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Written by Grand Master Scyther
December 8th, 2003
Welcome TCG trainers as I take a look at Dark type Pokemon (not to be confused with Pokemon that have "Dark" in their names). Not a lot of Dark type Pokemon are out there yet, so I'll have to wing this article, which shouldn't be too hard.
First off, let's take a look at Poochyena from the Ruby/Sapphire expansion. Very nice at 50 HP and an attack that only needs one Darkness energy to use. Shadow Bind may only do 10 damage, but it prevents your opponent's Pokemon from retreating until the end of their next turn. If you can Gust out a heavy hitter with no energy and hope they have a low hand size energy card wise, you can do some damage before they can fight back or retreat and make a major dent in their plans.
Before I switch to the Internet for the rest of the article, I'd like to take time to mention Sneasel ex. It may have good HP for a basic, but its attacks rely completely on coin flips (and the second also relies on your bench size), plus when knocked out your opponent draws two prize cards. You might want to think about some alternatives to Sneasel ex.
Absol from the new Dragon expansion isn't all that bad of a pick. With 70 HP and two attacks that only need one Darkness energy each (the second attack needs one of any energy as well), its attacks are really…interesting, to say the least. Bad News allows you to randomly discard cards from your opponent's hand until they're down to 5 cards, which means they have to have at least 6 to start with. Prize Count says if you have more prize cards than your opponent, do an additional 20 damage to the defending Pokemon. With a retreat cost of 1 and a resistance to Psychic, this isn't a bad choice for a dark deck.
Well, I can't complete an article on Dark Pokemon without mentioning Sableye. Not bad for 60 HP, but some very nice attacks. Supernatural allows you to look at your opponent's hand and use a Supporter card there for only one colorless energy. However, the Supporter stays in their hand. Its other attack, Dark Bind, does 20 damage and can paralyze the defending Pokemon if you discard a Darkness energy card from Sableye. Not bad for only one Darkness and one Colorless energy.
That pretty much ends this article. Next week I'll look at the final type of Pokemon: Steel. Until next time, keep training.