aroramage |
Sometimes having a couple copies of
a card like Lysandre isn't enough, and you just wish you
had more of them in your deck. Preferable ones with HP
and attacks that dealt damage. Maybe ones that could
even be used in unique ways.
Enter Hawlucha!
Now to start off, his attack
Acrobatics isn't that crazy. It's a 2-for-20 hit that
lets you flip two coins for a potential +40 in damage.
It's alright, not that great or special, but it exists.
Better than not, right? No, the real appeal is in Sudden
Cyclone. When you play Hawlucha from your hand, he can
blow away the opponent's Active Pokemon and bring out
one of their Benched Pokemon.
Now the phrasing is a little bit
different from Lysandre's own text. Instead of, "Switch
1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with his or her
Active Pokemon", the text is, "...you may have your
opponent switch his or her Active Pokemon with 1 of his
or her Benched Pokemon." This seems to imply that your
opponent has the choice in which Pokemon gets switched
out, and looking into some discussion around the card
that does appear to be the case. What that means is that
Hawlucha is not exactly Lysandre - he still switches,
but Lysandre gives you full control. Hawlucha doesn't.
And therein lies the difference
between the two. Sure, Hawlucha can be useful
regardless, forcing out one of your opponent's Pokemon
for an easier Prize or even as a basic stalling tactic,
but don't expect your opponent to be cooperative in
handing you victory - you're still gonna have to earn
it! He may see some teching in some decks, so feel free
to experiment with your extra Lysandre...doppelganger?
Rating
Standard: 3/5 (not too shabby, just
comes with his own bag of burdens here and there)
Expanded: 3/5 (he's great for what
he can do at least, and he's searchable in unique ways!)
Limited: 3.5/5 (surely you'll have
a use for him)
Arora Notealus: No doubt there's
potential, but having a 1-Prize potential cost weaker
Lysandre might not appeal to everyone. It's important to
keep that in mind while you're considering Hawlucha in
your deck. Who knows, maybe there's a deck that would
benefit from Hawlucha in other ways...
Weekend Thought: What do you think
of this week's cards? See the potential for these cards?
How about the Evolutions set? Pretty neat huh? Or maybe
you're still working around the new Standard format! Try
your hardest and keep your guard up! Oh, and we may be
taking a break for the next couple of weeks as the boss
man sets out on his own journey. Keep thinking
progressive!
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Otaku |
We conclude the
week with the Pokémon that makes me think of ˇMucha
Lucha!… that’s right it’s time for Hawlucha (XY:
Steam Siege 97/114). As a Basic Pokémon it is
the best Stage for the usual reasons: minimum deck
space, time/effort to put into play, reduces odds of
mulligans (wait…), naturally works better with certain
effects, and has access to some solid Stage support.
There are some good anti-Basic cards (like Silent Lab),
but they don’t outweigh all the good. It is a
Colorless Type, so no Weakness or Resistance.
Anti-Colorless effects aren’t particularly good, though
the Type offers at least a few nice pieces of support:
Altaria (XY: Roaring Skies 74/108; XY:
Black Star Promos XY46) to cancel out Weakness,
Aspertia City Gym for +20 HP, and Winona to
search out three Colorless Pokémon of your choice.
As most Colorless Type Pokémon have Colorless Energy
requirements in their attack costs, the only real
synergy from using them together comes from tapping
shared Type support; without it you will usually be
better off seeking Pokémon of other Types with similarly
open Energy requirements, or which otherwise align with
a particular Colorless Type thematically. The good
news is that this is why Colorless Type Pokémon are so
easy to work into most decks.
Hawlucha
has 80 HP; small enough to be a probable OHKO, but at
least it’s outside of the painfully easy range.
Your opponent might need a second attack if his or her
set up is incomplete, damage ends up slightly reduced,
or if the is focused on something other than damaging
the other player’s Active Pokémon (effects, spread,
etc.). On the Bench it is outside of incidental KO
range, where spread or bonus Bench damage is likely to
gain an additional KO; in fact it will probably take
three such hits. Should it prove relevant,
Level Ball can fetch Hawlucha, though it
could have had 10 more HP and still made the same claim.
Its Lightning Weakness is dangerous, but somewhat
blunted by the HP; attacks that already hit for 80+
damage are a OHKO even without the Weakness, and attacks
that do 30 or less still won’t get a OHKO. It’s
Fighting Resistance is similarly unlikely to matter all
that much as 100+ is still a OHKO, 60+ is still a 2HKO,
etc. The Fighting Type also specializes in
stacking damage bonuses; sometimes this can help out as
Resistance can goof up quick calculations. The
Retreat Cost of [C] is good; most of the time it is easy
to pay and recover from having paid. Still, a free
Retreat Cost would have been much better, and isn’t
unprecedented for Hawlucha (more on that in a
bit).
