Chatot – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Otaku

Chatot (SSH – Rebel Clash 142/192) is a Basic Pokémon, making it easy to slip into a deck and to put into play.  Its [C] Typing means it can’t naturally exploit Weakness, though it won’t have to worry about Resistance, either.  For nitpickers detailed-focused folks such as myself, yes the Unlimited Format contains Pokémon with [C] Weakness and others with [C] Resistance.  [C] support and counters are exclusive to the Expanded Format.  70 HP is an easy OHKO, though not absolutely guaranteed.  It is all-but-guaranteed against [L] Types; 40+ damage does the job thanks to Chatot’s [L] Weakness.  It is a tiny bit more durable against Fighting Types thanks to [F] Resistance.  A Retreat Cost of [C] is low; easy to pay and recover from having paid, most of the time.

Chatot has the Ability “Lucky Match”; when you Bench it from your hand (during your turn), you may flip a coin.  If “tails”, Lucky Match does nothing else; you can continue on with your turn.  If “heads”, you select a Supporter from your discard pile, and add it to your hand.  [CC] pays for “Glide”, which does 30 damage.  Gilde is poor quality filler: Lucky Match is clearly the star, here.  If you want this effect sans a coin toss, either you use VS Seeker in Expanded or Eldegoss V in either Format.  There are other tricks, but they involve attacks that end your turn, burning your Ace Spec, using your Supporter for the turn, etc.  VS Seeker is clearly superior; Eldegoss V means running a (relatively) low HP Pokémon V.

Chatot provides the budget and/or single-Prize alternative to Eldegoss V.  Except neither Eldegoss V nor VS Seeker are that expensive, under $10 and $5 USD, respectively.  Which is a quick Google and glance price; I’m sure a savvy shopper or trader can do much better.  Which means Chatot is mostly about avoiding having a two Prize Pokémon in your deck… and that’s still a respectible niche to occupy.  However, being “tails fails” really hurts; you can bounce it with Scoop Up Net for another chance, but if it had some different cost to it… well… then it might be better than Eldegoss V, even if it is (proportionately) more fragile.

I guess the same use applies for Expanded, but the main place to enjoy Chatot is the Format most of us have the fewest opportunities to play: Limited.  If you do get the chance and pull Chatot, you run it unless you pull something worth running in a Mulligan build.

Ratings

• Standard: 2/5
• Expanded: 1/5
• Limited: 4/5

Thanks to VS Seeker, I don’t see much use for Chatot in Expanded, but I think there’s a decent chance budget decks, or those trying to avoid any multi-Prize Pokémon, have enough reason to use Chatot.  Especially if you’re already packing four Scoop Up Net in your deck.