Article 71:“The Fall Of A Newborn Hero”
Neo Revelations: Holo Suicune
Well, as anyone who’s read these analysts regularly (that’s right, I’m
talking to all three and a half of you *smiles*) might remember, I’ve shouted
the gospel of the mighty Suicune-Trapper from many a hilltop in recent
memory. A few weeks ago I got to play against one that a friend and
I designed (which can be seen in the Atelier, fixed by Minimech), as well
as witness further play testing, and boy it was impressive. Pretty
good against Clefable, pretty good against Chansey, and utterly stupendous
against SneaselKingKrow. It was a blast to play with, and even more
fun to play against.Everyone who saw it loved it, or at least had some
sort of opinion about it that acknowledged it as a new Standard archetype
contender. The idea started to catch on here at Zeo in the Deck ER
forum a bit. But now due to ruling changes the Suicune Trapper is
dead. And since Ol’ Yeller was sort of my puppy, it’s my job to take
it ‘round back and put it out of its misery. So here’s what’s different,
and why the deck as a whole no longer works.
And of course, I write this with a little dissappointment, but with
NOTHING against the MTs or members of Team Compendium, without whom I personally
would:
a) Not have any cool events to attend and meet friends at.
b) Not have a League to run.
c) Be a moron about rulings.
d) Not have anyplace to get excerpts from for this article… eh heh
heh…o_o’’
Q. Would Suicune's Crystal Body stop, say,
Eeeeeeek?
A. Yes. OK, here is the official answer from
Japan. All attacks and all EFFECTS of attacks are considered to be done
against the defending Pokemon, regardless of what those effects actually
do. So Agility, or Suicune's Crystal Body can prevent all effects of the
opponent's Active Pokemon. Meaning no Eeeeeking, no Fetch, no bench attacks,
etc. Pretty strong huh? (Oct 18, 2001 WotC Chat, Q66; Nov 15, 2001 WotC
Chat, Q99)
Ahh, yes, the anti-Eeeeeeek ruling. This was what had me abuzz
from day one. This ruling allowed an active Defending Suicune to
render an Active Attacking Cleffa useless.
Q. Given the new ruling about Crystal Body,
would it prevent things like shuffling Water Energy back into your deck
if you
used Feraligatr's Riptide Attack?
A. Yes, it would. Parasect's effect without
the Parasect. (Nov 15, 2001 WotC Chat, Q124)
This is just a nice little ruling that wasn’t invoked too often, but
was indicative of a bunch of similar conditional rulings.
Q. Eh, then what about Feint Attack against
Suicune [with Crystal Body power]? No damage at all?
A. That is correct. (Dec 6, 2001 WotC Chat,
Q352)
Mmmmm… the luscious anti-Murkrow ruling. This allowed for the
Murkrow to deal damage to only the Active Suicune, disallowing it from
targeting the bench. Very, very nice considering how often Murkrow
is used in Standard.
So, here’s the replacement ruling
that was received recently:
* Suicune
and all similar affects (Haunter's Transparency, Agility, etc.) have been
clarified and finalized. Please ignore the previous Suicune rulings released
in Nov/Dec 2001. As stated in that rules release they were only temporary
until they were correctly figured out. While attacks are still always against
the Defending Pokemon, regardless of where their effects end up, the effects
end up on a specific Pokemon. So Suicune's Crystal Body Power which reads:
"Prevent all effects of your opponent's attacks, other than damage, done
to Suicune", means that ONLY effects done TO Suicune are prevented. So,
an attack that does 20 damage and paralyzes would still do 20 damage but
would NOT
Paralyze
a Defending Suicune. If the attacking Pokemon (with Suicune as the Defending
Pokemon) does damage to a Benched Pokemon, Suicune's Crystal Body Power
does NOT prevent that effect or damage as it is NOT being done to Suicune.
Any additional effects the attack may have (such as having to discard an
energy in order to use the attack, or self-inflicted damage) is NOT prevented
as it is NOT done to Suicune. If Suicune is a Benched Pokemon and Dark
Arbok uses its Stare attack against it ("Choose 1 of your opponent's Pokemon.
This attack does 10 damage to that Pokemon. Don't apply Weakness and Resistance
for this attack. (Any other effects that would happen after applying Weakness
and Resistance still happen.) If that Pokemon has a Pokemon Power, that
power stops working until the end of your opponent's next turn."), Suicune
would still take the 10 damage but its Crystal Body Pokemon Power would
prevent the Stare's effect of shutting off the Pokemon Power. It is important
to recognize that attacks are always against the Defending Pokemon, which
is why Cleffa's Eeeeeeek can be
prevented
by a Smokescreen effect or any other attack prevention even though the
Eeeeeeek! attack does not do anything to the Defending Pokemon. So, Crystal
Body, Agility, and Haunter's Transparency do NOT prevent Eeeeeeek!, only
effects of attacks that are done TO them. (Feb 14, 2002 WotC Chat, Q18)
A bit long, so if you skipped it
I’ll summarize: Suicune’s Crystal Body Power used to prevent anything but
damage done to Suicune from any attack directed to it. However, the
new ruling states that Crystal Body now only prevents additional effects
of attacks if those effects DIRECTLY interact with Suicune. So removal
of energy from something like a Blaine’s Charmander, or Status Effects,
or anything else of the sort are still prevented by Crystal Body.
However, if the attack does not affect Suicune directly, and instead interacts
with a player’s hand, deck, discard pile, or benched Pokemon, these effects
are now no ALLOWED by Crystal Body. Repeat, if it doesn’t directly
affect Suicune, it now WORKS. So the first three rulings (on Cleffa-Suicune,
Feraligatr-Suicune, and Murkrow-Suicune) are now reversed: all three of
these rulings are now invalid, and the attacks in the above examples now
perform as they would against any other Pokemon.
So Holo Suicune has lost quite a
bit of it’s utility. Is it completely and utterly useless?
Probably not. But it’s severely weakened, and it is no longer capable
of performing the duties for which it was once used. Suicune Trapper
no longer works because it can no longer block Eeeeeeek. It’s also
total Gust-bait for a Murkrow, as Suicune is now just a delicious target
for a Mean Look and a steady stream of Removals. It can still hold
it’s own against a Sneasel, since it deals damage just below the Gold Berry
line and has a great set of status flips it can make, but the odds of it
actually being able to attack are now probably pretty low.
So, here we are. Hopefully
the last article I’ll be writing on poor little Suicune. I Hope I
answered a few questions, and I hope that my decrying of Suicune Trapper
spreads as quick around here as my original words of praise for it.
If you really want to have some fun, make a Suicune Trapper and play it
with the old rulings, just to see what could have been and what WAS for
a scant short while. It’s a total blast to play, and really refreshing
from the usual gamut of Wiggly/Clefable/Chansey/Lock decks.
Looking forward to what’s ahead,
-Gloom
