Quagsire – Pokemon Dragon Mastery Review

Vince

We are backtracking a bit with Quagsire (Dragon Majesty 26/70). This is a card that I can relate to because of the ability. Upon seeing the ability, Wash Out, it takes me back to 2010, where I opened my very first Pokémon booster pack. I opened HS Unleashed and pulled Blastoise (HS Unleashed 13/95), and that card also had the same ability. Wash Out states that as often as you like, you can move any number of water energies from your Benched Pokemon into your Active Pokemon, so that it can be fully loaded to attack. That card did see a bit of hype when paired with Feraligatr Prime as its Rain Dance ability provides unlimited energy acceleration. The Feraligatr/Blastoise combo enables Blastoise to hit any Pokemon for 100 damage via Hydro Launcher. Perhaps one glaring concern is using two different Stage 2s in one deck, messing up deck capacity. In the Legacy Format, both Blastoise would complement each other and Feraligatr Prime was unneeded.

So what does it mean for Quagsire? Having an identical ability in a Stage 1 as opposed to Stage 2 means you save more deck space and it can be brought into play sooner than Blastoise. 120 HP for Quagsire isn’t too much different than Blastoise’s 130 HP due to its Stage. There might not be a Pokémon with unlimited water acceleration sans Blastoise BCR, but Naganadel can fit into any deck, doing its job of recovering energy from the discard into it, ready to be moved to the Active. Which is how the Quagsire/Naganadel combo come into fruition, and so far it’s a good strategy.

• Standard: 3.5/5
• Expanded: 3.5/5
• Limited: N/A

Otaku

Due to some scheduling conflicts, this will be an abridged (and possibly, a temp) review.  We’re looking at Quagsire (Dragon Majesty 26/73), which has seen some recent success (16th place at the Denver, CO Regional Championship).  Quagsire’s “Wash Out” Ability is one of those “better than it sounds” Abilities.  You can move as many [W] Energy from your Benched Pokémon (plural) to your Active, though you are technically moving them one at a time.  This combos well with Naganadel, as you can use its “Charging Up” Ability to attach one basic Energy from your discard pile to itself.  It takes some doing, but this can be used to prep Magikarp & Wailord-GX and Volcanion {*}.  It can also be used to charge up the attacks on Naganadel or Quagsire themselves.

There’s a less competitive version of the deck where Articuno (SM – Team Up 32/181) is the deck’s early game attacker, but Ross Cawthon’s list didn’t use it at all.  Expanded brings more competition and counters, but perhaps more combo partners as well.  I don’t think you can officially use this mini-set for a Limited Format Event.

Ratings

• Standard: 3.3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: N/A