Swampert
– Sword & Shield Fusion Strike 64/264
Date Reviewed:
January 4, 2022
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.50
Expanded: 2.50
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
It has been quite a while since we’ve seen several starter Pokémon from different generations, and Swampert from Sword & Shield Fusion Strike is one of them.
Swampert actually has something that might be useful for certain decks. It’s ability – Muddy Maker – lets you attach either 1 Water energy or 1 Fighting energy from your hand to 1 of your Pokémon. This kind of ability has seen some competitive play before, and the only example I can think of at the moment is Gardevoir-GX with its Secret Spring ability, which lets you attach a Fairy Energy to one of your Pokémon; Gardevoir-GX won the 2017 Pokémon World Championships Master Division due to those features and strategies. Swampert may not have an attack that matches “Infinite Force”, but it does have Earthquake, which costs WCC for 180 damage and also does 20 damage to each of your Benched Pokemon. With the ability and Twin Energy, Swampert can go from zero to attacking and might trade favorably in prizes against anyone with Water weakness.
While Gardevoir-GX might have been successful before, I don’t think Swampert will experience the same success because there has yet to be a deck that needs multiple Swampert in play for the ability. Frosmoth’s Ice Dance ability provides unlimited energy acceleration for Benched Water Pokémon while Blastoise’s Deluge provides unlimited water acceleration to any Pokémon, so Swampert is definitely outclassed in the Water side of things. However, fighting energy acceleration is almost unheard of, so maybe Swampert might be in a few Fighting based decks. I don’t know which partners would benefit from the ability, but I can imagine there’s someone out there who would greatly benefit from Muddy Maker.
This is another card to keep in mind for the future; I wouldn’t dismiss this card yet.
Ratings:
Standard: 2.5/5
Expanded: 2.5/5
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