Tinkaton – Scarlet & Violet
Date Reviewed: May 31, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: 2.0
Expanded: 1.5
Limited: 5.0
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
Tinkaton (SV Paldea Evolved 105/193) is our third pre-release promo we’ll be looking at today. A Stage 2 Psychic type with 140 HP, Metal Weakness, and a retreat cost of CC, it has an ability and an attack. Its Gather Materials ability states that you must discard a card from your hand in order to use it, and you get to draw three cards. Special Hammer costs PC for 90 damage, plus 90 more damage if it has a Special Energy attached to it.
Seeing this ability reminds me of older cards that have briefly seen some play but either have been fallen out of favor or continue to see play despite massive power creep. Similar abilities are seen on Empoleon (BW Dark Explorers 29/108), Zoroark-GX, Cinccino (Sword & Shield 147/202), Liepard (SWSH Brillant Stars 91/172), and the recent Kirlia/Gardevoir (SWSH Silver Tempest 68/195, 69/195). Think of Tinkaton as a slight improvement than the others. Depending on your deck, sometimes discarding something from your hand could be a good thing if you got ways to get certain cards back. Most frequently Pokemon and Energy cards, but not so much on Trainer cards; those are harder to recycle despite few cards being able to via attack or another Trainer card. Drawing three cards might seem much, but it does add up and you might be able to use non-draw-based Supporters a bit more freely.
You probably won’t be attacking with Tinkaton as often, but if you must, Special Hammer is a decent attack for the cost and requirement. 180 damage means you’re in 2HKO territory, but out of reach of OHKOs since most Rule Box Pokemon have more than 200 even with Defiance Band backing it. There’s a plethora of good Special Energy cards released on various expansions. Although rotated out, it would be nice if Tinkaton has Horror P Energy, as it makes your opponent’s Active Pokemon take 20 damage if it damaged Tinkaton. Attach Rocky Helmet to it to make it 40 damage it’ll dish back. But there’s Mystery Energy from XY Phantom Forces that reduces the retreat cost of CC. Alternatively in Standard, Gift Energy and V Guard Energy might be useful in certain situations, though with 140 HP, I don’t think V Guard Energy would be able to soak up enough hits to avoid being OHKOed from various attacks from Pokemon VMAX and Pokemon VSTAR. Anti-Special Energy still exists, and that could lower the damage output down to its base amount.
No data found on Limitless regarding this card, so I assume that Tinkaton won’t see as much play due to having more effective methods of drawing cards without having taken up deck space for a certain evolutionary line plus Rare Candy. Perhaps the only Pokemon that could still withstand the test of time is Zoroark-GX because it can double as an attacker, but even then, it has seen better days. Still a good choice to be a pre-release promo if I wanted to have fun using it.
Ratings:
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 1.5/5
Limited: 5/5
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