Weezing – Pokemon Unbroken Bonds Review

Otaku

Weezing (SM – Unbroken Bonds 74/214) is a card more defined by its effects than its stats, so we’re going to start with its Ability, “Detention Gas”. As long as Weezing is your Active Pokémon, Detention Gas places one damage counter on each of your opponent’s Basic Pokémon between turns. This can really add up against decks built largely around Basic Pokémon and/or with smaller, supporting Basic Pokémon on the Bench. Even decks built around Evolutions have to hope they set up faster than their opponent’s first Weezing to avoid getting tagged at least once. “Splattering Sludge” builds on this basis, as it does 40 damage to your opponent’s Active and 20 to any opposing Benched Pokémon with at least one damage counter on it, all for the bargain price of [CC]. You will want some form of Energy acceleration to avoid being slow, but even Double Colorless Energy is enough for this job.

Weezing is a [P] Type, but neither Weakness nor Resistance should mean a lot; Splattering Sludge does hit your opponent’s Active (where such things are applied) but I get the feeling the Bench damage is as or more important. The Typing does matter for cashing in on some good pieces of Type-based support, like Mysterious Treasure or Dimension Valley. Being a Stage 1 means Weezing isn’t too slow or demanding of space, though it might seem like it when compared to Basic Pokémon. Thanks to Ditto {*} and Weezing’s effects, you might even be able to slip a single into some decks without even running Koffing. 120 HP is more likely to be OHKO’d than not, but it is at the high end for such things so it isn’t fragile so much as not being durable. The exception is when it is being damaged by a fellow [P], as its [P] Weakness transforms 60 base damage into a OHKO. No Resistance is the worst, but typical, so moving on we come to the Retreat Cost of [CCC]. This too high to affordably pay, but not high enough for stuff like Buff Padding.

Unless you really are trying to just TecH Weezing into your deck via Ditto {*}, you’re Evolving from Koffing, and the only Standard Format-legal option is SM – Unbroken Bonds 73/214. A [P] Type Basic Pokémon with 70 HP, [P] Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CC], and the attack “Foul Odor”. Foul Odor costs [C] and Confuses both Active Pokémon. Not great, but if you need to buy time, it is better than nothing. Expanded doesn’t add any truly great alternatives, but Koffing (XY – Fates Collide) has the attack “Division” for [P], which lets you search your deck for up to two Koffing and Bench them. It also has 60 HP; 10 less is normally a bad thing but might be better than 70 if you plan on using Professor Elm’s Lecture. There are no other Weezing currently in Standard, and none of the Expanded Format options seem particularly worthwhile.

So… why did we start the week with this card. It isn’t a “runner-up” from our SM – Unbroken Bonds countdown, nor did it make my personal top 20. As mentioned in some of last week’s reviews, it already has experienced some success in the tournament seen as the focus of its own spread deck! Even adjusting for deck-specific versus general usage, that’s more than some of our actual top 11 picks managed, so that this didn’t even catch my eye for my longer top 20 list means I dropped the ball. Weezing is the star of all the builds I’m looking at, courtesy of Limitless; 21st place at the Santa Clara, CA Regional Championship and 8th, 12th, 18th, 25th, and 26th place from the Sao Paulo, Brazil Regional Championship. If you need to know exactly what is in these decks, use the link. We will be discussing some of the highlights, though. I don’t have any Expanded Format examples, but I’ll extrapolate as best as I can.

Weezing is indeed the focus of the deck, with its damage counter placement supplemented via Shrine of Punishment and Spell Tag… and that is more important than it looks. Machoke (SM – Guardians Rising 64/145), Mew (SM – Unbroken Bonds 76/214), Sky Pillar are all tricks to protect your Bench, with Machoke blocking damage from attacks and damage counter placement via Abilities, but none of these stop Trainer effects. Machoke will still be a problem, but these Trainers are just helpful in general and specifically when you have to overcome a counter. The rest of the decks are pretty much what you’d expect in terms of generally run cards (like Cynthia), and cards that capitalize on the spread strategy; other spreaders, cards that hit already injured targets harder, and stuff that capitalizes on you typically falling behind the Prize trade, as the deck slowly builds momentum. The main obstacles to this working in Expanded are Ability-denial (in general) and Trevenant BREAK decks (because they do spread with Item-lock). As I’ve been saying a lot these past few weeks, this is usually a must run when you pull it. Skip it only if you lack Koffing or pull a big, Basic worth running solo.

Ratings

Standard: 3.5/5

Expanded: 3/5

Limited: 4/5

So that’s our new Weezing, and it looks to be a very good one. While lacking the raw power, disruption, defense, it is fantastic when it comes to damage spread. As a bonus, it is just a “regular” Rare; coupled the decks I’m seeing for it, that should at least keep it as a budget-option for a little while.