History of Skarmory in the TCG Pokemon Trading Card Game Overview!

What’s popping everybody, SaberWolf94 and welcome to the Pokemon TCG Overview. For today’s article, I’m going to cover the unique steel bird pokemon Skarmory. When I think about Skarmory what comes to my mind is the best and most famous physical wall throughout multiple generations in the actual pokemon games with its fantastic steel/flying typing back when I did a lot of online competitive battling. The other being one of Steven Stone’s main pokemon, my favourite character in the series, with Steel Wing, Steven’s favourite move pretty much made exactly for Skarmory.

From the TCG side of things though not much comes to mind, probably because Skarmory hasn’t been one of the more successful pokemon in this sphere. Since it doesn’t have any pre-evolution (wasted opportunity if you ask me) or evolves into anything else it has always been a basic pokemon in the TCG. It doesn’t have a lot of special cards so this should be pretty simple.

As most gen 2 pokemon Skarmory made its debut in Neo Genesis and throughout the whole gen 2 Wizards era it was always weak to fire and resisted grass. The original Skarmory card from Neo Genesis comes as a pretty looking rare holo but unfortunately was a pretty bad card when it comes to playability. Its stats weren’t impressive by all means when compared to other basic pokemon that didn’t evolve; the classic Hitmonchans and Electabuzzes for example having 10 less HP than them. But as its packing the grass resistance too I suppose I can’t be too harsh. The crappy attacks are what set this pokemon back. Claw did 1 for 20 if you got heads on a coin flip, otherwise it didn’t do anything. On its own that’s already bad, but considering the baby pokemon introduced in the same set, requiring their own coin flips to even get hit makes this attack completely terrible.

Never-mind Hitmonchan can do 20 for 1 with no silly conditions anyway. Its second attack is Steel Wing (what would you know about that) is also pretty bad even if it’s not completely useless. It will do 30 for 3 which is on the low side left like that with the coin flip chance to block 20 damage next turn. Even if you get lucky Gust of Wind was fairly common being one of the best cards back then and would easily get around this effect. Even factoring it could get the benefits of special metal energy without the drawbacks as a metal pokemon this card is bad no matter how you look at it and severely outclassed by Steelix when it comes to tanking.

Worst part is the next Skarmory from Neo Revelations is extremely similar and henceforth just as terrible. Fury Attack splits the 20 damage into 10 and lets you flip 2 coins instead of one, so on average you will do 10 for 1 which is still bad and it’s still more coins to flip against baby pokemon. Its second attack is even weaker doing 20 for 3, the difference being that it’s dce compatible and that you’re completely invincible if you get heads this time. Again, Gust of Wind completely bypasses this type of effect. Same average stats, different s***ty attacks, still a terrible card.

Next up is the first Japanese exclusive card from the Chikorita Side Deck; this card is actually better than the other 2 but only because the other 2 were so bad. This Skarmory shares the same stats but can at least do 30 for 2 even if you can’t attack next turn at least you’re not relying on coin flips. The only other Japanese exclusive Skarmory is Falkner’s Skarmory, an owner’s version and surprise, surprise it comes from their VS set. Another bad card with the only difference being the improved retreat cost.

The disappointment continues however as the Expedition one is also terrible doing weak damage with the coin flip or nothing effect still attached to it. I suppose at least this one will do decent damage if you get lucky and it works with any energy but it still wouldn’t cut it for successful competitive play.

Skyridge Skarmory is the last one from the Wizards era, the first terrible attack is copy pasted from the Neo Revelation one with just a different name and the second attack is yet another coin flip. This time if you get heads you have to switch Skarmory with one of your benched pokemon, but yet another bad Skarmory card overall. Skarmory cards in its debuting era were an afterthought, just generic weak attacks requiring coin flips, and almost exactly the same with nothing to set them apart from each other.

