HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150 |
Huntail (Great Encounters)
Continuing the theme of Pokémon that haven’t been
printed on cards for 6 years is Huntail!
Modified:
I don’t remember this card seeing any play in Modified
but its sister, Gorebyss from the same set did somewhat,
mainly as a secondary attacker with Banette ex able to
“Pokémon Catcher” with a free attack.
Huntail’s free attack just doesn’t compare, having to
rely on a coin flip for a poor version of Paralysis. The
second attack isn’t bad though. For a Water and a Dark
Energy you could do 50 and discard a Special Energy
attached to the Defending Pokémon. Double Rainbow was
seeing a lot of play at the time so it would be handy to
possibly mess with a Gallade for a turn or 2. You could
combine with Energy Removal 2 and attempt an energy
denial deck.
Limited:
The Clamperl pair were both decent in this set’s Limited
format as 2 Uncommons that could deal out decent damage
for just 2 Energy or stall with their free attacks until
you got your real threats online.
Unlimited 150:
Unfortunately for Huntail, 1 of its 3 cards focuses on
the very niche React Energy gimmick, which was like
Plasma Energy but with less uses and support. The
remaining 2 both have an effect relating to the Darkness
Type meaning you’d probably play them as techs in a
Darkness deck that wants to deal with Fire decks in your
local meta. If you want to play them with Gorebyss
you’ll probably have to think which 3 of the 6 you’d
want to cut as there’s only 3 Clamperl available to
evolve from.
Ratings.
Modified: 2.5
Limited: 3
Unlimited 150: 2
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Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Huntail (Great Encounters)
We end the week with a look at the two most obscure
Pokémon in the whole franchise. These Generation III
creatures have only ever had three cards each in the
TCG, but it doesn’t end there: appearances in the anime
have also been fairly limited, and as for the video
game? Well let’s just say they are a pain in the
backside to catch (trading plus hard-to-find item), and
completely fail to repay your effort because they just
aren’t much good. I could honestly forgive newcomers to
the world of Pokémon for not knowing that Huntail and
Gorebyss even existed – that’s how obscure they are.
With only three cards to choose from, it’s hard to pick
a good Huntail. The Legend Maker one is interesting, but
the React Energy mechanic is so old and forgotten that
it didn’t seem worthwhile to try and explain it. In the
end I went for the Great Encounters version because it
has a decent defensive move, Scary Face, which costs no
Energy to use and stops the defending Pokémon from
attacking or retreating on the next turn. Of course, you
need a coin flip to go your way to make it work, but
it’s nice to have one of these attacks that an opponent
can’t simply retreat out of. As far as offence goes,
Huntail’s Threaten and Drop is clearly designed for the
niche job of dealing with Pokémon that used Special
Energy. There were a lot of these around at the time:
the amazingly good Double Rainbow and Scramble were
still legal, as were Special Metal and Dark. Call Energy
would appear in the next set too, and become a virtual
staple card in everything.
So, was Huntail a good answer to these fantastic cards?
Not really. It was a niche Stage 1 with odd Energy
requirements and it appeared in the same set as Unown G,
which became an extremely popular way of negating attack
effects. Besides, we also had the Crystal Beach Stadium
which was a much more effective way of countering DRE
and Scramble. If I remember correctly, a few people
tried with Huntail without much success.
But hey, at least they tried. That’s more than the card
designers have done for the last six years.
Nostalgia Rating
He’s a deeply ugly Pokémon, but I will always feel sorry
for him: 3
P.S. If you’re also missing Huntail, take a close look
at Piplup #33 from Legendary Treasures for a nice
surprise!
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