Welcome to a sort-of-holiday themed
short week.
In the United States it is the
week of Thanksgiving, a holiday that is
all about appreciating what you have…
too bad we are so shallow it now appears
to be all about Black Friday Eve.
I am glad that stores are now
starting their Black Friday Stuff before
Thanksgiving; I just wish they would
still take the day off.
I suggested the cards for this
week based on flimsy holiday themes plus
the general idea that these cards should
be grateful that between rotation and
rule changes these cards once again have
a shot at the big time.
We begin this week with roast beef or a
pseudo-reindeer… I said the holiday
imagery was flimsy!
Terrakion (BW: Legendary
Treasures 84/113) was first printed
as BW: Noble Victories 73/101 and
99/101, then reprinted for the first
time as the secret rare BW:
Boundaries Crossed 151/149.
Pojo has reviewed it twice:
here and
here.
Why look at it for a third time?
As you should be able to see in the scan
above all the reviews, the artwork of
the re-release is timely; it depicts a
Terrakion in the falling snow, in a
setting where the ground is not yet
completely covered.
The featured Terrakion even looks
to be enjoying the snow; in
North America
that’s going to be seasonal until March
due to various holidays, which are
usually joyous and snowy (said snow does
not apply to the entire continent).
Being festive won’t justify
playing
Terrakion competitively, but it
helps to catch the eye (plus a few
players will play it even at tournaments
because they are all about winning or
losing while sticking to a “theme” or
“story” for their deck).
A lot of what this card once had going
for it never left or has returned.
Being a Fighting-Type never
stopped being a good thing; most
Colorless-, Darkness-, and
Lightning-Type Pokémon are still Weak
and thus will take double damage, though
we still lack worthwhile Fighting-Type
support.
You will have to deal with the
running into Resistance, but it is still
a significant net gain.
Being a basic Pokémon is still
the best, even after all the recent
changes, and is not only as good as we
have seen printed for “regular” Basic
Pokémon, but enough that the card is not
an easy OHKO.
Grass Weakness is an exception, as it is
now a risky thing with
Virizion EX and
Genesect EX on the prowl; the latter
wouldn’t even need
G Booster for the OHKO.
The lack of Resistance still
means little, and the massive four
Energy Retreat Cost is more relevant to
most decks in that it makes
Terrakion a legal target for
Heavy Ball as few decks will lack a
means of zeroing out the Retreat Cost or
bypassing it (and manually retreating)
entirely.
The second attack, Land Crush, is still
unlikely to see a lot of use; if however
you can’t get the bonus damage from
Retaliate and can afford the Energy cost
of (FFC) you’ll average a 2HKO for most
Pokémon-EX.
A few may take longer due to
Resistance or combos and any that are
Fighting Weak become a guaranteed OHKO!
Most of the time you should be
using Retaliate, which for (FC) does 30
points of damage plus another 60 if your
opponent KOed one of your Pokémon via
damage from an attack on the previous
turn.
While
Hypnotoxic Laser can help bypass
Retaliate, we now have the means to
block
Hypnotoxic Laser:
Virizion EX.
A mixed blessing for
Terrakion is the erratum to
Pokémon Catcher; a Benched
Terrakion is no longer an easy
target for force out prematurely, but it
also makes it harder to score OHKOs via
Type-matching.
The new first turn rule benefits
Terrakion; while
Ether or complicated
Team Plasma Badge shenanigans could
get the Energy for Retaliate ready first
turn, without the effect you aren’t
hitting hard enough to make it
worthwhile (and Land Crush would require
two very lucky shots of
Ether).
Instead you can now leave it up
front to soak a weak early game hit and
either turn it into a sacrificial play
or Bench it for a different Active;
unless your opponent has spread or bonus
sniping damage, it will be hard to
justify the effort to finish off a
Benched
Terrakion that isn’t also Prize
number six.
Terrakion
first became famous a few months after
baby_mario first reviewed it, when it
popularized the “Quad” deck formula
(four of the same Pokémon as the bulk of
or only Pokémon in the deck).
I do not think Quad Terrakion
decks will make a return; playing it
straight would leave room for damage
boosting cards like
Silver Bangle and/or
Hypnotoxic Laser with
Virbank City Gym, but those still
won’t OHKO non-Fighting Weak Pokémon-EX.
Adding support from cards like
Mr. Mime (BW: Plasma Freeze
47/116) and
Virizion EX is a possibility, but
you’re still going to need some luck
and/or Type-matching to secure a win.
With all the Energy acceleration still
available, including the return of
Energy Switch, running a “surprise”
Terrakion just requires having a
source of (F) Energy plus one of any
other Energy.
Decks that already run basic
Fighting Energy may not be common,
but between that,
Blend Energy WLFM and/or
Prism Energy there are a few
established options and others making
their debut or attempting a comeback.
Right now I don’t know of any
Fighting Weak decks to replace Eelektrik
(BW: Noble Victories 40/101)
decks, but Darkrai
EX is still a major presence and
thus potential major score.
One of the previous scourges of
the Fighting Weak,
Landorus EX, is badly hurt by the
new rule changes (and probable increase
of
Mr. Mime TecH), which may open up a
niche as the new-old (or is that
old-new) go-to Fighting-Type.
For Unlimited play, the card is not bad
but it isn’t really good.
It won’t help secure a First Turn
Win or set-up a lock, and there are
plenty of card that can use the same
resources to deliver a solid, surprise
hit.
Its main strength would be that
130 HP isn’t easy for a deck like
Sabledonk to score a FTKO again now that
it has to rely solely on spamming Flash
Bite from
Crobat [G] and maybe a
Hypnotoxic Laser with
Virbank City Gym to do the total 130
points of damage.
It definitely can still happen;
the deck can spam Flash Bite enough to
do it without anything else, but cards
being Prized or draw/search/recursion
cards improperly flowing give
Terrakion a chance to survive; its
just there are other, better options.
For Limited play, I encourage running
this card unless you’re going for a +39
deck.
You won’t get a “good” hit in
until your third turn which could be the
fifth or sixth overall turn of the game;
nothing else to be KOed means Retaliate
is just a two for 30 attack.
Even if you score a OHKO your
second and third turns, it will take
serious luck to win before your opponent
can overwhelm that 130 HP.
I doubt even a second big, Basic
partner would help… but if you pull
enough you can build a real (though
light) deck, and any “real” Limited deck
that can run at least three or four
Fighting Energy will find
Terrakion pretty amazing; hitting
Fighting Weakness is usually huge due to
the popularity of Colorless Pokémon!
Ratings
Unlimited:
1.5/5
Modified:
3.5/5
Limited:
3.5/5
Summary
Terrakion
does not look like it can reclaim its
place as the focus of a top deck, but it
does look like it could become one of if
not the top Fighting-Type attacker
again, returning to its place of
“surprise supporting attacker”.
