Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Skuntank
(Flashfire)
Skuntank
is one of those relatively obscure Pokémon that still
seems to get its fair share of cards printed. Sadly,
none of them have ever been any good, with the single
exception of Skuntank G from
the SP era.
Like most versions, this Skuntank
is just a very average Stage 1 card, and that’s not a
good thing to be in a format swarming with
uber-powerful Basics and
even a few solid Stage 2 Pokémon.
Yes, he’s got a couple of nice attack effects -
the forced switch of Push Down, and the coin-flip Energy
removal of Acid Spray – but neither is especially cheap
to pay for, and the damage output (30 and 70,
respectively) just isn’t going to get the job done
against the 170+ HP monster which dominate the game.
Basically, Skuntank is
mediocre set-filler, and that is never going to earn him
a place in any deck. There isn’t even a just-for-fun
reason to use him.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (there are 437 better Pokémon cards you
could use)
Limited: 2.25 (kind of meh,
even for limited)
|
aroramage |
Hello again! Good to see you! How've you been? Great!
We're here to take a look at a Gen IV Pokemon! Good
thing he's just a card and not a real Pokemon, cause
otherwise he'd...smell really bad. It's Skuntank, the
Flamethrower-spewing Poison/Dark skunk Pokemon!
Although here in the TCG he's just a Dark-type, but
that's been a strong type to be apart of since Dark
Explorers. Can Skuntank live up to the power they've
provided? Maybe, maybe not. His first attack, Push Down,
does an okay 30 damage and forces the opponent to switch
out their Active Pokemon. It's an interesting attack
that can bring out a Bench sitter who doesn't normally
attack and simultaneously set-up another Pokemon for
later, provided nothing takes those 3 damage counters
off till later.
Acid Spray does a bit more damage with a 50% chance
to do more stuff. With 70 damage landing solidly,
Skuntank can then potentially discard an Energy card
attached to the active Pokemon. This can combo well with
Push Down if the right Pokemon is brought out; all one
has to do is Push Down to bring out a Bench sitter and
then keep it in play with Acid Spray neutralizing any
Energy the opponent might attach to it.
Now is this a good strategy? Well depends on the
Bench sitter. This is great against Mr. Mime (PLF),
since Acid Spray does enough to KO him regardless of
Weakness and Resistance (though this Mr. Mime is Weak to
Psychic anyway). Blastoise (BCR) and Emboar (LTR) both
have large expensive attacks and retreat costs, but the
opponent could just power them up for the attack using
their Ability, use the energy to retreat (pfffft, yeah
right, Float Stone (PLF) is so much better), or use a
card like Keldeo-EX or Switch to bring out their other
Pokemon that Skuntank just Pushed Down.
Skuntank has a better early game presence than a late
game presence. If you can get him out and apply pressure
to the opponent, Skuntank should be able to at least
take out one Pokemon before going down. But remember,
the later the game goes, the more likely Skuntank is
just going to be OHKO'd.
Rating
Modified: 2.5/5 (great early game, but gets
progressively weaker later on, making him less valuable)
Limited: 3.5/5 (being able to manipulate what's in
the Active slot freely and potentially discard an Energy
makes Skuntank a solid choice here)
Arora Notealus: Apparently he can spray up to 160
feet. That's a lot of stink!
FUN FACT: There is only 1 non-Dark Skuntank in the TCG,
being Skuntank G from the Platinum set
Next time: I wear my sunglasses all day...THEY ARE MY
EYES.
|
Otaku |
So for my second attempt at reviewing a bit more
concisely… well actually its my fourth attempt; I
started with Friday’s card and am working backwards.
Today we’ll look at Skuntank (XY: Flashfire
55/106). Its a Darkness-Type, meaning it will never
face Resistance but only seldom enjoy hitting for
Weakness and if it is worth using at all, will probably
find itself in a deck that enjoys Darkness-Type support
(which mostly means Dark Patch) and
pseudo-Darkness-Type support like Darkrai-EX and
its Dark Cloak (an Ability that works for anything with
a source of Darkness Energy attached) and the basic
synergy provided by many strong Darkness-Type attackers…
though that latter bit may bite Skuntank in its
presumably pungent posterior* if its only good at
attacking.
As a Stage 1, its going to take extra time and resources
to get into play, at least when compared with the Basic
Pokémon that still dominate the format (though by a
significantly smaller margin than they used to). On the
bright side this means it gets around Intimidating Mane
on Pyroar (XY: Flashfire 20/106), which
has become a definite boon after it proved itself
(again) at the U.S. Nationals. It isn’t a big Stage 1,
with just 100 HP; 10 too much for Level Ball and
20 or 30 points to low to avoid being a probable OHKO
for most decks that have set-up. FIghting Weakness just
makes it worse as they tend to hit hard relative to the
Energy invested, and reliably, at least the ones that
see play. Even the small-but-useful Hammerhead attack
on Landorus-EX is just a Muscle Band away
from a OHKO, and after XY: Furious Fists
Fighting-Types will just have even more support. At
least we get to see some Resistance, normally a rare
sight: Psychic Resistance will only affect a few
commonly played attackers and not by much, but its
better than nothing. The two Energy Retreat Cost will
also rarely matter; most decks (not just Darkness-Type
ones) will have something to lower the cost of or bypass
manually retreating, though if you have to it falls into
that odd area of being a noticeable but not severe
setback.
