Spiritomb
– Unbroken Bonds
Date Reviewed:
July 8, 2019
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 3.00
Expanded: 3.25
Limited: 3.00
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
 Vince Spiritomb (UNB 112) haunts into the meta! A Basic Dark Type with 60 HP, no weakness/resistance, and a retreat cost of one, it has an ability and an attack. Building Spite states that you can put a damage counter on itself once per turn. Anguish Cry costs a single dark energy for 10 damage, plus 30 more damage for each damage counters on itself. With 60 HP, it can hold up to 5 damage counters, dealing 150 extra damage. Combine it with Hustle Belt and Shrine of Punishment, Spiritomb gets to deal 230 damage. Like White Kyurem (LOT 63), Spiritomb is one of those single prize Pokémon that is capable to achieving this much damage. For the format that we’re in, with two prize or even three prize Pokémon that sees competitive play, we would need Pokémon like those to trade prizes in our favor. 230 damage can mean a bunch of things, like OHKOing nearly all 2-prize Basic GXs and most Stage 1 GXs. Spiritomb may fall short against Tag Teams, but that means you’ll need another source of damage, perhaps burn or poison to potentially deal a total of 260 damage. Unlike White Kyurem, however, Spiritomb is extremely risky to initiate if you try to go through that route. You have to have damage in the first place to unleash that much damage, and from Ultra Prism onwards, there’s not much cards that can manipulate your own damage (at the cost of consistency). While you can deal tremendous damage to your opponent, your opponent can easily respond to a weaker attack to finish it off, or multiples when it comes to spread. So Spiritomb can hit even harder than White Kyurem, but it’s bulk is pretty much compromised. Still, I wouldn’t count this card out, and it may be something for players to worry about once in a while. Expanded has Fighting Fury Belt that can even hit harder than Hustle Belt (300 VS 220), but again, you have to bring its HP down to 10…..from 100 HP!!! Damage Mover some Dusknoir cards may help to some extent, so I suppose Spiritomb has something to work with. Ratings:
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 Otaku Surprise babysitting means this will be a very short review of Spiritomb (SM – Unbroken Bonds 112/214). We’re reviewing it specifically because Hunter Butler took 8th place using a deck built around this Spiritomb and Stunfisk (SM – Unbroken Bonds 54/214), and we’ll be reviewing another card from the deck (hint hint) at some point later this week when I can go into more detail. Spiritomb has an unusual Ability, “Building Spite”, that lets you place a damage counter on that Spiritomb, once per turn prior to attacking (or doing anything else that ends your turn once it resolves). Why would you want to do that? Besides more complicated combos – like those that might involve moving damage counters around or triggering other cards’ effects – there’s Spiritomb’s attack, “Anguish Cry”. For [D], the attack does 10 damage plus 30 per damage counter on Spiritomb. Spiritomb only has 60 HP to begin with, so lowering it isn’t going to dramatically decrease its odds of survival against most competitive decks. To the point where if you could get five damage counters on Spiritomb, you may as well so Anguish Cry can hit for 160 damage, even if it all but guarantees Spiritomb will be KO’d during your opponent’s next turn. It doesn’t take much more to get a basic strategy going. Just something like Rainbow Energy plus the Ability will allow a Spiritomb to swing for 70 damage. Being a [D] Type isn’t great for hitting Weakness, but it does mean Black Market {*} makes for a simple but effective combo: your Spiritomb wouldn’t give up a Prize when KO’d! You’re in trouble if you face an aggressive enough damage spread deck or just something that can quickly Bench Alolan Muk (Sun & Moon 58/149). Expanded provides more combos, but more counters and competition… which is typical. For now, I’m just going to score it slightly lower, given general trends. Finally, this looks like a good Limited Format pull. Just stick it on your Bench, let the Ability build up the damage counters, then send it out for a OHKO. Yes, Spiritomb will be OHKO’d back; plan accordingly. Ratings Standard: 3.5/5 Expanded: 3/5 Limited: 3.5/5 |
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