Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield—Brilliant Stars

2009-8-19 Shiftry RR 13/111

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MrMeches

MrMeches

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[gal=45507]
2009-8-19 Shiftry RR 13/111
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Woot first post. I built a pretty awsome deck with this card.
the pokebody is pretty awsome but does has obvious downfalls
7/10
 
It's a fun card, if anything. Some major problems going along with making it really shine, though. First off, it's energy requirements are a bit hefty, but can be solved by Weavile. Conform takes some manipulating in order for it to confuse the defending pokemon (and therefor make it completely unable to attack). Seal Off doesn't do enough damage unless you've got a couple special dark on him, while it's effect is rarely useful, since it only effects the defending pokemon. It's also true that you can attach a memory berry and use Nuzleaf's attack, although it only does 10 damage, making it terrible. That would also mean that you can't rare candy.

Then there's the fact that so many competitive pokemon have free retreats, practically destroying Shiftry's bread and butter.

Increasing their retreat costs and penalizing them for retreating with Dugtrio and Ariados are some obvious solutions, but they don't add up to a particularly good solution.

4/10
 
Today's CotD is Shifty from RR, another rather mediocre rare. Statwise, 130 HP is average for a Stage 2, +30 Weakness to :fire: is ok, -20 Resistance to :psychic: is helpful, and :colorless to Retreat is cheap. Unlucky Wind could be so much better; while Shiftry is active, all of the opponent's coin flips on their turn are treated as Tails. However, Shiftry himself is rather poor with attacks, and it's extremely hard to get a status condition that would actually let you benefit from Unlucky Wind onto the Defending while you have to have Shiftry active. Conform is decently priced at :dark::colorless for 40, and if you and your opponent both have the same number of cards in your hand, you get to inflict Confusion as well (of course, having the same hand size is pretty much a hit-or-miss). Seal Off :)dark::colorless:colorless) wants to act like Gardy's Psychic Lock, but falls flat since it only affects the Defending Pokemon.

Modified - 3/10 (Maybe in a fun deck where you try to abuse Unlucky Wind, otherwise this guy's no good at all)
Limited - 6/10 (Still likely not gonna benefit from Unlucky Win likely, but he hits ok)
Unlimited - 1/10 (No use here. Granted, you can combo him with Team Rocket's Drowzee or something for a pseudo perma-sleep, but still impractical)
 
I have a great team battle deck set, Octillery PL/Dialga G and Shiftry. Unlucky Wind has it's up drafts and down falls, but over all, it can be played around. Weakness to Infernape 4 LV.X makes it a 1HKO with fire spin, and Dialga G LV.X pretty much reduces this to nothing.

With Seal Off, you have a potential replacement for last year's Psychic Lock, but without an active claydol, and free retreat pokemon galore, there isn't much use for this attack in the current Meta/Format

5/10, just as an annoyance, but overall, not that great.
 
I'd say this card is far too situational to actually have an impact in a deck, especially since it's a stage 2 pokemon. Gimmicky attacks, stage 2, 1 retreat. Not a good card at all

2/10
 
Use with grumpig LA to always flip tails for confusion and put 6 instead of 3
also use with mesperit LA for pokepower shutdown
other than that no good
6/10 cause it might come in handy as a dark type tech
 
LuxrayX said:
Use with grumpig LA to always flip tails for confusion and put 6 instead of 3
also use with mesperit LA for pokepower shutdown
Click to expand...
Yes Thats what I was gonna say, and also you can Use the rising rivals seedot, and put a memory berry on him, and A few special darks, he could be very good. But without that stuff hes no good

Overall 5\10
 
Shiftry (RR) was somewhat hyped when Rising Rivals started but when people found a way to get around it's Poke-Body, it's use kinda diminished. For a Stage 2, HP, Resistance, and Retreat Cost are great. However, Weakness to fire bites with the arrival of Blaziken FB, as well as the popularity of Infernape 4 during the time Rising Rivals was released.

I personally had my brain buzzing for ideas when I first read the Poke-Body. All coin flips are tails! I thought about its broken combo with Dialga LV. X (GE) and decided that finally, that card will be worth something. However, subtle words had the way of ruining the fun- When your opponent flips a coin DURING his or her turn... And in one fell-swoop, I was brought back to reality... What a big turn-off.

The necessity of Shiftry being in the Active position for the body to work is a big downside. Dialga G LV. X destroys it's hope to being a unique choice and Shiftry didn't have anything else going for it due to not having reliable or powerful attacks. Memory Berry with Blind has been a somewhat good solution, as well as Looker's and Conform, but at the end of the day, it doesn't do much with everything having free retreat these days. Dugtrio (PL) and Ariados (MT) were also not that good as fail safe measures. In the end, you just realize that all that is not worth it just to ensure confusion (and with Unown G in the picture, you run to even more problems).

