aroramage |
Hey guys, welcome back to this week's crop of cards from the
Furious Fists expansion! Nothing but Fighting fury for
the world galore!
-except for this one! Today we're taking a look at the
Krookodile-EX promo that came out in the Krookodile-EX
Box! To think this thing came out in July and we haven't
touched it! Is it that unimportant, or is it just not
that great? Let's take a look and figure out if
Krookodile-EX is a secret EX monstrosity or just another
shiny card for the collection!
His first attack is Second Bite, and already we've got
the high high cost of 3 for...40? That doesn't seem like
that much, but taking into account the effect of adding
10 more damage for each counter on the Defending
Pokemon, this makes it more...manageable. Even on
consecutive turns, this attack gets crazy; the first
time you use it, it's 40, then it's 80, then it's 120 -
and that's all PRIOR to any damage boosts from Muscle
Band (60 -> 120) and Hypnotoxic Laser (40 -> 100 -> 160)
with Virbank in play (40 -> 140)! With an effect like
that, it's no wonder they set it at 3; even at 2, this
kind of attack is scary.
The scariest part? You don't have to rely solely on
Second Bite. Add another Dark Energy, and you get the
Megaton Fang dealing a whopping 130 damage! That's some
insane power for an EX; even some of the earlier ones
don't reach that kind of damage without some aid!
Krookodile-EX really shows off his brutality with a flat
damage strike like that! What downside could possibly
keep him from walloping Pokemon turn after turn?
Actually, there is one, and it's kind of important: you have to
discard a card in order to use Megaton Fang. If you
don't, it does nothing. There's a simple combo to use
between these two attacks; you strike once for 40 with
Second Bite, next turn KO with 130 Megaton Fang, and
then keep going from there! Reversing the order makes it
deadlier, dealing 130 before dealing a powerful 170 with
Second Bite for 3 Energy! How crazy is that?
There are some fundamental flaws with Krookodile-EX, namely Megaton
Fang's extra cost. The discard may seem manageable, but
you have to be wary of what you're discarding! You might
not need that Skyla or Ultra Ball now, but getting rid
of it may land you in trouble if you lose Krookodile-EX!
If you can work around the discard - perhaps by sending
Energy to accelerate with Dark Patch in the future -
then Megaton Fang will decimate the competition turn
after turn with a little help from Muscle Band and HTL.
Recently though, the competition is all Fighting-types, and that's
currently Krookodile-EX's biggest flaw: his Weakness is
Fighting. Against decks without Fighting, he has
potential to be a nightmare, but against anything
remotely colored brown, he's the laughing stock of the
EXs. Don't get me wrong, he's not a bad EX, but the
environment makes him difficult to work with rather than
the monstrosity he could be. Maybe all he needs is the
right set of partners...
Weren't Dusknoir and Flygon looking for a new guy to
replace Accelgor?
Rating
Standard: 2.5/5 (not bad, just not his time)
Expanded: 3/5 (does better with the support here at
least)
Limited: N/A (promo promo promo)
Arora Notealus: I've noted having a strange affinity for
Pokemon based on animals from the order Crocodilia;
you've got Krookodile here based on the Baryonyx and the
slender-snouted crocodile, and then there's Feraligatr
who's based on an alligator. Something about reptiles
and big jaws, man.
BIG NOTE: I'm sorry that my first review on Krookodile-EX
stated that he couldn't use Megaton Fang on consecutive
turns. I completely got the card effect wrong, and I
apologize for that. That being sad, Megaton Fang is
still risky to use on consecutive turns, but you can
still use it so long as you discard a card.
Next Time: This guy's just not that cute or cuddly...
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We begin this week of aroramage picks with Krookodile-EX (XY
Promos XY25), available in the U.S. through the
aptly named “Krookodile-EX Box” this last July. I don’t
remember if I even realized this gift set had released,
though I vaguely recall seeing translations for the
card’s Japanese counterpart, which was released in Japan
via others means from May through July (also of this
year). It is nice that we got this card almost at the
same time as Japan and it sports a spiffy looking
Krookodile in the art, though now that so many Pokémon
have had similar poses on their Pokémon-EX cards, it
does make it less impressive.
