Spiritomb (TR10) [1/2/2012]
- Thread starter Celebi23
- Start date
1. How does this card stand on its own?
Not very well. If Spiritomb evolved into something useful, it'd be a pretty passable Pokemon. No weakness, 60 HP. Even its attack could certainly be worse, and happens to completely bypass everything from Thick Skin to Eviolite. Not great, but for a single energy, not terrible. Unfortunately, early-game, there won't be very many targets to hit, and late-game, you should have much better options. More often than not, its Poke-Power will help your opponent more than hinder them.
2. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
I suppose that the Poke-Power could be used in a Yanmega deck, if you could be sure you had six cards in your hand, but there are several better, more reliable cards for that. If there's another combo that makes this card work, I don't know what it is (which may just prove how new I am to the current metagame)
3. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
If someone made this card work, I would be very, very surprised. Best I could see is maybe in Sealed, when neither you nor your opponent have too many options.
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.
4/10. Early-game, it might be worthwhile, and there may be a few chances to use it. It might be useful in Sealed, I suppose. Otherwise, there are just too many better cards to give it the time of day.
Not very well. If Spiritomb evolved into something useful, it'd be a pretty passable Pokemon. No weakness, 60 HP. Even its attack could certainly be worse, and happens to completely bypass everything from Thick Skin to Eviolite. Not great, but for a single energy, not terrible. Unfortunately, early-game, there won't be very many targets to hit, and late-game, you should have much better options. More often than not, its Poke-Power will help your opponent more than hinder them.
2. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
I suppose that the Poke-Power could be used in a Yanmega deck, if you could be sure you had six cards in your hand, but there are several better, more reliable cards for that. If there's another combo that makes this card work, I don't know what it is (which may just prove how new I am to the current metagame)
3. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
If someone made this card work, I would be very, very surprised. Best I could see is maybe in Sealed, when neither you nor your opponent have too many options.
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.
4/10. Early-game, it might be worthwhile, and there may be a few chances to use it. It might be useful in Sealed, I suppose. Otherwise, there are just too many better cards to give it the time of day.
1. How does this card stand on its own
Spiritomb is a {P} basic Pokemon with no (current) evolution. He has no real weakness, thanks to his {P}/{D} typing in the video game making him one of two Pokemon without a weakness (Technically there's 5, but Eelektross line cheats with Levitate!), Sableye being the other. Having a resistance to {C} is nothing special, as there are very few normals running around as attackers - Audino from EP being the only noticeable one, ran very rarely with Fliptini, and Druddigon, fit into random low-tier decks. His attack, Color Tag, is also semi useless. For one {P}, you can drop one damage counter onto all enemy Pokemon of a selected type. Athough this does bypass Eviolite due to placing damage counters, rather than doing 10 straight damage, it still is an extremely inefficient form of Kyurem's Glaciate. With an HP pool of 60 in the current format, nearly any offensive card can take him out in one hit, and having that one retreat cost disables any hope for free bench sitting. Spiritomb's main deck presence today is due to Spooky Whirlpool, a Poke-Power that, when Spiritomb is dropped down onto the bench, forces your opponent to shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 6 new cards. This is essentially giving them a free PONT. I believe that on his own, Spiritomb is a very lackluster Pokemon with no significant value.
2. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
Spiritomb works well with very few cards. Yanmega Prime, as another post has pointed out, might assist slightly when Judge is unavailable. He has a very limited ability, which doesn't have synergy well with your own deck, but rather, your opponent's. Perhaps with Weavile you can scan your opponent's hand, and have them ditch the entire thing if they have too many choice cards, like if they are holding a Candy and a T2 Pokemon in their hand. All-in-all, Spiritomb doesn't have too much potential in the current format.
3. What role might this card have in the metagame?
Currently, Spiritomb has one major deck it is consistently used in, Durant. While initially, it sounds rather counter-productive to feed your opponent's deck with Spiritomb's power (Read about the Durant Deck if you are unfamiliar with how it works!), he's used in a rather obtuse fashion. When your opponent has below 6 cards in their hand, Spiritomb forces them to draw more, further milling their deck. This is easily countered with PONT, N, and such cards.
