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Quote of the Day:
157. There are two rules for success in life: Rule 1: Don't tell people everything you know.
"How to Use Arbok (E1)"
Article #131.
March 10, 2003 8:18 PM
Baboon@pokeschool.com
** 70 HP . This isn't bad, but at the same time, it's not that great. Gold Berry has a chance of working. You may NOT want to use Healing Field, as the attack only deals 20 damage to start, which would be perfectly counteracted by the Stadium.
** Bottom Stats . Just like most of the other 'Poison' typed cards, there is Psychic Weakness. It seems to not be totally devastating, since there really isn't a whole lot of Psy cards that can be splashed into a lot of decks. It's either going to not affect you, or it'll be your death. You may want to have some Psy Pokemon in your deck to counter your opponent's Psys. Secondly, there is no Resistance, which is all too common. Finally comes the Retreat Cost of (*). Arbok can afford this without much problem. You could recover from paying that Energy without any problem.
** Evolves from Ekans (Stage 1) . This is the place in every article where I list the different choices for evolution. Well, umm... Here's your choice: Expedition Ekans, or... uh, that's it. >_< (In Standard, you've got more choices, and the best of which is probably Fossil.) Basically, my strategy here is: use E1 Ekans and evolve right away! ;)
** (G) Poison Spray . Hopefully you can Poison the Defending Pokemon while still an Ekans, assuming it's your Active Pokemon. The more turns you can use your other attack, the better. Even though this isn't the greatest attack in the world, it will give Poison Reaction a considerable amount of damage, so be sure the Defending Pokemon IS POISONED.
** (*)(*) Poison Reaction 20+ . You either deal 20 or 40, for only (*)(*). This is pretty good! ;) It doesn't appear to be that much damage, but if you can manage to get a multiple-Poison attack going, such as Nidoking's Toxic or Neo2 Beedrill's Triple Poison, there is quite a lot of damage by the time you get Poison Reaction on the Defending Pokemon. Figure 10 damage from Triple Poison, 30 from Poison, 40 from Poison Reaction, and 30 MORE from Poison again. That's 100 damage from the time your opponent ends their turn to the time they start again. VERY few Pokemon would pass that much damage, and if the Poison would end up KOing your opponent, it would even pass any Focus Bands, since Poison isn't one of the triggers!
COMBO CARDS .
~Vileplume (E1). Use the Poke-Power to Poison the Defending Pokemon, so you won't have to worry about spending time with Poison Spray. This is also good protection if your opponent keeps retreating to shake the Poison.
~Grass Cube 01. Instead of only giving Poison, you give both Poison AND Sleep, making it harder for your opponent to lose the Poison, unless, of course, there's a Switch or some related card.
~Broken Ground Gym/Rocket's Training Gym. Any card that depends on having Poison and keeping it should run a Gym like these, to help ensure the Poison staying.
RATINGS :
Standard . There just doesn't seem like there would be much room to mess around as Arbok does. To deal 40 damage, you need to first spend a turn giving Poison. Many cards can do 40 in one turn, some using only 1 Energy card! 5/10.
Modified . Special Conditions can exist more easily here, and with Arbok's low Energy cost, you could have some fun with it. 7/10.
TRIVIA answer from Kingdra .
Are there any other E2 cards with 120 HP?
Blissey and Tyranitar!
TRIVIA for Arbok .
Who drew the illustration on E2 Arbok?
You can always write an article or a few of your own, and we'll be glad to have it on the site!
Thanks for reading!
~Baboon
Baboon@pokeschool.com
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