In the video games, Krookodile are Ground/Dark Dual-Type Pokémon;
part of me does not want to see any new or returning
mechanics until what I view as issues with the current
game are resolved, but had it been the TCG equivalent
(Fighting/Darkness) it would have had some phenomenal
support, both direct (specifically aides Fighting- or
Darkness-Type Pokémon) or indirect (the relevant
Energy-Type support, better synergy with potent Pokémon
of its Type, etc.). Why talk about what is not?
Perspective; Fighting-Types are probably the overall
best supported Type right now in Standard and possibly
in Expanded. Darkness-Types have great indirect
support, but their direct support is either forgettable
or Expanded only: assuming the wording would have
allowed it, being a Fighting/Darkness-Type would have
been an amazing starting point for a card… and just
maybe Krookodile-EX would have been better off as
a Fighting-Type.
As we go through the rest of the card, what Type it should be will
become more clear… and the next set may reverse things
anyway: XY: Phantom Force is set to introduce
many potent Psychic-Types, especially video game
Ghost-Types that are often Fighting Resistant and/or
Darkness Weak. Right now, hitting Fighting Weakness is
a huge benefit while hitting Darkness Weakness is mostly
a bonus, as few Pokémon with the latter see significant
competitive play. Resistance is usually a non-issue;
even when present on cards its fairly easy to bypass and
an annoyance, completely out of scale with the Achilles’
Heel that is Weakness. So right now, being a
Fighting-Type would have been better, but being a
Darkness-Type is still good.
Being a Basic Pokémon is still the best; there’s a natural synergy
with things like search cards because one search yields
one complete Pokémon, unlike with Evolutions and
similarly needing just one slot per copy and being able
to drop them into play without any lead in is a huge,
huge advantage and will likely remain so barring more
counter-cards like Pyroar (XY: Flashfire
20/106), more Evolution support like Rare Candy
or my preferred solution, slowly start designing big
Basic Pokémon so that they can’t function as opener,
closer and/or main attacker while also designing
Evolving Basic and Stage 1 Pokémon to have a purpose
other than being a placeholder. As I know of none of
these things on the horizon… being Basic isn’t going to
stop being the best anytime soon.
180 HP is as good as it gets for a Pokémon-EX, unless you count the
Mega Evolutions and I still haven’t figured out if it is
more or less confusing when I separate them out or do
include them with general Pokémon-EX statements: sorry
folks! While in our incredibly aggressive format, 180
HP still isn’t safe from being OHKOed (even without
Weakness or through Resistance), its going to require
something somewhat exceptional; that hard-to-repeat
power combo or a deck with a somewhat complicated set-up
(and probably designed to score raw power OHKOs), so
most of the time you should get two turns out of this
card. Now factoring in Weakness, things get messy as
Fighting-Types are all about fast, reliable damage for
low Energy through stacking bonuses: a Landorus-EX
or Lucario-EX with Fighting Stadium,
Muscle Band and a Strength Energy will hit
180 and be able to do it again the next turn unless you
specifically counter some part of the combo. Smaller
Fighting-Types that can hit for at least 20 points of
damage for [C] or [F] can do the same stunt, albeit they
need a Silver Bangle instead of a Muscle Band.
The good news is that getting the right opening
Pokémon, the right Pokémon Tool, the right Stadium and
the right Special Energy in or with one’s opening hand
is prone to misfires, the bad news is that getting it by
your second turn or getting enough of it to leave
Krookodile half- or nearly KOed has a much greater
probability.
So Fighting Weakness is probably the worst Weakness to have right
now, but not only does Krookodile-EX have
Resistance, it might even be the best Resistance to have
right now. Mewtwo-EX has again become a major
presence in the metagame, appearing in a wide variety of
decks as either a main or supporting attacker (including
to counter other Mewtwo-EX) and both it (and some
of its counters) are about counting Energy to deliver
the big hits. That simple -20 means an extra Energy (or
other form of damage boost) is required; a Krookodile-EX
with three Energy attached requires some small (but
often important) piece of effort to secure the 2HKO.
That doesn’t seem like much, and it isn’t: Resistance
is far less significant than Weakness, but this is about
as useful as Resistance can get right now. Finishing
off the bottom Attributes, we see a Retreat Cost of
three; too much to easily pay without devastating your
momentum, but most decks were going to include something
to lower or even totally bypass manually retreating
anyway and Darkrai-EX is a natural fit here. In
Expanded, it actually becomes a potential, small bonus
as it allows Heavy Ball to search out the card.
