Corviknight – Sword & Shield Pokemon Review

Otaku

Corviknight (Sword & Shield 135/202) is a [M] Type Pokémon; currently not the best for exploiting Weakness, and sometimes has to worry about Resistance. Type-specific counters exist but aren’t seeing play, but there’s a nice overlap in [M] Type support between the end of the Sun & Moon series and start of the Sword & Shield series.  Though Corviknight was introduced in Galar, it doesn’t have “Galarian” in the name, so the game won’t recognize that.

Being a Stage 2 means Corvikight requires more resources (including time) to hit the field than the other Stages.  It isn’t the worst Stage to be, but most others are less of a hassle.  It also means the 170 HP isn’t as impressive as it might look.  While this is a little more likely to survive a hit than not, this has is just on the high end of “normal” for Stage 2 Pokémon at this point.  [L] Weakness is a nice because it is not the typical [R] Weakness; still dangerous, but less so.  [F] Resistance is appreciated, but not too important right now.  A Retreat Cost of [CC] is typical; you can probably pay if it you have to, but would prefer not to.

Corviknight knows two attacks.  For [C] it can use “Peck” to do 50 damage.  Not too bad of damage for the Energy required, and easy to pay but rarely will it be enough damage to matter.  “Iron Wings” requires [MCC], and lets Corviknight swing for 130 damage, which is currently either the high-end of “low” or the low-end of “medium” for damage output.  Maybe a little low for the Energy required, the main thing is almost all multi-Prize and a decent chunk of the single-Prize Pokémon can take that and survive.

Iron Wings comes with an effect as well, though, unlike Peck.  This attack lets Corviknight discards two Energy from itself, and then until the end of your opponent’s next turn it take 100 less damage from attacks after applying Weakness and Resistance.  Discarding two Energy is a lot, but Iron Wings three-Energy requirement is two-thirds Colorless.  That means not only can Metal Saucer cover any part of the cost, but the [C] requirements work with a nice amount of Energy acceleration.  Welder is an option.  So is Triple Acceleration Energy.  Once it releases and becomes legal, Twin Energy will also do.

Which means Corviknight becomes a somewhat decent tank.  If your opponent lacks an attack that can punch ignore or overwhelm its defenses plus HP (270 before Weakness, Resistance, or other effects), it has a good chance of sitting there, tanking hits, and slowly pulling off 2HKO’s and 3HKO’s.  This big bird’s Metal Typing means Frying Pan can eliminate its Weakness while letting it soak another 30 damage as well.  Attack effects don’t care about any of this protection, though if you are really worried, Metal Goggles can be substituted for Metal Frying Pan to at least avoid damage counter placement from your opponent’s attacks and Abilities.

Earlier, I mentioned that Corviknight is a Stage 2.  It evolves from Corvisquire, which in turn evolves from Rookidee.  All we have are Rookidee (Sword & Shield 150/202) and Corvisquire (Sword & Shield 151/202), and while they aren’t all bad, they’re filler.  There aren’t any shortcuts unique to Corviknight, and anything other than using Rare Candy doesn’t strike me as worth the hassle.  Still run a Covisquire or two, but mostly rely on Rare Candy.

No one is running Corvisquire competitively right now.  The effect of Iron Wings isn’t bad for stall, but part of that is due to the support you can pile on it, and that same support – sans Iron Wings – does a great job with other prominent [M] Types.  Like Zacian V.  The next set brings Boss’s Order (translated name), which has the same stats and effects as Lysandre… so it will probably be run in multiples in virtually all decks, and Iron Wings won’t be protecting the new Pokémon, nor will it apply any longer to a Benched Corviknight (in the case of Bench hits).  Corviknight will gain access to Scoop Up Net and Twin Energy (again, translated names),  but your opponent having an easy out against Iron Wings outweighs the benefits of those two.

In the Expanded Format, you’ve got a cardpool that offers alternatives to what the Standard Format already has and will be getting, and that means Corviknight just can’t reliably wall well enough.  Only giving up a single Prize when the tactic fails is good, but not enough given how much setup is involved.  Corviknight should be pretty strong in the Limited Format, though you still need to adjust for the luck required to pull the entire line and then draw into or search it out with the far more meager resources of a Limited Format deck.  Corviknight is just fine with a multi-Energy Type deck, though, so long as you’ve got at least a few Metal Energy for Iron Wings.

Ratings

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

Enjoy Corviknight in the Limited Format, and if you really want to run it elsewhere, in the Standard Format… but once Rebel Clash is legal, its Standard Format score drops a point, matching Expanded.  At least, that is my expectations; this has been a Theorymon-based review due to the lack of even second-hand data.

Vince

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