aroramage |
...welp...it's uh...it's Mandibuzz!...in
case you're wondering, I'm not enthusiastic about her
either.
Now I know what you're thinking - 3
Energy for a vanilla 80 damage? No way would I play a
Stage 1 for that! Well, that's where Mandibuzz offers
another attack to hopefully change your mind, especially
since Cutting Wind doesn't...cut it...EYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY
Bone Drop is actually pretty good
for what it does. It's a bit limited, but it's
effectively a 1-for-60 hit, and that's really good just
for 1 Energy! What's the restriction then? You need to
hit a Pokemon with an Ability. Course, you've still got
a fair amount of Pokemon with Abilities to choose from,
but I can't think of many that have 60 and under in
terms of HP. The new Mew comes to mind, being a 50 HP
Basic, as does Alakazam-EX, and that's just in the new
stuff. Keep in mind that Weakness and Resistance doesn't
affect the attack for Bench-sitters, but if they've got
whatever you're aiming for Active and it's weak to
Darkness, I believe that's a 1-for-120 power play.
That being said, is Bone Drop alone
enough to make Mandibuzz playable? Probably not. There
may be some who tech a line-up in against any Night
March builds with Mew in them, but aside from that,
there's not too much of a reason to run something that
can only really do 60 damage...well, 80 damage for 3
Energy, but why would you run Mandibuzz for that?
Rating
Standard: 1.5/5 (really niche usage
will lead to teching her in)
Expanded: 1.5/5 (but that's about
the best we can expect)
Limited: 3.5/5 (on the other hand,
Limited respects Mandibuzz's need to do lots of damage)
Arora Notealus: Mandibuzz...should
she get an EX treatment? Let's figure that out together!
What would it be...Bone Drop with some additional
Whirlwind power? Or like Darkness Wing? Or Air Cutter?
Or Divebomb?
Next Time: The power of the EX
blesses the last Eeveelution!
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Otaku |
Our second pick
this week is Mandibuzz (XY: Fates Collide
58/124), and it keeps up the theme of being a Darkness
Type. Said Darkness Type only enjoys Weakness
against certain Psychic Types, though this is better
than it sounds thanks to two of the top decks (those
based on Night March or Trevenant BREAK) fall
into this category. Darkness Weakness is almost
totally universal on the Fairy Type, but mono- or mostly
Fairy Type decks aren’t strong right now so it isn’t a
major concern. Likewise there are
anti-Darkness-Type effects, but none have made good in
the past so likely it won’t be a serious problem right
now, if it shows up at all. Dark Patch is still
good in Expanded, but especially in Standard the potency
of Darkness Types come from their stable of Pokémon for
their attacks and/or Abilities. One of the reasons
I have to be careful with this breakdown; if I rush
through it sounds like the Type is a bit weak but in the
end the Darkness Type is among the better ones.
Mandibuzz
is a Stage 1 Pokémon, so it is slower and less space
efficient than a Basic but still faster and less costly
than all other Stages save the BREAK Evolutions of Basic
Pokémon. Its 110 HP is not great, just a hair
better than the easily OHKO’d 100; most decks will
manage a OHKO but the question is how rapidly, reliably,
and (assuming you run multiples) repeatedly. I
believe the answer is that most competitive decks will
manage two of the three, with only decks not focused on
doling out damage failing to manage at least one of
those three. Lightning Type attackers will find it
even easier thanks to Weakness; thanks to the damage
doubling they need only do 60 up front. Resistance
is a welcome sight; even though the Fighting Type has
more than one attacker which ignores Resistance and
beyond that specializes in enough modest damage bonuses
to overwhelm Resistance for the rest of them, it still
should improve the odds of survival. An effective
130 is not massive, but it does seem to be around the
point where a Pokémon is a bit more likely to survive a
hit than be OHKO’d. The Retreat Cost of [C] is low
and easy to pay should you be unable to reduce it to
nothing.
Mandibuzz
has two attacks, the first being “Bone Drop” for [C].
This is a nice, easy cost to pay but the attack may or
may not be easy to use; that is because it does 60
damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon but the target
must have an Ability. If nothing has an Ability,
Mandibuzz can’t use this attack. 60-for-one is
great, being able to also hit the Bench is better still,
but some juicy, smaller targets like Joltik (XY:
Phantom Forces 26/119) and Pumpkaboo (XY:
Phantom Forces 44/119) are off limits. The
second attack is “Cutting Wind”, which is a vanilla 80
for [DCC]. If the card had something else going
for it, this would be decent; after all with a Muscle
Band you can manage to 2HKO just about anything with
200 or less HP, and with Dark Patch (and possibly
Double Colorless Energy) you could go from “zero”
to “attacking” right away. Unfortunately for this
card the Darkness Type has several Stage 1 cards that
are already potent attackers that are as or more
affordable. Still all hope is not lost, let us see
what its lower Stage and alternate versions can do.
