COTD – 7th September 2011 – Krookodile EP

Today’s Card of the Day has been chosen from Emerging Powers and also features in one of the two theme decks from the set. It isn’t Scollipede, so we’re going to be looking at Krookodile.

At first glance we have a Stage 2 Fighting type with 140HP, a rather nasty 3 retreat cost along with a single attack and Ability. So everything is looking pretty standard for this Pokemon so far and Fighting typing is going to do well in this format, but let’s look a little more into the card itself.

First off, we have its only attack ‘Thrash’ which costs two Fighting energy and a Colourless which unfortunately makes it incompatible with Double Colourless, making it a full turn slower to power up. The attack does a base damage of 70, but involves a coin flip and if heads, you do 20 more damage which isn’t too bad. If the result is tails, then Krookodile does 20 damage to itself instead. Now let’s be honest here, this attack is really bad. The likes of Yanmega laughs at this kind of energy cost for 70 damage when it can safely do the same amount for free, without the risk of damaging itself through a coin flip. Sure, the attack can OHKO a Magnezone, but by the time you’ve got this attack set up, Magnezone will probably have enough to KO you before you use it. Do things get better with its Ability?

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. ‘Black Eyes’ allows you to flip a coin, once per turn, as long as Krookodile is in the active spot and if heads, discard an energy attached to the opponent’s active Pokemon. This completely mimics a trainer card released in Emerging Powers, Crushing Hammer, which is much easily played and still features that flip meaning there’s a chance it can fail 50% of the time. Crushing Hammer is actually considered to be a mediocre card at the moment since it adds a flip to decks that really don’t need it right now, so a Pokemon that carries this in Ability form, is a Stage 2 and has to be active for it to work isn’t going to go down well competitively. Add these to the fact that the attack really isn’t great and you’ve got a Pokemon that isn’t going to last long in a game.

Overall, this Pokemon is great for learning about the more intricate parts of the game (Abilities, Coin Flips etc.) which is why it’s in a theme deck, but in competitive eyes, that is where it is destined to stay. I’m going to give it a rather generous 3/10. If it has a better attack, then it would have a slightly higher score, but it really isn’t going to see any competitive play now, or in the future.

Artwork: As for artwork, I’m quite liking the way this one has been presented. Krookodile comes across as the aggressive style of Pokemon and this picture really does emphasize this. Not only does he have humongous black eyes to intimidate you with, the ground is literally shaking beneath it to make you fell like running for your life. The colours all work together well and the cartoon feel to the lines and colours really does make this a pretty exciting card to look at. I’m going to give it a solid 7.5/10. The artist has captured a lot of movement and excitement in this one, shame the card doesn’t live up to the art this time..

Thanks for reading today’s COTD and, as ever, please vote below how you think the card fits into competitive play