We’ll continue rushing
through this week with
Zoroark (BW:
Legendary Treasures
90/113).
Yes, that was the
best opening line that
sprang to mind.
So why take a
look at
Zoroark again?
Its prospects
seemed much better when
we first reviewed it
here: it even took
the seventh place in our
Top 10 Dark Explorers
cards.
I sadly didn’t
finish my review in
time, but had it
actually happened I
would have been excited
about a Stage 1 that
could deliver big damage
for manageable costs
while simultaneously
taking advantage of the
new Darkness-Type
support.
Then we realized
that
Darkrai EX could tap
Dark Patch and
Energy Switch
effectively enough to be
the speedy Dark-Type
attacker (and
Dark Claw for the
damage) one was looking
at
Zoroark to provide,
only better.
Sure you needed
Sableye (BW: Dark
Explorers 62/108) to
help by spamming Items,
but that was expected
for
Zoroark backed
versions of “Dark.dec”
as well.
First let’s review what
Zoroark brings to
the table; it’s a Stage
1 so while not as space
hungry or hard to get
out as a Stage 2, its
still twice the cards
and turns (not sure how
“effort” scales) of
running a Basic Pokémon.
Being a Dark-Type
is great, though; while
its stuck competing
against some other great
cards, it still has that
same well of support.
Prospects for
hitting Weakness aren’t
that great, but
Resistance isn’t a
problem; the support is
what really matters in
this case.
The 100 HP is a
problem; still within
OHKO range of all
competitive decks I can
think of and within
reliable OHKO range for
most, it is too big for
Level Ball (though
the combo with basic
Darkness Energy and
Dark Patch means
Level Ball usage may
have been undesirable
from the get go).
Zoroark is a “one
and done” attacker,
because it’s begging to
be OHKOed.
The Weakness does not
help; Fighting-Types
basically earn their
keep in Modified through
Type-matching because
the Darkness-Type is
usually Fighting Weak,
alongside
Lightning-Types and the
majority of
Colorless-Type Pokémon
(printed; not
necessarily what sees
play).
In fact,
adjusting for what sees
play it might be
Darkness-Types that are
keeping Fighting
Weakness a useful
exploit.
Fighting-Types
that see competitive
play often have one less
expensive attack and one
“big” attack; the
Weakness means anything
that would do 50 points
of damage becomes a
OHKO, and attacks
clocking it at the
fairly common “90 point”
amount won’t need any
extra help.
The 50 number
doesn’t seem that
common, but the attack
has any tricks for
boosting damage, then we
start seeing OHKOs by
attacks doing base
damage of 30 or 40, and
it definitely starts to
matter.
Pleasingly,
Zoroark enjoys
Psychic Resistance; a
Resistance score that
does still matter at
least from time to time.
A deck relying on
Mewtwo EX or
Deoxys EX as back-up
attackers won’t like
that -20 to their damage
done; that means (in
order to score a OHKO) a
total of six Energy
between
Zoroark and
Mewtwo EX (do able
but a bit of a heavy
investment) and
Deoxys EX would
require
Zoroark have three
Energy attached, which
is one more than
Zoroark needs.
Still not a major
thing, though as those
two are usually not the
primary attackers in a
deck.
The two Energy
Retreat Cost is a bit of
a pain; high enough you
may not always be able
to pay and certainly
enough you’ll notice the
difference if you do,
and this makes
Darkrai EX pretty
much a given for any
deck featuring
Zoroark… which hurts
as I already mentioned
Darkrai EX tends to
supplant
Zoroark as an
attacker.
Still,
Zoroark does have
some good attacks; for
(CC) Brutal Bash does 20
points of damage times
the number of
Darkness-Type Pokémon
you have in play; this
pretty much dictates a
deck run only or at
least mostly
Darkness-Type Pokémon
and you’ll still hit
hard enough to 2HKO most
Pokémon that see play.
The problem is as
a Stage 1 that requires
two Energy to attack,
you basically need to be
hitting OHKO range for
at least supporting
Stage 2 Pokémon, if not
Pokémon-EX themselves.
