Garbodor – Rebel Clash Pokemon Review

Otaku

Garbodor (SSH – Rebel Clash 118/192; SSH – Black Star Promos SWSH025) is a Darkness Pokémon.  In terms of Weakness, it can be handy for punishing many Psychic Types (some older and most newer).  In terms of crashing into Resistance, it just has to worry about the discontinued Fairy Type.  Anti-Darkness effects exist, but few (if any) are worthwhile.  There are some strong examples of [D] support, but the best stuff is Expanded-only.

Garbodor is a Stage 1, so it is neither fast nor slow, clunky nor streamlined.  120 HP is a probable OHKO, though it should require a somewhat substantial attack.  [F] Weakness isn’t terrible right now; the Fighting Type decks I keep expecting keep falling through.  If one sticks, though, all but their weakest attackers should score a OHKO.  No Resistance is the worst, but also the most common.  A Retreat Cost of [CC] is low enough you can often pay it but high enough you’d prefer to avoid or reduce it.

Garbodor has the Ability “Poisonous Puddle”, which Poisons your opponent’s Active, but it may only be used once during your turn and if a Stadium is in play.  That is a pretty low cost for an effect that is good but not great… at least, on its own.  [DCC] pays for Garbodor’s one attack, “Sludge Bomb”.  80-for-three is low, but you can enhanced it a bit with Poisonous Puddle, and the two Colorless requirements make it a bit easier to pull off thanks to various compatible forms of Energy acceleration (like Twin Energy).  It isn’t worth going out of your way to use, but if it is easy to pay, it might come in handy from time to time.

Mostly, though, I expect you’d want Garbodor hiding on your Bench, giving you a tiny boost to your offense through Poisoning your opponent’s Active turn after turn.  If you’re running any other Garbodor except for Garbodor (BW – Dragons Exalted 54/124; BW – Plasma Freeze 119/116; BW – Legendary Treasures 68/113) and/or Garbodor (XY – BREAKpoint 57/122), you probably ought to sneak in a copy of today’s Garbodor.  However, you also probably want to run either of those Ability-negating Garbodor more.  Maybe some build involving Garbodor (SM – Guardians Rising 51/145, 51a/145) but supported by too many Abilities to bother with the Garbotoxin Garbodors?

Fortunately, we have one really obvious partner for this card already: Toxtricity VMAX.  Shock of shocks, we’ll be covering it soon, so I won’t go into much detail.  Know that you’ve got the usual VMAX and [L] Type benefits, with an attack that is “okay” if your opponent isn’t Poison but “very good” if they are.  So use Poisonous Puddle before attacking.  While not a lot of them made the top cut in the previous two LimitlessTCG online tournaments, two made event #3 and one event #4.  As we’re talking over 1100 Masters for each event, even one making it into the top 80 of each is impressive.  There weren’t many more than that, however.

Another use for Garbodor may be in Stall/Control decks, as some do still strive for KO’s.  When your damage output is low, reliable, reusable Poison can do wonders.  Expanded offers steep competition (Hypnotoxic Laser), but also important support (Virbank City Gym).  While some strong decks lock down both Abilities and Item cards, having a variable approach could be useful.  For the Limited Format, run Garbodor unless you’re better off with a Mulligan deck built around a lone big Basic Pokémon.

Ratings

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

Garbodor would have been our 25th-place pick, based purely on me having him as my 15th-place pick.  I think Garbodor has good long term potential, and that is why I went with it over – spoiler – Toxitricity VMAX on my list.  I’m not sure if I made the right decision, but we’ll see how things look three months later, six months later, etc.