Carnevine (Dark Rush) [12/4/2011]

Celebi23

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Card of the Day: Carnivine from Dark Rush

Carnivine – Grass – HP90
Basic Pokemon

[G] Luring Poison: Choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokemon and switch it with his or her Active Pokemon. The new Active Pokemon is now Poisoned.
[G][G][C] Speed Blow: Return the opponent’s Active Pokemon and all cards attached to it to your opponent’s hand.

Weakness: Fire (x2)
Resistance: Water (-20)
Retreat: 2

Guiding Questions:
1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?
2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.

You are not required to follow the guiding questions, but make sure your post has informative and interesting content.
 
1. it in it self will stand on its own

2. weakering stonger pokemon

3. step 1 bring out oppenents best pokemon. step 2 bounce it back to the hand. step 3. play judge next turn pokemon no longer problem

4. 8/10 not brillent but i like the combos good be a good card
 
1) 90 HP for a non evolving basic is now only OK at best. The fire weakness hurts, as it buts him in range to be one shot by typhlosion. The two retreat cost is a little expensive and the water resistance means next to nothing. His first attack is similar to his saliva lure in Carnivine TM only this time it requires a grass energy and additionally poisons the new active. His second attack is fairly interesting as it returns your opponents active to their hand. However the attack is ironically named speed blow and requires 2 grass and a colorless energy to pull off.

2) This cards serves a similar role to Drifblim, only Drifblim shuffles both pokemon back into the deck, is a stage one, and uses all colorless energy. This seems like an answer to tank decks but The Truth uses stage 1s like donphan and basics like the dragons, all of which are easy to set up. The only place I see this cards as really being effective is against Gothitelle, but that deck is no longer seeing as much play.

3) The only grass acceleration card I know of is Celebi prime. It could pair with both that to get its slow attack out faster. I suppose the card also pairs well with the likes of N and Judge in that you can get the cards out of their hand but you would have to wait a turn to do that so they would already have the basic back down. If anything, Drifblim does the same thing all in one attack. I could also see this card playing well in Goth to get rid of things like pesky magnezones and then re-promote Goth as your active, though that requires you to run grass or rainbow energy.

4) I am going to give this guy a 3.5/10. I really prefer a 1-1 Drifblim line to this thing in almost any deck as it is a greater disruptive that runs on any energy.
 
1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)? On it's own, it's probably not gonna be able to do to great. The HP is only so-so for a high HP basic format that we are in now. The first attack is decent to maybe disrupt if you pull up a heavy retreater on the bench. While the second attack is not that great for a {g}{g}{c}.
2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame? It would be used for pure disruption if played at all and nothing else in my eyes.
3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with? Any card that can snipe after you lure something big off the bench. Maybe Yanmega Prime since they are both grass and Yanmega can get the sweep kill with sonic boom after Poison or snipe the bench. Or you could combine with Leafeon since he can poison the active then give the damage boost to Leafeon.
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating. I give it a 6/10. It's a decent card but it's not the best out there.
 
1. 90hp ok, retreat ok, I think the second attack is way to powerfull for a basic uncommon or common.
2. can propbably work with any grass deck
3. works great with the first and second attack combo but even better with catcher then judge or N
4. 8.5/10 why? all of the above
 
1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?

This card's standalone power is pretty terrible. It has low HP, a bad fire weakness, a near useless resistance, two retreat, and a costly second attack. The first one is useful as a slightly worse Sludge Drag, however.

2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?

Barring retreat cost, this is really a better version of Bellsprout, and some decks might use this over Bellsprout either in a lock deck, or to counter lock decks. Either works. Smart use of Return Blow could be messy for your opponent.

3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?

Vileplume possibly, to prevent the switch out. Pokemon Catcher as well if you have the energy, drag out something and put it back into someone's hand. Some say Judge, and this is true to a degree, but if they can put the pokemon down next turn via rare candy or evolution, Judge loses some of its sting.

4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.

This card would be SO much better if Return Blow was for a grass and a DCE. One of the problems is the lack of grass attackers, so this card wouldn't have many partners. Another is that Return Blow is a three drop. Short of a lock deck, people will drag out and kill this thing to save themselves since grass types don't really have a heavy hitter. Poison is annoying, but not game breaking.

Overall I'll give this a 5.5/10. It's playable and has a good niche, but certain problems including the lack of a grass attacker to partner with and the GGC cost of Return Blow really drag this card down.
 
1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?
90HP isn't great for a non-evolving basic but it's ok.... The first attack is a better version of Bellsprout but the second is pretty bad because it is slow to setup and is outclassed by Drifblim. 2 Retreat is annoying but can be dealt with.

2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
Maybe in ZPST to get late game KO's on Typhlosions (140HP -20 from posion -120 Bolt Strike), Reshiram and other bench-sitters.

3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
As I said ZPST if it runs switchs and maybe a Gothitelle counter in Reshi____ decks.

4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.
5/10, ok but outclassed by other cards in many ways. Also let down by its retreat cost.
 
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