Cryogonal (NV32) [11/25/2011]

[Celebi23]

Card of the Day: Cryogonal from Noble Victories

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.

 

[dBlue]

First!
1.Good HP for a basic, great situational attack (Ice shard) making him a reasonably good tech for decks that suffer from Donaphan. His other attack is OK for stalling. Retreat cost is normal, weakness is not good with Cobalion, but you'll never see Crygonal vs Cobalion anyway.
2.Donaphan Counter. That's all.
3. Anything that suffers from Donaphan.
4.I'd say 7/10. It's a good card that can be a very good tech, but the top decks don't need it and Tornadus is all Zekrom needs. It probably wont see much play.

 

[Vulpix Yolk]

1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?: 80 HP for a basic isn't as impressive as it used to be because of the ridiculous power creep that we are experiencing, it is OHKO'd by most things in this format, even with Eviolite. Weakness to Cobalion isn't going to matter, because it is OHKO'd by it anyways. One retreat cost is fine, this isn't going to make or break the card. The water energy requirement for the attack cost is kind of a bummer, but I think it is well worth it if you are looking for a quick and easy way to counter Donphan. Sleep can be kind of disruptive, and might save you later in a game.

2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?: The only purpose I see for this card is to counter Donphan, I think that was the only reason that it was printed to be honest with you, barely gets the OHKO. With Eviolite, Donphan is going to experience some difficulties knocking you out. Unfortunately for Cryogonal, Donphan has dropped a significant amount in popularity, and google box, the only thing that Donphan sees play in anymore, can easily play around it. It takes two turn to build up, and in most cases, is just a free prize for your opponent if you dare to bench it. Even as a Donphan counter, I feel that this card is outclassed by Outrage Kyurem in most cases, simply because Kyurem can be powered up in one turn, and is useful against Reshiram (to an extent).

3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?: I feel that this card is only going to see play in a deck that needs an answer to straight up Donphan. I can't think of any decks off of the top of my head that can utilize this card, because it needs Rainbow Energy or Water Energy to function, and most decks don't worry about Donphan, they worry about the trainer lock Reuniclus aspect of Donphan variants.

4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.: If this card would have been released around Nationals, I think that it would have seen a good amount of play, but it isn't right for the format right now. It may become more popular in the near future if a good Fighting Type that is weak to water is released, or if Donphan gains more popularity, but for now, I don't think it is very playable. 4/10.

 

[EricDLee]

1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?
The HP isn't bad, but it isn't wonderful either. Its weakness is convenient (Metal is rarely seen these days), and one Retreat isn't too bad either.
Its first attack is generally useless, but could stall for a turn if necessary.
Its second attack is entirely situational. If the opponent isn't Fighting, it's a weak attack. If the opponent is Fighting, it's somewhat powerful.

2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?
The attack seems to be completely geared toward Donphan Prime, the only commonly seen Fighting-type Pokemon in the current metagame. 70 damage does exactly enough damage to knock out Donphan due to its weakness to Water and its Exoskeleton Poke-Power.

3. What cards, if any, does this card combo with?
Any deck that runs Water or Rainbow Energy and needs a Donphan counter could find Cryogonal useful.

4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.
7/10. It's very situational but it does its job fairly well.

 

[Slowbro]

1. hmm... 80 hp for a basic isn't bad, but it's overshadowed by the legends (reshi, zekky, kyurem). 1 retreat is pretty good, and metal weakness very good because the only semi-playable pokemon that can exploit it is cobalion and it already does 80, so it won't really make a difference. The stats of cryogonal aren't too special; it's the attacks (specifically ice shard) that made people notice cryogonal. Icy wind could be a good stalling attack if you need an extra turn, but isn't too powerful. Ice shard is a straight counter to donphan. It would do 30+40 because donphan is {F}. So that's [(30 + 40) x 2] - 20 = 120. Math problems aside, thats an ohko.

2. As I said before, the only play cryogonal will see is as a donphan counter. You can ohko it for 2 energies. Because it is so situational, you don't want to base a deck around it. However, if you're deck is weak to donphan it would be wise to tech it in. Don't rely on it too much, because 80 hp is ohko'd by a lot of things.

3. A card that really suffers from donphan. It doesn't really have something that has synergy with it, like yanmega/magnezone, but it can pair well with donphan-weak cards to stop donphan in it's tracks.

4. 5/10. It can ohko donphan, but that's all it's good for. If your meta has lots of donphan, you could consider teching cryogonal in, but kyurem is a better counter imo. The sad thing is, donphan has seen a drop in popularity, so cryogonal is probably going to stay in your binder for now.

 

[Riskbreakers]

Oh my God, it's the "Donphan Counter"

1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?

80HP for a non-evolving basic is sub-par especially with the emergence of the Digimons. It has an attack that looks like a Donphan counter but no.
2. What role does/could this card have in the metagame?

Zero. It is completely useless.

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

See Number 2
4. Give it a rating (out of 10), and explain why you have given it that rating.

