Relicanth is a Water type Pokemon with 80HP, two attacks and comes in Basic form. It also features a Grass weakness instead of the expected Lightning which is a nice touch, so let's talk about attacks.
I'm going to talk about the second attack first since its the worst out of the two. 'Granite Head' costs a Water energy and a Double Colourless and does 30 base damage. The small print also tells us that any damage from attacks towards Relicanth is reduced by 30 which isn't too bad. Unfortunately, this attack is just a bit too costly for what it does so it will probably end up being one of those attacks you just pretend isn't there.
What is good about Relicanth is its first attack. 'Prehistoric Wisdom' costs just a Colourless energy and forces you to Lost Zone a Pokemon from your own hand to draw 3 cards. Lost Zoning one of your own Pokemon sounds bad at first, but there are decks that can benefit from this. The deck that immediately comes to mind is MewGar. Being able to send a Gengar Prime from your hand to the Lost Zone in the first turn is a definite benefit if you don't find yourself starting with Mew. This puts Relicanth into the 'starter' category for me since it can act as another way to get your own Pokemon into the Lost Zone as well as netting you an extra 3 cards for your trouble.
However, this limits Relicanth's use since it can only be used in deck relying on Lost Zoning your own Pokemon and that isn't many. MewGar and Lucario CL are the only ones I can think of right now that would be viable competitively.
Another bad aspect about Relicanth is its retreat cost being at a fairly hefty 2. Starters are better with free retreat or just a single retreat cost, but two is just too much energy to spend on just retreating your starter. This is going to bump Relicanth's rating down quite a bit since it doesn't really have any other use other than a starter.
Overall I'm going to give Relicanth a 4.5/10. It has a very nice starting attack for Lost Zone decks that need that extra draw power at the beginning, but the hefty retreat cost just doesn't do it justice for being a starter.
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Dan
1 comment:
Relicanth sounds really really bad. It is only good in mewgar and lucario CL decks for sending pokemon to the lost zone and draw 3 cards.It is dosen't seem intresting to me.
from,
6cardman
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