Weakness Policy

My Little Keldeo

My Little Keldeo

Submarine Reflection!
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This is a rather interesting card from the upcoming Primal Clash set. Negating weakness is nice, but is it really worth taking up the spot of a Tool? Using this, a Pokemon will no longer have access to a Muscle Band or a Spirit Link, in the case of something like M-Manectric-EX, which has a potentially dangerous Fighting weakness. Manectric is one of the Pokemon that I'd be most inclined to attach Weakness Policy to, but I wouldn't want to give up my turn when I need to Mega Evolve. I feel like in so many situations this card's benefits aren't worth its drawbacks.

However, I think it can have a niche role in a small number of Decks. Trevenant XY has limited playability due to its Dark weakness and the loss of its buddy Accelgor to paralyze and poison. Being weak to Yveltal in this format is no laughing matter. While Yveltal is no longer "the deck to beat," it's still a powerful and credible threat in the metagame, and sees its fair share of play. Trevenant XY is one of the few cards I can think of that could make wonderful use of Weakness policy, perhaps in conjuction with Gengar-EX, which also has seen limited success. Keldeo's Rush In + Float Stone combo has already been used in the past to assist with Trevenant's hefty retreat cost (and Gothitelle before that) and as a means of conserving Float Stones in case Trevenant is KOed. With Gengar-EX's Dark Corridor, this could make for a lock that's a little harder to break. Dragalge is optional. Wobuffet PHF is another good candidate for Weakness Policy to deal with opposing Mewtwo-EX, and would work in a simialr sort of deck. Still, this is complex idea and it's very much a niche role, so don't expect Weakness policy to have a huge impact. It does however, allow for some creativity that the metagame until this point hasn't allowed. Your thoughts?
 
I've always liked cards that could remove weakness, but there's always a cost to that. It's usually something robust yet inconsistent (like Leavanny LTR) or splash-able yet easily countered (like Shadow Circle). Weakness Policy represents the latter of those, reaching new heights in splash-ability and new lows in robustness.

Being negated by the likes of Surprise Megaphone and Head Ringer is not a good sign for a card you're going to be teching in to improve a specific match-up. Virizion/Genesect starts running Weakness Policy? Pyroar starts running more Megaphones. Now both decks, somewhat less consistent, have a virtually unchanged battle.

Most likely, this card will not see much play outside of Seismitoad-EX and Trevenant focused decks. Even then, Xerosic is picking up popularity, making it a gamble still.

The best solutions are the most balanced ones, so until we see a card which is both reasonably consistent and difficult to counter (say, a Stage-1 equivalent to Leavanny), weakness is here to stay.
 
Weakness Policy, IMO, will be used by players running certain decks (e.g., Primal Clash Gardevoir or Groudon) as an initial, easy counter to certain decks, as well as opponents' placement of Head Ringers onto their Poke, especially if one needs time to get "lots" of energy into play. We are at that "cycle" when a new set is about to be released; lots of new cards will be play-tested and tested in local tournaments; and this "frenzy" will dissipate around Regionals when the "tough" choices need to be made.

Like always, players need to establish their deck priorities and decide what's best for their decks, their playing style, and their area's metagame. These priorities will lead one to make card choices and Weakness Policy, IMO, will not be in the "must have" or even "need to have" tier for many players.
 
Playing Weakness Policy with Groudon / Gardevoir will be a tricky move, since it will forcibly end your turn when evolving, as you can't attack a Spirit Link. Unless you're running Tool Retriever and making a central part of your strategy of course, which would be horribly clunky. Removing Weakness is both a powerful and useful effect, but the costs really outweigh the benefits with Weakness Policy. In addition to the loss of versaility, your opponent can simply Megaphone it away. This is less of an issue with Seismitoad (though Xerosic would still remove it), but using it instead of a Muscle Band drastically decreases the damage output, when Quaking Punch's damage already isn't something to write home about. With Muscle Band and Laserbank, Toad can indirectly two-shot most Pokemon-EX, but if Weakness Policy were to be used instead, even the poison damage wouldn't get it to 170-180.
 
It seems like it would play out quite similar to Focus Sash- an item that turns a 1HKO into a 2HKO.

In which case.... either everyone is wrong about focus sash, or this won't see much play.
 
It could be good with a Pokemon that has G Barrier since it won't have to worry about M phone.
 
grantm1999 said:
2 of in decks with crippling weakness probably...
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One issue I see... the two Pokemon that need it most are probably M-Manetric and Gengar- because their centrepieces have weakness to massively popular decks in the meta. But Gengar really needs that muscle band to make his numbers work, and M-Manetric probably already has a spirit link.
 
If you run the weakness policy's with tool retrivals you can use the spirit link on M Manectric to evolve then put the weakness policy on M manectric EX, Gengar EX you would only put it on if you are facing a dark deck or maybe a fairy box deck otherwise you would just discard it or attach it to a robo substitue or something so its not in the way. I also think weakness policy would be good with seismitoad EX.
 
It could help some decks with really, really bad weakness like Dark, but we have much better tools right now like Muscle Band. As mentioned before I would much rather run Focus Sash. Focus Sash is average. It prevents OHKOs which are never fun. Weakness Policy isn't 100% guarnteed to prevent a OHKO.
 
