Grapploct V – Champion’s Path Pokemon Review

Otaku

You can consider Grapploct V (Champion’s Path 032/073, 072/073) one last Honorable Mention for our countdown.  As a Pokémon V, Grapploct V is worth an extra Prize when KO’d, is excluded from some beneficial effects, and is the target of some detrimental ones.  It also means Grapploct V, unlike the regular version of Grapploct, is a Basic instead of a Stage 1, a serious advantage.  It also means Grapploct V has substantially more HP; baseline Grapploct has 130, while Grapploct V has 210.  210 is the most common Basic Pokémon V score, and enough to often survive a hit.  The last benefit of being a Pokémon V is that the card’s effects might be a bit better than their costs would normally allow.

Grapploct V is a Fighting type, which is a good deal.  Eternatus VMAX is [F] Weak, and there are a few pieces of support for basic Fighting Energy (but not restricted to [F] Pokémon).  [F] Resistance is one of the more common forms, but Resistance doesn’t often matter.  Weakness usually does, though, and Grapploct V is Psychic Weak.  Prior to SW – Darkness Ablaze, this would have been terrible, and it can be a pain against a deck like Mad Party.  Grapploct V has no Resistance; good thing that’s typical and – as I just mentioned – Resistance rarely matters.  The Retreat Cost of [CC] is also typical, but in this case, it is neither easy nor difficult to pay, and if Grapploct V needs to retreat a lot, this amount is low enough that Air Balloon can zero it out.

Grapploct V knows two attacks.  For [F], it can use “Tie Up” to do 20 damage to the Defending Pokémon, plus leave an effect on that same Defending Pokémon, preventing it from attacking during your opponent’s next turn if it is a Basic (means nothing if not a Basic).  Your opponent can shake this effect through:

• using a card effect that specifically removes attack effects, like Channeler
• evolving the Defending Pokémon
• using a combination of retreating, switching effects, or bounce effects to let the Defending Pokémon vacate then resume their presence in the Active Spot

This means it is a soft-lock, but one that is inexpensive, does a little damage, and belongs to a type known for stacking damage bonuses.  Not great, but at least somewhat good.

Grapploct V’s second attack is “Moonsault Press” for [FFC].  It lets Grapploct V do 120 damage to your opponent’s Active, plus flip a coin; “tails” means you do just that 120 damage, but “heads” means an extra 100 (220 total) damage!  I wish the minimum damage was a bit better, and I have a kind of love/hate relationship with coin flips like this, but this does mean a 50% chance – before other effects – of OHKOing most Basic Pokémon V and smaller Pokémon.  Three Energy is kind of clunky, though; you’ll need some Energy acceleration if you want to bust this out ASAP, or simply don’t want to wait three turns before you can try for some bigger hits.

There are certainly some tricks to make Grapploct V a little more reliable and/or expand the range of its damage.  If you want some help with the coin flip in Standard, you can use Glimwood Tangle to re-flip, or Will to guarantee the result at the cost of your Supporter.  If you’d rather keep the coin toss but add to damage done, there’s Martial Arts Dojo; plus 10 damage so long as at least one basic Fighting Energy is attached to Grapploct V, which becomes +40 if you have more Prize cards remaining than your opponent… and this damage bonus is enjoyed by both attacks (re-flipping does nothing for Tie Up).  For Energy, the options that aren’t better spent on something else (and are still Standard-legal) are Karate Belt and/or Turbo Patch.

The Expanded Format offers many, many more options, though a lot more competition for deck space.  Tie Up is just specialized enough, though, and Basic attackers heavily used enough, that I can see a clutch Grapploct V fitting into Fighting decks in Expanded… assuming there still are any.  Diancie {*} and Strong Energy are the most likely candidates, upping the damage done by the attacks even further.  There are non-Fighting damage buffs as well, like Fighting Fury Belt or Muscle Band to consider as well, and defensive tricks like Focus Sash.  There are also additional ways to re-flip, but I think the Fighting-type has better attackers to focus on when it comes to doing damage.

Champion’s Path is one of the specialty sets that do not get a mainstream release, meaning you cannot buy individual booster packs or boxes of booster packs.  There was no Pre-Release for it, and Pre-Release kits do not exist.  You could drop enough money to buy the various gift sets and other product that contain Champion’s Path and still hold a Limited Format event, so I’ll still cover Grapploct V for such a thing. There are some strong [P] types, but they’re all Rare (or better) cards, and Tie Up can autowin against opponent’s using a Mulligan build, unless they can evolve their lone Basic.  As such, I think Grapploct V is a great pull for Limited, run as a Mulligan deck or mixed with other Fighting types.

Ratings

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

I finally understand why I saw this card make some PokéTuber’s top picks list for this set, and seeing as it scored that three-out-of-five in both Standard and Expanded, with a five-out-of-five in Limited, you may wonder why this not only failed to make my list, but why it isn’t at the top.  Remember I round my scores now, letting the rest of my review explain the details.  The preceding review is still pure Theorymon, and while I see a lot that can go well for Grapploct V, I’m less confident in it than several of my other picks.