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So I’m still sick; in fact as is often the case this
cold is getting worse before it gets better. I’ll save
you the details other that I can’t even make a joke for
Fire Week about burning up (thankfully no fever) and my
sleep cycle is all out of whack. The latter is why this
review is going up at best a day late, though the
bizarre ramblings about chicken nuggets I suspect I
would have written in my sleep deprived state might have
been more entertaining for today… we review a twice
Evolving Basic Pokémon. Normally we skip such cards
because the designers don’t do a lot with them. Regular
readers will know how much that frustrates me as it
seems like improving Evolving Pokémon seems like the
most effective way to balance the end result (that is
whatever said Evolving Pokémon Evolve into) against
non-Evolving Pokémon. The designers have tried this
before, but only here or there and usually alongside
widespread Evolution acceleration, overpowered end
Stages or underpowered final forms. The last of those
three just means we go all Eelektrik (BW:
Noble Victories 40/101) while the first two are
unfortunately previously tried solutions to balancing
out the greater time and card investment required of
Evolutions that at best provide a delicate balance that
seems to eventually fall apart. Of course the other
side of this is pacing big, Basic Pokémon and even Stage
1 Pokémon since if they are awesome instantly they will
still overwhelm a Stage 2 line where the Evolving Basic
form and Evolving Stage 1 form actually provide a return
instead of serving as mere stepping stones.
So… why are we looking at this Torchic (XY:
Primal Clash 26/160)? At a glance you’ll notice its
a Full Art-ish card and of course a Fire-Type and… that
is it really. I wanted to do a Fire Week for XY:
Primal Clash but we had already covered Ninetales
(XY: Primal Clash 21/160) and Camerupt-EX
and unlike some of the other Types, that meant pickings
were slim. Being a Fire-Type is likely of less benefit
to Torchic than other cards because (peeking
ahead) it isn’t so great at attacking for damage
(hitting Weakness on most Grass-Types and Metal-Types
being somewhat important) and it is so small that it can
be dangerous using a card like Blacksmith to
directly accelerate Energy to it before you Evolve (and
if you were about to Evolve, then usually it doesn’t
matter that you attached to Torchic instead of
Blaziken or Combusken). I suppose it is
still good that it doesn’t need to worry about
Resistance; I’ve already jumped ahead a bit by pointing
out you won’t want to try to use this card to attack for
damage very often, but if its not so good at it, you
don’t want Resistance to render it completely useless.
So, being a Basic is good. Being an Evolving Basic
should be good (see my opening lecture) but usually is
not. 50 HP is bad; it has almost always been low enough
that even the first turn where attacking was allowed,
there was a risk of being OHKOed. Yes, even in some of
the older (but not oldest) formats where things were
pretty restrictive so that the player going first might
be able to attack but not be able to play Supporters or
Items and/or Pokémon had been designed so that you
struggled to hit hard first turn (the latter being a
good thing in hindsight). The thing is now we are
getting something we asked for but not in the way many
of us asked for it. Golbat (XY: Phantom
Forces 33/119) and Crobat (XY: Phantom
Forces 33/119) helped demonstrate some of what I was
lecturing about in the earlier paragraph and gave us a
Stage 2 proving strong and competitive right now!
Unfortunately it continued the trend of doing so by
seeming kind of abusive; spamming a coming-into-play
Ability while backing big, Basic Pokémon attackers up
front, including mainstays like Landorus-EX and
Seismitoad-EX. You already had to worry that a
Torchic with its 50 HP was going to be forced
Active and KOed before it could Evolve; now we are in a
metagame where even just 10 more HP would have improved
its odds of surviving while its being assaulted on the
Bench.
At 50 HP Weakness is unlikely to matter normally, as
most decks can hit that hard (or harder) immediately but
in this case Seismitoad-EX is a popular,
prominent exception; Quaking Punch has just the one
drawback of hitting for a mere 30 points of damage so
that while you can lock down Items your opponent will
have several turns to try and get around that and still
take the KO. With Torchic a completely standard
Quaking Punch without any buffs still scores the OHKO
thanks to Weakness. There is no Resistance on the card
which is typical and it is iffy with 50 HP whether such
a thing would really have mattered. The single Energy
Retreat Cost is easy enough to pay though isn’t a huge
benefit because it is also a pretty typical site on
Evolving Pokémon.
So besides getting some nice art, the main thing
Torchic has going for it is its Ancient Trait Ω
Barrage. This allows it to attack twice. Its first
attack is Flare Bonus, which requires [R] and allows you
to discard an [R] Energy from hand to draw two cards.
This isn’t a huge bonus, but especially doubled up and
in a deck running Blacksmith it can be a nice
trick. The second attack is Claw, also just requiring
[R]. It hits for 20 but requires a coin flip; on tails
the attack does nothing. On one hand this little fellow
could actually get somewhat broken as a Basic with Ω
Barrage should it have a reliable, damaging attack.
