art by 5ban Graphics
Today we are going to look at a card that some people may have thought to be underrated. It is a card that is small but has mucha heart in it! This card can quickly come in and bring a strong fight which is perfect for a Pokemon released from Furious Fists. So get ready to wrestle the urge to yell out this Pokemon’s name as we take a look and feature HAWLUCHA!!!!
Hawlucha is a Fighting type Pokemon that was released in Furious Fist. This is a small Pokemon with seventy HP and has no retreat cost. Hawlucha has the ability Shining Spirit which allows this Pokemon’s attacks to not be affected by weakness or resistances. That means anytime Hawlucha attacks the opposing Pokemon, it will always at least do the base damage of it’s attacks. This little Fighting Pokemon has a weakness to Lightning type Pokemon and resistance Fighting type Pokemon. Lastly, Hawlucha is always ready to battle with Flying Press that only cost a single Fighting energy. This attack does 60 damage but only to EX Pokemon.
Why is Hawlucha such an amazing Pokemon? It has a weakness to Lightning type Pokemon. Hawlucha can only damage EX Pokemon with his attack. Then, to make matters worst, Hawlucha only has 70 HP. The reason why Hawlucha is so great is because of everything else! It is a Fighting type Pokemon. Hawlucha can do massive damage for a cheap price. Then to make things better, it only gives up one prize if your opponent knocks it out. It has free retreat. Lastly, just look at this card’s beautiful design. It is just ready to libre!
If we are going to focus on one thing that makes Hawlucha so great then it is the fact that Hawlucha is a Fighting type Pokemon. Furious Fists gave this type so much support with things like Korrina, Fighting Stadium and Strong Energy. Korrina allows you to grab Hawlucha easily and a Muscle Band to attach to Hawlucha to add an additional 20 damage to his attacks. You can then attach a Strong Energy that can only be attached to Fighting type Pokemon. That adds 20 more damage to Hawlucha’s attacks. Then, most likely Fighting Stadium would be on the field which will add 20 more damage to any attack that a Fighting type Pokemon does if battling against an EX Pokemon. Once the dust clears and the math has been calculated, you are doing 120 damage to an EX Pokemon with Hawlucha’s single Fighting energy cost Flying Press attack. You just double Flying Press’s power with three simple cards. It can easily be set up and put into battle to do massive damage thanks to all these cards. It will not be one-hit KOing EX Pokemon but it will take out a huge chunk of their HP with just one energy.
Hawlucha has free retreat which is highly valued in today’s metagame. There is a reason why cards like Float Stone, Fairy Garden and Darkrai EX are being used. They give free retreat which can be used to heal status from an active Pokemon by retreating back to the bench or give a pivot switch for another Pokemon after a Pokemon is knocked out. Especially when you have Beartic who is becoming popular and does damage base on the retreat cost of a Pokemon. Which makes Hawlucha shine above the rest is that it has natural free retreat thanks to costing no energy to retreat. That means you can easily put up Hawlucha into the active after a Pokemon is knocked out to think about what to do for your next turn and then switch him back to the bench. Hawlucha’s free retreat can also be used smartly to heal off Poison or Sleep by using Switch to put Hawlucha into the active to replace the Pokemon with the status condition then freely switch to Hawlucha thanks to his no retreat cost.
Everything mention in the last few paragraphs make Hawlucha a great supporting Pokemon. It can either be used to put heavy damage on a fully health EX Pokemon or knockout a Pokemon with little HP left. Either way, your opponent will be wary of leaving a heavily damaged Pokemon with Hawlucha on the bench ready to rumble. Even if you do not plan to use Hawlucha to attack, having this card on the bench means you can put it into the active just for a few minutes as your prepare other things on your bench. There is a chance that it will be knocked out due to Hawlucha’s low HP because you left it there after an attack or by choice but this card only gives up one prize. So the consequence will matter little most of the time.
Another thing that Hawlucha has going for it is a resistance to Fighting type Pokemon. That is very important in a metagame where Pokemon like Lucario EX and Landorus EX can do up to 50 damage with a single Fighting energy. If Hawlucha is in the active position then these cards need to work a little extra hard to knock out this wrestling bird. The best part is that Hawlucha can strike back to do massive damage to both of these Pokemon to soften them up for your next Pokemon to get the knockout against them.
An interesting thing to do with Hawlucha is to pair it up with Garbodor to turn off Hawlucha’s Shining Spirit ability with Garbordor’s Garbotoxin ability. That means that Hawlucha can now hit Dark type Pokemon for weakness. If you can make Flying Press hit for 100 damage then it can knock out Darkrai EX easily if you can trap it in the active.
Hawlucha is an amazing Pokemon and deserves more praise for what it can bring to a Fighting deck. I can personally testify that Hawlucha can do amazing things after competing in a recent League Challenge. The ability to hit EX Pokemon hard with a single energy made it worth risking Hawlucha being knocked out only to get the revenge knockout later. It is amazing how easily you can make Hawlucha hit for 100 HP thanks to Muscle Band and Fighting Stadium. Then just the option to free retreat is nice to have when you are setting up your bench. The best part, your opponents can recognize Hawlucha as a threat just because they can foresee you getting it ready to do some heavy damage with a single energy on it.
So make sure to think twice the next time you believe Hawlucha is nothing to worry about. This card is ready to lucha!
