Absol worked just fine for me in Cities, but then again my G&G tech was Weavile and I ran 4 special darks. The hand disruption was great but being able to do 50 points of damage for 1 energy, or even 60 with my charm, won games for me too. I think that too many folks just function on Baleful Wind and ignore the effect that Raid can have. Winning T1 or T2 with Raid is just nasty and still just as possible as it ever was. Additionally Raid was great against Banette and other ghost types.
Yeah, I like Pachi and Furret better NOW that Claydol and some other stuff is out, but Absol was and still is a good card.