
‘apparently’ because it won’t make any difference
against Zekrom, though it
does in fact mean that Magnezone
Prime will need to Lost Zone another
Energy to get a OHKO.
One of the unusual things about
Stunfisk (apart from his appearance) is that he
uses off-Type Energy for his attacks: he’s a Fighting
Pokémon that needs Lightning to attack. His first
effort, Trickle, costs [L][C]
and allows you to flip two coins, doing 30 damage for
each heads. Usual comments apply here: if you get lucky
(with or without Fliptini),
it’s not bad value; anything
else and it’s either mediocre or a complete waste of
time. Stunfisk’s second
attack, Thundershock, adds
another Lightning Energy to the cost and for that it
gives you a poor value 50 damage and a flip for
Paralysis (again, Fliptini
can be this card’s good friend).
On the face of it, Stunfisk
looks to be somewhere between bad and mediocre. However,
because of his weird Typing/Energy needs, it’s just
possible that he could see some play as a niche tech in
Lightning decks that want a Fighting Pokémon to counter
other Lightning decks, but don’t want to mess up their
Energy lines with Rainbow or Fighting.
As most Lightning decks play some
kind of acceleration (Pachirisu/Shaymin
or Eelektrik), the attack costs needn’t be too much of
an issue either.
Even so, I can’t
really find it in my heart to recommend
Stunfisk as a tech in
Magnezone or
Zekrom decks. Honestly, I
would rather tech in Fighting/Rainbow and play
Terrakion NV for the higher
(and more reliable) damage output. If only those attacks
were just a bit more powerful . . .
Rating
Modified: 2.25 (not
quite as
derpy as it looks)
Limited: 3.5 (high HP Basics are a solid play, and if
you pull Fliptini, it could
be a decent attacker)
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