United Wings crew (Murkrow, Wattrel, & Flamigo) – Paldea Evolved
Date Reviewed:
May 29, 2023
Ratings Summary:
Standard: See Below
Expanded: See Below
Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 is horrible. 3 is average. 5 is great.
Reviews Below:
Vince
For this week, we will be looking at new cards from the upcoming expansion from the Scarlet & Violet series: Paldea Evolved. With new cards comes evolving strategies and new decks, and I’ve decided to look at pre-release promos and the ex-counterparts of the fully evolved Paldea starters, which is what this week’s worth of COTDs will be. Murkrow (SV Paldea Evolved 131/193) is a Basic Darkness type with 60 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, and a retreat cost of C. Its Spin Turn attack costs C for 10 damage and lets you switch this Pokemon with one of your Benched Pokemon. United Wings costs D and does 20 damage for each Pokemon if your discard pile that has the United Wings attack.
Looking at what United Wing does, it takes me back to the days of Night March does, and the trio of Joltik, Pumpkaboo, and Lampent – all from XY Phantom Forces – were a force to be reckoned back then, as it has the resources at the time to easily facilitate the damage output to be unleashed quickly, repeatedly, and reliably. Double Colorless Energy – which happened to be reprinted in the same set the Night March trio – easily fueled Joltik’s attack cost to deal as much as 220 (240 with Muscle Band) and Battle Compressor – also released on the same set Night March is in – helps chuck other Pokemon with the Night March attack from the deck into your discard pile while also thinning your deck. To this day, Night March can still put in some work, despite power creep continuing to overwhelm older cards. You can read older reviews of the Night March crew.
Murkrow came around a time where there isn’t a much easier method of easily chucking Pokemon into the discard pile. No Battle Compressor, but maybe Ultra Ball can help discard some cards even though you have to have some Pokemon with the United Wings attack in your hand. Professor Burnet might work as she helps you put two cards from your deck into your discard pile, but you couldn’t freely spam that card since she is a Supporter. And just like Night March, the United Wings crew only has three members: Murkrow, Wattrel (SV Paldea Evolved 80/193), and Flamigo (SV Paldea Evolved 170/193). Both Wattrel and Flamigo are also Basic Pokemon and their United Wings costs CC for the same 20x damage output. Double Turbo Energy can help both Wattrel and Flamigo meet the attack cost, but it’ll cause them to deal 20 less damage while Murkrow gets just fine with just a basic Darkness energy and avoid the damage reduction. Maybe Wattrel can be a secondary attacker in case you want to exploit Lightning weakness and can OHKO Quaquaval-ex despite the damage reduction Double Turbo Energy does.
So, yeah, I kinda lowballed Night March when I’ve last reviewed those collective. One of the review crew explainied how Night March could still be competitive even though at least several ways to deal with them have already been released: Greninja BREAK, Karen, Oricorio from SM Guardians Rising, and more. Greninja BREAK’s Giant Water Shuriken ability will still OHKO both Wattrel and Murkrow, Karen still recycles all Pokemon from both player’s discard pile, and Oricorio would have to require twich as much effort to OHKO small targets like Murkrow and Wattrel. I’m not sure how the new crew of United Wings would fare in Standard due to rising HP scores, but they can still be a solid 2HKO machine. However, they can be just as good as Night March in Expanded because you can employ the same stuff Trainer-wise into the new group (Double Colorless Energy, and maybe some other great generic cards). In Limited, although you aren’t bound by the 4-Copy rule, it would only be worthwhile if you pulled sufficient amount of Pokemon with the United Wings attack, and Trainer wise, there’s no cards that help you discard some cards.
Ratings (collective):
Standard: 2/5
Expanded: 3/5
Limited: 1.5/5
Just like Night March (and perhaps other crews like Lost March), the scores are collective. It’s never been worth running less than a full four count on each of those members because you need this many to maximize the damage output. They may not be strong on its own, but they can be enhanced with other cards.
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