Hawlucha
has one Ability and one attack. The Ability is
“Sudden Cyclone” and when you Bench Hawlucha from
hand, you can force your opponent to change out his or
her Active Pokémon. Your opponent chooses which
Benched Pokémon heads to the Active spot, though, so it
is nowhere near as potent as Lysandre’s Trump Card.
This is half the effect of Escape Rope, or if you
remember it the effect of Pokémon Circulator.
For [CC] Hawlucha can use the attack “Hidden
Cyclone” to do 20 damage plus flip two coins; for each
“heads” Acrobatics does 20 more damage. The
Ability is mediocre; normally you want to promote
something from your opponent’s Bench, not just force a
change in the current Active. The attack is good
when you get double “heads”, adequate when you get at
least one, and is poor when you get double “tails”, but
three out of four outcomes are 40+ so the odds aren’t
bad. I might be asking a lot, but this very much
feels like a missed opportunity for some more wrestling
flavor, with an attack that hit a fresh Active harder
and was named after the clothesline or lariat
techniques, but I don’t actually know that much about
wrestling.
There are already
four other versions of Hawlucha competing with
this card for deck space (since they share the same
name): XY: Furious Fists 63/111, XY: Roaring
Skies 39/108; XY: BREAKthrough 87/162, and
XY: Fates Collide 48/124. All of these are
Basic Fighting Type Pokémon with Lightning Weakness and
Fighting Resistance. XY: Furious Fists 63/111
has 70 HP, that perfect free Retreat Cost I was wishing
for earlier, the Ability “Shining Spirit” and the attack
“Flying Press”. The former prevents Weakness and
Resistance from applying to the damage done by this
card’s attacks, while the latter requires [F] to do 60
damage, but can only be used on Pokémon-EX. It is
the only Hawlucha we have which is not
Standard legal. Aroramage and I looked at it
before
here.
XY: Roaring Skies 39/108 has 80 HP, Retreat Cost
[C] and two attacks. For [F] it can use “Tackle”
for 10 damage, while for [CCC] it can use “Midair
Strike” to do 40 damage and flip a coin; “heads” means
another 40 damage (80 total) while “tails” just means
the original 40. XY: BREAKthrough 87/162 also
has 80 HP and Retreat Cost [C], but brings two different
attacks: [F] pays for “High Jump Kick” which does 20
damage (nothing else) and [FF] buys “Skyward Kick” which
does 40 while ignoring Resistance. XY: Fates Collide
48/124 goes back down to 70 HP, but unfortunately keeps
the Retreat Cost of [C]. It sports two attacks,
the first being “Backflip” for [C] to draw a card and
the second being “Wicked Jab” for [FC] to do 30 damage
and flip a coin. On “heads” the opponent’s Active
is Paralyzed (“tails” just means the base 30).
The original
Hawlucha (XY: Furious Fists 63/111) is still
the best; even with so many non-Pokémon-EX showing up,
most decks have at least a few so its attack tends to be
handy: 60 for just [F]. With Strong Energy,
Fighting Stadium, and Fighting Fury Belt/Muscle
Band/Silver Bangle, Hawlucha can OHKO
a Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108,
106/108). That Ability usually does more harm than
good, as exploiting Weakness tends to be more useful
than ignoring Resistance. With the right plays
(like Hex Maniac) you can selectively ignore
Weakness for a big damage bonus; it becomes 120 for [F]!
With Strong Energy, Fighting Stadium, and
the right Tool you’re taking out most Basic Pokémon-EX
in two hits, and with a Hex Maniac you can OHKO
the Fighting Weak among them. That free Retreat is
just as important though, perhaps more so: it gave many
Fighting decks that pivot Pokémon so that they had
something easy to get out of the way to promote, do-si-do
with your Active so that cards like Escape Role
and Switch allow it to ditch attack effects
(including Special Conditions), etc. As Korrina
used to allow you to search out an Item and a Fighting
Pokémon, this is even better than it sounds. I
think we lowballed it in our original review, and now
it’s pretty much the Hawlucha to beat.
Except running four copies in one deck is unlikely, and
it’s only in Expanded, so it won’t keep today’s
Hawlucha (XY: Steam Siege 97/114) from seeing
play if it is worth it.
I don’t think
Hawlucha (XY: Steam Siege 97/114) is worth
it; a free Retreat Cost would have changed that in at
least a few decks, and maybe in decks with Winona
or Level Ball it might still be worth a shot, but
it does a lot of stuff “okay” but nothing particularly
“good”. Sometimes that still works because a card
is greater than the sum of its parts, but I’m not seeing
that for this Hawlucha. The future might
change this, but for now just enjoy it in Limited where
forcing a change in Active is pretty significant plus
the stats and attack all become more useful.
Ratings
Standard:
1.75/5
Expanded:
1.75/5
Limited:
4/5
Summary:
Not without its uses, Hawlucha has a so-so
Ability and so-so attack with so-so stats. If it
had been printed with a free Retreat Cost, I’d be all
over including one in most decks because with three
potential, non-exclusive uses it might carry its own
weight. As is, you’re usually going to have rosier
prospects.
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