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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,
instead of having to put it down.
We end the week with early Weavile (XY:
Flashfire 52/106); I get the strange feeling its
designer also used it to end the week early.
Stats
Type
The Darkness-Type still enjoys the most excellent Energy
acceleration provided by Dark Patch, as well as
the “pseudo” acceleration that actually supports
Darkness Energy usage. We have actually seen a few
Darkness Weak Pokémon with attacks or Abilities that are
tempting to use even knowing that the current top
attacker - Yveltal EX - is an all but guaranteed
sight in Darkness-Type decks.
Stage
Weavile
is a Stage 1 Pokémon, which should be better than being
a Stage 2, but even though it requires Rare Candy
(an extra card) for a Stage 2 Pokémon to get into play
the seem to be about on par, probably because Stage 2
Pokémon often have better Stats and Effects than many of
the Stage 1 Pokémon. Still, at least you’ll only need
to run approximately twice as many cards as you would
for an equivalent Basic Pokémon instead of three and can
skip an awkward intermediary Evolution or the sometimes
difficult task of getting both Stage 2 and Rare Candy
into hand at the same time. I will discuss the various
Sneasel cards that Weavile can Evolve from
later.
Hit Points
90 HP is currently a useful number; its bad in terms of
survivability because its a probable OHKO; only a deck
that hasn’t fully set-up or is otherwise suffering
problems will fail to do the deed. Until Level Ball
rotates out, however, this is the maximum HP score for
which said Level Ball can search, and I don’t
know of any Basic Pokémon too large for Level Ball
but with a small enough Evolution (though such a thing
could exist).
With the raw damage output, it is unlikely that
Weavile could hit a high enough HP score to be
significantly better, even after Level Ball is
gone, so overall I’d label it “acceptable”, maybe even
technically “good”.
Weakness
Fighting Type Weakness is a dangerous thing, so its not
the worst to have at the time I am typing this up.
There are some Fighting-Type Pokémon that see a good
amount of play, though I am drawing a blank for any
decks focused on Fighting-Types that have regularly
performed well. The next set will make things worse,
however, as we’ll see not only an influx of new
Fighting-Type Pokémon but some very promising support;
even if it all ended up falling short, it is highly
improbable we won’t see at least a temporary spike in
Fighting-Type decks at that point.
Fighting-Types specialize in good Energy-to-damage
attacks, so even though normally Weakness wouldn’t
matter for something on the small side like this, that
is not the case here. Shadow Circle is an
option, though; a piece of Darkness Energy-Type support,
if a Pokémon has a source of Darkness Energy attached,
Shadow Circle cancels out its Weakness: just
remember that an opponent merely needs to play down
their own Stadium to discard it, and you can’t play a
potentially more useful Stadium down at the same time.
Resistance
While not often seen, Weavile does indeed enjoy
Resistance. Reducing damage from attacks by Psychic
Type Pokémon by 20 isn’t huge, but it can come in very
handy; for example that is one more Energy (or damage
boosting trick) for a Mewtwo-EX to need in order
to X-Ball for a OHKO. It also tends to make things
extra annoying for the Darkness Weak Psychic-Types of
the TCG (which correspond to video game Ghost-Types).
Retreat Cost
A single Energy retreat cost is the second best
possible; its relatively easy to pay so you won’t get
stranded too often. If you did need to avoid it, most
decks are going to run enough alternatives to manually
Retreating and/or methods of zeroing out the Retreat
Cost.
Effects
Attack#1:
For (C) Weavile can use Call For Family. This is
a solid attack when found on a Basic Pokémon, but on a
Stage 1 that is also a probable OHKO, its bad; better
than nothing, but probably not better than your typical
vanilla filler attack.
Attack#2:
Claw Rend requires (DCC) and does 60+ points of damage,
where the “+” comes from attacking something that
already has damage counters on it, in which case the
effect text kicks in and the attack hits for an
additional 30 points of damage. It is nice that the
attack is Double Colorless Energy compliant, but
for the amount invested you really needed to be hitting
for 90 points of damage before the effect, not
after, so that you could at least attempt to 2HKO your
typical Pokémon-EX (or OHKO it through a semi-elaborate
combo).
Intra-Card Synergy
Unfortunately, the card doesn’t work to well with
itself; the benefits of being a Darkness-Type do help
it, but not much more than any other Darkness-Type
Pokémon. Given its size, it needs to be a Bench-sitter
(not an option), possess a protective effect (it
doesn’t), or be a glass-cannon (it isn’t).
Card Family
There are currently four legal versions of Sneasel
from which Weavile may Evolve: BW: Next
Destinies 69/99; BW: Plasma Freeze 65/116;
and XY: Flashfire 50/106 and 51/106. All four
are Darkness-Type Basic Pokémon with Fighting Weakness,
Psychic Resistance, and single Energy Retreat Costs,
just like Weavile. BW: Plasma Freeze
65/116 enjoys 70 HP, which is still well within range of
a second turn OHKO, but at least out of range of “easy”
second turn OHKOs; the rest each have 60 HP. None have
Abilities.
