|
Welcome back, Pojo readers! We are continuing our
reviews of Boundaries Crossed in this short week,
specifically looking at cards that didn't quite make the
cut for our Top 10 List. We'll kick things off today
with a very good common that will likely see quite a bit
of play in certain decks. Today's Card of the Day is
Squirtle.
Squirtle is a Basic Water Pokemon. Blastoise/Keldeo
is the prominent Water deck of Modified right now, and
as such, Squirtle will see tons of play. 60 HP is about
what we'd expect for an evolving Basic, and gives
Squirtle enough HP to not get OHKO'd by the likes of
Rayquaza and other fast attackers. Grass Weakness is
great (as there are no prominent Grass threats in the
format), no Resistance is sad but expected, and a single
Retreat is quite payable.
Squirtle has an Ability and an attack. Shell Shield
is the main reason behind Squirtle's being so good, as
it prevents all damage done to Squirtle by attacks when
it's on the Bench. This has many Modified implications,
as Darkrai-EX's Night Spear and Landorus-EX's Hammerhead
can't snipe the Tinyturtle Pokemon when Benched,
allowing you to set up a Blastoise (relatively) safely.
Water Splash is Squirtle's attack, starting off at 10
damage for a terrible Water and a Colorless, with the
possibility of doing 20 more if you get heads on a coin
flip. You'll rarely want Squirtle active unless you're
in a huge bind, so this attack will likely never get
used. It's decent (but not great) for Limited, though.
Modified: 4/5 While Squirtle isn't all that powerful
on its own, it fulfills a unique niche in making
Blastoise decks very strong. Shell Shield prevents your
opponents from simply using attacks like Night Spear,
Hammerhead, or even Volt Bolt to pick up easy KOs on the
Basic, or forcing them to use Pokemon Catchers in the
process. This Ability is also part of the reason why
some Blastoise builds have stopped running Wartortle
altogether, as Shell Shield's protection is that good.
Limited: 2.5/5 Squirtle is only really good here if
you end up pulling a Blastoise, as Shell Shield isn't
quite as relevant here and Water Splash is below average
in terms of damage for cost. Therefore, you should
probably only run Squirtle if you get a Blastoise.
|
