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Dark Master Trainer Mike's Corner: A Fighting Chance
By Dark Master Trainer Mike
My style, you can call the art of fighting. . . .
-- Bruce Lee, Enter the Dragon I thought it would be fun to take a peak at some of the cards in the new Skyridge expansion. Traditionally, Fighting Pokémon have always gotten the short end of the stick in the Modified environment. Let's take a look at some of the more promising "Fighters" in the Skyridge set: Machamp F-68-#, Poliwrath E-68-#, and Kabutops E-70-#.
Machamp
Let's start with the Machamp F-68-#. This Pokémon has several things going for it. First, its Poké-Body Immunity prevents all effects of attacks your opponent does to Machamp F-68-#. This is huge because it prevents everything but damage done to Machamp F-68-#! You don't need to worry about things like being Poisoned, or Confused, or Burned, or those Pull-ins, or Push-outs, or Push-ups! Also, no fretting about Swift, or Smokescreens, or Smoke Signals, for that matter! I deem this most excellent.
The attacks on Machamp F-68-# are pretty good as well. Drag Off allows you to do 20 damage to a Pokémon you pull in from the Bench. Its second attack, Hurricane Punch, does 30 x any heads results on 4 flips. With 120 HP and a Weakness to Psychic, this is a pretty solid Fighting Pokémon. As a bonus, the Machoke F-28-# in Skyridge has a first attack that costs 1 Colorless and makes the damage for its second attack 80.
Poliwrath
Poliwrath E-68-# is the second Fighter I want to take a look at. Its Poké-Power Strange Spiral allows you to make the Active Pokémon Confused by discarding a basic Energy card. Poliwrath E-68-# needs to be Active to do this. This is a great ability that can really mess with your opponent's strategy.
The attack on Poliwrath E-68-# does 40 damage and allows you to flip a coin that does 20 more damage for each heads, until you get a tails. A lucky player can really benefit from this attack. It also has Weakness to Psychic and has 110 HP. The Poliwhirl E-14-# in this set is a Water Pokémon with Colorless attacks that make other Pokémon Confused or Asleep, and they do 2 x 30 damage. No Water Energy is needed.
Kabutops
Last, but not least, is the very risky but possibly advantageous Kabutops E-70-#. The Poké-Body Primal Aura stops Evolution cards from being played from anyone's hand to the Bench for both you and your opponent. This can really be to your advantage if you have other ways to evolve your Pokémon or if you can switch out Kabutops E-70-# to do this.
The attack on Kabutops E-70-# is feast or famine. Two heads deal 100 damage with the most likely probability of doing 50 damage. Of course, if you get 2 tails results, you get zero, zilch, nada. This Pokémon is risky because of the damage probability and its Weakness to Grass. It also has only 90 HP. But if you combo it effectively and get it going soon with Breeder, it possibly may be a good way to stop your opponent from evolving on his or her Bench.
Well, that's our sneak peek at some of the Fighters in the Skyridge expansion. Next time we will take a look at some of the other unique new attacks and powers that make this set very interesting.
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