Monday, November 5, 2007

Pokemon TCG: The future of Absolutions? Part 1

Absolutions won Nationals in Masters and Worlds in Masters, a feat if I recall correctly has never been done by a deck before. Simply amazing. Absolutions is a control deck with options. And lots of them at that. Just a few of the key players in Absolutions:

Absol ex - The Power is HUGE when you can lay down so many counters a turn, the attack with Jolteon is a (D)(C) Spin Tail. Huge.
Jolteon ex - Free 1-6 counters when you play it, half a spin tail for free.
Vaporeon ex - IMO the second best Eevee in this deck, it was the only form of disruption last format and was dominant when played at the right moment.
Espeon ex - Another Eevee, it de-evolves a benched Pokemon, when you can manipulate damage to hit a benched Pokemon for over 100 damage in one turn, de-evolving it to a stage 1 or basic can be game-breaking. Also you could shuffle the evolution in with Vaporeon.
Jirachi ex - 30 a turn then no powers, the wrld champ abused this so much in the finals vs. Flygon ex LM, No powers is another dominant ability.
Mew ex - Copies not only your attacks, but your opponent's too, energy saver by not having to retreat.
Rayquaza ex - Snipage, pure, raw snipage.
Super Scoop Up - Allowing you to reuse "Into play" powers is amazing, and can heal an Eeveelution who suffers from Cursed Stone and the like.

With so many of these cards leaving, it looked like Absolutions was gone. But a new card in English DP4 Spoilers has said otherwise.

Zapdos L.45 – Lightning – HP100
Basic Pokemon

Poke-Power: Lightning Bolt
This Power can be used once during your turn, when this card is played from your hand onto your Bench. Flip a coin, if heads place 1 damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokemon.

[L][L][C] Raging Thunder: 80 damage. This attack does 40 damage to 1 of your Benched Pokemon, ignoring Weakness and Resistance.

Weakness: Lightning (x2)
Resistance: Fighting (-20)
Retreat: 2

A basic Jolteon ex that just needs a flip. Still huge with Absol. The attack is great too, setting up 130 HP Pokemon for Knockout range. But that alone won't remake Absolutions, so PCL thought we needed more:

Cresselia L.X – Psychic – HP100
Level Up

Poke-Power: Full Moon Dance
This Power can be used once during your turn. Choose a damage counter on 1 Pokemon in play (yours or your opponent’s) and move it onto another Pokemon in play (yours or your opponent’s). This Power can’t be used if this Pokemon is affected by a Special Condition.

[P][P][C] Moon Skip: 40 damage. If the Defending Pokemon is Knocked Out by damage from this attack, when you take your Prize card take 1 additional Prize card.

Weakness: Psychic (x2)
Resistance: none
Retreat: 1

If you setup a few things at 40/50 HP, this WILL sweep. The basic has a healing attack, too, which would make it a counter to other Absol/Zapdos varients.

Claydol HP was the last card I looked at, for (C) it does 10 to all of your opponent's Pokemon. Bam. I made a list.

4 Claydol HP
4 Baltoy DP4
2 Cresselia Lv. X DP4
2 Cresselia DP4
4 Zapdos DP4
4 Absol ex PK

5 Lightning
5 Psychic
4 Darkness (Basic)

4 Super Scoop Up
4 Roseanne's Research
4 Windstorm
4 Bebe's Search
2 Holon Mentor
2 Time-Space Distortion
3 Team Galactic's Mars
3 Professor Oak's Visit

It might not be the best list out there, but it's only beta. Is there still some hope for Absolutions? You might find out in Part 2 ;)

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