Evil comes in many packages. This one just happens to be small and fast.
Ultra Prism was released a month ago. We have not covered a lot of cards from the set. That is because there are so many great cards. This set had so many gems and many of them are hidden. Some of them are bright and easy to see. Other are hidden in the darkness and need light shed upon them. There are some cards that are just plain evil. Why are they evil? Simply with their ability to punish your opponent quickly if they are not careful. Today’s card is a fine example of these qualities thanks to today’s meta. With just one evolution and energy and you can potentially hit for 200 damage! Who is this mysterious card? That will be today’s featured card, Weavile!
Weavile is a Darkness Pokemon from Ultra Prism with 90 HP. This Pokemon is a Stage One Pokemon that evolves from Sneasel. It has two attacks. The first attack is called Icy Wind and does 10 damage. This attack will then put your opponent’s Pokemon to sleep. The second attack is called Evil Admonition which cost a single Darkness energy. This attack does 50 time the number of Pokemon with abilities on your opponent’s side of the field. Weavile has a weakness to Fighting type Pokemon and resist Psychic types. This card has a one energy retreat cost.
The Pros
The main great thing about Weavile is that it can hit hard for a single energy. Evil Admonition can do 50 damage if your opponent has a single Pokemon with an ability on the field. Luckily, this format has plenty of Pokemon with abilities that will help fuel this admonition of an attack. On average, your opponent plays two Tapu Lele GX. If they play down both Tapu Lele GX then that is 100 damage. Your opponent may also have a few other Pokemon with abilities. That means Weavile can do even more damage with Evil Admonition.
Let say that your opponent plays down both of their Tapu Lele GX and one other Pokemon with an ability. That is 150 damage being done with Evil Admonition. All you need to do now is attach a Choice Band to Weavile and Evil Admonition is now hitting for 180 damage which is a golden number in the Pokemon TCG.
If your opponent decides not to play down so many Pokemon with abilities then that is good. You are most likely force your opponent to slow down their set up and it will be harder for them to set up. Though, that will hurt Zoroark GX players a lot as they can’t flood the bench with four of their key Pokemon.
Weavile is also a one prize attacker. If your opponent knocks out Weavile then they will take only one prize. That is great if you plan to do a lot of damage with little HP.
The Cons
One of the cons for Weavile is that it will not be on the field long. That will be especially true if your opponent has set up their board. Weavile only has 90 HP which a lot of Pokemon can hit easily. You may find that your opponent has set up plenty of Pokemon with abilities. Your Weavile will love that. The problem is that you will see a return KO. You will want to plan for that if you decide to send out Weavile.
Weavile’s weakness to Fighting type Pokemon can be bad. If your opponent knows what Weavile is up to then they may try to chip away at it. I am specifically talking about Buzzwole GX who can use Jet Punch to attack your Weavile. If they decide to start chipping away on your Weavile as a Sneasel then that will be two Jet Punch attacks. You will need to plan out your Weavile attack if you wish to do some damage with this Pokemon.
How to Play It
You can’t play Weavile as a deck on it’s own. There are plenty of Weavile cards to do it but it isn’t advisable.
Instead you want to pair Weavile with another Darkness Pokemon in the form of Zoroark GX. You can set up your field with a bunch of Zorua and Sneasel by using Brigette. Eventually you will evolve your Zorua into Zoroark GX to do some big hitting. This will also be your main form of draw support. When the moment is right then you can evolve your Sneasel into Weavile and start using Evil Admonition to take advantage of all the Pokemon with abilities that your opponent has.
A Weavile on the bench can be a huge deterrent to keep your opponent from playing down too many Pokemon with abilities. They will be afraid to put down those abilities in fears of being hurt later down the line. They will either need to knockout the Weavile or simply risk the potential revenge KO from Weavile.
The addition of Weavile to the Zoroark GX toolbox can open up plenty of new things for the deck. You have to play Darkness energy in the deck to use Evil Admonition. That means you can now use Zoroark GX’s Trickster GX attack to copy one of your opponent’s Pokemon attacks. That means that have access to use any attack for simply two Darkness energy. Imagine using Solgaleo GX’s Sunsteel Strike for simply two darkness energy! Or using Gardevoir GX’s Infinite Force to knockout a heavily energy loaded Gardevoir GX.
Do not forget that you also have access every Zoroark in the format. That includes Zoroark and Zoroark BREAK from BREAKthrough. The Zoroark BREAK is worth nothing because it has the Foul Play attack that can copy any of your opponent active Pokemon’s attacks. That can be pretty scary as you can use any attack for a single Darkness energy.
All of this can be done simply because you decide to play a Weavile line in your deck that needs a single Darkness energy.
Is the darkness here to stay? If Weavile has any say in it then you better bring a flashlight!
