Coalossal – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Otaku

Coalossal (SSH – Rebel Clash 107/192; SSH – Black Star Promos SWSH024) is is a single-Prize Pokémon with no specialty mechanics.  The Fighting type is good at exploiting Weakness and enjoys some really nice support, though [F] Resistance is (relatively) common and anti-Fighting effects exist.  Colalossal enjoys 160 HP, letting it survive up to medium-sized attacks.  [G] Weakness means a Grass attacker scores a OHKO for just 80 damage; good thing there are so few of those right now.  No Resistance is the worst but hardly matters.  The Retreat Cost of [CCCC] means manually retreating is pretty much not an option; switching cards are readily available, so that isn’t a big problem… and you can take advantage of cards like Buff Padding.

Coalossal has the Ability “Tar Generator”, which lets you attach a [R] Energy and/or a [F] Energy card from your discard pile to your Pokémon once during your turn.  When attaching both a [R] and [F] Energy, both can go to the same target or you can split them up.  You cannot attach two [F] or two [R] Energy at once, however.   Though they don’t specify “basic” Energy, as usual, only basic Fighting counts as [F] and basic Fire counts as [R] while in the discard pile.  The good news is that there are no attachment restrictions and the “once per turn” applies to each instance of the Ability; if you have multiple copies of Coalossal with Tar Generator in play, each can activate its Ability once during your turn.  Assuming you have enough Energy in the discard to target, of course.

[FCCC] pays for Coalossal’s only attack, “Flaming Avalanche”.  This does 130 damage.  That’s it.  It is an overpriced attack, made tolerable by the Ability.  The Ability if fantastic, however!  I consider Energy acceleration from the discard pile to be the best, all other factors being equal.  While it may take a small effort to get the Energy into your discard pile initially, after it is there, you can attach and – as KO’s, retreat costs, etc. discard it – re-attach it over and over again.  Attaching two different basic Energy types is both good and bad;  you gain flexibility with your deck, but splitting your deck’s focus can misfire.  Attackers that only need [F] or [R] Energy can still use the opposite to cover [C] Energy requirements, but they may have none.

Coalossal is a Stage 2 Pokémon.  With Maxie’s Hidden Ball Trick banned, the only way to field Coalossal is through evolving, with or without acceleration.  Unless you want to use your only Ditto {*} on it, you’ll need to begin with Rolycoly (SSH – Rebel Clash 105/192), your typical filler Basic.  You can then evolve into Carkol, your typical filler Stage 1, or use Rare Candy to evolve directly into Coalossal.  You’ll usually want to do the latter, but that requires having both Rare Candy and Coalossal in your hand, at the same time; the slow method means Coalossal just needs to show up sometime after Carkol is ready to evolve.  There are some other shortcuts for getting Coalossal into play, but they’re pretty deck-specific and – at this point – I don’t think they will actually work well with Coalossal.

If Coalossal was a Basic Pokémon, it’d be broken.  Even in Expanded, where you can counter the Abilities of Basics with Silent Lab, you’d still see “Turbo Coalossal” decks that would use one to four of it to power up another attacker… or itself, if you were in a pinch.  If Coalossal was a Stage 1, it would be very strong, as it could reliably and (relatively) easily hit the field on your second turn.  As a Stage 2, it is – or at least was – feasible to build a deck around this kind of Energy acceleration.  Coalossal is reminiscent of Vikavolt (Sun & Moon 52/149; SM – Black Star Promos SM28).  We clearly don’t have the same metagame or combination of support, but if we get the right attackers (probably Pokémon V), Coalossal could become the heart of a competitive deck.

Coalossal is seeing some play, but not successful, competitive play.  Well, I have to be careful; I am unaware of the results for the ongoing PTCGO Player’s Cup.  It is possible it is doing well there, but if so, I haven’t heard a peep about it.  This is the other reason I brought up Vikavolt, though.  Like Coalossal, there was a decent bit of hype prior to its release, maybe a few lists which did well in Japan, but shortly after releasing… nada.  Vikavolt appeared to have been a mostly false hope; a functional deck arose, but it wasn’t seen as truly competitive.  Then things shifted and Vikavolt became competitive, maybe even the deck to beat at certain times.

So I think Coalossal has real potential for Standard.  Maybe even in Expanded; anti-Ability effects are going to be a real concern, and running a Stage 2 that doesn’t somehow protect itself may be a deal breaker… but you’ll have a bigger pool of attackers from which to choose.  Existing Fire or Fighting decks don’t really need Coalossal… at least, based on my very dated information.  Sooner or later, though, one expects something to emerge that just needs this kind of Energy acceleration, and that’s a rarity for the Fighting type.  If you pull the entire Coalossal line, you’ll likely want to run them.  The obvious exceptions apply; you pull something else that belongs in a Mulligan deck, or you’ll be forced into an deck build around four or more basic Energy types.

Ratings

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 2/5
• Limited: 4/5

Coalossal seems like the new Vikavolt, and it took time for Vikavolt to prove itself.  I don’t think you have to worry about Coalossal decks too much when considering your deck options, either as your choice or a threat to whatever you pick, but don’t ignore it completely… and keep an eye on it for future developments.  Worst case scenario, this should at least give you a “fun” deck to play with friends.