Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Seismitoad
(Plasma Freeze)
After spending the last few days reviewing cute
Eevee cards, we get
something very different to look at today. I’m sure
Seismitoad has his fans, but
surely no-one is ever going to accuse him of being cute?
But he is a Stage 2 Pokémon with a healthy 140 HP. I say
‘healthy’, but in no way does it make him immune to
OHKOs from the likes of Black
Kyurem EX or Kyurem
PLF backed up by Deoxys-EX
and Hypnotoxic Laser. That
right there is the problem with using Stage 2s in a
nutshell: they take a couple of turns and a lot of
resources to get out, and they are at serious risk of
not being able to survive a single attack. The Grass
Weakness is good for now, but will be a disaster once
Genesect-EX appears in the
next set, so make the most of it while you can. The
Retreat cost of three is not unexpected and at least
makes Seismitoad searchable
with Heavy Ball. It’s not something you should ever pay
with actual Energy anyway.
Seismitoad’s
first attack, Seismic Punch costs two Energy of any
Colour and does 30 to everything on your opponent’s side
of the Field. For a Double
Colourless Energy? That sounds great.
Unfortunately, the drawback is that it also does 30 to
everything on your own Bench, which is terrible enough
to make this attack unusable. Or is it? Well, you do
have the option of combining
Seismitoad with Mr Mime PLF to prevent all the
damage to your own Bench, making
Seismitoad a very effective spread attacker. Play
him with Dusknoir BCR so
that you can manipulate the damage you put out and it
looks like this could be a viable archetype . . . until
you remember that it requires two Stage 2 Pokémon and a
70 HP Bench-Sitter that is asking to be dragged out with
Pokémon Catcher and KO’d. Mr Mime works in other decks
(Like RayEels) because if
the opponent wastes resources KOing
him, they are ignoring more potent threats. With
Seismitoad, however, getting
rid of Mime makes your main attacker too dangerous to
use and brings the whole deck to its knees.
There is Splashing Turn of course, a very expensive
punch-and-run attack which costs four Energy
for 80 damage. You could try
and run it with Pokémon which may block your opponent’s
attacks (Sigilyph DRX,
Latias-EX), but this seems
even more awkward and difficult to make work than a deck
which focuses on Seismic Punch. Either way,
Seismitoad isn’t going to be
a viable competitive card, but at least he does have
some potential for fun/casual decks and combos, if
that’s your thing.
Rating
Modified: 2 (amusing but unworkable)
Limited: 2 (only if you also pull Mr Mime, I guess)
|
