Salamence (Dragon Selection)

scizorlicious

scizorlicious

Now with one fewer 's'
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Okay, so out of the three Dragon-types recently revealed, Salamence is the only one that seems to have much promise.

Front Page said:
Salamence - Dragon - HP140
Stage 2 - Evolves from Shelgon

Ability: Lofty Wind
Your opponent discards cards from his or her hand until he or she has 4 cards remaining. You can use this Ability 1 time during your turn.

[R][W][C][C] Tear Through: 90 damage. This attack’s damage isn’t affected by any effects on the opponent’s Active Pokemon.

Weakness: Dragon
Resistance: none
Retreat: 2
Click to expand...

Its attack is pretty horrid (for a Stage 2 especially), but the Ability actually looks pretty interesting.

So I was thinking about using this in several different ways– Durant, just as a splash somewhere, maybe even in a deck focused around it somewhat– but it just doesn't seem to have a place where it would do very well.

Does anyone see metagame potential in this card? Could it fit in–
Durant?
Truth?
Its own deck?

Or is it just going to be bypassed like so many other cards?
 
seems a bit meh, especially for a stage 2

the 4 card limit cripples it really. Magnezone doesn't care, eelektrik cares even less, with salamance loading discard for dynamotor. Judge and N are better at hand disruption.

unless we see a sudden rise in eviolite/defender/that ability donphan has type effects, salamence will be confined to trading folders
 
This card would be much better if you could choose at random which cards the opponent would discard, rather than them choosing. Then they couldn't just discard useless cards/electric energy for Eels. Although it will still hurt them somewhat, in discarding Junk Arm fodder and whatnot, I'm just not sure that it cripples them enough to warrant a stage 2 line.
 
I'm afraid this card might go down the same path as Haxorus and Hydreigon - Good on paper, but in practice it doesn't have the edge that would make it a decent deck. The ability is decent and forcing your opponent to have a low hand size or else you'll be forcing them to discard from their hand, which in the long run would be a major hindrance, but apart from that it's stats aren't too impressive. It has a nice 140HP which puts it out of the danger zone against certain threats, but its attack leaves much to be desired; a 4 energy requirement just to deal 90 with upside of not being affected by effects on the defending pokemon which i guess is nice when up against Eviolite or Special {M} energy, but it's just too expensive and requires 2 different energy requirements which will be its downfall come late game.

As for what to pair this with? well its options are limited. I guess you could pair Salamence with Durant, but its quite a bit of space and its a victim of being Catcher stall bait due to its retreat cost. Its would be easier to use Weavile UD, at least with Weavile you can look at your opponents hand and discard any card you want. In Truth decks i doubt it would be of any use when Truth decks rely on falling behind on prizes to fully set up with Twins. If they wanted to to save having to add a 3rd Stage 2 pokemon line, they can just use N and still mess with their opponents hand.

Unless The special Dragon energy (if there is one) does something amazing then i doubt Salamence will function as a stand-alone deck. As of right now Rayquaza has a much better chance of seeing play.
 
I was thinking about this card for a disruption deck, when i first saw it i instantly paired it up with Persian(with victini of course) and Weavile, and potentially discard all their cards. Also add slowking for draw control. But ill have to see what kinda advantage dragons have in the game, not to mention EX's being out along with it...
 
Spiritomb is the best combo I can think of for it, but I'm doubtful it will go to high tier.

The one thing that could save it (aside from a Claydol and BTS reprint) is having the Dragon energy be a double rainbow energy when attached to a dragon, but that's all speculation.
 
When I first read this card, I was very impressed, but when I looked into it deeper, I realized it has little potential. Its Ability is obviously the best part about the card, and when you first read it, it sounds amazing, but I don't think it is as disruptive as you'd think. How often do you have a hand with more than say, 6 cards anyways? It will rarely be a significant discard, I know you have to cut down to 4 cards, but usually, you only want one or two cards from your hand, and since you get to choose what you are discarding, it shouldn't be too disruptive, especially with how much play Magnezone Prime is seeing nowadays. Other things worth mentioning are that Salamence is a Stage 2 with a two retreat cost, not very ideal for a bench tech, considering you will need to candy it up, and it is total Pokémon Catcher bait. It takes up way too much deck room for only being a mediocre tech, it is impossible to play in Durant, you are looking at a minimum of 8 deck slots, and it's attack is less than fabulous. I doubt it will see much effective play.
 
^Delcatty ex restricted both players to six cards and it still got its fair share of play. It was a Stage 1 in a catcher-less format, though. Still, I wouldn't write this card off yet. Just because it doesn't have a great partner doesn't mean it's unplayable. Never underestimate the ability to limit your opponent's options. You just have to make sure that it's not limiting you more.
 
If it was a stage 1 I think it could be much more viable but its too high maintenance and a few of the decks that could run it already run too many stage 2 Pokemon, such as Truth and Chandelure/Vileplume.
 
I could see it in Chandelure. Chandy has alot of tech space. Limiting your opponent to four cards with being able to do 60 anywhere can be devastating. Although Chanelure doesn't have much bad matchups outside of Magnezone, and even that is relativly easy due to sniping Eels.
 
First off, ChandyPlume never has room never has the bench space or deck space for something like this, and they'd just discard their dead trainers anyway, which hurts no decks but helps Magnezone. Non-Plume Chandy is widely agreed to be less viable. Secondly, Chandelure will be dead when all of these EXes capable of hitting 130 damage with ease (not to mention Raikou) come out.
 
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