BREAKthrough Braviary #130/162

[KingSpadeIX]

My name is Philip Sims, KingspadeIX is my tag, a few times each week I will try to review a few cards. I will be judging them not just on how good they are, but how well designed they are. Today's Topic is BREAKthrough Braviary #130/162.

A quick note: how playable a card is is very different from how well designed it is. through my review processes you will see cards that may be "very playable" but have a low design rating. This is because the card is overpowered. For non-real example: A non-EX basic that hist for 100 damage for no energy would be extremely playable but would also be of terrible design since it would be grossly overpowered.

Now let's talk Braviary:

How Playable: Unplayable

Design Rating: D

I decided to review BREAKthrough Braviary because it is a total disappointment and with just a few tweaks it could have been a card good enough to build a deck around.

HP: 100

For a stage one that is not meant to be a bench rider, having 100 HP is as bad as it gets. You can't Level Ball it and it will still get one shot most of the time. If this card had 120-130 HP it would help it a lot.

1st Attack: Wing Attack

Wing Attack does 30 damage and requires two colorless energy to use. A typical good attack of this nature would be one energy for 30 damage. As is Wing Attack is inefficient. Id suggest making the attack two colorless energy for 50 damage instead.

2nd Attack: Dual Cut

Dual Cut is sadly the best part of this card, It takes four colorless energy to flip 2 coins and do 80 damage for each heads you get. This means you will either doing 0, 80, or 160 damage. While 160 is great damage, you won't get this result a majority of the time. A majority of the time you will get 80 damage or no damage at all. Doing no damage for four energies is obviously terrible and doing just 80 for four is very inefficient. Typically you would get 120-130 with no downside for four energy.

If I had designed this card I would change this attack to do 90+ flip a coin, if heads do 30 more damage and your opponents attacks cost one more colorless energy to attack. In addition the name of the attack should be changed to "Headwind" since Dual Cut doesn't really fit anymore.

By making this change the attack would still do *********** even if it is inefficient on a tail coin flip. But on a Heads you are just ahead of efficient and it is a cool effect that is pretty unique. You could pair it with Head Ringer and Energy Discard to make it even more Effective. Also you would want to play Trick Coin with it to make the good result happen more often.

Retreat: 2

They just had to give poor Braviary the worst retreat cost in the game. You can't Heavy Boot or Heavy Ball it. If you somehow survive an attack and want to retreat, it will cost you half of your build up to make it to the bench. And if you want to reset up it will cost you two more turns to get back to fighting strength.

As the card is now the retreat cost should have been Free to make this card good at something. If you make the other changes I have suggested then it should have a cost of 1 so it takes something to retreat but isn't going destroy your ability to reinvest in it.

Final Thoughts:

Usually this is the part where I talk strategy and synergistic cards, however today I'm going to save us both time by not doing that. Do not bother playing this card, it was a poor design that does nothing but waste space. I personally have the design perspective that every card made should be playable. I see no reason to make cards on this level, why make a card that no one wants to play? Come on Pokemon you can do better!

Have you played BREAKthrough Braviary? Share your thoughts on it below!

[NiñoMutante]

Hahaha I love this Philip!. You could make a series of 'Worst cards of each set'

Can you do Chatot from Breakthrough and try to make a logical explanation as to why is it regular rare? 

[KingSpadeIX]

Hahaha I love this Philip!. You could make a series of 'Worst cards of each set'

 

Can you do Chatot from Breakthrough and try to make a logical explanation as to why is it regular rare? 

I actually started a blog and already did Chatot, since you asked so nicely I will post it today

[NiñoMutante]

Found your blog and it's pretty interesting. Reading your Kingdra description makes me wanna make a deck around it!
Kudos to you

[JimiCobain27]

I actually started a blog and already did Chatot, since you asked so nicely I will post it today

 

 

How can I find your blog? Your card reviews are spot on so far and also pretty funny, I'd like to read some more.

[KingSpadeIX]

How can I find your blog? Your card reviews are spot on so far and also pretty funny, I'd like to read some more.

I can't actually link it since that goes against the rules of the forums. However I'm sure if you use your google skills you can find it.

 

-Kingspadeix