Dark Hypno · Team Rocket (RO) #26

3 comments

1. 

   Yeah

   (3 years ago)

   Why does Bench Manipulation have such a high energy cost?

   Reply
   • 

     AmbassadorYeah

     (2 years ago)

     Assuming your opponent has a full bench, the attack will do, on average, 50 damage. {P}{P}{C} for 50 on a Stage 1 was basically the going rate at the times¹, but it should be noted that Dark Pokémon of this set usually got something ‘extra’ in their offensive firepower to make up for the reduced HP, and if your opponent’s bench isn’t full, you’re overpaying for damage output, so we’d expect some kind of compensation for that as well. I’d image the fact that the attack ignores W/R is the intended compensation², and several cards³ point to the idea that while missing out on the ability to hit for Weakness is obviously not great, at least for Psychic types, the ability to ignore Resistances was nice.

     Indeed, Dark Hypno can hit Jungle Wigglytuff without worrying about Wigglytuff’s {P} Resistance, and, overall, this card strikes me as designed to be a counter to your run-of-the-mill Do The Wave Deck, but it’s not a very good one. Dark Hypno is going to have obvious consistency problems and in the best case scenario, as I’ve already mentioned, is going to be doing 50 damage on average – but Wigglytuff has 80 HP. Once Wigglytuff’s Bench is full, it has a guaranteed 60 damage each turn, exactly enough to KO Dark Hypno. Dark Hypno might do okay if you and your opponent were metaphorically “racing” to see who could knock each other out on the way to the opponent building up a full bench, but even there I feel like things will typically do better – Wigglytuff can start Waving T2 with DCE+any Energy, where Dark Hypno has to take 3 turns minimum to start Manipulating.

     There might be something I’m overlooking here, and it would be interesting to hear thoughts to the contrary.

     Dark Hypno might do okay in other scenarios. It could’ve had some kind of combo with this set’s Challenge! card – wherein you force your opponent to decide whether to let you draw 2 cards or power up Hypno’s attack – but Challenge! actually isn’t that strict of a card, as your opponent can accept the challenge (denying you the 2 cards) and simply not put any Pokémon on their Bench. Erika’s Perfume is a more straight-forward Trainer card that’ll work with Bench Manipulation – though it’ll have consistency issues in this scenario, much like the attack itself does. Dark Ursaring’s Provoke, considering how similar it is to Erika’s Perfume, is another card worth discussing, and Dark Hypno + Dark Ursaring actually might be a deck idea the designers had in mind when designing the latter card.

     ¹ Suggested search: || text:”{P}{P}{C}” series:classic || optionally, || text:{P}{P}{C} stage:1 series:classic ||
     ² Double-checked the JP card, yes this is intended by the designers and not some wonky WOTC mistranslation.
     ³ Specifically, cards with the Telekinesis and Mind Shock attacks. These attacks do a bit less damage than they’d do otherwise.

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2. 

   chakra

   (2 years ago)

   Interesting design here with the distorted checkerboard and eye of horus symbols

   Reply