Without doubt, Mawile is one
of the weirdest Pokémon ever designed (and that’s saying
something). Apparently, it’s based on a Japanese legend
of a woman with a mouth in the back of her head. Yeah .
. . think I’ll leave that one to Dr Freud.
As a Pokémon, Mawile is an
unevolving 70 HP Basic, and
these are the cards that you expect to either help you
out in setting up, or perform some kind of specialist
function which aids the deck. Unfortunately,
Mawile doesn’t really do
either of these things . . . or at least she doesn’t do
them very well.
The first attack, Astonish, costs a single Metal Energy
and gives you a coin flip for the chance to pick a
random card from your opponent’s hand and shuffle it
back into the deck. This is disruption on a very minor
scale and the fact that it is flip-dependent means there
is a substantial risk of it being a total waste. Even
with heads, you are asking for a lot of luck in hitting
something crucial like their only Supporter. Big
Ol’ Bite (lolattackname)
is rather expensive at three Energy,
but it does seem to have a lot of effects. You do
30 damage, heal 30 from
Mawile, and prevent the
Defending Pokémon from Retreating next turn. This
could have
been a pretty useful attack: trap a
Gothitelle EPO (or any Pokémon which would
struggle to Knock OutMawile) and KO it slowly
while healing off any damage (which won’t be much due to
Psychic Resistance). The huge Energy costs make it
somewhat impractical though, and you have more realistic
options like Sneasel NEX and
Sandile BLW if you want a
trapping Pokémon.
If only they had shaved one Energy
off the cost of Big Ol’
Bite, Mawile might have been
playable. As it is, I can’t see this card getting used.
Rating
Modified: 2 (nice attack, shame about the cost)
Limited: 3 (could become very annoying)
. . . and that
will be my last review for a while as I am taking some
time off for the World Championships in Vancouver.
Best of luck to everyone who is
attending.Worlds is
always a fantastic time.
About the only worthwhile thing Mawile has going for it
is a funny attack name. If you're playing a 70 HP basic
that can't evolve, its attack must do something better
than have a 50% chance of shuffling one of your
opponent's cards into their deck. Big Ol' Bite might
trap a Gothitelle or Keldeo EX for a few turns, but if
that's your goal, there's cheaper attacks, like
Sneasel's Corner.
Modified: 1/5
Limited: 3/5
virusyosh
Happy Friday, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing a
card from Plasma Freeze that one of my friends did
amazingly with at a Prerelease (much to his surprise).
Today's Card of the Day is Mawile.
Mawile is a Basic Metal Pokemon. Metal Pokemon see a bit
of play with Klinklang, but since the Shift Gear
Klinklang is likely going to rotate with this year's
format shift, their continued viability remains to be
seen. 70 HP is average for a Basic, though somewhat bad
for a non-Evolving Basic, as this is going to be all
you're going to get. Therefore, Mawile has to do
something absolutely spectacular in order to see
Modified play, or it's going to be quickly relegated to
Limited. Fire Weakness isn't too big of a deal right
now; Psychic Resistance is good against Deoxys (though
it will probably still OHKO); and a single Retreat Cost
isn't bad, and easily payable.
Mawile has two attacks. Astonish allows you to flip a
coin, and if heads, choose a card at random from your
opponent's hand and shuffle it into their deck for a
single Metal Energy. This isn't bad in Limited, as it
can be a serious disruptive force, but this sort of
effect isn't generally worth using an attack on,
especially an attack that requires a coin flip for the
effect. Therefore, you'll likely be using Astonish until
you have Big Ol' Bite powered up. This humorous attack
does a very expensive 30 damage for a Metal and two
Colorless, but also heals 30 damage from Mawile and
prevents the Defending Pokemon from retreating during
your opponent's next turn. This sort of attack is wasted
on a Pokemon with such low HP, but can indeed be a force
in Limited. Just imagine if they put an attack like this
(dealing more damage) on an EX!
Modified: 1/5 70 HP, doesn't evolve, and both attacks
are expensive and unreliable. There are many better
options.
Limited: 3/5 A friend of mine played a Limited deck with
two Mawile as his only Pokemon at our local Plasma
Freeze prerelease, and ended up locking his opponents
out so effectively with Big Ol' Bite that he ended up
winning a majority of his matches. While this strategy
isn't likely to pay off in most cases, it demonstrates
that with enough time to power it up, Mawile can be an
excellent attacker in the Limited format, despite its
low HP numbers and very expensive Energy requirements.
