Scyther
(Dark Explorers)
Scyther has
always been a pretty cool-looking
Pokémon, and he has featured on some
really nice-looking cards over the
years.
Naoki Saito has done a great job
here, giving us another scary looking
slashing mantis to add to the
collection. The question is,
will it strike fear into the hearts of
opponents when it hits the Field?
Being a Basic
Pokémon is a good start: it means that
Scyther is
easily searched out and its durability
can be improved with
Eviolite.
Speaking of durability, that 80 HP isn’t
too impressive: virtually all of the
attacking Pokémon that are played these
days won’t have any problems
KOing it
with one shot, making the Fire Weakness
a bit irrelevant. The Retreat cost of
one is ok, and can be negated with
Skyarrow
Bridge . . . somehow I expected a bit
better from Scyther
though: it seems like it should be fast
enough to deserve free Retreat.
Scyther has
just the one attack to discuss, and it’s
very simple. Air Slash costs three
Energy of any Colour and does a vanilla
60 damage. So, can we write this card
off completely due to a 60-for-three
attack on a low HP Basic being basically
useless? Well . . . almost, but maybe
not quite.
See Air Slash has
two things going for it. First the
Colourless cost means that it can fit
into any deck as an off-Type tech. It is
compatible with Double Colourless
Energy, or you can use something like
Eelektrik NVI for Energy acceleration.
Secondly, Scyther
is a Grass Type. Usually this is
besides the
point, as Grass hits very little for
Weakness, but right now, it targets a
pretty important and powerful force in
the metagame:
Terrakion
NVI. As a result, a few players have
been trying it as a tech in
Zekrom/Eelektrik
decks where it can be powered up in a
single turn and used to OHKO a major
threat to the deck with the aid of a
single PlusPower.
It’s a neat way to
find a use for an otherwise unremarkable
card. I’m not convinced that Eelektrik
decks need it necessarily, but if you
play one and find you are struggling
with Terrakion
. . . why not give it a shot?
Rating
Modified: 2.25
(very meh
card that someone has found a niche use
for)
Limited: 2.5 (easy
enough to fit into any deck, but a bit
slow without the Energy acceleration)