For (D), BW: Next Destinies 69/99 can hit for 10
points of damage and prevent the attacked Pokémon from
manually retreating on the next turn, while for (CC) it
just does a vanilla 20 points of damage. BW: Plasma
Freeze 65/116 has a single attack; for (DC) it hits
for 20 points of damage, plus an additional 20 if you
get “heads” on a mandatory coin flip. XY: Flashfire
50/106 can do 10 for (C) or force the opponent to
discard a card from his or her hand (opponent’s choice)
at a price of (DC). Lastly XY: Flashfire 51/106
can inflict Sleep for (C) or hit for 20 at a price of
(DC) with no other effects. None of these are good,
though at least they all have some redeeming features,
if ever so slight; go with the 70 HP version, BWL
Plasma Freeze 65/116.
There are also other Weavile you could run
alongside today’s card, which can either be rivals for
space or allies that work well together. Weavile
(BW: Next Destinies 70/99) has the same stats as
today’s card, and also two attacks. For (D) it can hit
for 90, but the effect text states the attack does no
damage if the Defending Pokémon has no Pokémon Tool
attached, allowing an opponent to often disable this
attack through shrewd play. For (CCC) you get to flip
three coins, doing 30 points of damage per “heads”... so
only with the best possible outcome do you hit remotely
hard enough.
Weavile
(BW: Plasma Freeze 66/116) a.k.a. Weavile
[Plasma] is actually a solid card with its own deck.
Other than being a Team Plasma Pokémon (enjoying their
support and suffering from their counters), it has
identical Stats to todays card and once again, two
attacks. The difference is the attacks are good this
time. For (C) you can hit all your opponent’s Pokémon
for 10 points of damage while for (DC) you can discard
as many Pokémon as you like from your hand, doing 30
points of damage per. The Energy costs make even the
second attack easy to power-up in a single turn, and
said second attack turns this into a glass cannon, all
but guaranteed to be KOed in a single turn but also able
to OHKO Pokémon-EX.
You can see the official review for Weavile
[Plasma]
here;
its a bit over a year old. Updated for the current
metagame, we’ve still had Weavile [Plasma] decks
placing well at events, though not in the numbers of
many other decks. It is little surprise that BW:
Next Destinies 70/99 got skipped: its first attack
is interesting but too easy to sabotage, so it wasn’t
even worth running before Tool Scrapper, let
alone after Startling Megaphone. It is pretty
clear that today’s Weavile is getting no help
from either.
Usage
Modified
If you insist on using this Weavile, the good
news is that the various cards that support the
Darkness-Type (both Pokémon and Energy) are so strong,
you still might win some matches just due to their
power. Specifically, I suppose you could use Yveltal
(XY 78/146) to open, powering things up while
hitting for 30 points of damage: if this sets up well
enough for Weavile go ahead and start attacking
with it, otherwise use Darkrai-EX (or start with
it if you can power it up in a single turn) and start
talking bigger threats with two Night Spears, while the
Bench hit from the attack sets up for Weavile and
its Claw Rend.
In such a deck, Weavile can be useful for
attacking around certain effects that would block
Yveltal and/or Darkrai-EX, or even
Yveltal-EX (which you may as well include, even
though it will make Weavile even less useful).
The thing is there are other Pokémon you could choose
to use instead of this Weavile that would do the
same job even better.
Limited
As is often the case, the card performs better in
Limited. The fact that there are two Sneasel in
this set will make it easier to pull a more fleshed out
Evolution line, and the attacks - while you still need a
source of (D) Energy for Claw Rend, are still friendly
to being splashed into decks, important as in Limited
you’re often working with 2-3 different Types of Basic
Energy cards in your deck. Due to so many cards being
useless (or close to it) in Limited play, the HP will
last longer here and the damage output will seem much
better. Call For Family is actually likely to be as
valuable or more valuable than Claw Rend!
Ratings
Modified:
1.25/5 - This Weavile is almost totally useless
(and I am being generous in claiming that) and it isn’t
very creative as the effects for both of its attacks
have been seen before.
Limited:
3/5 - Two options for the Basic in the set coupled with
the lower-than-average HP scores and damage outputs
allow both attacks to prove much more useful here.
Summary
Weavile
screams “filler” when all is said and done; it isn’t as
anywhere near as good as Weavile [Plasma], and
many other Weavile just show a bit more
creativity than recycling two older attacks that don’t
compliment each other or the rest of the card. Just to
add insult to injury, remember that with the next set,
it is likely to get even worse as its Weakness
(Fighting) gets a lot of new attackers and support
cards!
For those celebrating it sometime this weekend, Happy
Independence Day!
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