Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Clefable
(Plasma Storm)
For the last couple of days we have reviewed Pokémon
with decent(ish) attacks
that won’t be able to cut it in competitive play because
they are Stage 2s and therefore slow to get into play
and very difficult to keep replacing when they get KO’d.
Today we look at the Pokémon that was probably intended
to solve those problems: Clefable.
Clefable
is a Stage 1 Pokémon with 90 HP (poor), a Retreat cost
of one (acceptable), and a Weakness to
Fighting (not great). It also
has rubbish attack called Moon impact which does 50
points of vanilla damage for three
Colourless Energy. The only part of that which
matters is that Clefable is
very easy to KO if the opponent drags it from its
natural habitat on the Bench with Pokémon Catcher.
Yes, Clefable is a Pokémon
that is designed for nothing else except to sit on the
Bench and use its Ability. But how good is that Ability
and will it be worthwhile including in a deck? Let’s
take a look.
Moon Guidance lets you flip a coin once per turn.
If heads you can search your deck
for a card that evolves from one of your Pokémon and put
it onto that Pokémon. Sounds good, right? Except
there is a bit more text to read:
This counts
as evolving that Pokémon. That part is crucial. It
means that you cannot use Moon Guidance to evolve a
Pokémon that you Benched that
turn, and you cannot then evolve it again until your
next turn (no Moon Guidance for the Stage 1, then play
down the Stage 2). At this point, I’m failing to see how
Clefable speeds up an
evolution deck
at all. It’s more of a restricted-use
Pokéball (or Victory Medal)
than anything else. But the problems don’t end there:
it’s flip-dependant (and
therefore unreliable); it takes up a ton of deck space
(not just for itself but by forcing you to run more
copies of the Stage 1); and an easy Prize for your
opponent. It’s also worth noting that if you use Moon
Guidance to evolve from the deck, you won’t get to use
any play-from-hand Abilities such as
Ninetales DRX’s Bright Look
or Aggron DRX’s Toppling
Wind.
You can see the intention behind
Clefable, but the execution is pretty much a
failure. If you want to play Stage 2s, then max out the
Rare Candy and leave this card in the binder.
Rating
Modified: 1.75 (gimmicky . . . the bad kind of gimmicky)
Limited: 4 (if you are using thin evolution lines, it’s
worth a try)
|
|
virusyosh |
Greetings once again, Pojo readers! Today we're
reviewing a new card of one of my personal favorite
Pokemon. Today's Card of the Day is Clefable from Plasma
Storm.
Clefable is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. Colorless
Pokemon are valuable in that they easily fit into any
deck type, making them very good supporting Pokemon.
Clefable's 90 HP is unfortunately about what we'd expect
from a Stage 1, and will probably only be able to take a
medium-sized hit before being Knocked Out. Fighting
Weakness is a major problem against the likes of
Landorus and Terrakion, as both will easily take out
Clefable with Land's Judgment or a boosted Retaliate.
Clefable also has no Resistance and a single Retreat
Cost, which can easily be paid if necessary.
This version of the Fairy Pokemon has a very interesting
Ability and a single attack. Moon Guidance is really
cool, allowing you to flip a coin, and search your deck
for a card that evolves from one of your Pokemon and put
it onto that Pokemon if you flip heads. Now, nearly all
coin flips in the Pokemon TCG are bad, but this one is
slightly less so because it doesn't cost an attack and
doesn't use up a potentially useful resource like a
Trainer card. However, at the same time, coin flips make
this Ability very unreliable, so it would be very
difficult to build a deck around anyway. Of course,
being able to search Evolutions out of your deck and
evolve for free is great, so if your deck runs a lot of
Evolutions, you may want to consider running Clefable
(though you're probably just better running more copies
of your Evolutions for consistency).
Clefable's only attack, Moon Impact, does 50 damage for
three Colorless Energy. You likely won't use this
outside of Limited, where it does a decent job. In
Modified, there are many better options.
Modified: 2/5 Clefable's Ability has a really cool
concept behind it, but ultimately fails to impress in a
metagame dominated by big Basics. Clefable's Ability
being on a Stage 1 puts it in some awkward design space
where you need to use multiple resources to get to the
Ability, and then once you get Clefable out, you have to
flip heads. Clefable would be a lot more playable if the
Ability didn't require a coin flip or if the Ability
were instead on a Basic Pokemon, but as it stands, even
decks that run multiple evolutionary lines should
probably just run more copies of those lines to increase
their consistency, as it will be much faster and more
reliable that way.
Limited: 5/5 On the other hand, Clefable is fantastic in
Limited. Colorless typing means that the Fairy Pokemon
can fit easily into any deck, and Moon Guidance is
useful here even if you can't always get the coins to
flip your way. Additionally, Moon Impact is also pretty
good here, dealing solid damage for Colorless Energy
without a drawback. Overall, you'll probably look to run
Clefable in your deck if you have multiple evolutionary
lines, which most Limited decks tend to have.
|
