aroramage |
*yawwwwwn* Well, I dunno about you
guys, but I had the craziest dream last night about some
kind of murder mystery on a cruise where I ended up
finding out who the culprit was because of a randomly
appearing steak dinner and the fact that they were
missing from their bedroom in the morning. Looks like I
caught you red-handed, Neil the Chef.
...I have no idea what that was
about.
But hey, better than it getting
eaten by Hypno! Never has he really been graced with
anything other than that, "that one Pokemon that eats
people's dreams." Either that or being called an
inferior Psychic Pokemon in the graces of others like
Alakazam, Mewtwo, or even Mr. Mime!...okay, maybe not
Mr. Mime, but you get the idea. Hypno has been vastly
overshadowed as time goes on by more and more powerful
Psychic-types showing up.
Heck, just look at this guy! He's
only got a 2-for-50 Zen Headbutt that does nothing, only
90 HP, and he STILL has to deal with being weak to
Psychic-types! So what's the catch to him? What's his
gimmick? Well, it's Goodnight, Babies! It's a strange
Ability for a strange Pokemon, and it allows Hypno to
put both Active Pokemon to Sleep.
Now this may seem like an odd thing
to do - why would you want to go to Sleep? You won't
even get the chance to get out of it until you end your
turn, and even then you might not get out! Meanwhile,
your opponent has the same 50/50 chance of escaping
without your help, and he could destroy your guy while
you snooze! Thanks a lot, Hypno...
...well, there is one reason to
potentially work around this, and it involves the cards
we're reviewing over the next couple of days. I'm gonna
go ahead and spill the beans on the next one: All-Night
Party. It's a Stadium card that basically lets you
remove the Sleep Condition and heal 30 damage off of
your Active Pokemon once a turn. It's not a particularly
great Ability, but if you can combine it with Hypno and
Friday's card, well you're in for a big treat.
Another idea would be to utilize
this in a Machamp-EX build. I know it sounds a bit
crazy, but hear me out: normally, you'd be running
Machamp-EX with Ariados, right? Well adding Hypno into
the mix means you can put both Pokemon to Sleep, wake up
Machamp-EX with All-Night Party, Poison them both with
Ariados, and then use Machamp-EX's Crazy Hammer to get
rid of the Poison for 160 damage! BOOM!! Just figure a
way to get rid of All-Night Party before your opponent's
turn, or make sure the attack does enough to KO them
with Poison, and you're all set!
Too complicated for ya? Well then
you're not gonna run Hypno much outside of that. I mean,
what else can you do with a guy who puts everyone to
sleep?
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (he makes for a
couple niche combos, but at the end of the day, he's
still not that useful)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (maybe if some
Pokemon was able to attack in their Sleep, then he could
really prove to be a powerhouse deck)
Limited: 2.5/5 (like, really, he's
not that great)
Arora Notealus: On the flip side of
everything, this Hypno has some of the coolest artwork
ever!! I mean look at that!! Half dreamland, half
nightmare valley, all Hypno! Swagger crazy sonuvagun.
Next Time: TIME TO STAY UP ALL
NIGHT LONG!!
|
Otaku |
The
next three CotDs are closely related and frankly, I need
to write them all at once so let us dive right in! Hypno
(XY: BREAKpoint 51/122) is a Psychic-Type,
hitting most Psychic-Types and the majority of
Fighting-Types for double damage due to Weakness but
slamming into Resistance against nearly all Metal-Types
and Darkness-Types; net result is still favorable
because exploiting Weakness is both easier and more
effective than enjoying Resistance. The direct
benefits of being a Psychic-Type are
·
access to Dimension Valley to shave [C] off of attack costs
·
employing “Mirage” via Gardevoir (BW: Next Destinies
57/99; BW: Dark Explorers 109/108) to treat basic
Psychic Energy attached to Psychic-Types as providing
[PP] (not recommended)
·
Mystery Energy
being an option to drop your Retreat Cost by [CC] per
copy attached
·
Abilities are not shut down by Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom
Forces 36/119)
with
two of those four being unlikely to matter; Hypno
has no [C] in its attack costs and again, Psychic Mirage
is not recommended. There are also less direct
benefits, namely the synergy of being the same Type as a
card that doesn’t demand being in a Psychic-Type deck
(but benefits from the Type support or Energy), like
Mew-EX and Mewtwo-EX (BW: Next Destinies
54/99, BW: Next Destinies 98/99, BW: Black
Star Promos BW45, BW: Legendary Treasures
54/113). Unless I missed it, there are no cards
that punish a Pokémon specifically because it is a
Psychic-Type. This may not be the best Type in the
format, but it is still a good starting point.
