Scizor (MD-29/100)
Well, I'm not sure if regular members are allowed to post threads like this, but please leave it open for some discussions. It's the first card rating I ever wrote, so please don't be that harsh. I'm going to tell you about a card from one of the older Diamond and Pearl sets, you may remember it, it was in one of the Worlds Winner decks from 2008. The card I'm talking about is Scizor from Majestic Dawn, which you may have already read in the title, lol. The red bug was originally only used to counter Plox which used many Special Energy cards like Double Rainbow Energy and Scramble Energy. I know they aren't modified anymore, but now we have a lot of other special energies around like Call, SP or Rainbow Energy. So why shouldn't we try Scizor as a tech nowadays..or even as a main hitter..? Let's start with the rating. Scizor is a stage 1 Pokémon so he's easy to get out, especially if your deck features Broken Time-Space or something like that. Also he can't be OHKO'ed by Machamp (SF)'s Take Out attack then. Now we come to his hit points, with 90HP he's a little bit under the average for stage 1 Pokémon, while cards like Gyarados have 130HP or Wailord with 200HP, but he isn't worth to be mentioned because he sucks . Since Scizor is a metal type Pokémon you can get the protection boost from the Special Metal Energies so he could survive some attacks, especially against Psychic types because he has also a -20 resistance against them. But being a metal type isn't a huge plus, you my get some problems with knocking out Luxray GL Lv.X or even the new Luxray from Platinum: Arceus if it'll get popular. Scizor has a +30 fire weakness which really hurts against Blaziken FB Lv.X, so he can easily one shot your Scizor, so beware of them. One retreat cost isn't that bad, if needed you can just attach an energy and retreat. Now we'll come to the main point because Scizor is good, his attacks! His first attack Special Blow does 30 damage for one metal energy, that's pretty good. But you can increase that damage by 50 points, yes you've heard right, 50! But only if the defending Pokémon has any Special Energies attached to them, which isn't that hard in the current format. Almost every deck features Call Energy, other popular Special Energies are Upper Energy, SP Energy and Rainbow Energy. But also Cyclone, Warp or Recover Energy are ones that you could face somewhere. And with the release of Legend: Heart Gold & Soul Silver there will be another one that'll be played very often: Double Colorless Energy! So you see you can easily hit for 80 damage for just one energy. But be carefully if your opponent sees what you want to do, he could work around your strategy by just attaching basic energies to their Pokémon. His second attack is so and so, for three energies you can do 50 damage and if you're lucky with coin flips it'll be 90 damage. It's a common 'flip and hit' attack so I won't go more in depth on this one. So at all Scizor is a really cool card with lots of potential. Abusing Special Metal energies let Scizor turn into a huge tank which could draw some prizes in a row. Adding Expert Belt to this can be even more painfull, it'll have 110HP then and can deal out 100 damage for one energy. I'll give Scizor (MD) 7 from 10 possible points because of his low HP and the need of Special Energies on your opponent's Pokémon. Please post your comments on what you think about this.
@ Moderators:
Am I allowed to post more threads like this? If so, please let me know, thanks ^-^