- ↓ 1.31
- ꩜ 4.10
- ↑ 7.99
{D} → Mean Look
The Defending Pokémon can’t retreat as long as Murkrow remains your Active Pokémon. (Benching or evolving either Pokémon ends this effect.)
{D}{C} → Feint Attack
Choose 1 of your opponent’s Pokémon. This attack does 20 damage to that Pokémon. This attack’s damage isn’t affected by Weakness, Resistance, Pokémon Powers, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.
illus. Shin-ichi Yoshida · LV.25
External: Bulba ↗ · Shop: TCGplayer ↗, cardmarket ↗, eBay ↗
It is said that when chased, it lures its attacker onto dark mountain trails where the foe will get lost.
coolestman22
It seems as though this card was like Spinarak, but better.
Mantidactyle
This is one of the most broken Pokémon in the game.
Gust of wind on Cleffa
Pokemon Breeder, Dark Vileplume
Mean Look
Good Game, I won.
Cabd
Warp Energy and Cyclone Energy would like a word with you.
Mantidactyle
Warp Energy and Cyclone Energy didn’t exist at that time :P
coolestman22
A darkness energy?
reshikrom64
The original Darkness energy damaged any non-dark pokemon after every turn. I kinda preferred that version.
coolestman22
oh.
Elias Sant'Ana
I was reading Mean Look’s text again and it just occurred to me: how crazy would be if you actually evolved Cleffa into Clefairy? Your opponent would never see that coming. You could even start attacking Vileplume with Metronome.
linkinboss
well, to be fair, you could eventually play a clefairy on it to retreat :P
Otaku
Dunno if MégaLAG even comes around here anymore, but there are some things he’s forgetting, like needing to wait a turn to Evolve and having to flip when using “Mean Look” against a Baby Pokémon. Various counters released to this strategy, making it unreliable enough that people didn’t use it in tournament play. After all, sometimes you ran out of time or cards before you could Feint Attack your way to victory.
Mantidactyle
Murkrow was played quite a bit, in 1 / 2 copies in a lot of Slowking + [insert card name here] builds. You don’t need to set this up on turn 1, it’s not a problem to wait one turn to evolve. And 50% chance to lock the Cleffa as an active is a bet you should take everyday, in a format so reliant on baby flips + focus band flips. One example on the top of my head is Brian Gurta’s Slowking / Dark Fera / Murkrow at Worlds 2002.
Otaku
Didn’t say it was played a lot. Just giving more perspective on what actually happened. It was a very nasty card, but this was a pretty nasty time in the game. I mean, Unlimited was all about the Donks, and early Modified… well, I know less about it than I care to admit on account I was no where near as good a player as I thought I was back then, and certainly wasn’t playing in a hotbed of the competitive scene. ;) Still, what I do remember is that this wasn’t seen as the be-all end-all deck, but it was known. People tried for the lock, but if your opponent had a counter or you just failed the flip, that could be all it took to cost you the game.
coolestman22
That’s MEAN!
Blob Takeshi
This is the second Murkrow made!
Ambassador
WOTC mistranslated Feint Attack and issued a very ridiculous Q&A/ruling on this card to back it up;
𝑄. Would Murkrow’s Feint Attack ignore Unown-D‘s Power if Unown-D was: a) Your Active Pokemon? b) On the Bench?
𝐴. It would ignore it if Unown-D was the Active, would not if it was on the bench. It’s very simple, if you use Feint against the Defending Pokemon, then no other effects (including Unown’s) can reduce the damage done. If you use Feint against a benched Pokemon, then all other effects apply. (Jun 14, 2001 WotC Chat, Q9a; Jun 28, 2001 WotC Chat, Q51)
The original JP text of Feint Attack said to ignore all effects no matter who the target was, and didn’t suggest any difference regardless of whether the target was Active or Benched. They’re going to make the same mistake with N2 Umbreon (13/75) and suggest the same approach. AQ Houndour (87/147) will fix the translation of Feint Attack, and they issued Q&A/rulings acting like the difference was deliberate, and not something they should’ve errata’d for the previous instances of Feint Attack;
𝑄. Feint Attack: Does it go through Metal Energy effect if on Bench? Or is it only Houndour’s that goes through Metal if the targeted pokemon is on the Bench?
𝐴. Only the Aquapolis Houndour’s Feint affects the bench. (May 22, 2003 WotC Chat, Q1657)
𝑄. If the player using Feint Attack to attack a benched AQ Jumpluff that has one damage on it, does the player need to flip for Jumpluff’s Poke-Body Fluff?
𝐴. No. [WOTC NOTE: This particular answer is in reference to Aquapolis Houndour’s Feint Attack which DOES ignore effects on benched pokemon; Neo Genesis Murkrow’s & Neo Discovery Umbreon’s Feint Attack only ignores effects on the Defending Pokemon.] (Feb 27, 2003 WotC Chat, Q223; Mar 6, 2003 WotC Chat, Q276 & Q287)