Thankfully the golden age of the ex era corrected that giving us 4 Skarmory cards that were a lot more playable including the first major special Skarmory card. The first one debuted early enough in the era in ex Dragon featuring a nice moon in its background art already making it more unique than the others so far. HP improved to 70, shared by its future prints in the era and retreat improved to just 1 also shared by the rest of the prints. Pick On limits your opponent’s hand if they have more than 5 cards; they will have to shuffle them back in the deck until they only have 5. The best part is that you look at your opponent’s hand and choose yourself. Could be handy, and it definitely beats a silly coin flip. Power Count will do 20 for 20 but if your opponent has more total energies in play than you will deal 50 for 2, very good damage for back then for 2 energies on a basic pokemon and is effective in many situations and game states.

ex Delta Species Skarmory showcases it exerting its power from the nice art; pretty fitting as it probably has the most potential with its poke-body Shining Horn. If it’s the only pokemon you have out it will prevent all your opponent’s basic pokemon from attacking. While most decks had an out for this, and it certainly is dangerous to just have Skarmory on your field this is still a game winning body at the right time and could give some decks trouble. Cry for Help lets you search out any metal pokemon as long as it’s not an ex and Steel Wing will do 20 for 2 and block 20 from your opponent next turn which is a solid simple attack.

ex Deoxys Skarmory is unique being the exception card on the bottom stats having a lightning weakness as opposed to fire and resisting fighting instead of grass. With its poke-body it will always have free retreat as long as it has metal energy. With Spearhead you can start drawing cards if you open with it and move it out of the way if you want without losing an energy. Heavy Metal takes it back to coin flip attacks but will at least do solid damage if you get lucky with heads and have a lot of metal energies on. While its body is pretty handy I’d say I like the ex Dragon one better when it comes to its attacks.

Skarmory ex is the first major special card Skarmory got and the only one it would have for 7 more years. To be honest I remember this card being a lot better than when I look at it now. Its stats are good for a basic ex pokemon but the only special thing about it is its poke-body which while good, is mostly situational. If your opponent’s pokemon retreats you can put 3 damage counters on them as long as their remaining HP is 40 or more, so I guess they made sure you couldn’t get any direct prizes from this effect. Another good aspect is that this body does work from the bench and while it can’t stack you could just have it around there if you have the space and want to. Its attacks are typical for a basic ex, not weak but not very strong either. I like it as a collectable card but no doubt there was some room for improvement.

The fourth generation saw another 4 Skarmory cards with their bottom stats changing all over the place again. The first one here comes in Great Encounters maintaining the fire weakness but changing its resistance to psychic as opposed to grass. Its HP stayed at 70 and unfortunately its attacks weren’t that good. Air Crash is okay as a first attack doing 20 for 1 with the chance of discarding your opponent’s energies but Steel Wing had no place in the rough metagame then.

Other than that it shares the same stats as the Stormfront one which at this point was more of a liability as with that lightning weakness it would always die to Luxray GL Lv. X no matter what.

The second one here is better, but only in comparison as at the time of Boundaries Crossed the standard for competitive cards was at an all time high. It gets a 20 HP improvement putting it at 100 HP which I guess was decent back then but not the best. Swift does 70 for 3and you can use any energy but that kind of damage for the energies was way below the standard you wanted to hit. It would ignore any effects but also ignore weakness which always sort of ruins this type of effect when they do it.

From bottom of the barrel XY puts Skarmory at a top high with an EX print, the only other major special card it would get and 7 years since the one in ex Power Keepers. Despite that, the card was still very, very average with unimpressive attacks. Joust could remove all tools attached to your opponent’s active pokemon, an almost useless effect as the only pokemon that could carry more than 1 tool back then was a Sigilyph from Plasma Blast. For 2 freaking energies 30 damage and this effect is just weak. Tailspin Piledriver is only cool in name doing the ass 80 damage for 3 and only doing 120 if the defending pokemon has at least 40 or more damage.

Originally Written in 2019

Stormfront’s Skarmory improves its HP up to 80 and changes its weakness to lighting and resistance to fighting. Stormfront was such a mighty set usually a pokemon that got a print in that set was the strongest one among others printed in the same era but regrettably this wasn’t the case with this card. Its first attack just gives you the coin flip chance to do 30 for 1 and if tails then just 10. Even worse its second attack is a 50 damage snipe for 3 but if you get tails it does absolutely nothing. Not good at all man.

