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Dugtrio
(XY)
We finish the week with another 90 HP Stage 1 that could
have made our top 10 list. That’s not something we’ve
been able to say for a long while. Unlike
Aromatisse,
Dugtrio isn’t a Bench-sitter
used for its Ability. Nope, it’s a straight up attacker.
Ignore the over-priced Rock Tumble (three for 60 with
Resistance not applied), and look instead at Earthquake.
That’s right, it’s exactly the same attack that we saw
on Donphan Prime: for a
single Fighting Energy, it will do
60 damage and 10 to each of your own Benched
Pokémon.
Now 60 for one is always worth a
look, and that self-damage can be prevented with
Mr Mime PLF, but is it really enough to cut it with the
180 HP big boys of the format? Well, it might just be.
See, if you slap a Silver Bangle on
Dugtrio you are hitting 90, and thanks to
Weakness, that’s enough to take down a couple of the
most popular EX Pokémon around: namely
Darkrai and
Thundurus. Being able to
accomplish that with a non EX,
and for a single Energy can give you a big advantage in
the Prize trade.
Of course Dugtrio doesn’t
have enough to win on his own. Plenty of decks don’t use
those Pokémon, or also run Pokémon which care not about
being hit by Fighting Types (such as
Yveltal or
Lugia). He could have a
place in a 4 Corners style deck though, alongside cards
such as Raichu XY and likely
some Eeveelutions that can
hit key Weaknesses like Flareon
and Leafeon.
Dugtrio
is frail and only situationally
useful, but he’s useful enough to be a part of the
anti-meta puzzle. Definitely a card
to be aware of if your deck has a conspicuous Weakness
to Fighting Pokémon.
Rating
Modified: 3 (60 for one in a format with x2 Weakness is
always decent)
Limited: 4 (cheap and pretty hard-hitting)
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