So…
Dodrio (BW: Plasma Storm
100/135)!
Stats
Type:
Dodrio is a Colorless-Type Pokémon,
meaning it doesn’t have to worry about
Weakness or Resistance when sticking
with currently Modified legal cards.
Hitting for Weakness is valuable,
but never having to worry about
Resistance is nice… the latter being
more important than the former this
format.
Fortunately the Colorless-Type is
also one of the few with actual support,
and it is even easy to run and
straightforward:
Aspertia City Gym grants
Colorless-Type Pokémon an extra 20 HP.
Stage:
Evolution cards have a hard time this
format; we have multiple Basic Pokémon,
capable of attacking quickly and
efficiently even on the first and second
turns of the game.
This robs anything slower, like
Evolutions, of needed time to set-up,
and creates a lop-sided metagame.
Only the most potent Evolutions
have proven themselves strong this
format; this does not bode well for
Dodrio as few have been Stage 1
Pokémon like itself.
Hit Points:
90 HP is small enough to be a OHKO first
turn, not that you could actually have a
Dodrio in play immediately.
This makes the card quite
vulnerable and will require it be a
Bench-sitter, possessive some protective
effect, or have truly amazing attacks.
The “small” bonus is that it is a
legal target for
Level Ball.
Much as I don’t like it being so
vulnerable, Dodrio in the video games
have a very low HP Base Stat, so it is
accurate.
Weakness:
Lightning Weakness isn’t a good thing,
but it isn’t the most common amongst
attackers.
It also isn’t too likely to
matter given that most prominent
attackers are going to hit for 90 points
of damage before Weakness anyway.
The other two video game
Weaknesses (Rock and Ice) are part of
TCG Types that are composed of multiple
video game Types, so they wouldn’t work
well at all.
Resistance:
Dodrio actually has Resistance!
It is even to a Type that sees a
good deal of play; Fighting!
Taking 20 less damage isn’t going
to save it from some huge hit, but it is
enough to frustrate some weaker moves,
and require attacks that hit for the
more common 80-100 points of damage to
require a boost.
Of course, many such decks will
have a means of bolstering their damage,
namely the heavily played
Hypnotoxic Laser.
What is interesting to someone like me
is…
Dodrio really shouldn’t be
Fighting-Resistant.
As a Normal/Flying Hybrid, it
does take no damage from Ground-Type and
Ghost-Type attacks in the video games,
the former being the likely
justification for its
Fighting-Resistance.
The TCG Fighting-Type also
consists of the video game Fighting-Type
(of course) and the video game
Rock-Type; Fighting does normal damage
and Rock-Type moves actually do double
damage as that is a video game Weakness
for Flying-Types!
Grass-Type Resistance actually would be
the most appropriate; in the video games
Dodrio take half damage from both
Grass-Type and Bug-Type attacks and
those two Types make up the TCG
Grass-Type.
This wouldn’t be very useful at
all, so the card is better off with the
Fighting Resistance; I just don’t like
the inconsistency.
Retreat:
The single Energy Retreat isn’t hard to
pay, but given the rest of its TCG stats
and its video game Speed Base Stat, just
seems like it should have been allowed
to retreat for free.
Effects
Attack#1:
Raging Peck requires (C) and has you
flip three coins; the attack does 30
points of damage per “heads” and
automatically Confuses
Dodrio.
With three coin flips, one in
eight possible results are all “tails”
and thus zero damage.
This is balanced out by there
also being one in eight possible results
(all “heads”) that would result in an
impressive 90 points of damage.
Three of eight results would be
one “heads” for 30 points of damage,
again balanced against three of eight
results being two “heads” for 60 points
of damage.
So the attack has a zero to 90 point
range with an average of 45, plus
Dodrio always Confuses itself.
The self-Confusion isn’t too
terrible because most decks are already
running measures to deal with Poison and
Sleep due to
Hypnotoxic Laser, and frankly
Dodrio is unlikely to survive the
turn anyway.
Given that the attack is
difficult to use repeatedly, I think the
damage could and should have been
higher; probably 40, 50, or possibly
even 60 points per “heads”; this is a 90
HP Stage 1 after all; even at one Energy
you are out three cards when it gets
OHKOed, and doing 60 points per “heads”
would still only average 90 points of
damage.
Attack#2:
Drill Peck is an attack from the video
games; a straightforward Flying-Type
attack.
Here it requires (CCC) and does a
vanilla 60 points of damage… 30 less
than it needed to be “average”.
Given the card’s low HP, this
attack doesn’t really work; damage would
have to be insanely high (100+) to
really justify running a Stage 1 that is
usually going to be OHKOed.
Synergy:
Basic synergy of having a smaller,
flippy attack lead into a more expensive
but reliable one, as well as both
attacks having all Colorless Energy
requirements.
Usage
Card Family:
There are no other
Dodrio that are currently Modified
legal.
There is only one
Doduo to Evolve from: BW: Plasma
Storm 99/135.
It is a Colorless-Type Basic
Pokémon with 60 HP and other than that
has the same Stats as
Dodrio.
It has a single attack, Gatling
Peck, which requires (CC) and has you
flip five coins for 10 points of damage
per “heads”.
Zero to 50 point range with an
average of 25 points of damage, for a
cost that should guarantee an easy 30
points of damage tells you not to bother
attacking with it.
Combos:
Almost every form of Energy acceleration
works with
Dodrio;
Double Colorless Energy won’t power
it up completely on its own, but it is
easy to run and saves you an Energy
attachment.
As stated,
Level Ball can fetch it with ease,
as well as
Doduo.
If you had a Colorless deck
already making use of all of those, this
wouldn’t be a good choice, but it could
function.
Unlimited:
There is no need for this kind of
attacker here, and better options for
Stage 1 Pokémon, Colorless-Types, Stage
1 Colorless-Types, and even other
Dodrio.
Modified:
There isn’t much call for a straight up,
Stage 1 attacker.
There are better Colorless-Type
attackers, even Fighting Resistant ones…
and some are even Basic Pokémon!
While there are no other
Dodrio in the format, there are
other Stage 1, Colorless-Type attackers
that aren’t being played but are better
at it than
Dodrio.
Limited:
Dodrio is a solid pick here; you’ll
need to mind the Lightning Weakness and
Doduo still isn’t very good, but
several other things are much better.
The lower average HP and damage
outputs make most Evolutions valuable,
and the fact that most players will be
running multiple Energy Types makes the
all Colorless Energy requirements a lot
more valuable.
Still, the attacks are only about
“average” here; if space were tight I
could see leaving it out entirely.
Future:
Nothing I am aware of will improve
Dodrio in the near future.
Ratings
Unlimited:
1/5
Modified:
1/5
Limited:
3/5
Summary
Dodrio
isn’t a powerful card, nor is it
terribly interesting.
The best thing it does is making
some sense as a
Dodrio card; not sure how I feel
about the art (and I am not an art
critic anyway), but Raging Pecks does
fit a three-headed, bird-like Pokémon,
and of course so does Drill Peck.
