Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Furfrou
(Flashfire)
Hello and welcome to a new week of reviews here on
Pojo’s
CotD. We kick off with a look at
Furfrou: the flavour text
emphasizes his fluffiness, so it seems a bit odd that
he’s illustrated in a way that makes him look like he’s
built out of Lego. Not fluffy at all.
Furfrou
isn’t a good card either. A low-ish
HP Basic, he comes complete with two pretty dull
attacks. The one thing you can say in
Furfrou’s favour is that it
can make good use of Double Colourless Energy, but then
again, why would you want to waste that valuable
resource? Sure,
Tight Jaw gives you a flip for the always useful
Paralysis, but with just 20 damage,
it looks less like an effective strategy and more like a
standard ‘filler’ attack. That impression gets even
stronger when you look at the vanilla 50-for-three
attack that is Sharp Fang.
All sets have cards like these: uninspiring attacks that
you have seen hundreds of times before combined with
some lacklustre stats. You take a quick glance at them
and then forget they exist.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (no real use)
Limited: 3 (solid option if you have nothing better)
|
aroramage |
What's up, Pokefans! It's aroramage
back again for another slightly shorter week of Pokecard
madness from Flashfire! Today we've got another beauty
parlor candidate, the ever-fabulous Furfrou sporting its
fiery redhead look! But can it make a big impact on the
TCG as it has in the hairstyling world?
Probably not. Right now the only
other Furfrou is from the XY Base Set, and at least that
one has the grace of an Ability. This one just gets a
couple of lesser attacks. Then again, this is the
Furfrou from the Starter Sets, Half Decks, and even the
2014 McDonald's Collection, so clearly we're not
expecting much.
The first attack is a 2-Energy
attack called Tight Jaw, since Bite was clearly not
enough but Crunch would've been too much. It only does
20 damage and has a 50% shot at Paralyzing the
opponent's Pokemon. Never mind the switcheroo
shenanigans one can do to get around Paralysis these
days, just 2-Energy for 20 damage? I know it's not a
Pokemon-EX, but you can do so much better from a
non-evolving Basic.
The other attack isn't much better,
seeing as Sharp Fang costs 3 Energy for a vanilla 50
damage. You could attempt to up the damage on both of
these attacks by putting a Muscle Band on Furfrou, but
would you really want to waste it on him? There are
other better Pokemon that can do so much more with
Muscle Band. Furfrou can barely take out a Squirtle.
If you're playing this Furfrou,
you're either doing it because you don't have a better
Pokemon to put in your deck or you're really limited in
your options. And I mean it's either this guy or the
Magnezone-EX you happened to pick up, and at least
Magnezone-EX has 180 HP.
Rating
Modified: 1/5 (please don't use
Furfrou)
Limited: 1/5 (seriously, don't play
Furfrou)
Arora Notealus: Doesn't this
hairstyle make Furfrou look a little like Pippi
Longstocking?
Next time: The best dragon ever to
grace Pokemon arrives! (no, not the TCG)
|
Otaku |
As one might expect, my premature return means I have need to
promote something; in this case, I am trying to raise
funds for something a bit odd;
an injured pet.
With some help we can get it the treatment it
needs.
Today we look at Furfrou
(XY: Flashfire 87/106).
Furfrou
has two defining traits in the video games, at least as
far as I can ascertain (since I haven’t played them at
all): its Ability and the option to give it different
stylized hair cuts that actually alter its sprite.
Today’s card models the “Kabuki” Trim, but other
than artwork and set ID, it is the same card that we
have seen six other times, though at least this is the
only release in a standard set.
Learning this I assumed that each version would
feature a different trim style, but it appears that is
not the case as the artwork is recycled for some
versions.
The other defining trait, its video game Ability, is found on
Furfrou (XY
114/146), a card the review crew took a look at
here;
the short version is that this other
Furfrou was a
less impressive version of
Bouffalant (BW:
Dragons Exalted 110/124), and thus has very little
use unless you have a strategy that (in essence) calls
for more than four
Bouffalant… and while I doubt it will be any good, I actually had an
idea for such a deck.
