Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Carnivine
(Dark Explorers)
Carnivine
isn’t the most attractive, or even the
most memorable, of Pokémon, but Yukiko
Baba has done an amazing job with him on
the artwork for this card. The
background is so colourful and charming,
and the way
Carnivine is drawn gives a
meh Pokémon
a ton of character. Sometimes you don’t
need 3D action poses and Pokémon
bursting out of the card to make
something great.
No-one plays a card
for the artwork though, so let’s look at
the important stuff.
Carnivine is
a non-Evolving Grass Type Basic with 90
HP. That’s not stellar, but seems
adequate: your opponent will have to
work pretty hard to get a first turn KO
anyway. Fire Weakness is ok at the
moment, while Water Resistance will just
be a seldom-used bonus. The thing I’m
not too fond of is the Retreat cost of
two. A card like this would have been so
much better if it could have used
Skyarrow
Bridge to switch in and out for nothing.
The reason I say
this, is because the first attack, Lure
Poison, gives this card some potential
as a disruptive tech. For a single Grass
Energy (or Prism, seeing as it’s a
Basic), Carnivine
can drag a Pokémon off the Bench and
Poison it. It’s very similar to
Muk UD’s
Sludge Drag, which was once an effective
option for Mew Prime decks, but with
Carnivine
being a Basic, you don’t even need the
cute kitty to make this viable. Of
course, most aggressive decks will
prefer to use Pokémon Catcher and go for
the OHKO, but in a list built around
Trainer Lock, this can be a neat little
tech to make life awkward for an
opponent who is building Pokémon on
their Bench for a late-game assault. It
can also be a nice way of countering
Trainer lock: can’t use Catcher? Well
then just Lure Poison up a
Vileplume to
make life difficult.
Carnivine’s
second attack is also interesting. Spit
Squall (yeah,
Carnivine cards always have an
icky reference to spit) costs a hefty [G][G][C]
but forces the opponent to put
the Defending Pokémon and all cards
attached into their hand. Yes, it’s a
neat way of setting them back if they
have spent a few turns building up a
threatening EX, but the attack cost is
prohibitive. You might be able to pull
this off mid-late game with the help of
Shaymin UL,
or even in decks using
Celebi Prime
acceleration, and if you do, your
opponent will not be laughing. However,
that’s a bit of an unlikely scenario,
and not really why you would play this
card.
So,
Carnivine is
a nice card with genuine tech
possibilities. If only that Retreat cost
were slightly less though. The fact that
you have to burn two
Energy, or a Switch, after using
it just makes it that little bit too
much trouble to be worth it in most
decks. I wouldn’t count it out of
competitive play completely, but I think
Carnivine is
going to be a pretty rare plant at
tournaments.
Rating
Modified: 2.5
(REALLY needed free Retreat)
Limited: 3 (If
you’re running enough Grass Energy, it’s
a handy way of messing with your
opponent)
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virusyosh |
Hello once again, Pojo readers! Before getting to
today's COTD, I'd like to point out an error I made
yesterday. I said that Scyther couldn't be searched out
by Level Ball due to having 80 HP, but since Level Ball
searches out Pokemon with 90 HP or less, it is a legal
target. Special thanks to Otaku for pointing this out to
me! Today we're continuing our reviews with another
Grass-type that has a couple of interesting attacks.
Today's Card of the Day is Carnivine.
Carnivine is a Basic Grass Pokemon. Like I've said
all of this week, Grass types see little to no play in
Modified for a variety of reasons, so Carnivine will
have to do something fairly special in order to see
play. 90 HP is about what we'd expect for a non-evolving
Basic, as it's enough HP to take a weak hit or two, but
also small enough to be searched out by Level Ball.
Unfortunately, this also means that Carnivine will fall
to more powerful assaults. Fire Weakness is what we
would come to expect for Carnivine, and this isn't such
a huge problem right now given the lack of Fire,
however, Reshiram, Reshiram-EX, Emboar, and even
Typhlosion Prime all still see play on occasion. Water
Resistance is a welcome sight, though Water doesn't see
much play, either. Finally, Carnivine has a solid
Retreat Cost of 2, which you can pay in a pinch, but
you'll likely want to use Switch to retreat.
This Venus flytrap has two attacks, and both are at
least interesting. Lure Poison switches the Defending
Pokemon with a Benched Pokemon of your choice, and then
Poisons the new Defending Pokemon for a single Grass
Energy. You're probably better off using Pokemon Catcher
in Modified, but this attack can be useful under certain
circumstances, like if there is a Pokemon like Vileplume
in play blocking the use of Items. In Limited, switching
your opponent's Pokemon can give you a ridiculous
advantage, and the Poison just makes it even better.
Spit Squall, Carnivine's second attack, returns the
Defending Pokemon and all cards attached to it back to
your opponent's hand for two Grass and a Colorless. This
attack is similar to Drifblim UD's Take Away, only Spit
Squall has much more stringent Energy requirements, and
Carnivine stays on the field to use the attack again the
next turn. Spit Squall can obviously get rid of any
potentially annoying threats your opponent has if you
can power it up in time, which may be difficult given
Carnivine's relatively low HP.
Modified: 2.25/5 Carnivine is a mixed bag in
Modified. 90 HP and Grass typing are both fairly bad,
but Spit Squall can potentially deal with your
opponent's major threats in a big way, setting your
opponent back a turn or two. However, with most popular
decks relying on speed and the ability to bounce back
after KOs, most of the time Spit Squall will not work as
well as you'd expect. Additionally, Lure Poison is
largely outclassed by Pokemon Catcher except in very
limited circumstances, you chances are you'll probably
want to steer clear of Carnivine here.
Limited: 4/5 However, Carnivine is excellent in
Limited. While Spit Squall is somewhat Energy intensive
requiring two Grass, Spit Squall will undoubtedly set
your opponent back a few turns, especially if you bounce
a fully powered heavy hitter. Lure Poison is also a
great move here as well, since forced switching is rare
in this format and Poison is also decent. If you're
running Grass, Carnivine should be at least worth a
look.
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