NOTE: Please use today's thread to review Litwick (NV57), Litwick (NV58), Litwick (BW27), and Lampent (NV59) as well, since these are the card's pre-evolutions. Pay special attention to the last Litwick, since not everybody knows about it, and the middle evolution since it's actually useful!
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) Chandelure has what has become the gold standard in HP, 130. He has a retreat cost of 2, which is a bit pricey. His weakness to dark type is ok. Zoroark is the only dark attacker currently seeing play and he could only foul play Chandelure for 100, 120 if burn damages. His ability is straight up ridiculous, even if he has to be active for it to work. His sole attack for PPC does 50 damage and inflicts burn and confusion feels a little underpowered for the 3 energy with no potential for DCE abuse.
2) I see Chandelure as being a unique snipe/lock deck. He is able to retreat and use switches to have multiple Chandelure active during your turn to drop 3, 6, 9, or even 12, though I doubt you will be able to pull that off often if ever. The three damage counter placement is nice because it can knock out solosis and babies, two common played cards in the format. Additionally, his ability to inflict status conditions can pair nicely with his ability against high retreat cost pokemon such as Donphan and Magnezone in that you can cripple their active with confusion while you snipe around it.
3) The first card I think of is Dodrio from Undaunted. This allows Chandalure to retreat for free so that you can use multiple cursed shadows per turn.
Additionally, in variants that only use cursed shadows, max potion allows you to take a blue flare or bolt strike and heal shake it off like it was nothing. If you are not running energy, there is no downside to this card aside from potential trainer lock.
I could also see Chandelure working effectively with trainer lock, specifically vileplume. 130 HP is a dangerous amount to have. It puts you in threat range of plus power blue flare and bolt strike KOs. This, paired with the fact that recovery for stage 2s is difficult to say the least, means that denying your opponent use of plus powers could be game saving. This would also protect you any dodrios you run from catcher KOs as well as deny your opponent the use of switch which can force them to manually retreat or face burn and confusion.
4) 7/10. I think Chandelure can be effective and being able to 3 damage counters as an ability is sick and he doesn't have any clear counters in the meta at the moment, but his high attack cost and paired with the fact that you need to set up multiple of a Stage 2 make me feel that this guy can't win consistently enough to make him anything above tier 2.
Chandelure has potential to be a really interesting deck. It's power is very similar to Kingdra's Spray Splash, but it places three damage counters, giving it much better attack power. On the other hand, Chandelure has to be active for the power to be in play. Given Chandelure's mediocre attack, this can be an easy card to look over. However, using Chandelure with Dodrio UD allows Chandelure's power to stack, doing up to a possible 120 unblockable damage and a probable 60 on average. What makes this approach interesting is that you can then use something like Tropical beach to draw up to seven cards, ending your turn, while relying on powers to do your damage. You could also run a lot of hand evening cards and run Yanmega to finish off basics, or use Jirachi to devolve pokemon. Alternately, Kyruem and Electrode could be used to force a Twins setup and spread attack to finish off multiple damaged pokemon.
This is ultimately a deck that should run on little to no energy. As such, this deck can really afford to run a lot of TSS. Max Potion is a card that immediately comes to mind. Chandelure has the magic 130 HP, so it can survive the average dragon attack. Paired with no energy requirements to really attack, Max Potion is ultimately a shoe in in Chandelure and really lets it maintain a nice string of damage. Defender is another possibility, purely because of the lofty space in the deck, however, I do not think it is quite as useful as Max Potion is. Blissey Prime also works for healing in the event of trainer lock and mass healing. Lastly, Kingdra Prime could be used to take out dragons without relying on Yanmega or similar to attack; this route would allow still more Tropical Beach draws, resulting in a constant draw engine that could rival Megazone.
One of the biggest problems with this approach to Chandelure is the fragility of Dodrio. One possible tech to counter this is Gothetelle, purely for trainer lock, to retreat to after Chandelure finishes its damage drop. Doing this protects Dodrio from Pokemon Catcher, which can be a serious problem for Chandelure.
