I'll leave the beatdown about why Wigglytuff is good to the other
players who play lots of SpeedTuff. (; It's all been said before, and I
don't need to say it again.
But I would like to agree that Clefairy/Clefable is one nasty evolution
chain. I do not believe they're underrated -- a friend of mine has a
completely cheesed out Clefairy deck. q:
Dratini on its own is not useful. You would play Dratini only for the
evolutions, both sets of which are pretty good. (I'm about ready to haul
out a Muk deck to get rid of those annoying Dark Dragonairs. Bleah!)
Lickitung used to be underrated, but is no longer. I am pleased to see
so many people playing with such a great Pokémon now. (:
I really believe that the most underrated Colorless Pokémon are the
following: Porygon (both Rocket and Base), Meowth/Persian (Base/Base)
and Spearow/Fearow.
Porygon got a much-needed boost from the Rocket version, but even the
Base version is OK. You simply have to plan your deck around the card.
There will be much maneuvering of Porygon to and from the bench, so you
have to plan low retreat costs into the rest of your deck. You'll also
have to plan mostly colored guys in the rest of your deck, as Porygon
doesn't change Weakness to Colorless. Porygon makes an excellent
front-liner for a beat-down deck focusing on Weakness alteration.
Everyone always says to me, "How do you make Meowth and Persian work?"
Uh ... don't look at me, I just play with them. It's worth it to
remember that Pay Day is a mini-Fetch that does damage. Sure, it's less
reliable, but it does damage. Meowth's got 50 HP, which is pretty
respectable for an evolver, particularly a colorless one, and a much
lower retreat cost than Kangaskhan, too. Persian is simply good. It has
70 HP, a 0 retreat cost, and Pounce is an excellent attack. It
essentially has a 40 damage differential instead of 30 -- Persian is 30
ahead, and your opponent is 10 behind, and unless they retreat, it'll
stay that way. Good cards, both, when used properly.
Spearow and Fearow. Surprisingly good, surprisingly under-used. They're
most effective in a beat-down environment, but even versus status
effects, they're still quite funtional. I suspect that the main problem
is that most people think of Colorless Pokémon as supplements, and
Spearow and Fearow should be played as a main thrust because they need a
lot of energy. You can play Spearow as a supplement -- with resistance
to Fighting, two attacks, and a 0 retreat cost, he's not quite the next
Scyther, but he's very interesting. Fearow, however, can be quite
frightening. Between Agility and Drill Peck, he can really dish it out
without having to take too much heat.
As always, these are just my thoughts. You can email me comments or
constructive criticism at lopaskar@san.rr.com.
==Leanne
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Leanne Opaskar
lopaskar@san.rr.com