So what does this oft-printed version offer?
It is a Colorless-Type Pokémon, meaning it will
never hit for Weakness (unfortunate in the modern
metagame), never have to worry about Resistance (a small
perk), and can make use of Colorless-Type support (which
I believe is currently limited to
Aspertia City Gym). Its
90 HP allows it to be searched out via
Level Ball
(useful), but also that it is a highly probable OHKO for
the statistical “average” deck that doles out at least a
mean 90 damage per turn so as to 2HKO Pokémon-EX; many
can do much more.
Level Ball
may rotate out soon, well before
Furfrou, but
it does not look like damage yields will be dropping
anytime soon.
Aspertia
City Gym could help with that a little, but only a
little; an opponent can counter it on his or her own
turn, and while less likely than
Level Ball,
Aspertia City Gym may also leave the format with the next rotation,
and almost certainly before
Furfrou.
This makes the Type and HP concerning, as
smallish attackers usually only work by exploiting
Weakness and being easy to search.
The Fighting Weakness can be a concern already and is expected only
to get worse with the next set, XY: Furious Fists as it
should provide a lot of impressive support for
Fighting-Types.
The lack of Resistance, meanwhile, is just a bit
annoying but largely irrelevant, as Resistance is no
where near as useful as Weakness is a detriment.
The single Energy Retreat Cost is indeed good;
rarely will it be difficult to pay and if you’ve got any
effect that lowers Retreat Costs available, you’ll end
up with a perfect “free retreater” instead.
While
Skyarrow Bridge is still legal (again, another card
all but guaranteed to leave us at the next rotation) you
can even do so with a single card of effort.
Tight Jaw, the first attack, requires (CC) and yields 20 points of
damage plus a coin flip to inflict Paralysis.
This a bit weak given modern trends, but
serviceable.
Unfortunately the second attack, Sharp Fang, does a
meager 50 points of damage for a (CCC) investment; a
4HKO against Pokémon-EX that requires extensive combos
to become a 2HKO is not worth the effort.
The attacks are both
Double Colorless
Energy compliant and obviously can work with any
Energy Type, but even that isn’t enough to compensate
for such a low return on investment.
Perhaps I expect too much of this card: I believe this is the first
time the Kabuki Trim has appeared; maybe that is the
card’s sole reason for existing?
No, because even if this was just meant to be a
“safe” card to release with all 10 possible “trims”, its
still obviously underpowered and has already had “trims”
repeated (instead of delivering on such a concept).
I also find the art to be wanting, but perhaps I
just don’t care enough for the Kabuki trim.
Limited Formats are where this card gives a decent accounting, but
it is still no where as useful as I would expect, based
on my own experience using it in Theme Deck matches on
the PTCGO; far too often you can’t OHKO an Evolving
Basic Pokémon, and two turns can easily be enough to
build a credible threat.
Remember, you’ll have to manually build
Furfrou up
yourself, so the Energy, Energy attachments, and even
attacks committed all weigh heavily on its worth.
You almost certainly should run a
Furfrou if you
pull one, but as “filler” you’ll only resort to fully
powering up if desperate or convenient.
Notice that
Miltank (XY: Flashfire 83/106) rivals iit
even without
a Stage 2 Pokémon in play.
Ratings
Modified: 1.5/5 - All of its
useful synergy fails to yield worthwhile results, but it
is still there, and there is certainly worse filler.
Limited: 3.5/5 -
A somewhat misleading score; in fact this is
practically a staple, a card you need a good reason
“not” to run.
Normally that would be good for at least a 4/5
and possibly a 5/5, but the low damage can actually make
it a risky investment.
Still likely to be a good “meat-shield”.
Summary
Furfrou
is a disappointment.
It is clearly inferior to the “other” version,
and said “other” version mostly sees play as a budget
option for some players.
Today’s version is a simple card, which might
make it useful for beginners, but “simple” does not have
to equal “bad”, nor is it reason enough to exist.
Even as an excuse for alternate art, it
disappoints.
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