hey everyone.  With neo discovery coming out, there have been alot

of new strategies coming up.  Fossil egg/aerodacytal, igglybuff,

murkrow/umbreon, and dark dugtrio/forretress to name a few.  But I have

a good card that slipped past most people's  best neo discovery lists,

Scizor.

    Ever since the release of metal energy, people have been disapointed

because theres this great card here, but no good metal pokemon to put it

on.  I know steelix is good, but with the release of metal and dark,

energy removal is actually on a rise.  Steelix is the most er

succeptable pokemon i've ever seen.  if you er it, It suddenly becomes a

big old dart board.  Plus with a retreat of 4, if its out there, it's

there to stay.  Unfortuanetly, In a hand/energy/trainer disruption

environment, something that needs that many cards devoted to it with

never see too much playtime.  and skarmory, Is playable, but with 60 hp,

won't last long, even with metal energies.

    But with the release of neo discovery, we see a new evolution to an

old favorite.

Scizor has solid hp (80), low energy attacks( 1st: 1 metal, 2nd: 3

colorless), retreat of 2( half of steelix), and evolves from scyther (a

free retreating 70hp big basic).

    Lets look at scizors offensive drive.

1st attack= for 1 metal, this attack does half of your oponents hp

rounded down.  For one energy, that knocks most archetypes down to 30 or

40 hp. Now I know hat there are decks that do not use archetypes, But

when building a tournament worthy deck, those are what you need to look

out for.  this first attack works well with it's second attack.

2nd attack= for 3 colorless, this attack does 20 damage. then you flip 2

coins, it does an additional 20 damage for each heads.  This attacks

averages 40 damage.  So you have a 75% chance of knocking out that big

basic or wigglytuff out that turn.

in two turns(not the first 2 turns) you can knock out most big basic

pokemon.  The best thing, is when facing higher hp pokemon, aka chansey

or steelix, scizors first attack becomes even stronger.

    But perahps the biggest advantage to scizor is the fact that he gets

metal benefit.  I'll tell you now, theres nothing I like more in a

pokemon than being defensive and offensive.  If you can get 3 metals on

him,  he's a wall.  now going back to my steelix lecture, if they super

you while you have 3 metal energy, than you can simply slap on a double

colorless and your still hitting them hard.

    The only problem with cards like this, Scizor/wigglytuff/steelix, is

that they all are stage 1's.  that means you have to chill with your

jigglypuff or onix. And your messed up if cannot evolve it.  But scizor

elvolves from scyther, giving it another check on the pro side.  Scyther

can hit hard without scizor, And it can retreat for free, and it can

hang in longer with 70 hp.  But my favorite thing about scizor is that

it is just as stronge without any metal energy.  So if you are slashing

your oponent with scyther, you can simply evolve it, and keep

attacking.  But you goin 10 more hp, a different resistance(witch allows

you to shift resistance), and it can do an average of 10 more damage.

    I also know fire decks have becom popular with the release of

blain's arcainine(120 damage), neo magmar( the no resistance

hitmonchan), and the release of entei this fall(pokemon power allows up

to 5 fire energies to be played on its first turn).  Scizor isn't

perfect, and it is a target for energy removal, but with 80 hp, a

rainbow energy is a good option.  but you know, you have to try it out

before you do anything.  Give it a shot, see how you like it.

Cya next time

Matt Haithcock

matth@greenvillenc.com