Corviknight V – Battle Styles
Date Reviewed: April 7, 2021
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.00
Expanded: 2.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Otaku
Corvinkight V (SW – Battle Styles 109/163, 156/163) is a Pokémon V, with all the pros and cons of such a thing. It gives up an extra Prize when KO’d, cannot make use of certain beneficial effects, and is targeted by certain detrimental ones, but should have more HP than its baseline counterpart, and (relative to costs) better effects. A further benefit is that Corviknight V is a Basic Pokémon, instead of a Stage 2 like regular versions of Corviknight. This makes it far faster and less resource intensive. It is a Metal type, and that is mostly a good thing. They’re not great for exploiting Weakness, but they have good type support. The catch is the card needs to play well with that support.
Corviknight V has 210 HP, the low end of what is normal for a Basic Pokémon V. This is still enough to be tricky to OHKO, at least for decks not built for raw power or the more flexible ones dedicated a lot of resources. Its [R] Weakness might be an issue, though; the Fire type has been reasonably good for a while, indeed, partially due to exploiting the Weakness of even better performing Metal type decks. Grass Resistance doesn’t sound like it will come in handy all that often, but any Resistance is better than none. A Retreat Cost of [C] is good and low; it should be easy to pay most of the time.
Corviknight V knows two attacks. For [M] it can use “Clutch” to do 30 damage to the Defending Pokémon, while preventing it from retreating. The effect resides on whatever you attacked, so it goes away if it evolves, switches out by a means other than retreating, etc. This isn’t going to matter most of the time, but every now and then could be quite handy… plus, 30 damage isn’t bad. It isn’t good, either, but it isn’t too bad. The card’s big attack is “Sky Hurricane” for [MMC]. This lets Corviknight V attack and do 190 damage, but it also places an effect on itself, preventing it from using Sky Hurricane the next turn. The wording is such that you can shake this effect by sending that copy of Corviknight V to the Bench, then re-evolving it.
For three Energy and a mild-to-moderate drawback, Sky Hurricane is “okay”. Most fellow, Basic Pokémon V are too big for it to one-shot, but almost single Prize Pokémon, Basic Pokémon-GX, and Basic Pokémon-EX are in OHKO-range. The exceptions are those with defensive buffs, TAG TEAM Pokémon, and a few that just have exceptionally high HP (like Wailord-EX). When you add in the available Metal Pokémon and Metal Energy support, Corviknight V is “okay”. It certainly isn’t replacing Zacian V. Fortunately, Corviknight V can evolve. We’ll look at Corviknight VMAX soon enough, but know it definitely helps its Basic. Well, in theory.
I don’t have any tournament results for our own Standard or Expanded Format that include SW – Battle Styles. I have a select few for the Japanese Standard and Expanded Formats that include it and… it isn’t showing up in the decks that were available. I have heard some talk Zacian V partnering with Corviknight VMAX and backed by Bronzong (SW – Battle Styles 102/163; SW – Black Star Promos SWSH091), but I’m thinking that was mostly people like myself theorizing.
Ratings
- Standard: 2/5
- Expanded: 2/5
Corviknight V would be nothing but filler on its own, but decent filler. If Corvknight VMAX decks were to catch on, bump it up to a three-out-of-five in that Format. There are certainly better evolving Pokémon V, but not many.
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