Another card I think was a near miss.
Right now, simple is not a bad thing so long as it is not underpowered
and simple.
Even with a potential shifting metagame, Fighting Weakness is rather abundant; unless another aspect of the card overrides it (like the Pokémon being represented being at least part-Flying), Colorless-, Darkness, and Lightning-Types all sport Fighting Weakness "by default". While that isn't a majority of the Types, it is a significant amount. 120 HP on a Stage 1 isn't good, but it isn't cripplingly bad; at least most decks that don't score OHKOs in general or exploit Weakness are needing a combo to accomplish the job. More would have been better, though. The chunky Retreat Cost is going to be bypassed or reduced in most competitive builds and makes it a legal
Heavy Ball target, and Psychic Weakness isn't the death sentence it was even earlier this format.
So the problem is the attacks are underpowered/overpriced. Fake Out at
colorless::colorless
and/or hitting just a little harder would have been good, but as is it is acceptable. Pivot Throw is poor; the good news is that it hits the 90 point threshold, meaning at worst 2HKO for things that can't reduce/prevent the damage or boost their HP and a OHKO for Fighting Weak Pokémon that again, can't reduce/prevent damage or boost their HP.
fighting::fighting::colorless
is expensive by modern standards; cards with similar costs have better turns and additional support, at least if they are competitive. Being a Stage 1 honestly lines up fairly well with being a Pokémon-EX; trading requiring an extra card and extra turn of investment instead of giving up an extra Prize. So hitting for 90 while upping the damage
Hariyama takes by 20 is put into painful perspective when you think of
Darkrai EX and its Night Spear hitting for 90 and 30 to the Bench (a beneficial "effect") for an equivalent
dark::dark::colorless
... plus backing that up with a great Ability and :dark: support. Pivot throw should have just required
fighting::colorless::colorless
and still probably hit a bit harder given the draw back; as is we should be clearing an easy 120 points of damage. At least the additional damage is applied
after Weakness and Resistance... I wonder if an attack that Resistance drops to 0 still gets the +20?
Now... I called this a near miss; despite all I just said looking like a wall of text, it honestly isn't that much in the grand scheme of things. If Fighting-Types got the kind of support Darkness-Types did, it could easily turn this card from chump to champ... or at least into a contender.
