BREAKThrough Octillery - cotw 09SEP2016

Always hearing more established players telling you to get 2x Shaymin EX but you definitely can't afford or justify the £45/$70ish a piece? Well there's a possible answer in Octillery.

The ability, Abyssal Hand, is basically Shaymin's Set Up sans 1 card. However, unlike Shaymin's Set Up, Abyssal Hand is a rolling ability, meaning you can use it every turn.

Given how draw power heavy the meta is now this is definitely a formidable ability to have. Played alongside Sycamores you can be drawing a potential 12 cards per turn. Also, unlike the very fragile Shaymin EX, Octillery is only a 1 prize risk, meaning if you do get Lysandre'd then your losses will sting a fair bit less.

It's only attack, Hug, is pretty bad really for a stage 1. It's three energy for a meager 40 damage and it's effect can easily be countered with trainer cards. Really, you never, ever want to use this thing to attack.

The card's main shortcomings are that it's a stage 2 (though Wally and EvoSoda speed this up a lot and Archie's Ace in the Hole can remove the need to play it from Remoraid in the first place) and it's low HP and lack of attack viability. However, no one should even be considering this thing as having any use outside of the bench so a lot of these are moot flaws.

You could make serious, serious use of Octillery in a Yanmega BREAK (Steam Siege #8/114) deck due to their respective abilities. Yanmega BREAK can attack for free if there are exactly 4 cards in your hand, and Octillery can offer a massive aid in a deck that requires significant consistency by ensuring you always start a turn on 5, meaning you'd only have to find a use for 1 card to net your free attacks. Giving you such significant control over your draw speed allows you to free up extra slots that would usually be occupied in the deck by Shauna or Judge.

Outside of Yanmega BREAK decks, Octillery still serves well in the majority of decks as a poor man's Shaymin EX. If you can spare the space and turn to set this thing up, it'll have your deck running like a well oiled machine in no time. Octillery ways in at around a 5th of the price of a Shaymin EX, is a lot easier to pull from packs and will be included in the excellent Keldeo Vs Rayquaza Battle Arena box that hits shelves on the 21st.

The only thing that really concerns me about Octillery is its HP and the fact that its a Stage 1. I'd probably use it in pretty much everything simply because of that ability, though, and that HP can be neutralized a bit with a Fighting Fury Belt.

donavannj said:

The only thing that really concerns me about Octillery is its HP and the fact that its a Stage 1. I'd probably use it in pretty much everything simply because of that ability, though, and that HP can be neutralized a bit with a Fighting Fury Belt.

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Unfortunately can't use FFB because it's for basics only :(

You could assault vest it I guess, although as long as it survives two-three turns it should more than serve its purpose.

I mean Shaymin EX is unarguably better, but here it now costs 7x the amount that Octillery does on average