Overall, I think we're looking at a 6.5-7/10 for Chandelure. I can see Chandelure leading the way in a tier 2 deck, but I think the reliance on Dodrio to constantly drop damage counters is a little too fragile when constant stage 2s prevents any Vileplume splashing into the deck. Being able to take advantage of Tropical Beach is really nice, as is not needing to rely on energy. The setup can be a hassle to make and maintain, keeping it from being a tier one card.
0. Lamps or whatever: In my opinion, the winner of the Litwick contest has to be the Black Star Promo one. The ability to search your deck for a basic is excellent, and could save you from getting donked if you are short a Collector or something. Will-O-Wisp is pretty bad, but oh well, you shouldn't be needing to use it anyways. I am really liking the Lampent as well, it is basically a Pokémon Catcher that can be used under trainer lock. Very disruptive, you could bring up a Reuniclus or Vileplume with it, then evolve and kill what you drug up with your Chandelure next turn. 80 HP is pretty low, 1 retreat could be worse.
1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?: Chandelure's HP is decent, not too great considering it is a stage two, however, 130 HP is the magic number this format, makes it so Reshiram and Zekrom can't score the OHKO, that's a plus, all and all good HP. Weakness to dark is beautiful, there are no real good Dark types in the format right now. Hydreigon could be an issue, but it isn't very played, or good. Zoroark can't even get the OHKO after a Foul Play. Chandelure being a Stage 2 isn't great, it is going to be difficult to tech into decks, and will most likely be the most effective as its own deck. Chandelure has one of the best abilities that I have ever seen, three damage counters to any of your opponent's Pokèmon, before you attack, awesome. Unfortunately, it has to be in your active position, not that bad of a draw back. Chandelure's attack isn't too excellent, 50 for three isn't good, but the Burn and Confusion are a nice little add on, almost makes it worth it with the amount of things with high retreat costs in this format. Psychic is a great typing in this format, hits Vileplume, Reuniclus, Gothitelle and Mew for weakness.
2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?:Like many other cards coming out of Noble Victories, Chandelure can be effectively used as a deck or a tech. I'm not quite sure how well Chandelure techs are going to do in this format, simply because it is a stage 2, and is going to need a lot of room to be played. The damage spread to your opponent's field is key in a lot of match ups, it could help you get a key OHKO in a tight match up, such as Gothitelle or google's, which are both decks that barely survive attacks. I think the deck in the format the could benefit the most from a Chandelure tech would be any Reshiram variant. Reshiram decks are already running Rare Candies thanks to the needed Energy Acceleration from either Emboar or Typhlosion, so you could get away with a very light Chandelure line, probably 2-1-2. You might even be able to use a 1-0-1 line, but that is a little risky, because something could be prized, the basic could get Catcher killed, or any part of the line could be discarded from the top of you deck by something like Durant. Once a Chandelure is set up, you could get it into your active, use it's power to put enough damage counters on your opponent's active to score a kill with Blue Flare, then switch, or retreat out into Reshiram and get a kill with Blue Flare that you would not have been able to get before hand. OHKOs like this can tip the match up in your favor against both google Box and Gothitelle, decks that Reshiram has difficulties with. Chandelure can be used in any deck that is already playing Rare Candies and Switch fairly effectively, and is a great card to consider if you are having difficulties beating decks with Reuniclus, or maybe even Durant.
I think that Chandelure is going to work best if it is used as its own deck. My favorite combo with Chandelure would be using it with Jirachi and Shaymin. Jirachi and Chandelure work so well together it is ridiculous. Using Chandelure, you can snipe to an evolution on your opponent's bench, then you can retreat or switch into Jirachi, and devolve the Pokémon that you just did snipe damage to. This drop in HP could be enough to kill the pokémon that you devolve, and the unexpected knock out could cripple your opponent. Jirachi has dual purposes with this deck, the other purpose being energy acceleration. If you discard a lot of Psychic Energy early game with cards like Junk Arm, Professor Juniper and Sage's Training, you can bench your Jirachi and use Stardust Song. With any luck, this could will get some energy onto your Jirachi, that you can later move to your Chandelure with Shaymin. Pretty nifty if you ask me.
