Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX – Unified Minds Pokemon Review

Vince

Standard: 3/5

Expanded: 2.5/5

Ljmited: 3.5/5

Otaku

Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX (SM – Unified Minds 35/236, 217/236, 218/236, 239/236) is a TAG TEAM Pokémon, which have been shaping the metagame since before Worlds (and set rotation). This subclass of Pokémon-GX comes with all the same pros and cons, save they give up three Prizes when KO’d (instead of two) and are always Basics. Being a Basic is the best Stage right now, and has been since the Black & White-era as they are the easiest and most efficient to run. Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX is a [W] Type which is good, but not as good as I’d expect. Some of the best decks in the game right now are [W] Weak [R] decks, but support for the [W] Type isn’t what it once was. In the Expanded Format, [W] Weakness isn’t as prominent while Type-support is better.

Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX has 250 HP, only 50 shy of the maximum printed HP score and a tricky (but not impossible) OHKO. Its [G] Weakness provides an exception, though it isn’t too big an Achilles’ heel given that [R] Types are so strong, and almost all [G] Types are [R] Weak. Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX has no Resistance, which is the worst but also the norm. Their Retreat Cost of [CC] is low enough you’ll often be able to afford it upfront but high enough you’ll be hurting from it sooner if not later. Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX have only two attacks, one being a GX-attack. Both attacks have printed costs of [WW], though the GX-attack has a bonus effect if you have enough Energy attached to it beyond that printed cost.

The regular attack is “Ditch and Splash”, which has a variable amount of damage. You can discard as many Supporter cards as you like from your hand, then this attack does 40 damage for each to your opponent’s Active. The strength of these kinds of attacks is how you can avoid overkill; you can discard one Supporter to swat something with 40 HP or less remaining, two to deal with 50 to 80 HP targets, etc. Supporters are vital to the vast majority of decks but too many tend to clutter a deck. Ditch and Splash can help with the clutter but you’ll still have to run a lot more Supporters than normal or run effects to stretch what a normal deck would contain; either approach means less space for other cards.

“Thrilling Times” does 10 damage, then has you flip a coin. If “heads”, the attack does another hundred damage (or 110 total). If you have at least six extra [W] Energy beyond the attack cost, you flip 10 coins instead of one, and it becomes an extra 100 damage per “heads”. If your luck is abysmal, this means you still might only do 10 damage. It isn’t much better to do 110 damage either, and even 210 would be disappointing, but 310 (three “heads”) to 1010 (10 “heads”) means you’re OHKOing just about everything. Granted, for the Energy, you should have a reliable OHKO; Monday’s Charizard-GX (Hidden Fates 9/68, SM – Black Star Promos SM211) can do 300 for [RRCC], while you need [WWWWWWWW] to probably score 310+ damage.  Wait, how is that a fair comparison?  While Thrilling Times can do over three times as much damage, not only can it do less but damage above 310 probably won’t be necessary and can even backfire (like against Sigilyph-GX).

So, has this card successful competitive play? Not that I can verify; I’ve heard reports it did well at some Japanese events, but I only found one result over at LimitlessTCG. At DC Open Flight 1 (held on August 17th) sam VerNooy used Lapras (SM – Unified Minds 36/236) to constantly recycle copies of Misty’s Favor, so that an ideal set up (four Lapras on the Bench and four copies of Misty’s Favor bouncing between hand and discard pile to guarantee at least 160 damage per turn… or 220 if you can spare your Supporter for the turn on one Misty’s Favor and then spare three more Supporters (formerly) from your deck. With a potentially slow start and the need for so many Supporters, the deck runs heavy counts of Lt. Surge’s Strategy and Steven’s Resolve for loading up your hand.

Interestingly, the also includes uses Lance {*} to field Dragonite (SM – Team Up 119/181) and Dragonite (SM – Unified Minds 151/236), letting you fetch a Supporter from your deck with the former and attach one basic Water Energy and one basic Lightning Energy from your hand via its Ability once per turn. The deck runs no Lightning Energy, just Water, so it is just so you can take a Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX from zero to attacking in a single turn (through one use of the Ability and your manual Energy attachment). Putting it all together, it looks like a blast to play but perhaps a bit unreliable or slow… maybe even both if things go especially poor. In Expanded, you gain access to general tricks like Battle Compressor and VS Seeker, plus cards like Aqua Patch. I haven’t been able to seriously play Expanded in several months, but I like the deck’s chances better here… save for there being more reliable anti-Ability effects. Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX is iffy for Limited unless you want to just toss it upfront as a wall then retreat and hope your opponent can’t finish it off. Unless you are crazy lucky and also have the Lapras/Misty’s Determination combo!

Ratings

Standard: 3.3/5

Expanded: 3.5/5

Limited: 1.1/5

Just because of the Pokémon being represented, I love this card. Which is why I likely overrated it, as this was my 9th-place pick for my Top 11, leading to a16th-place finish for the site’s list. At least, if we’d had a Top 16 or higher countdown. Hopefully, Slowpoke & Psyduck-GX pay off some time before its rotation; if not, guess that’s another one where I was too excited about a card.