Skarmory is sort of lucky to get an SP pokemon, Skarmory FB in Supreme Victors but at this point the standards for good cards had risen so much that despite this being a slight improvement over the other ones it wasn’t enough to make the cut. Of course as an SP pokemon owned by Factory Head Thorton it gets access to the excellent and defining SP trainer engine but it can’t even make very good use of it. Silver Feather is the bets thing about this card but since it needs a metal energy it makes Energy Gain completely ineffectual. Metal Max also makes Energy Gain kind of pointless as it relies on multiple metal energies for the chance to do any good damage and when I say chance, I literally mean you have to flip coins for this to work and you discard the energies regardless.

The last Skarmory card in this era thankfully was a good one from Undaunted and reprinted with alternate art in Call of Legends. Its bottom stats change back to weakness in fire and resistance to psychic, just like the Great Encounters one while keeping the 80 HP from the other 2. Because of Steel Coat it saw usage in Scizor Prime decks and other tank decks featuring metal pokemon as it could instantly fetch the special metal energies from the deck, not just basic ones, and attach them to your metal tank pokemon.

Even at its worst you would usually break even using this card and usually if you played first you would get at least 2 energies from the deck with this card so it was a great opening pokemon in those decks. Besides this card however, D/P was mostly a let-down for Skarmory with things getting even worse for gen 5.

It gets 3 cards in this era 2 of which appear in the same set Boundaries Crossed. The first one is hands down the worst Skarmory card ever released, sharing the same stats as the D/P ones with a bigger retreat in a newer era. Terrible. Even worse the attacks are absolute s**t and I wonder why did they even bother.

The last Skarmory in 5th gen is a plasma card in Plasma Storm, HP lowered to 90 but only having 1 retreat cost. Honestly the only average thing about it is the first attack letting you draw 3 cards by discarding a team plasma card and that it’s a Team Plasma pokemon itself putting it above the other 2. That draw attack isn’t the greatest nevermind that support pokemon like these weren’t very effective in that era and weren’t used with exceptions like Sableye.

The final cards we have so far are from the Sun and Moon era with the first appearing on the base set itself. Metallic Sound is interesting discarding special energies and from all pokemon mind you not just the active. That includes yours too. The more recent Team Up one can do 90 for 2 if you used your GX attack but both of these cards haven’t done anything so far. Both of them share the same stats of 100 HP, weakness to lightning and resistance to fighting, however these aspects aren’t that special anymore.

Even if it always did 120 for 3 it would be average and that’s all you need to know to realize this card did absolutely nothing and was mostly an invisible card in the era. It’s such a damn shame because I like the full art print but it just sucks! It just sucks.

Phantom Forces Skarmory changes the weakness and resistance to lightning and fighting respectively, making it a little interesting and 90 for 3 seems okay until you realize other basic metal pokemon could do more damage or had better effects and stats. Metal energy acceleration was a thing in Phantom Forces due to Bronzong but Heatran from the same set and Cobalion that was still legal outclassed Skarmory and these are just the easiest to remember examples.

The most unique Skarmory card here is the Roaring Skies one being the only colorless type Skarmory card we had so far. The card isn’t bad at first glance having Call for Family and doing 60 for 2 if there’s a stadium around but if you knew anything about the power creep brought by Roaring Skies you knew this card wasn’t doing anything.

As per usual the best cards unsurprisingly got printed in the original ex era with the Undaunted one making it in competitive play as one of the other best ones. Out of all the pokemon I reviewed so far it clearly has the least amount of special prints but I suppose it can’t be helped. I wanna thank you guys for reading and I hope you enjoyed. Unrelated to the tcg I think the best thing that could happen for Skarmory is to get a baby pre-evolution like its counterpart Mantine, but that’s just my opinion. See you next time!

Too be honest 90% of Skarmory cards are pretty boring and seemed to be included in sets just for the sake of it which is a bit disappointing as I think the pokemon should have more potential than this. It was a wasted opportunity not to do something with Steven the way the Lucario Garchomp Cynthia deck works; I guess they thought making a crappy Claydol card was better.