Skeleton? Why not?
4-2-4 Chandelure
? Some sort of back up attacker, maybe Samurott, Roserade or Muk or something.
3 Jirachi
3 Shaymin
1 Cleffa
Pokémon: 17 + back up attacker
4 Junk Arm
3 Sage's Training
4 Professor Oak's New Theory
3 Switch (I'm not sure if switching Chandelure and bringing it back up will let you use its power twice in one turn, either way though, switch is great, and you might have two Chandelures out.)
3 Super Scoop Up
2 N
4 Rare Candy
4 Pokémon Communication
1 Recovery Card (Flower Shop Lady, Super Rod, whatever floats your boat.)
'
T/S/S: 28
Ability: Psycho Mirage
As long as this Pokemon is in play, each Basic Psychic Energy card attached to your Psychic-type Pokemon provides 2 units of Psychic energy. This effect can’t be stacked, regardless of how many Pokemon with this ability you have in play.
[P][P][C][C] Mind Shock: 60 damage. Don’t apply Weakness or Resistance for this attack’s damage.
This card is great for building up attack costs really fast. With a Gardevoir in play, you would be able to build up Chandelure's attack with just two energy, meaning that you could use it much quicker, and maybe even be able to build up two Chandelures at a time. With this kinda of Energy Acceleration, it would be easy to throw in some back up attackers, such as Mewtwo EX from the Psycho Drive collection.
Translation for Mewtwo EX.
Mewtwo EX – Psychic – HP170
Basic Pokemon
[C][C] EX Ball: Does 20 damage times the number of Energy attached to each player’s Active Pokemon.
[P][P][C] Psycho Drive: 120 damage. Choose 1 Energy attached to this Pokemon and discard it.
Pokemon EX Rule: When Pokemon EX is Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.
A version of Chandelure that has been seeing some success at City Championships this season is Chandelure Yanmega Prime. This seems like a very effective and to the point variation of Chandelure and I don't think I need to go into too much detail on this. Yanmega variants tend to be rather roomy, since it is a stage 1 line, so the deck has room to support Chandelure. The deck uses Chandelure to snipe something off of you opponent's bench with its Ability, then you can Switch into Yanmega to use Linear Attack to finish something off, or Sonicboom to deal 70 to your opponent's active. Since Yanmega has a free retreat, it is very possible to get snipe damage from Chandelure and Yanmega in the same turn, Yanmega retreats (free retreat cost is a huge prop), Chandelure uses its ability, then all you have to do is play a Switch and go back into Yanmega to attack. Matching your opponent's hand size is a minor issue.
3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?: Jirachi: Allows you to devolve Pokémon to get critical snipe kills, and works as a form of energy acceleration. I would recommend Jirachi with any Chandelure build. Shaymin: Moves energy from Jirachi, moves energy from dying Chandelures. Gardevoir EX: Energy Acceleration. Mewtwo EX: Back Up attacker. Yanmega Prime: FINISH HIM. Gets the job done back up attacker dragonfly monster. Switch: Needed to get your Chandelure out of your active position to attack with something else, and or go into another Chandelure to snipe again. Junk Arm: Discarding Psychic Energy to retrieve with Jirachi is nifty, and so is recovering a Trainer that you may need in a certain situation. Rare Candy: Get those Candles out son. Vileplume: Fellow Stage 2 so it can utilize Candies, and can keep your opponent from Switching out of the conditions that you inflict them with. Makes it so Dragon players can play Pluspowers to get the OHKO. Electrode Prime: Energy Acceleration, allows you to Twins to get set up. Twins: This deck is kinda slow, great from setting up if you are down on prizes or playing Electrode Prime Sage's Training: Discards Psychic for Jirachi, helps with consistency.
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating. I wonder if anyone is actually reading this, I guess I had a lot to say about this card, maybe I should write an article... Chandelure sounds like a very fun deck to play, however; I am a little bit skeptical on how well it will preform at higher level tournaments. Chandelure will see play this format, and is a great card to counter a lot of popular decks, but I think the overall speed of the deck is what is going to keep it from the higher tiers of the metagame. 7/10
