#sabrina's jybx

[pokemon-card-of-the-day]

Pokemon Card of the Day #2770: Sabrina’s Jynx (Gym Challenge)

Sabrina’s Jynx was one of those Pokemon that could help, but only in the right spot. Healing the opponent’s Pokemon to draw cards seemed like a pretty bad idea, and preventing retreating was cool but required a coin flip. That second part was impossible to make into a reliable thing, and it wasn’t like Sabrina’s Jynx walled a lot of important things. The first attack could only work in a deck where the amount of HP on the opponent’s Pokemon didn’t actually matter... and that did exist, to at least a small extent.

60 HP wasn’t awful by any means, but was notable with all the 70 HP Basic Pokemon out there. Being vulnerable to a KO from Wigglytuff in this era was not a good thing, especially since Sabrina’s Jynx really only worked in a slower format like Prop 15/3 where Wigglytuff was a good option. The Psychic Weakness meant that Mewtwo and even Mr. Mime would be threats as well. The good news was that the Retreat Cost here was just 1, which was very reasonable to pay.

Helping Hand brought drawing to the game, but was not the easiest use. Yes, it only needed a Psychic Energy attached, but you then got to choose 1 of the opponent’s Pokemon and remove as many damage counters from it as you wanted. You then drew that many cards. Healing the opponent was generally bad, and it was rare to want to do that just for drawing. Prop 15/3 was low on Trainers, though, and extra drawing was really rempting. This was likely best alongside Sabrina’s Kadabra, a Pokemon that could put anything down to 10 HP with a coin flip, making the play much less painful if you were lucky.

Speaking of coin flips, Hug brought that to the table. 20 damage was a bit low for a Psychic and a Colorless Energy. The flip, if heads, prevented the Defending Pokemon from retreating on the opponent’s next turn. This would have been worth trying for on another Pokemon, but Sabrina’s Jynx wasn’t really bulky. Going for Lickitung and Paralysis was simply better for this.

Sabrina’s Jynx had a tiny role for draw power in decks that didn’t mind losing progress when it came to damage. Even with the luck-based Sabrina’s Kadabra, though, it was hard to really want to go for this unless your board was in a really fragile state. It was probably best to skip Sabrina’s Jynx, though a copy in that sort of deck was worth looking at if you were struggling to find good cards to add to it.