Brutal Bash has a
base damage range of 20
(just
Zoroark) to 120
(full Bench, everything
is Darkness-Type); this
means you need to combo
up another 50 or 60
points worth of damage
and hope the Defending
Pokémon is bulked up
somehow.
This can be done,
but we get to how
Darkrai EX tends to
do it better.
The second attack, Dark
Rush, is one that would
border on broken if the
format wasn’t so fixed
on OHKOs of Pokémon the
size of
Zoroark; for the
price of (DD) the attack
does 20 points of damage
per damage counter on
Zoroark, giving a
range of zero damage to
180 (more if you can
raise its HP).
That is the
problem though; in a
format where most decks
are going to score a
OHKO against
Zoroark and would
want to in the course of
normal play, there is
seldom a chance to use
Dark Rush for
significant amounts of
damage.
I think I’ve pretty well
established why
Zoroark hasn’t been
able to cut it; now
let’s consider the
current card pool and
rules and see if
something has changed.
Zoroark Evolves from
Zorua, and there are
even two printings (with
different art) that
carry Ascension, an
attack for (D) that
allows you to search
your deck for a card
that Evolves from
Zorua and play it
onto
Zorua; this wasn’t
quite good enough when
you could use it on the
very first turn of the
game, so now I am hard
pressed to see it prove
especially useful
without that particular
trick.
Yes, I am just
using this to remind you
how much I believe
“set-up” attacks are
good for the game and
how the new “fix” for
the first turn rules
(“Absolutely no attack
on the very first turn
of the game”) doesn’t
really fix the problem,
it just treats one of
the symptoms (FTKOs).
The good news is that
manually Evolving is
still an option, and if
you go second your
opponent can’t quickly
take out a
Zorua.
More importantly,
they can’t quickly take
out other supporting
Pokémon and
Pokémon Catcher can
also no longer reliable
disrupt said Bench,
opening up more combo
possibilities for
Zoroark.
Options I
wouldn’t have taken
seriously before thus
become at least remotely
plausible.
A word of
warning; this is still
pure Theorymon on my
part as I have not had a
chance (and likely won’t
get a chance) to test
these decks ideas.
Even if they
prove dead ends
themselves, I hope they
at least get the
creative juices flowing.
You can pair it up with
Zoroark (Black&
White 71/114; BW:
Next Destinies
102/99); it is almost
baffling that this other
Zoroark isn’t a
force because for nearly
the whole life of the
game, copying attacks
for significantly less
Energy than they cost
the opponent to use has
been a magnificent
strategy… but we still
have a lot of attacks
that reference elements
you won’t be copying or
that cost so little
there isn’t a
significant gain from
copying them with a
Stage 1.
The card can be
used as a “secondary
attacker” in a
Darkness-Type deck, with
the only issue being
space and how we may
have (and in the future
definitely will) have
enough better options
you shouldn’t bother.
So let’s see if we can
play up both attacks at
once.
Brutal Bash
wants you to have as
many Darkness-Type
Pokémon in play as
possible; Dark Rush
wants you to have as
much HP as possible.
Umbreon (BW:
Plasma Freeze
64/116) a.k.a.
Umbreon [Plasma] has
an Ability that
increases the HP of Team
Plasma Pokémon by 20
(and stacks!); if you
trade in the expected
Pokémon Tools of
Dark Claw and or
Silver Bangle for
Team Plasma Badge,
you can pump
Zoroark up large
enough that it can
either get off two hits
with Brutal Bash (which
should allow you to pull
ahead in Prizes) or get
off one while surviving
another hit to make a
Dark Rush attack
worthwhile.
Unfortunately
this can be a rather
fragile combo; if your
Abilities or Items are
cut off (including just
discarding
Team Plasma Badge),
all that extra HP
vanishes in an instant,
and some decks will
still OHKO
Zoroark even with a
full four
Umbreon [Plasma]
backing it!