Hypno
is a Stage 1; Basics are still the best Stage right now
but the Stage 1 is still a solid second. You’ll
need an extra card and turn so that you can Bench
Drowzee then Evolve, or yet another card but doing
it all at once with Wally, and this is something
multiple successful decks have managed. It does
mean the 90 HP is extra disappointing, as anymore that
is low for a Basic; should it matter though Hypno
is a legal Level Ball target and even a little
more HP leaves it almost as vulnerable to OHKOs, so
there is not much point dwelling upon it. Psychic
Weakness is dangerous; you might get lucky and face one
that Poisons or places damage counters or another trick
instead of doing actual damage, but when facing the
aforementioned Mewtwo-EX or Mew-EX or
Pumpkaboo (XY: Phantom Forces 44/119) all but
the worst possible set-up means Hypno goes down
in a single hit. Silver lining is that all this
means is an almost certain thing is even more certain.
Lack of Resistance is typical and even if present
wouldn’t make much different with 90 HP on a Stage 1, so
we’ll wrap up the card’s attributes with the Retreat
Cost of [CC]. This is the functional average;
while not the mathematical mean of all the Retreat Costs
(or all that see regular play), this is the point where
it stops being easy to pay and to recover from paying
and starts to really sting. Still it is low enough
that a single Double Colorless Energy or
Mystery Energy can cover the cost, the latter
without being discarded.
The
Ability is why we are looking at Hypno:
“Goodnight, Babies” is a great name but its effect is
simply adequate as it leaves both Active Pokémon
(yours and your opponent’s) Asleep. Sleep requires
you flip a coin between turns, with “heads” meaning the
Pokémon stays Asleep while “tails” means it wakes up.
You will need to use another effect to shake it if you
want your own Active to be able to Attack, retreat, etc.
while your opponent has a 50% chance of it being gone
before his or her turn begins. Oddly enough the
fact that shaking Special Conditions is simple actually
benefits this card, as the net result is an irritant
that can distract (and occasionally disable) your
opponent while setting up certain combos (more on that
later). Hypno also has a single attack, named
“Zen Headbutt”, which costs [PP] and does 50; this is
too expensive and weak to be much good, but at the same
time is far better than some other filler attacks.
Just focus on the Ability.
There
are two options for Drowzee in the forms of
XY: Furious Fists 35/111 and XY: BREAKpoint
50/122. Both are Basic Psychic-Types with 70 HP, Psychic
Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], no Ancient
Trait, no Ability but two attacks. XY: Furious Fists
35/111 may use “Sinister Suggestion” for [P], which
causes all coin flips during your opponent’s next turn
to count as if they came up “tails”, which is actually
really impressive. For [PP] it also allows you to
use “Psyshot” to hit for 20 damage. XY: BREAKpoint
50/122 can use “Mumble” to hit for 10 damage at a cost
of [P] or for [CC] instead can use “Focused Wish” to do
10 damage with a coin flip; if “tails” it still does 10
damage while if “heads” it does 10+20. As you can
gather, XY: Furious Fists 35/111 impresses me far
more, so unless you are running a deck without a source
of [P] you can risk on Drowzee, go with it; coin
flips are found in all decks, but enough it could buy
you valuable time. Just remember Sleep Checks
occur between turns, so those aren’t affected.
There is also one other Hypno, XY: Furious
Fists 36/111. It has the same attributes as
today’s card, but with two attacks and no Ability.
Its “Hand Control” attack requires [P] and allows you to
look at your opponent’s hand; you select a Supporter you
find there (if there is one) and Hand Control forces
your opponent to use it (though any decisions required
are made by you and not the Supporter’s owner).
For [PPP] it can use “Hypno Blast” to do 60 damage and
leave the opponent's Active Asleep, which is actually
worse than Zen Headbutt. XY: Furious Fists
35/111 doesn’t help today’s version much, but today’s
Hypno could help if you are trying to build a deck
around XY: Furious Fists 35/111. If you are
curious, we reviewed it
here
(and probably overrated it a bit).