The Basic Pokémon
of the line - Vullaby - has five options:
Black & White 72/114, BW: Emerging Powers
68/98, BW: Dark Explorers 73/108, BW:
Boundaries Crossed 92/149, and XY: Fates Collide
57/124. As for other Mandibuzz, there are
three more options (all Stage 1): Black & White
73/114, BW: Emerging Powers 66/98, and BW:
Boundaries Crossed 93/149. All are Darkness
Type Pokémon with Lightning Weakness, Fighting
Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], no Ancient Trait, and no
Ability. Black & White 72/114 has 60 HP and
“Surprise Attack” for [D], doing 20 but requiring a coin
flip and instead doing nothing on “tails”. BW:
Emerging Powers 68/98 has 50 HP; for [D] it can use
“Rear Guard” to soak 30 damage from attacks or it can do
20 damage for [DC] with “Gust”. BW: Dark Explorers
73/108 is back up to 60 HP but goes down to just one
attack - Whirlwind - for [D] that does 10 while forcing
the opponent to send his or her Active to the Bench. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 92/149 has 50 HP with two
attacks; it can use “Gust” for just [D] but the damage
is only 10 while its “Razor Wing” needs [DC] and does
20. XY: Fates Collide 57/124 is the only
Standard legal option as well as the only one with both
60 HP and two attacks. For [C] it can use “Leer”;
“heads” means the opponent’s Active is Paralyzed but
“tails” does nothing. [DCC] buys it Cutting Wind like
its Evolved form, but this time the attack only does 40
damage. None of the Vullaby are great, but
go with XY: Fates Collide 57/124 since it has the
HP and an attack that can help it stay alive with
any color Energy.
Getting back to the
other Mandibuzz, all the other options are
Expanded-only with 90 HP and two attacks. Black &
White 73/114 can use “Blindside” for [D] to do 50
damage to one of your opponent’s Pokémon, but the target
must already have at least one damage counter on it.
For [DCC] it can use “Punishment” to do 40, or 40+60 if
attacking a Stage 2. Blindside isn’t too bad but
“Punishment” describes the attack for you, not the
opponent; I think Stage 2 Pokémon were about as often
played when this card released as they are now, and that
isn’t much so doing just 40 to the vast majority of
targets is awful. You aren’t even likely to OHKO a
Stage 2 when you do attack it. This got to be our
1950th CotD
about five years ago, and the astonishing thing is that
it scored fairly well. We all badly overrated it.
BW: Emerging Powers 66/98 has “Bone Rush” for
[D]; you flip until you get “tails” and the attack does
30 damage per “heads”. For [CC] it has “Dark
Pulse” to do 20 plus 10 damage for each Energy attached
to all of your Pokémon. As a reminder this was
released three sets before Dark Patch and was
outclassed after it was available, so it also saw little
to no successful competitive play. It is
significantly better though; you can read the somewhat
optimistic reviews
here,
with Baby Mario basically getting it just right. BW:
Boundaries Crossed 93/149 brings back Gust (yet
again) doing 30 for [DC], while for [DCCC] its “Dual
Cut” had you flip two coins good for 80 damage per
“heads”; this was four sets into the Pokémon-EX era and
while Dark Claw (also available by this point)
would give you a one-in-four chance of OHKOing a Basic
Pokémon-EX, for the investment that actually is a bit
underpowered. We didn’t review this one, and you
can guess why.
So it looks like
Mandibuzz (XY: Fates Collide 58/124) is
simply one of the better versions of a line that
consistently underperforms. Only play it for fun
in Standard or Expanded play, though it is a great pull
for Limited. Just to threaten Pokémon with
Abilities either Active or on the Bench with Bone Drop
is enough, though you should be able to work in a few
basic Darkness Energy cards so Mandibuzz
can also use Cutting Wind.
Ratings
Standard:
1.35/5
Expanded:
1.25/5
Limited:
3.75/5
Summary:
Whoever keeps designing Mandibuzz cards hasn’t
learned from the shortcomings of the BW-era versions.
This one is only good for Limited play, though at least
it is pretty good there.
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