Tournaments have come and gone in the Pokemon TCG, and We have all seen the
BBP (Big Basic Pokemon). Whether it's sneasel or the overlooked rhyhorn,
these cards have all offered some fun and powerful gameplay. With the 7 month
old release of murkow, a new generation of pokemon cards was born. That's
right little boys and girls, With the recent release of neo discovery, the
generation of STBP (small and tough basic pokemon) has fully developed. In
this article I would like to review some good STBP which are good for several
different reasons, whether it is odd effects such as no retreating or
powerful attacks. So here we go!

murkrow: This little guy is probably the best of all the STBP. In case you
have not guessed yet, STBP have HP lower than 60 and are tough to beat
(Murkrow is no exception). First off, Murkrow is barely in the STBP category
because it has 50 HP. The evil bird pokemon also has some good attacks (I
think I will talk about the attacks now). Mean Look makes it hard to switch
out the enemy's active pokemon, but things get worse when you use feint
attack. Since feint attack can damage any of your opponent's pokemon, it is a
strong attack. Now right now I would like to clear something up. Dark
energies DO go into effect if you damage a benched pokemon with feint attack
for two reasons. The first is the text says that no effects on THE DEFENDING
POKEMON go into effect. Next It does damage for Dark energy because it says
if damage is done to THE DEFENDING POKEMON! In this case, the defending
pokemon would be the one getting damaged, not the active pokemon. Overall
murkrow is a great card which should not be underestimated by anyone.

Magnemite (neo discovery) : Despite the fact that murkrow is the better card
out of magnemite and himself, magnemite would win the bout. This card may
have only 40 HP, but if you lock on and then use it's powerful electric bolt
attack, you do 50 damage and paralyze the opponent, but if you use electric
bolt by itself, the attack will probably not succeed. Overall, the sacrificed
turn is all worth it.

tyrogue: Though it has the con all baby pokemon share (low HP), it has the
strongest attack of all baby pokemon. Even though the odds are 50/50 of doing
the damage with smash punch, if you get heads then you can do a lot of damage
for a baby. Think about it. igglybuff may stop trapper decks and cleffa can
give you a new hand, but they can't do damage. Don't forget that magby can
only do 10, pichu does 20 only to guys with powers and elekid has the same
odds of doing damage with his power. This makes tyrogue the strongest of the
babies. The final thing to mention is the pro all babies share, the baby
power.

farfetch'd: The duck pokemon to me seems to be a small version of scyther
with the pot smash attack, and also has hints of tyrogue's quick hitting. The
shameful thing about the leek slap attack is you can only once. This duck may
not see much play, but it might see lots of gameplay in the future.

Giovanni's magikarp: Like all magikarp it has low HP and at least one bad
attack, but the thing which makes this guy the best magikarp around is
dragon's memory (which like leek slap, can be used only once). Unlike leek
slap, it does 40, making it possible to actually knock out a pokemon with a
magikarp! Try your luck with the magikarp and hope you get heads on dragon's
memory, then hope you draw giovanni's gyarados. This guy does not entirely
live up to magikarp's bad name.

These cards may not be all of the STBP, but try playing them. Who knows? You
might even beat a sneasel with one of these cards.

Johnny/thegreatcell
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