So,
about using Hypno (XY: BREAKpoint 51/122),
the key is looking for two things:
·
Effects that reward you for the opponent’s Active being Asleep on
your turn.
·
Helps you deal with your own Active being Asleep.
Darkrai-EX
(XY: BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122), Giratina
(XY: Plasma Storm 62/135; BW: Black Star
Promos BW74), Honchkrow (XY: Phantom
Forces 52/119), Munna (Black & White
44/114), Musharna (Black & White 45/114),
Ninetales (BW: Dragons Exalted 19/124;
BW: Black Star Promos BW66), Sceptile-EX (XY:
Ancient Origins 7/98, 84/98), Team Aqua’s Muk
(XY: Double Crisis 8/34), Team Aqua’s Seviper
(XY: Double Crisis 9/34) and Volbeat (XY:
Primal Clash 17/160) all have attacks that benefit
from your opponent being Asleep (including ones that
care about any or all Special Conditions).
Probably are a few I missed as these were culled via
searched based on specific card text. The ones
that really matters is Darkrai-EX (XY:
BREAKpoint 74/122, 118/122), but for a sense of
scale we’ll also highlight Honchkrow (XY:
Phantom Forces 52/119). Darkrai-EX is the
real star and we’ll be checking it out this
Friday.
Both cards hit harder if the opponent’s Active is Asleep
and for the same Energy cost of [DCC]; Darkrai-EX
does a massive 80+80 with its “Dark Head” attack while
Honchkrow a much more subdued 60+60 with its
“Nightmare Mambo”. Honchkrow doesn’t really
stand much of a chance given that its main benefit
(Fighting Resistant instead of Fighting Weak) is covered
by Yveltal-EX. There are also options for
Basic, Darkness-Type attacks that are not Pokémon-EX, so
Honchkrow has sadly been left behind unless you
want to build a super-budget (or non-Pokémon-EX) version
of the attack.
So what
about the fact that your Active is also left
Asleep by Goodnight, Babies? There are the various
card effects that expressly remove Special Conditions
but mostly I would expect either Keldeo-EX or
Zoroark (XY: BREAKthrough 91/162) aided by
either the Dark Cloak Ability found on the original
Darkrai (BW: Dark Explorers 63/108, 107/108;
BW: Black Star Promos BW46; BW: Legendary
Treasures 88/113) or a simple Float Stone.
There is also
tomorrow’s card,
a Stadium called All-Night Party (XY:
BREAKpoint 96/122); short version is that it is a
Stadium that allows a player to remove Sleep from his or
her Active Pokémon, then heal it of 30 damage, during
his or her turn. So for Standard, you have a
decent idea of the kind of deck that will use Hypno
from all of this, but I don’t think it is as useful for
Expanded; while not easily reused, Hypnotoxic Laser
plus Virbank City Gym give a 50% chance of making
use of Dark Head while effectively boosting the damage
done thanks to those three extra Poison counters.
No worries about getting the condition off of your own
Active, and with Double Colorless Energy and
Dark Patch, plus Keldeo-EX you should be able
to power up an alternate attacker for when Sleep doesn’t
take. That is how it was used in one deck the Top
8 at more a 2016 Winter Regional Championship.
For
Standard though Hypno seems like a good
substitute. This is where All-Night Party
and Zoroark are likely to join the party as well.
I am uncertain about using Hypno in Limited; if
you get All-Night Party as well, or enough
Evolutions that you can put your opponent’s Active to
Sleep and then Evolve to get rid of your own Active’s
Sleep, go for it! If not, then pass.
Ratings
Standard:
3.25/5
Expanded:
3/5
Limited:
3/5
Summary:
Hypno is in some ways similar to Ariados (XY:
Ancient Origins 6/98), but without an effect
triggered by the Special Condition, inflicting Sleep to
both Actives is less impressive than inflicting Sleep to
any non-Grass-Type Active Pokémon. Plus Hypno
doesn’t have access to Forest of Giant Plants.
Still it may have a serious shot thanks to another combo
spoonfed to us by the-powers-that-be.
Hypno
did not make either my personal nor the site’s Top 10 or
15 or even 20 list.
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