Skeledirge-ex – Paldea Evolved
Date Reviewed: June 3, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard:
Expanded:
Limited:
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Skeledirge-ex (SV Paldea Evolved 37/193) is the second Paldea starter Pokémon we’ll be looking at. A Stage 2 Fire type with 340 HP, Water weakness, and a retreat cost of CCC, it has two attacks. Vitality Song costs R for 50 damage and heals 30 damage from each of your Pokemon while Burning Voice costs RR for 270 damage minus 10 damage for each damage counter on this Pokemon.
Looking at those attacks, I don’t think Skeledirge-ex will see any play. The fact that Burning Voice does less damage because Skeledirge-ex has some damage on it means you won’t be able to maintain the amount of damage you want to inflict. Even worse, if this Pokemon has 70 HP or less, then it does zero damage! I think I saw the idea when Vitality Song when it heals some damage, but even that amount of healing is extremely low that it won’t help its other attack. There aren’t many decent healing items or bouncing cards in the Standard format. While 270 damage for two energy is a great damage to energy ratio, with Defiance Band rising it to 300, other Stage 2 Pokemon-ex can still survive it at full HP. So, I’m pretty much at a loss there.
But maybe the Expanded cardpool might help out Skeledirge-ex better than in Standard. Scoop Up Net and Scoop Up Cyclone are some of the best scooping cards while Max Potion flushes all the damage away! Even if Max Potion discards all energy attached to Skeledirge-ex, Welder can easily attach RR to it and draws three cards. Burning Voice’s 270 damage, Definace Band, Leon, and one use of Galarian Zizzagoon’s Headbutt Tantrum will be sufficient to OHKO anything in the game since the max printed HP is still 340. The prize trade won’t be as favorable as it once was since Pokemon-ex only gives up two prizes. Seems like cards that gave up three prizes have been phased out, with Pokemon VMAX being the recent mechanic that does that.
I guess that’s all I have for Skeledirge-ex. It might not have much in Standard to work with, but there’s plenty of good stuff in Expanded. But since Paldea Evolves comes out this upcoming Friday, I have yet to see any ideas. Might as well wait for a while.
Ratings:
Standard: 1/5
Expanded: 2/5
Limited: 2/5
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