The key is to use it at the end of their deck, when they would deck out under the effects. For example, if they have 1 card in their hand and 9 in their deck, you can't possibly mill them out for that last card on your current turn, since they'd be down to one more card after you mill them. Dropping Spiritomb forces them to shuffle and pick up 6 cards, dropping their deck down to 4 cards remaining. After this, you just mill them for 4 more cards, and then they deck out, being unable to draw again on their turn. This essentially hastens a victory by a turn, however, you can use it as a disruption as well, if they had just used a trainer to get some delicious cards into their hand, you can force a shuffle, then devour and hope to mill a few of the cards they were really banking on using. Even still, Spiritomb only has one current deck that he's played in, Durant.
4. Give it a rating and explain why you have given it that rating.
I'd love to rate this little maelstrom of ectoplasm something higher, but he just doesn't make the top cut in my opinion. I'd give him a 4/10, having place in only one deck that I have recently seen. With such a low healthpool, very weak attack, a retreat cost of {C} while being a basic, it just is not a viable card to be tossing out without a specific niche needing his utility.
Spiritomb is a {P} basic Pokemon with no (current) evolution. He has no real weakness, thanks to his {P}/{D} typing in the video game making him one of two Pokemon without a weakness (Technically there's 5, but Eelektross line cheats with Levitate!), Sableye being the other. Having a resistance to {C} is nothing special, as there are very few normals running around as attackers - Audino from EP being the only noticeable one, ran very rarely with Fliptini, and Druddigon, fit into random low-tier decks. His attack, Color Tag, is also semi useless. For one {P}, you can drop one damage counter onto all enemy Pokemon of a selected type. Athough this does bypass Eviolite due to placing damage counters, rather than doing 10 straight damage, it still is an extremely inefficient form of Kyurem's Glaciate. With an HP pool of 60 in the current format, nearly any offensive card can take him out in one hit, and having that one retreat cost disables any hope for free bench sitting. Spiritomb's main deck presence today is due to Spooky Whirlpool, a Poke-Power that, when Spiritomb is dropped down onto the bench, forces your opponent to shuffle their hand into their deck and draw 6 new cards. This is essentially giving them a free PONT. I believe that on his own, Spiritomb is a very lackluster Pokemon with no significant value.
2. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
Spiritomb works well with very few cards. Yanmega Prime, as another post has pointed out, might assist slightly when Judge is unavailable. He has a very limited ability, which doesn't have synergy well with your own deck, but rather, your opponent's. Perhaps with Weavile you can scan your opponent's hand, and have them ditch the entire thing if they have too many choice cards, like if they are holding a Candy and a T2 Pokemon in their hand. All-in-all, Spiritomb doesn't have too much potential in the current format.
3. What role might this card have in the metagame?
Currently, Spiritomb has one major deck it is consistently used in, Durant. While initially, it sounds rather counter-productive to feed your opponent's deck with Spiritomb's power (Read about the Durant Deck if you are unfamiliar with how it works!), he's used in a rather obtuse fashion. When your opponent has below 6 cards in their hand, Spiritomb forces them to draw more, further milling their deck. This is easily countered with PONT, N, and such cards.
The key is to use it at the end of their deck, when they would deck out under the effects. For example, if they have 1 card in their hand and 9 in their deck, you can't possibly mill them out for that last card on your current turn, since they'd be down to one more card after you mill them. Dropping Spiritomb forces them to shuffle and pick up 6 cards, dropping their deck down to 4 cards remaining. After this, you just mill them for 4 more cards, and then they deck out, being unable to draw again on their turn. This essentially hastens a victory by a turn, however, you can use it as a disruption as well, if they had just used a trainer to get some delicious cards into their hand, you can force a shuffle, then devour and hope to mill a few of the cards they were really banking on using. Even still, Spiritomb only has one current deck that he's played in, Durant.
4. Give it a rating and explain why you have given it that rating.
I'd love to rate this little maelstrom of ectoplasm something higher, but he just doesn't make the top cut in my opinion. I'd give him a 4/10, having place in only one deck that I have recently seen. With such a low healthpool, very weak attack, a retreat cost of {C} while being a basic, it just is not a viable card to be tossing out without a specific niche needing his utility.