Thanks to Double Colorless Energy and
Blacksmith you would even have a chance of fueling
an attack that required [RRCC] T2 (while you could meet
that cost T1 there isn’t really a point since you can’t
attack then). The thing is, by the logic that this card
shouldn’t risk having a reliable attack for damage since
most reasonable costs you’d assign could be met via
Energy acceleration on the first turn in which you could
attack and you’ve got Ω Barrage making that even more
useful than normal… why have a damaging attack at all?
20 for [R] isn’t impressive without buffs and since its
coin flip based any buffs risk being wasted. Still if I
open with a Virizion-EX or Genesect-EX
against a Silver Bangle equipped Torchic,
my opponent could take a fast lead through luck, which
is almost worse than it just being a reliable (technical
2HKO but effectively a) OHKO. Just don’t include a
damaging attack at all! If that makes the Ancient Trait
less useful, then perhaps Torchic was a poor
place for such an Ancient Trait in the first place?
Still the potential draw factor means if you’ve got a
reason to run Torchic in the first place, then
this one might be the best pick. What are the other
options? There is a single Expanded-only option, BW:
Dark Explorers 14/108. It has the same everything
as this card except no Ancient Trait and just one attack
instead of the two: Reckless Charge for [RC], good for
30 damage to the opponent’s Active and 10 to itself.
You can safely ignore this one. The Standard legal
options are BW: Dark Explorers 15/108 (reprinted
with new art as BW: Legendary Treasures
RC5/RC25), XY: Furious Fists 12/111 and XY
Black Star Promo XY37 (re-released with new art as
XY: Primal Clash 25/160). All of these are also
almost identical to today’s Torchic, but with 10
more HP, no Ancient Trait and different attacks.
BW: Dark Explorers 15/108 (and thus BW:
Legendary Treasures RC5/RC25) can simply Peck for 10
damage at a cost of [R] or for [RC] use Live Coal for
20. XY: Furious Fists 12/111 has just Quick
Attack for [RC], good for 10 damage plus another 30 (so
40 total) with a successful coin toss. Lastly XY
Black Star Promo XY37 (and XY: Primal Clash
25/160) have Ember, allowing them to attack for 20
reliably for just [R], though there is a coin toss to
see if you have to discard a [R] Energy attached to
Torchic itself.
So which version to go with? It is important to
remember that Ancient Traits, like Abilities and
attacks, are lost when a Pokémon Evolves: it is possible
a future release will alter this fact but I have seen
nothing like that yet in spoilers from Japan. You will
seldom want to attack with Torchic and instead
will want it to remain safe on the Bench to Evolve into
either Combusken or directly into Blaziken
via Rare Candy. There isn’t much point in trying
for damage but at the same time the current format will
make it hard to benefit from drawing; you’ll need the
Energy in hand to discard and decks don’t run that much
Energy right now. Your hand must survive intact until
your next turn as well; until N rotates out (so
that at least your opponent must intentionally try to
disrupt you such as with Red Card) that’s
actually tricky and not really in your own hands (please
pardon the expression) Plus the “No attacking T1” rule
that makes an opening Torchic a little more
likely to survive until you’ve at least had a turn to do
something also means you might not have the option to
attack with it at all. So… despite looking cool I’m
thinking you should pick the 60 HP version you prefer
most. None of the other attacks are all that good and
thanks to Blacksmith (and the fact that if you’re
attacking, you’re likely desperate) even the two Energy
attacks are about as viable as the single Energy. BW:
Legendary Treasures RC5/RC25 it totally adorable and
that might be as good of a reason as any.
Wait… don’t I normally cover Evolutions? Shouldn’t I
since I’m the one stating this card is really only going
to be played to Evolve if it is played at all? Yeah,
but guess what the next review is?
Ratings
(deck specific)
Standard:
2/5 - While I did suggest going with HP, 60 isn’t that
much better than 50 and none of the other Torchic
are all that great: a two out of five in a deck built
around Blaziken is at worst half a point
lower than I should score any other Torchic
currently available. The “wow” factor of having an
Ancient Trait/being a Full Art-ish card could provide a
legitimate (but very small) competitive bonus and the
really daring (and/or foolish) might have a slight use
as a decoy opener in a Fire deck; the draw isn’t that
useful but it isn’t useless and again running just
the Torchic misleads the opponent and can cause
them to underestimate the rest of your deck. Then
again, you’re burning a slot and a Prize to do this.
Expanded:
2/5 - The only direct competition isn’t competition and
if there were any combos to really help it, I miss them.
So the score remains the same.
Limited:
3.5/5 - Here the only major drawback (as draw power is
amazing here) is that in a set with a so-so Fire-Type
presence, the attack both requires an [R] Energy
attached to Torchic and another each time you use
the attack as part of the discard cost. If you can work
in a decent amount of basic Fire Energy cards
(which will depend upon the rest of your pulls) and of
course aren’t running a +39 deck, it is a must run.
Otherwise not.
Summary:
This Torchic is pretty and features an
interesting gimmick, but it doesn’t seem to use it that
well. Eventual rotations or completely hypothetical
future releases might help in the future, but for the
now, just get some because they look so slick (and value
them accordingly).
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