Well, since Gloom threatened to juice my brain, I guess I had
better produce... He's dirty that way, better watch out lest he juice your
unsuspecting brain. ;)
(Editor’s Note: SWEET SWEET BRAIN! *juice juice*)
This time I'm going to look at Togetic (TRR). It's a half-decent card,
but it's really made by its Poke-Body.
----------------------
Togetic - 14/109
70 HP - [*]
Stage 1 Pokemon - evolves from Togepi
Poke-BODY: Holy Shield
Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to Togetic by
your opponent's Pokemon that has Dark in its name.
[**] Dive (30)
[***] Rainbow Moves
Choose 1 of your opponent's Benched Pokemon's attacks. Rainbow Moves
copies that attack except for its Energy cost. (You must still do anything
else required for that attack.) (No matter what type that Pokemon is, Togetic's
type is still [*].) Togetic performs that attack.
Weakness: Electric Resistance: Fighting Retreat Cost: [*]
----------------------
Obviously, Togetic is good, very good, because of its Body. Preventing
100% of everything attacks do to it by Dark Pokemon is huge, especially
in this post-TRR modified era. Dark Dragonite and Dark Tyranitar are two
of the bigger Dark hitters: completely shutting down those Pokemon can
be huge. While Dark Dragonite/Dark Electrode may have some nice synergy,
if neither can ever do damage, it doesn't matter much.
The other stats are about par. 70 HP is the lower end of standard (70
or 80 HP) for Stage 1s, and while it would be nice if it were higher, it's
doable. Resistance to Fighting is nice - it limits Machamp to using Brick
Smash to attack it, and it'll never OHKO it (unless you have a Pokemon-ex
parked on your bench - so don't do that against Machamp!). Retreat of 1
is nice - very little has no retreat these days, especially on stage 1s.
The big hurt is the Weakness - I'll get to this later.
Dive is standard fare these days - 30 for two colorless. Not much to
say there, it's same old same old, but solid.
Rainbow Moves is Clefable's old Metronome with two rather significant
differences - first, it uses an attack from your opponent's BENCHED Pokemon,
not the Active. Also, you still need to pay for the rest of the attack,
just not the cost. This means if you're trying to Rainbow Moves a heavy
power Fire or some Lightning attacks, you better have Rainbow/Multi/Double
Rainbow set to be able to discard in order to do that attack. This is a
bit of a drawback compared to Clefable. But since you have a much larger
base to pick attacks from, it may be worth it. Three Colorless is either
just right or slightly on the harsh side, depending on what attack your
opponent sets you up to copy.
Togetic has two major weakness: first, it's weak to Lightning. The problem
here is that Minun can OHKO it. If you leave it Active while they get a
loaded Minun out, for a mere [LC] they take it out in one fell swoop due
to a) the Weakness, and b) Togetic has a PokŽ-Body. In 99% of decks, you'll
at least have a turn to see this coming and hopefully find a way to avoid
it. Where you won't be able to is in the Dark Dragonite / Dark Electrode
deck that Togetic would otherwise school. Thanks to Dragonite's PokŽ-Power,
they can Bench a Minun, attach an [L] to it, move a [D] over thanks to
Dragonite, make it Active, and OHKO your poor Togetic before your opponent
knows what hit it. Although this is the only real deck that can pull this
off (well, other than Venusaur ex and Blastie ex), the threat of a Minun
is still there. Unless people are using Energy Switch.
The other major issue is the simple fact Togetic evolves from the dreadful
Togepi. Unless you Rare Candy it the same turn you play the Togepi, you're
going to have a Basic Pokemon that is, for all intents and purposes, well...
pretty dang bad sitting on your Bench, begging to be eihter Pokemon Reversaled
out and beaten down, or just flat out shot down on the Bench. Your choices
for Togepi are the following:
----------------------
Togepi - 50/109 (TRR)
40 HP [C]
Basic Pokemon
[C] Yawn
The Defending Pokemon is now Asleep.
[CC] Mini-Metronome
Flip a coin. If heads, choose 1 of the Defending Pokemon's attacks.
Mini-Metronome copies that attack except for its Energy cost. (You still
must do anything else required for that attack.) (No matter what type the
Defending Pokemon is, Togepi's type is still [C].) Togepi performs that
attack.
Weakness: Fighting Resistance: - Retreat Cost: [C]
----------------------
Togepi - 78/101 (HL)
50 HP - [C]
Basic Pokemon
[C] Sleepy Song
Each Defending Pokemon is now Asleep.
Weakness: Fighting Resistance: - Retreat Cost: [C]
----------------------
Now to be frank, they both suck. The first only has 40 HP, can only
do damage for [CC], and even at that it's dependent on a) a coin flip,
and b) the Defending Pokemon having a decent attack to copy. So basically,
you're paying [C] less than Togetic to have the same restrictions, plus
a coin flip, plus only 1 Pokemon to choose attacks from. Why. On. Earth.
Does. This. Cost. TWO. Colorless?
The second Togepi, while having the better 50 HP, can't do damage. Ever.
Any way. At all. Period. While auto-special condition is nice, Sleep is
one of, if not the, most useless Special Conditions. Quite frankly, the
only reason to even think about playing one of these two things is to get
your Togetic out.
--------------------------------------------
While Togetic itself is really nice, getting it to the Togetic stage
can be long and possibly costly, to the total price of a prize. If that's
a risk you want to take, do it. It's more than worth it for the results,
so long as you can not have Togepi sitting vulnerable on the Bench for
any more than one or two turns.
In summery:
Togetic: good
Poke-Body: excellent.
Attacks: good enough.
HP/Bottom stats: so-so.
OHKOed by Minun: owch.
Pre-evolution: aiaiaiai...
It's at least worth a shot in your deck, especially if you're in an
area that has really embraced TRR and is using a substantial amount of
Pokemon with Dark in their names. Just watch out for the lurking Minun
- it can throw a huge wrench into your plans at not that large a price.
