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Well now here's an interesting
card. Honchkrow's always been a really neat evolution,
one of the few from Gen IV that doesn't seem
out-of-place or downright strange. Could he be wanting
to step up his game?
His first attack, Feint Attack, is
just a basic snipe at 1-for-30. It doesn't do anything,
just adds on the 30 damage without getting affected by
anything - Weakness, Resistance, effects on the Pokemon-heyyyyyyyyyy!
I wonder if that means this gets around stuff like Bench
Barrier? Maybe, but all things considered, 30 damage
ain't gonna be that threatening to anybody.
What might end up being curious is
Raven's Claw. It's a 2-for-10 attack with an additional
10 damage coming in...from every damage counter on your
opponent's Pokemon. Now that's what I find
strange about this card - the damage gets added on from
your opponent's Pokemon instead of your own? So you'd be
stacking on damage to your opponent via Feint
Attack...and then use Raven's Claw to finish them off?
Potentially.
Luckily for Honchkrow, there are a
number of different ways to rack up damage to add-on to
this attack, as opposed to just using his Feint Attack.
There's Sharpedo (SM)'s Rough Skin Ability, Umbreon-GX's
Shadow Bullet, Alolan Rattata and Alolan Meowth can put
damage down for free...there's uh, Mandibuzz (FCO) who
snipes for 60 on Ability Pokemon...or Yveltal (BKT) for
Pokemon-EX...uhhh...Absol (ROS) can move 30 damage
around?
If it's any wonder why I'm running
low on ideas for damage, it's because in
Standard...well, Dark-only builds don't have that much
to go with, outside of Umbreon-GX's Shadow Bullet which
is likely the best option, at 120 damage per shot. This
gives Honchkrow at least 130 damage for his attack, so
that's a positive. If you mix in something like Espeon-GX,
who can spread out 100 damage more evenly than a snipe
between 2 Pokemon, then you can wield Honchkrow's
massive damage output more readily, albeit at the cost
of potentially losing consistency and having a big
target for Garbodor decks to take advantage of.
In fact, you might as well play
Garbodor...seems likelier that the opponent will have
lots of Items in their discard pile rather than let you
get away with just damaging and not-KOing anything just
for one attack.
Rating
Standard: 2/5 (Honchkrow's a bit of
a win-harder card - if spread damage is a big factor in
your deck)
Expanded: 2/5 (you want him to be
really good...but right now, he's severely outclassed)
Limited: 3.5/5 (either by Pokemon
who rely on a reliable factor of your opponent's, or
that rely on a factor you can reliably control within
your own deck)
Arora Notealus: In another time and
place, Honchkrow might have been a powerful contender in
the game. He still has potential, but you have to have
things set-up in his favor to make his attack work out,
and at the current pace of the game where OHKOs and
2HKOs are all settled after the set-up procedure, which
maybe lasts a turn or two? Let's not kid ourselves -
Honchkrow demands MUCH more set-up to take advantage of.
...and a slower format.
Next Time: An oldie from the good
ol days of Base Set!
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