I rate this a 3/10. This card is like a fake Donphan Prime counter. It can OHKO a Donphan yeah but look at it, it needs two turns to charge, needs a rainbow or prism (when it's released), can get Catcher'd before it can even attack and it eats up a bench space that could have been used for something else. I do not really see why this card was given any hype at all. It is like when you go to a restaurant, see a nice looking steak and order it, when it comes to you it is tough and chewy and disgusting. Looks are deceiving, so does Cyrogonal's potential, very deceiving yet very useless.

 

[Magnevire]

....stop.

IT'S CYRO TIME.

Okay I feel like I have to defend this card a little. While it's true that making Ice shard run on WC instead of doublecolorless really hurts the card's playability (especially for ZPST, which would essentially have the silver bullet for donphan given it's high DCE count), the card still does have a lot of uses in the Donphan matchup, and even some ways certain metagame decks can accommodate Cyrogonal and make it useful.

For example, ZPST could still find this card useful in the DnD matchup, where killing Donphan as quickly as possible can be paramount in this matchup. Running prism energy (when released) is your best bet. Attach Prism to Cyrogonal if you have them early, drop pachy, and shaymin a lightning over for a fast Ice Shard. Shaymin can also be used late game to move an energy to Cyrogonal right as you drop it so it can score the KO without being dragged out. The biggest problem here is that running yet more energy that doesn't get self generated really hurts consistency for the early donk, so a heavy donphan meta is required, and careful balancing of DCE, Prism, and Lightning would be very important as well.

In regards to dealing with Pokemon Catcher, I actually think that Pokemon Catcher is not as big a problem to Cyrogonal as people are making it out to be. To be fair, Donphan can't OHKO Cyrogonal without using Heavy Impact (and even that fails if Cyro has eviolite), and I doubt most players would be stupid enough to put it down in a non Donphan matchup, so the problem of it getting dragged out is not as big a problem as it sounds, especially since a dragon would need six damage counters (8 against eviolite) to score the KO. If someone ultimately decides to blow that many resources on Cyrogonal and open themselves up to a revenge KO for their trouble, Cyrogonal's already done a good job by removing a more dangerous card from play. Catcher or not, Cyrogonal can more than likely shut down Donphan, and potentially cause a couple misplays in the process. That has value.

I would give Cyrogonal a 5/10, Most of Cyrogonal's value is going to be on the psychological level. Any remaining Donphan players can't afford to ignore Cyrogonal, but KOing it leaves more important pokemon still alive. The card can be used for intimidation value like this, especially if an energy is already attached. This card could also be an interesting tech in any Kyurgatr lineup, scoring the KO on donphan, no strings attached, faster than Kyurem could, while not risking an important attacker. The card is very situational and could even work in a couple of decks. Unfortunately for ZPST, Tornadus is still the most consistent call against Donphan and more flexible overall in other matchups, and fortunately for ZPST, eviolite, the true Donphan counter, has really contributed to the downfall of Donphan. Donphan isn't used nearly as much, so even the niche uses Cyrogonal would have are much less in the lighter Donphan meta. However, if your local league still runs a lot of Donphan, and you got a deck that can help Cyrogonal set up, then yeah, give it a try. The card is a bit of a disappointment, Ice shard not costing two colorless really leaves it out of some otherwise very competitive decks, but it's not as bad as people say. It won't live up to the hype, but it may see some small use, and those uses might make the difference in a couple games.

[/sand=Magnevire] -Futachimaru

 

[Glace]

1. How does this card stand on its own (analyze the HP, attacks, Abilities, etc. of the card)?

Cyrogonal has a reasonable 80 HP, and two attacks. It's water type gives it the advantage of weakness over fire types and Donphan, which is why it is a good card. Cyrogonal's first attack isn't great- putting the defending Pokémon to sleep, for one energy. The second attack is what makes this card good. It does only 40 damage by itself, but when the defending Pokémon is a fighting type, the damage output almost double, making Cyrogonal do 70 damage for 2 energy. Any fighting type with 140 or less HP and a Water (namely Donphan) will be knocked out by this attack. A steel weakness is good to, because the only Steel Pokémon used much is the semi-popular Cobalion. A single retreat cost means that after a Donphan is knocked out, even after being attacked, Cyrogonal can either Catcher-ko another Donphan, so retreat so cyrogonal can rinse and repeat.

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


I could easily see Cyrogonal in Donphan Dragons as a mirror tech. When a player is facing a Donphan with 3 energy, Cyrogonal can easily ko the Donphan, and an earthquake attack cannot counter-ko it. If the opposing DD player Catchers up Cyrogonal, Cyrogonal requires 2 pluspowers to be knocked out via Earthquake. It takes just two turn to charge up Cyrogonal, and DD wouldn't have to tech in extra energy because DD already uses Rainbow Energy. This makes Cyrogonal only a 1-2 card tech.

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

It combos with DD, as mentioned earlier. Cyrogonal doesnt combo with peticular cards, rather with different deck. Most of those decks happen to have a weakness to Donphan, which Cyrogonal attends to fix.


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


8/10. Though Cyrogonal is helpful in the Donphan matchup, it does have it's flaws. If a 3 energy Donphan Catcher kos Cyrogonal, Cyrogonal is a goner.