Overall, Krookodile-EX has promising Attributes so what
about its Effects? It has two attacks and just looking
at the costs, we see one major problem: Second Bite
requires [DCC] while Megaton Fang requires [DDCC]. Even
if - like me - you think Pokémon-EX need to be a bit
“slower” at attacking for game balance, for the here and
now this hurts a card’s offensive; the best attackers
are able to do something on their first turn of
attacking, or else need to really bring it if they need
a lead in. The good news is that the mostly Colorless
Energy requirements in the attacks makes them much
easier to meet; Double Colorless Energy shaves a
turn of set-up time off of both attacks and in Expanded,
the well known Dark Patch combos actually
could allow Krookodile-EX to attack ASAP with
either move, though Second Bite is a bit more likely.
This brings us to the other issue; Second Bite is an attack that
really needs something else leading into it, not the
other way around. As you can see, the attack does 40
points of damage plus 10 points of damage for each
damage counter on the Defending Pokémon; barring other
damage altering effects, Second Bite will finish off
anything with less than or equal to (half maximum HP +
20) remaining. That sounds impressive until you do the
math. Assuming I myself did the math correctly, a 180
HP Pokémon-EX needs to already been down to 110 or less
HP (so having 7 damage counters on it) for the follow-up
KO. This is a three Energy attack, meaning we want to
average at least a good 90 points of damage with it, and
also expect most competitive attackers to do the same
thing. The base damage isn’t enough to reliably score
OHKOs off of things like Bench damage from Darkrai-EX
and its Night Spear… unless the targets are so small
that you would be just as well off attacking again with
Night Spear.
Consider Dunsparce (XY 101/146); though it is a tiny
40 HP Basic that does not Evolve, its Second Bite is
much more useful. Why? You can drop Dunsparce
along with a Double Colorless Energy to
“surprise” an opponent, readying and attacking with it
in the same turn. The effect text of Second Bite is its
true strength; the flat damage it is guaranteed to do
basically just needs to be 10 so that odd numbered HP
scores aren’t near misses. That isn’t to say such
damage can’t be useful, it just turns out that
Krookodile-EX would perhaps be better off if its
attack did less base damage and for a lower Energy cost.
The other factor is that Dunsparce is
expendable; its going to be OHKOed the next turn but its
intended use is to be traded for +1 Prize (or breaking
even if we include whatever attacker(s) set up for it).
Krookodile-EX is going to be a Pokémon-EX with
three Energy attached… that is not going to break even
(let alone pull ahead) very often.
So what of Megaton Fang? Four Energy attached plus a generic one
card discard from hand yields 130 points of damage.
With a Muscle Band, Hypnotoxic Laser and
Virbank City Gym you can OHKO anything that isn’t
Darkness Resistant and has 180 or less HP… assuming
Special Conditions work on it. This is good but not
great; first the wording makes it clear if you can’t
discard a card from your hand (as in your hand contains
no cards) the attack does nothing. Without that
clarification, this would have been no worse and
potentially much better than the typical restrictions,
but as is this means where most other such restrictions
will allow you at least one attack guaranteed while
fully powered, there is no such assurance with Megaton
Fang. Attacks that discard your own Energy or can’t be
used the next turn will work in the same situations
where Krookodile-EX would not work… likely when
you’re most desperate. It is not a fatal flaw though;
more than likely you’ll just be forced to discard some
cards you’d really prefer not to as opposed to being
unable to attack and in a well made, well functioning
deck you should rarely have to discard a card you
don’t want to see in the discard pile.