Modified- 5.5/10 (even if there seems to be a lot of cards that can combo with this card, it falls short to be focus of a deck. It's body could be useful in a Machamp match-up if you get to avoid the first-turn donks)
Limited- 6/10 (can be seen more often here, although still less likely with it being a Stage 2. However, it's difficult to harness it's full potential without Memory Berry and Looker's)
 
Conform is rather situational since Copycat hasn't been reprinted, but if you can pull it off even once, it's deadly since your opponent gets 30 extra damage per turn until they manage to retreat (in addition to 40 damage from your attacks). You can make it harder for the opponent to retreat by using Ariados MT, which increases the Retreat Cost of the Defending Pokémon, and Dugtrio PL which damages the Defending Pokémon when it tries to retreat. You could use Memory Berry to use Nuzleaf RR's attack, since it makes the opponent flip to attack no matter what, but it doesn't do enough damage.

Shiftry isn't very good in Limited since it's a Stage 2, but it could be useful if you manage to get it out.

In Unlimited, use Copycat to easily Confuse the Defending Pokémon and prevent it from attacking, and use Mirage Stadium so that the Defending Pokémon can't retreat to heal the Confusion. In effect, Shiftry completely stops the Defending Pokémon from doing anything, so the Defending Pokémon gets 70 damage per turn (30 from Confusion and 40 from Conform) and Shiftry remains at full health. Shiftry could also be combined with Chaos Gym to prevent your opponent from setting up.

Modified: 6.5/10
Limited: 4/10
Unlimited: 10/10
 
I actually had a great, solid deck with this card that didn't do any of the gimmicky retreat stopping stuff, but Luxape winning nats stopped me from being able to ever use it. :/

For the fire weakness alone: 6/10
 
Nice card, its pokebody locks down any luck based cards, even things like Lv-Max will end up a dead draw with this guy, psychic resist is -always- good, seal off is like a mini dialgia too. so with that in mind, 8/10
 
Shiny Noctowl said:
Conform is rather situational since Copycat hasn't been reprinted, but if you can pull it off even once, it's deadly since your opponent gets 30 extra damage per turn until they manage to retreat (in addition to 40 damage from your attacks). You can make it harder for the opponent to retreat by using Ariados MT, which increases the Retreat Cost of the Defending Pokémon, and Dugtrio PL which damages the Defending Pokémon when it tries to retreat. You could use Memory Berry to use Nuzleaf RR's attack, since it makes the opponent flip to attack no matter what, but it doesn't do enough damage.

Shiftry isn't very good in Limited since it's a Stage 2, but it could be useful if you manage to get it out.

In Unlimited, use Copycat to easily Confuse the Defending Pokémon and prevent it from attacking, and use Mirage Stadium so that the Defending Pokémon can't retreat to heal the Confusion. In effect, Shiftry completely stops the Defending Pokémon from doing anything, so the Defending Pokémon gets 70 damage per turn (30 from Confusion and 40 from Conform) and Shiftry remains at full health. Shiftry could also be combined with Chaos Gym to prevent your opponent from setting up.

Modified: 6.5/10
Limited: 4/10
Unlimited: 10/10
Click to expand...

They only take the 30 extra damage per turn if they are foolish enough to attack every turn when they know they will fail. So they just don't attack and take 40-90 from your attacks.
 
This card is sick. I love it's Pokebody. Team it with a Pokemon that's Pokepower that inflicts status effects either when placed on the Bench like MD Darkrai using it's Pokerpower Darkness Shade that instantly puts the opponent to sleep as it's placed on the bench or team it with a Pokemon on the bench who's Pokepower causes burn like Platinum Blaziken or Magmortar LV. X. Shiftry must be active for Unlucky Winds to work. Also, if you can, try to get Conform to confuse your opponent, then they're forced to retreat that Pokemon cuz it can't attack unless they want to put 3 damage counters on their Pokemon cuz all coin flips are treated as tails. I give it 10/10 myself cuz I love that card.
 
LuxrayX said:
Yes darkrai lv x would kill with this!
Click to expand...


Well in order to make that work, u'd have to be able to get Darkrai LV. X out to use Endless Darkness. Then you'd have to switch out Darkrai LV. X because Shiftry needs to be active in order for Unlucky Winds to come into effect. Then the Pokemon would drop like flies. Cuz Endless Darkness getting 2 tails is an instant knock out and Unlucky Winds makes all coin flips tails.
 
ArceusRules said:
This card is sick. I love it's Pokebody. Team it with a Pokemon that's Pokepower that inflicts status effects either when placed on the Bench like MD Darkrai using it's Pokerpower Darkness Shade that instantly puts the opponent to sleep as it's placed on the bench or team it with a Pokemon on the bench who's Pokepower causes burn like Platinum Blaziken or Magmortar LV. X. Shiftry must be active for Unlucky Winds to work. Also, if you can, try to get Conform to confuse your opponent, then they're forced to retreat that Pokemon cuz it can't attack unless they want to put 3 damage counters on their Pokemon cuz all coin flips are treated as tails. I give it 10/10 myself cuz I love that card.
Click to expand...

Shiftry's body only works when the opponent flips DURING his or her turn. Since flipping for burn and sleep occurs BETWEEN each player's turn, Unlucky Wind will not cause the flipping for burn and sleep to be tails...
 
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