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4K
- ↓ 0.75
- ꩜ 1.42
- ↑ 3.37
The Basic Pokémon this card is attached to gets +40 HP and its attacks do 10 more damage to your opponent’s Active Pokémon (before applying Weakness and Resistance).
· Item rule: You may play as many Item cards as you like during your turn (before your attack).
· Pokémon Tool rule: Attach a Pokémon Tool to 1 of your Pokémon that doesn’t already have a Pokémon Tool attached to it.
illus. Toyste Beach
External: Pokemon.com ↗, Bulba ↗ · Shop: TCGplayer ↗, cardmarket ↗, eBay ↗
NSG
One of the best tools ever.
chipthrasher
These are useful in decks like Night March, where most/all of the attackers are Basic.
Otaku
At the risk of sounding like a nitpicker, I’d like to present a slightly different take. Joltik (PHF), Pumpkaboo (PHF), and Mew (FCO) have such low HP scores and such high damage yields that shifting the numbers often doesn’t matter. Mew-EX, on the other hand, was at the point where the +40 HP could really make a difference. Sometimes, you would still end up slapping Fighting Fury Belt on one of the smaller ones and have it pay off, however, but if it was just about them, Muscle Band (or nowadays Choice Band) is a better choice for the added damage.
tototavros
Not now, but certainly back when this was released (and Chip Thrasher commented) it was quite good. It helped to prevent Yveltal XY from just steamrolling through the deck w/ OHKO’s while making it easier to hit odd damage numbers (only need 6 night marchers to OHKO Yveltal w/ FFB).
Otaku
I didn’t say it was bad, I just pointed out it wasn’t an automatic inclusion or always the best choice, hence worrying I sounded like I was nitpicking. ;) You bring up some excellent points, but please understand I was NOT arguing that Fighting Fury Belt was worthless; I was arguing that it was not the automatic choice for Night March decks, either at the time or now. Sometimes it was the better choice. Muscle Band was legal: as an alternative, it meant one less Night Marcher was required, whether attacking Pokémon with an odd or even HP score. Startling Megaphone and Xerosic were ALSO legal during this time, so you couldn’t count on that +40 HP to stick around. SOMETIMES the metagame was such that people weren’t worried about discarding Items.
David Peters
“Let’s give Basic Pokemon more HP and stronger attacks. It’s not like they’re already on par with Stage 2 Pokemon anyway.”
Otaku
My theory, based on playing the game and thinking about this for some time, is that non-Evolving Basics really SHOULD be on par with the equivalent, fully-Evolved Stage 1 or Stage 2 Pokémon. Balance needs to come from proper pacing, division of labor, and really acknowledging what does and doesn’t work in the Pokémon TCG. When you have a Basic (big or small) that just needs a DCE and setup you can accomplish in a single turn to start dishing out 2HKOs (let alone OHKOs), and facing off against easily KO’d filler Evolving Basics.
Elfy
How does this work with attacks that hit multiple times. Let’s say I have an attack that flips 3 coins and for every heads does 30, does this boost the attack to 30 per heads or does this simply add 10 at the end?
achildrenscardgame
The 30x for each heads aren’t separate hits as far as the game is concerned – they only refer to calculation of the base damage. So if an attack said “Flip 4 coins. This attack does 30 damage time the number of heads,” Fighting Fury Belt was attached and you flipped 2 heads, you would do 30×2+10=70 damage, and NOT (30+10)x2=80 damage.
Otaku
Just in case Elfy needs a point of reference, in the latest rule book (“sm1”) covers this on page 20. It breaks down attacking into Steps A through F. It further breaks down how to calculate the number of damage counters placed by an attack as Steps 1 through 6. Step 1 is where you would, using the example attack, flip three coins, count the number of “heads” results, and multiply by 30. Step 2 is where you consider other effects on the attacking Pokémon, like Fighting Fury Belt. By that point, you have a set amount of base damage to work with (0, 30, 60, or 90).
If this sounds like a bad deal, remember it works almost the same for effects that reduce damage done, and that the TCG handling it this way is best for players bad at math… and designers with a questionable history of balancing the game. ;)
Elfy
That clears up my confusion. Thank you
Fallen Prime
Yeah, um, most Pokemon-EX are Basic Pokemon. The +10 damage seems small with how much a lot of their attacks can do, but the +40 HP can be an OBNOXIOUS game-changer.
Play things right and this is damn near BROKEN.
Otaku
Maybe a month ago, or even sometime after I’ve made this comment, but as of this moment it has lost a lot of its potency. SM: Guardians Rising contained many cards which have proven significant, but the two most relevant here are Choice Band and Field Blower. The former is a Tool that can be attached to anything; the attacks of the Pokémon with it attached do 30 more damage when hitting Pokémon-EX/GX. Field Blower allows you to discard two Tools or a Tool and a Stadium from the field. So we have a better damaging boosting option, and a way to ensure the +40 HP rarely delivers.