In the end, my real concern is how much effort is required for the
OHKO with Megaton Fang, because the first attack is
already niche usage at best. If you’re running a
Pokémon-EX for a four Energy attack, even with Energy
acceleration you want to be hitting OHKOs more often
than not. Charizard-EX (XY: Flashfire
12/106) shows us how its done. While the “This Pokémon
cannot use Combustion Blast during your next turn.”
clause forces you to either alternate attacks, alternate
attackers or use a combo to reset the effect,
Charizard-EX can still go from zero to OHKOing
almost anything that is not a Pokémon-EX (and a few
things that are) in a single turn. This includes the
second turn of the game (the first turn you can attack);
a Double Colorless Energy and Blacksmith
(assuming you have the needed Fire Energy already
in the discard) does the job. Taking out upwards of 170
HP Pokémon-EX just requires Muscle Band; those
with 180 HP just need a Hypnotoxic Laser on top
of the previous combo or to use the Hypnotoxic
Laser/Virbank City Gym combo instead. Krookodile-EX
needs all three of those to do the job plus a card in
hand to discard. Even when it survives with everything
intact, you would need another copy of Hypnotoxic
Laser to take out nearly all Pokémon-EX. Even going
back to the first batch of Pokémon-EX, a Mewtwo-EX
with four Energy was swinging for 80+ (before Resistance
and protective effects) for four of any Energy…
and if we did get to specifics, Psydrive could deal 120
(just 10 less) for [PPC] and a single Energy discard.
That is 10 less damage for a slightly lower cost,
though even in Standard Krookodile-EX would have
better Energy acceleration options… then again we come
back to the other Darkness-Type Pokémon-EX attackers.
Can you build a deck around this card? Yes you can. You also can
probably work it into at least some existing
Darkness-Type decks. The catch is that it just doesn’t
seem like the optimum play. Yveltal-EX and
Darkrai-EX are amazing cards; neither is as good as
it once was, but both are still relevant, competitive
cards (though Yveltal-EX more so). It may not
seem “fair”, but those two are what Krookodile-EX
needs to compete against. Darkrai-EX has the
same Attributes save a better Retreat Cost (unless you
are running Heavy Ball) while bringing a great
Ability and still good attack that is barely more
expensive than Second Bite (Night Spear can’t use
Double Colorless Energy to shave off a turn). Yveltal-EX
has 10 less HP but a better Weakness and about as useful
Resistance, plus again a two Energy Retreat Cost… but
its big deal is Evil Ball, which is a clearly superior
attack. Even Y Cyclone, however, is likely to be more
useful than Second Bite and if the Defending Pokémon has
two or more Energy attached, Evil Ball is going to
clearly outperform Megaton Fang with the same four
Energy invested.
If you’re going to try it, I recommend Expanded. Dark Patch
makes for a world of difference as now you can try to
spring a surprise Second Bite on the opponent, or even a
surprise Megaton Fang if you are extremely lucky; you
can’t use it in Limited and I spent almost an entire
article explaining why it comes up short for Standard.
Ratings
Standard: 2/5 - Coming up
short doesn’t mean a card is abysmal; you can make it
functional, it is just the effort is clearly not worth
the return. So many little changes would have made it a
decent third choice for Darkness-Type decks.
Expanded: 2.5/5 - A little
more support makes it a little less inadequate, but it
still isn’t quite worth it, even ignoring the likes of
Yveltal-EX and Darkrai-EX.
Limited: N/A - If this were reprinted in a Limited legal manner (or somehow
an event does incorporate its gift box and allow its
use), you can consider using it completely alone but I
would probably just work it into a more fleshed out
deck; its attacks make it reasonable to run in a two or
three Energy Type deck. If you want to take the risk of
doing a +39 deck (no other Basic Pokémon but
Krookodile-EX), its slow “start-up” means things
must more or less go exactly your way to win: any solid
attacker on top of weenies batting clean-up could edge
you out.
Summary: Krookodile-EX is not something I anticipate seeing used
successfully in competitive play; while it has a solid
foundation its two attacks aren’t sufficiently
complementary with Second Bite seemingly having
forgotten how such an attack can work well and Megaton
Fang simply having too much competition for a mostly
reasonable cost versus reward. Krookodile-EX
isn’t fast enough to be an opener (not that I want more
Pokémon-EX like that), falls just a bit shy of what it
needs to be the secondary or tertiary main attacker in
Darkness decks and requires too heavy an investment (in
terms of Energy and set-up) to be a good closer. Most
decks already have one, two or even three great
Pokémon-EX primary attack options and even getting
specific Yveltal-EX, Darkrai-EX and
Mewtwo-EX are going to crowd it out of Darkness
Decks… and even if you really wanted something with
Second Bite, Dunsparce does it better.
Also, the Krookodile line still makes me want Cookie Crisp cereal…
which I haven’t been able to safely eat since the
mid-2000s. =P
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