Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

Absol SW: DP-on?

M

Magic_Umbreon

Researching Tower Scientist, Retired
I don't know exactly but I get the feeling Absol SW could make a comeback as a very effective opener next season. For one thing, resistance to AMU is useful. With Bebe's as the only search supporter reducing their hand, unless they leave themselves with no trainers, you can really reduce their hand.

Call energy and the new TMs may see high play. What is most interesting with these cards is they are very much one half of a jigsaw. No advantage to evolving, if you don't have the basics, no advantage to calling basics if your hand is too wrecked to develop them. Generally, reducing their hand seems like a really effective way to stop this.

The only real counter is Claydol. Perhaps an AMU deck could use Absol as a starter with Mesprit to stop the Claydol?
 
TM Devoluter is only useful if the opponent rare candies something. Bouncing their stage 1 back to their hand just gives them the chance to lay it back down.

I like Absol, but it has the tendency to stay active for a while in hopes of reducing the opponent's hand more and more. This ends up giving the opponent many turns to setup, even with limited setup, and then they come crashing through the Absol and wipe afterwards. Or even worse, they snipe your bench, getting the first hit in, forcing you to retreat Absol, which takes up space on the bench, and hit their fresh Pokemon with your hurt Pokemon.

Against decks that will start attacking turn 2, using an energy on Absol puts you a turn behind, and can mean not attacking on turn 3 when they KO your absol and having to sacrifice something else.

Absol is a really nifty card because it has disruption and a surprise damage ability with Absol and any deck running Dark energy or even multi energy. A surprise 40+plus power turn 2 could KO many basics before they are even able to evolve.

It is one of the better basic pokemon.
 
Absol can always stick around just because of it's attack. I think Absol could be big in this format too as long as you have things on the bench building up. With absol as your starter while he's discarding things, you never know something you discard may be crucial for your opponent, meanwhile you have something building up on the bench waiting, it can be anything as baleful wind is 1 C energy. I personally am trying to run absol as my starter in a deck because I think it may really do good in swaying the match to your favor.
 
i think absol is kinda done. without cessation crystal, in a metagame filled with claydols and facing decks which operate out of the discard pile (kingdra) -- i just don't see baleful wind being that useful anymore.
 
I can definatly see it being played

on a kingdra's first turn they need the following cards if they want to attack t1 which is a a goal, to attack as soon as possible:

1 horsea
1 rare candy
1 kingdra
1 water energy
2 cards to discard. Most likely energy to help them power up first attack

Then they will have two cards left in there hand (one from drawing). They would of most likely discarded the energy for aqua stream. so then you have trainers and pokemon. They also would of most likely of laid down basics to prevent getting donked from himself. Lets take a pretend situaation you have absol active and your opponent has kingdra active, no bench and two cards in his hand. Lets say he has a NM and a claydol. On your turn you could (depending on what you pick) discrd the claydol or just discard both of them. If kingdra starts attacking t1 (goal of deck) Then I think absol could get big.
 
Absol dosent help with setup,if you setup,then you can be rolling anyway unless discaridng is part of your strategy.Otherwise,thats why Absolade decreased in usefulness,the release of claydol and the fact setup was harder and more inconsistent.
 
Definitely.

If you don't actually NEED to grab cards to setup (a Stage 1 deck for example) then ABSOL can be amazing. Claydol's only a counter in terms of hand SIZE, Absol can still cost the opponent vital cards that they'll never get to see the whole game.
 
I actually think claydol helps absol. I mean first what are the chances you can consistently get the a claydol out t2 with absol eating away at your hand. Second if they do absol can just get rid of your opponents good cards early so that late game when a gallade comes up and kills the pokemon you need there there is a decent chance that a NM has been discarded. Also with consistency you may have to sacrifice your T1 bailful wind but you can attach a call energy. I also played a heavy claydol line with 4 celio 4 masterball. 3 or even 4 scamble can also be used becausa you can sacrice a absol. The only deck my list lost to was against garchomp because all of the energy and some of the pokemon helped him. Also he played delcatty so he had a 10 card hand that was filled with energy.
 
Absol isn;t going to make much of a impact because of claydol and sableye, cause sure you can discard there hand, what are you going to do to stoping them playing supporters out of there deck. Cessation is a major reason why absol is still played.
 
Absol+Glacelock works. Destroy their hand, retreat, level up, and Mars away anything they get. Wicked.

It still gets played, just not as much.
 
I really like Absol, and I can guarantee that I will at least try to play it. It's always fun to get lucky and take the one card that causes your opponent to grumble swear words under his/her breath and make them flustered. People almost always play worse when they're flustered and mad.
 
revdjweb said:
i think absol is kinda done. without cessation crystal, in a metagame filled with claydols and facing decks which operate out of the discard pile (kingdra) -- i just don't see baleful wind being that useful anymore.
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Exactly. Without other cards to lock opponents powers absol is dead.
 
Dark Ninja said:
Exactly. Without other cards to lock opponents powers absol is dead.
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Absol isn't dead, it's a gamble really with him as your starter. You could baleful an energy and your opponent doesn't care, or you could baleful 2 trainers/supporters that were crucial in your opponent's plan and could very well turn the game heavily to your side. It all depends on your luck at discarding.
 
I prefer the term "gambit" as in a chess gambit, as it is a very similar opening gamble.

Btw my post was cryptic code for Mesprit in case no-one noticed. Mesprit is a way to power lock.
 
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