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Welcome to the upper half of our countdown of the Top 10
cards lost due to rotation! Today we look at Sableye
(BW: Dark Explorers 62/108). 70 HP Basic
Darkness-Type Pokémon is a surprisingly good fit for
this format and the previous one. Being a Basic has
been the best for a while now, as they end up taking
less space and being significantly faster than
Evolutions and until recently, Darkness was the best
supported Type due in part to Dark Patch (and
before Muscle Band, Dark Claw), potent
Pokémon like Darkrai-EX and Yveltal-EX
(though of course they can be worked into other decks)
and perhaps most critical, a lack of worthwhile support
for other Types (which recent sets have changed).
70 HP is most likely a OHKO except for the earliest
part of the game (where its just slightly more likely to
avoid being OHKOed than OHKOed).
Sableye
also has good bottom Stats; no Weakness is the best and
while no Resistance is the worst, at 70 HP it mostly
would have been a fun trick once in a while, even if it
had been present. A single Energy Retreat Cost is easy
to pay and Sableye is even more likely than many
other cards to be in a deck that zeroes that cost out
entirely; Skyarrow Bridge (since its a
Basic) and Dark Cloak (you’ve got to run a source of [D]
Energy for Junk Hunt). Junk Hunt is why we are here,
but Confuse Ray is the first attack on the card: 10 and
a flip for Confusion is decent at a cost of [C], and its
not smart to forget this attack exists especially in
light of all the Item based combo Sableye has
access to in order to boost that damage up. You
shouldn’t make it your main attacker, of course, but
I’ve seen more than one Prize taken by a Sableye
attacking with Confuse Ray, bolstered by Muscle Band
or Silver Bangle and/or Hypnotixic Laser/Virbank
City Gym.
Junk Hunt is the main star, and for [D] you snag two
Items back from the discard pile, directly to hand.
This used to be even more impressive when you were
still able to attack first turn and is still a solid
move now, though Sableye faces competition as a
opener in Darkness-Type decks due to more recent
releases and (again) the change in the rules. Junk Hunt
is almost perplexing in that its hard to think it was an
“accident”: create a Pokémon that can attack to reclaim
two Items in a format that has some of the most powerful
Items since the Base Set Set 2… that will continue to
have powerful Items available to it for the next two
formats afterwards! True in all of these formats, its
been within OHKO range the first turn attacks were legal
(which until late last year meant the overall first turn
of the game), but thanks to Pokémon-EX you could even
try to play down an odd number of Sableye so that
at least one of them essentially didn’t count as a Prize
e.g. a seven Prize game.
Sableye
is a fantastic card and the only reason it didn’t become
a staple in all decks is that Junk Hunt requires [D];
had it required [C] it would likely have become the
premiere opening Pokémon as it allows you to spam
various searching and disruption Items, with highlights
including just about any Ace Spec (but especially
Computer Search), Crushing Hammer, Dark
Patch, Enhanced Hammer, Hypnotoxic Laser,
Pokémon Catcher and Ultra Ball.
Obviously, any Item worth reusing would be including in
a full list; I’ve seen impressive (though not
necessarily “optimal”) use of every currently legal
Potion card (Gold Potion, Max Potion,
Super Potion and Potion), though not in
the same deck. I’ve got a Delphox (XY
26/146)/Miltank (XY: Flashfire 83/106)
deck where to my surprise, Sableye became a great
opener.
I expect Sableye to see at least some play in
Expanded; as stated it isn’t the force it once was due
to the “Item Spam” strategy being a bit less reliable
(so many inexpensive attackers) and direct competition
in Darkness decks in the form of Yveltal and
Yveltal-EX. Should you be fortunate enough to play
in a Limited event with BW: Dark Explorers
boosters, Sableye is a good pull and outside of
decks built around a single big Basic Pokémon (“+39”
decks), even if only for its Stats and Confuse Ray, its
high quality “filler”. The set is focused on
Darkness-Types and features eight Items, but between set
composition, rarity and other pulls needed to make them
useful, only Ultra Ball is likely to be worth
regularly reclaiming… and in Limited your hand might not
be able to support spamming it.
Ratings
Modified (NXD-On):
3.5/5 - It is still a great card but entirely combo
dependent: if we had weak Items this card wouldn’t be
anywhere near so impressive. It also sees less play at
the end of its lifecycle due to increased competition.
This score is for decks that can easily work it in
(already run a source of [D] Energy): its probably worth
half to a full point less “in general”.
Modified (BCR-On):
N/A - If it remained legal, it would probably remain a
popular choice, though the loss of Dark Patch and
Enhanced Hammer (unless replaced by better Items)
would diminish it a little and as above, I am speaking
about decks that can easily work it in.
Expanded (BW-On):
3.25/5 - Even more competition than in the current
format, and again this is a rating for decks that can
already incorporate it more or less hassle free; if
you’ve got to make multiple changes to accommodate it,
its probably worth half to a full point less.
Limited:
4.75/5 - A great pull, perhaps surprisingly not for Junk
Hunt, which you might not be able to use well. Instead
its high quality “filler”: Confusion is quite useful in
a format where most decks can only shake it by
retreating or Evolving… which itself isn’t always an
option. When you can make use of Junk Hunt, even
better!
Summary:
Sableye has been a serious presence over the last
three years, whether you loved it, hated it, loved to
hate it or hated to love it. It was fascinating to see
how what looked like a mere set-up or technical card
instead was the face of a deck (for a time).
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