Its first attack - Pushback - requires (DC) while its
second - Acid Spray - requires just one more Energy at
(DCC). In the typical Darkness-Type deck, these aren’t
too hard to pay, even in a single turn. Between Dark
Patch and either Energy Switch or using Dark
Cloak to retreat an Active out of the way for free
(requires said Active has a source of Darkness Energy
attached, of course), and possibly a Double Colorless
Energy for Acid Spray (a more common play now due to
Yveltal-EX), I wouldn’t call it easy but
“manageable”. Unfortunately Pushback just does 30
damage while forcing the opponent to change out his or
her Active (you don’t chose what comes up) while Acid
Spray just does 70 points of damage with a coin flip to
discard an Energy from the Defending Pokémon. The
damage is low for either of them, and due to your
opponent’s choice and the coin flip (respectively), the
effects are unreliable and may ultimately make no
difference. You even might KO something in which case
neither effect matters even when they technically
“worked”!
Zoroark
(BW: Dark Explorers 71/108; BW: Legendary
Treasures 90/113) is a better and already
established Stage 1 Darkness-Type attacker… but we don’t
even have to go to it to find something better; there is
Skuntank (BW: Dragons Exalted 77/124).
The differences between today’s version and the only
other Standard legal Skuntank are that it has 10
less HP (actually an advantage while Level Ball
remains legal), one less Retreat Cost (occasionally
matters) and of course two different attacks. The
second is superior if you can’t use Double Colorless
Energy; it costs (DDC) but without that shortcut
I’ll take a guaranteed 10 more damage over a mere chance
at discarding an Energy, though again not much of a
difference. The first attack though is Smogscreen, an
attack we’ve seen multiple times before. For just (D)
you get 20 points of damage, Poison, and force the
Pokémon you just attacked to flip a coin if it attacks
you next turn (assuming nothing resets the effect).
While that pales in comparison to the aforementioned
Zoroark, its not without merit. If you’re either on
a budget or just wanting to mess around with less
conventional cards, you could even build a deck around
that, Virbank City Gym, and Dragalge (XY:
Flashfire 71/106, XY Promo XY10), though
Keldeo-EX, Switch, Escape Rope, and
Garbodor (BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW:
Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW: Legendary Treasures
68/113) or just an opponent that is really good at the
Smogscreen flip will spoil it. Still while running my
own “budget” Darkness-Type deck on the PTCGO, I had to
use Stunky (XY: Flashfire 53/106) as a
“filler” Darkness-Type and it worked a lot better than
expected; its Smokescreen attack is a no damage, no
Poison version of Smogscreen. It wasn’t good enough to
keep in, but thanks to all the Items I was spamming, it
sometimes could buy time for me to finish my own/disrupt
my opponent’s set-up. Needless to say, that’s the
Stunky I recommend using with either Skuntank.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5 - At least it does “try” to do things, and with
Darkness-Type support can do them relatively quickly,
for an Evolution, but its significantly outclasses by
other candidates… even ones that also weren’t quite good
enough to warrant play.
Limited:
4/5 - It might seem like a high score, but remember I am
focused as much on how well it could do with how
strongly I recommend you include it. If you manage at
least a 1-1 line, you need to somehow have no room for
at least a few basic Darkness Energy and/or two
more Pokémon, including running one big, Basic Pokémon
plus 39 non Basic Pokémon cards. Everything about this
card is better in Limited, and even the preferred
Stunky is part of this set.
Casual:
2.5/5 - When your options are restricted due to your
circumstances and not a true format and your opponent’s
likely aren’t running the best of decks either, this
isn’t a terrible choice, but it still seems wanting.
There are quite a few Darkness-Type Stage 1 Pokémon,
including ones that aren’t still new and are of lower or
equal Rarities.
Summary:
Another Stage 1 that isn’t worth running except out of
desperation, but at least it isn’t as far as away as
some examples, and both attacks have an effects and
damage that are just a bit off of where they need to be.
Don’t sweat this one; it is highly unlikely we’ll get
something that will make it “good” in the future.
*I am aware that the very flavor text of this card
states that Skuntank “fire” from the tip of their tail,
and that even with their tails seemingly fused with
their bodies, that probably means the section near the
top of their head, the anterior. I just like
alliteration, and of course real skunks “fire” from that
region.
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