This is what I've been thinking honestly, but besides Gouging Fire, I've been struggling to think of solid Fire attackers. Fire Ogerpon seems like it might be decent, and then you can make use of AZU as well, but it still feels like it's lacking a really solid powerhouse.
Ethan’s Pinsir & Ethan’s Sudowoodo from Heat Wave Arena!
- Thread starter JustInBasil
- Start date
Pinsir 
Define powerhouse, because Charizard ex from 151 and Armarouge ex are all pretty solid attackers. And technically, you can run Iron Hands ex as well.
Chill, we have 36 cards with retreat lock in the current format, almost all irrelevant, I don't think sudowudoo is going to make the format toxic
Could this mean Cynthia could possibly get some more cards as well?
These Pokémon actually have pretty clear lore reasons for being here… Pinsir is one of the rarest Pokémon in the Bug Catching Contest, and Sudowoodo is a roadblock Pokémon you have to complete a side quest to battle and have to catch or defeat to proceed. There’s arguably more reason for them to be here than Magcargo (Since Slugma, despite being introduced in second generation, is locked on Kanto’s cycling path in the postgame).
I’m sad the Sudowoodo isn’t three Energy and no coin flip like Clefairy from Base Set and Evolutions. It would be funny for a Ho-Oh/Armarouge deck to be able to casually OHKO things like Miraidon ex and Raging Bolt ex (Okay, maybe discarding four or five of your basic Energy when you’re not built like Ho-Oh/Magcargo isn’t casual). But I guess they don’t want to make Mew ex’s attack redundant?
The problem is it doesn't have to be. They're choosing to make them too niche instead of splashable
The idea would be to run Ethan's Pinsir as a one-off tech in an Ethan's Magcargo deck for the following reasons:
1) It is a Basic Pokémon instead of a stage 1 evolution
2) It has no ability and can therefore counter Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon ex in addition to hitting it for weakness.
3) There could be several decent cards weak to Grass (e.g., Darkness-type Pokémon ex such as N's Zoroark, and Ground-types such as Cynthia's Garchomp and others)
It is not the center of a deck. This card is a tech for Ethan's deck.
Pinsir for weakness is nice but very situational when i’d rather work out getting five energy on Magcargo in one turn.
i really hope we get a Sudowoodo IR with Ethan using the water pail on it like in the game
i really hope we get a Sudowoodo IR with Ethan using the water pail on it like in the game
Again Pinsir is a tech, Magcargo is a stage 01 but whatever what I wanted to say is that no pokemon with a higher number than Rotom will get an AR. The last 2 ARs are Rotom and GreedentPinsir for weakness is nice but very situational when i’d rather work out getting five energy on Magcargo in one turn.
i really hope we get a Sudowoodo IR with Ethan using the water pail on it like in the game
There's some fun nonsense to be had with Luminous energy- then anyone with a double colorless plus one other energy type attack cost- you can power up- I was using Serperior VSTAR for example- because Armarouge can pass up the luminous energy from the bench- to the VSTAR, where it then becomes grass- and the 2 fire energy from Ho-Oh would then power up that attack- which let you send it all back to the bench after doing damage- which was awesome. I'm trying the think outside the box like that- Cornerstone Mask Ogerpon actually could be powered up like this? Yikes. Slaking V with Spiritomb on the bench would be fun if that didn't rotate. And the Buffalos to reduce damage- hehe. Armarouge can also pass up Reversal Energy where it can become anything you want too- pretty fun- haven't found a use for that yet though.
I disagree honestly. Yes we as the audience know that Pinsir is gen 1 and Heracross is gen 2, but Ethan doesn't know that, to him they're both just Pokemon native to Johto. I feel like it would be kind of forced if Ethan only had gen 2 Pokemon
I suppose but imo I think they should've committed to the theme of all Gen 2 Pokemon for him - At least Pinsir is in the Bug Catching Contest so it does make sense, I just think there's a bunch of other Pokemon it could've been instead
I was thinking "this card could be solid in Ho-Oh ex/Armarouge box" before I realized it doesn't work that way unless you previously attacked with an Ethan's Pokémon. Still sad Sudowoodo couldn't have been granted the sort of attack Pokémon was willing to give to a 40 HP basic in 2016, or you'd have a little more flexibility.
So yeah, I guess it's not that useful unless your main attacker is Ethan's Magcargo (Or perhaps Ethan's Typhlosion).
Can't imagine less than 3 ho oh? Prizing could be an issue with 2, and you want 2 down to be able to take down a stage two ex card
In Heracross defense that one is obtainable through headbutt only if I’m not mistaken. And that’s also like a super Johto thing. It still makes more sense to me and wouldn’t be forced imo. If he had like 30 pokemon and they were all suspiciously gen II ok, but he’s just getting a handful
Yeah Sudowoodo I get, it's practically the gen 2 Snorlax. Pinsir is the odd choice to me because it's not really a Pokémon associated with Johto (also I may have skipped the bug catching contest).