Mr.Muffin said:
It could help some decks with really, really bad weakness like Dark, but we have much better tools right now like Muscle Band. As mentioned before I would much rather run Focus Sash. Focus Sash is average. It prevents OHKOs which are never fun. Weakness Policy isn't 100% guarnteed to prevent a OHKO.
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Focus Sash is the better option, but it can only be attached to Fighting types -> Fighting is mostly weak to water -> The most popular Water Pokemon is SeismitoadEX -> Against SeismitoadEX, you can't even play Focus Sash down (And even if you did, Quaking Punch isn't OHKOing anything)-> So Focus Sash is never used :(
 
Weakness policy can stop Pyroar OHKO Virgen I guess. I don't think getting weakness policy is your first priority doe.
 
Carpey said:
Mr.Muffin said:
It could help some decks with really, really bad weakness like Dark, but we have much better tools right now like Muscle Band. As mentioned before I would much rather run Focus Sash. Focus Sash is average. It prevents OHKOs which are never fun. Weakness Policy isn't 100% guarnteed to prevent a OHKO.
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Focus Sash is the better option, but it can only be attached to Fighting types -> Fighting is mostly weak to water -> The most popular Water Pokemon is SeismitoadEX -> Against SeismitoadEX, you can't even play Focus Sash down (And even if you did, Quaking Punch isn't OHKOing anything)-> So Focus Sash is never used :(
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Fighting has really diverse weakness. Landorus is weak to water, Lucario and Machamp to psychic, Hawlucha to lighting, Terrakion to grass. It's one of the strengths of fighting IMO.

As far as focus sash goes, probably putting it on Lucario EX to stop the 1HKO by Mewtwo, or Sigilyph, is probably the most practical. But people don't really play Lucario EX much.
 
Gengar doesn't need Muscle Band if you have Virbank in play. Manectric can't really benefit from it though... The only good Fighting types are Landorus, Hawlucha, and Donphan. Two of which are weak to water, and the other just gets OHKO'd by anything regardless, just saying.
 
grantm1999 said:
Gengar doesn't need Muscle Band if you have Virbank in play. Manectric can't really benefit from it though... The only good Fighting types are Landorus, Hawlucha, and Donphan. Two of which are weak to water, and the other just gets OHKO'd by anything regardless, just saying.
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I feel like most Gengar decks play Dimension Valley these days. With all the Enhanced Hammer running around, relying on DCEs is something you want to avoid, if possible. Especially with Muscle Band, Gengar doesn't need Virbank in play. Maybe some Gengar decks will try to incorporate some way to make Weakness Policy work, but I think it may be too difficult.

In other decks, I think Weakness Policy may have some great uses. A lot of rogue decks may benefit from it, as most of these rogue decks are written off because of their poor weaknesses. Ones that come to mind are Groudon and Empoleon. Seismitoad may also play a few of these, but I feel like the Vir/Gen match up still isn't great. Once they get 1 Emerald Slash off, they have too much Energy in play for you to keep up with.

One idea I had with this card is playing it in Fairies/Toolbox. Some of your attackers are horrible to bench in certain match ups due to their horrible weakness, but would otherwise have a great attack. Some examples are Yveltal against Manectric/Fighting, Xerneas EX against Aegislash (one of the only attackers that doesn't use Special Energy), Mewtwo against other Mewtwos, Manectric against Donphan, and many more. You really only need to play 1 or 2 of these guys, since you only run 1 of each type of attacker, and Dowsing Machine can get it back if needed.

Overall, I think Weakness Policy is pretty solid. I'll definitely have to start testing it once the new cards come out.
 
Machamp The Champion said:
grantm1999 said:
Gengar doesn't need Muscle Band if you have Virbank in play. Manectric can't really benefit from it though... The only good Fighting types are Landorus, Hawlucha, and Donphan. Two of which are weak to water, and the other just gets OHKO'd by anything regardless, just saying.
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I feel like most Gengar decks play Dimension Valley these days. With all the Enhanced Hammer running around, relying on DCEs is something you want to avoid, if possible. Especially with Muscle Band, Gengar doesn't need Virbank in play. Maybe some Gengar decks will try to incorporate some way to make Weakness Policy work, but I think it may be too difficult.

In other decks, I think Weakness Policy may have some great uses. A lot of rogue decks may benefit from it, as most of these rogue decks are written off because of their poor weaknesses. Ones that come to mind are Groudon and Empoleon. Seismitoad may also play a few of these, but I feel like the Vir/Gen match up still isn't great. Once they get 1 Emerald Slash off, they have too much Energy in play for you to keep up with.

One idea I had with this card is playing it in Fairies/Toolbox. Some of your attackers are horrible to bench in certain match ups due to their horrible weakness, but would otherwise have a great attack. Some examples are Yveltal against Manectric/Fighting, Xerneas EX against Aegislash (one of the only attackers that doesn't use Special Energy), Mewtwo against other Mewtwos, Manectric against Donphan, and many more. You really only need to play 1 or 2 of these guys, since you only run 1 of each type of attacker, and Dowsing Machine can get it back if needed.

Overall, I think Weakness Policy is pretty solid. I'll definitely have to start testing it once the new cards come out.
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All very good points. The one way that Weakness Policy may make Gengar playable is if you run it with Trevenant. That should give you protection from the Enhanced Hammers, which allows you to play Virbank and DCE's.

I'd like to hear how Weakness Policy assimilates into your Fairy builds.
 
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