Another thought I had
was tricking the
opponent into providing
the damage you need to
create a 180 point Dark
Rush (before boosting
tricks); it would
require too many
non-Darkness-Type
Pokémon for Brutal Bash
to remain a good
fallback attack, but if
you combined
Reuniclus (Black
& White 57/114;
BW: Dragons Exalted
126/124) and something
to soak hits, you could
then promote
Zoroark with 9
damage counters on it
(11 if you choose to use
Giant Cape) and hit
for 180 (or 200) points
of damage.
Note that
Giant
Cape
may not be a better
choice than
Dark Claw or
Silver Bangle.
You would also
need an option for
getting whatever is
soaking hits out of the
Active slot easily (I
would use
Darkrai EX just so
that I had another card
that could tap the
Darkness-Type support
the deck still needs to
use) and I would
recommend
Mr. Mime (BW:
Plasma Freeze
47/116) to prevent
troublesome Bench hits (Reuniclus
is small enough for some
attackers to OHKO via
sniping).
Many Pokémon-EX
can be suitable walls
(just mind Weakness),
and
Kyurem EX (BW:
Plasma Blast 30/101)
has 180 HP, a
non-crippling Weakness,
and the ability to use
Outrage for 30 points of
damage plus 10 per
damage counter on it at
the cost of just (CC);
thanks to the cards you
are likely to run anyway
(Dark
Patch plus
Energy Switch), you
get a wall that
functions as a good
back-up attacker.
For Unlimited play,
Zoroark actually has
a good deal of
potential.
The bad news is
that, as always, it
isn’t going to be as
good as a First Turn Win
deck like Sabledonk.
The good news is
that other than the
current rules preventing
it from attacking first
turn; you’ve got access
to Trainers that can
cover its other
problems.
Broken-Time Space
allows for Evolving a
Pokémon the same turn it
was put into play,
including the very first
turn of the game.
Focus Band gives a
Pokémon that was KOed by
damage from an
opponent’s attack a 50%
chance (“heads” on a
coin flip) of not having
actually been KOed but
having 10 HP remaining.
You’ll have to
decide on whether to
focus on a mono/mostly
Darkness-Type deck or
tapping some of the
strongest support cards
from different Types and
relying on Dark Rush,
but either should
provide a strong deck…
just no where near as
good as Sabledonk and
company.
For Limited, this is a
great pull.
The bad news
first is that it isn’t
as easy to splash as it
looks; Brutal Bash can
use any Energy but only
counts Darkness-Type
Pokémon, while Dark Rush
doesn’t care about your
other Pokémon but does
need (DD) to be used.
These aren’t
crippling constraints,
though.
What helps is
that in either set that
contains this
Zoroark, the
Zorua with Ascension
is present, and a Basic
Pokémon searching out
its Stage 1 form is
huge in Limited.
Also useful
(though less so than the
Ascension) version is a
second
Zorua in BW: Dark
Explorers,
increasing the odds of
pulling a more fleshed
out line.
You won’t be able
to create a deck around
nothing but this card,
or this plus one or two
big attackers, but in a
deck that isn’t trying
to be a +39 build, you
just need some other
Darkness-Type Pokémon or
a deck that can run
about half of its Basic
Energy as
Darkness Energy (so
you easily have it
available) and the
attacks should prove
spectacular.
Ratings
Unlimited:
3.75/5
Modified:
3/5
Limited:
4.5/5
Summary
Yes, my score for
Modified is very
optimistic, but less it
seem completely
outlandish remember that
this is basically it as
a main attacker
(indicating the rest of
the deck has to
contribute much to it)
or where it is being
used as a secondary
attacker.
If this still
seems generous, remember
that all those cards
that are better than it
are likely clocking in
at close to or in
excessive of a “4/5”;
being inferior to the
“best of the best”
doesn’t make a card
“bad”.
Zoroark
is another “good” card
in a format of “great”
cards, and it’s worth
double checking to make
sure we haven’t missed a
use for it.
