Dark Persian · Wizards Black Star Promos #17

8 comments

1. 

   feyblade

   (14 years ago)

   Terrible, even at the time. One must wonder what the point of this promo card was ,other than to make up a deliberately abysmal one and market it to players who thought that the gimmick was “cool.” This is a 60 HP stage 1 pokemon (with a weakness that is more common than its resistance, no less). For reference, this HP count is so low that some of the post-power-creep Meowths LOSE HP upon evolution (…)

   In order to pull off its signature gimmick of poisoning multiple pokemon, you will have to play meowth, evolve it, play two energies on this, and then flip a coin. To switch the opponent out, you must then flip another coin, taking another turn. To poison the second, you must flip YET ANOTHER COIN. When you’re dedicating this much energy into poisoning your opponent’s pokemon, you really could just be dedicating all of that energy to actually taking them down.

   For comparison, Ivysaur requires just one additional energy to fire off his poison attack, one which does not. He can then return to his 30 damage attack and actually get something accomplished.

   Ivysaur is a Stage 1 pokemon that can STILL evolve. Something is wrong here

   Reply
   • 

     coolestman22feyblade

     (14 years ago)

     How do you poison two pokemon?

     Reply
     • 

       feybladecoolestman22

       (14 years ago)

       I totally forgot that poison doesn’t remain on pokemon after they switch. . Woops.

       That makes the card even -worse- than I imagined

       Reply
   • 

     Ambassadorfeyblade

     (3 years ago)

     Dark Persian’s HP is low because that was the trade-off of Dark type Pokémon at the time, and the fact post-power creep Pokémon can lose HP upon evolution into a Rocket/Neo Destiny/even TRR Dark Pokémon is not unique to this card.

     While it’s by no means great, I believe this analysis overlooks the free retreat, and the designer may have put some more value into a Colorless-type Pokémon being able to inflict Poison as a niche of sorts than is being appreciated here.

     Reply
     • 

       WhirlpoolAmbassador

       (1 year ago)

       The fact that it’s only on a coin flip though is so bad!

       Reply
2. 

   Ambassador

   (3 years ago)

   This card is meant to be 100% identical to the Dark Persian from the Team Rocket set. Perhaps they did it because they changed the wording of the attack, but imo there is no good reason to change the name of the attack from Fascinate to Tempt – the original attack name was ゆうわく for both prints of the card. (ゆうわく later appeared in the mainline video games as the name of an attack, which you may know as ‘Captivate’. And yes, Persian can learn this move.)

   Reply
3. 

   JappaWakka

   (1 year ago)

   There’s a minor error in the poison claws attack text. “if heads” should be “If heads”

   Reply
   • 

     Adam Capriola JappaWakka

     (1 year ago)

     Good spot; this has been corrected; thank you thank you thank you.

     Reply