Monday, May 31, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Mewtwo (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is a Mewtwo holo from Legends Awakened. I am doing this card from a suggestion which almost all my card reviews are but this card is in my top 10 favorite Pokemon card video on YouTube. First off for a basic Pokemon 80 hp is pretty good but for a basic Pokemon that doesn't evolve into anything 80 hp is quite low. It has a +20 weakness to Psychic type Pokemon which isn't too bad, no resistance type and a really high retreat cost for only an average basic Pokemon. Mewtwo doesn't have any Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two moves. The first move is called Hypnoblast and for only one colorless energy card you can do 10 damage to the defending Pokemon and then make that Pokemon asleep. With this move I wish Mewtwo's retreat cost wasn't so high because I would get the defending Pokemon asleep as fast as possible then move in a Pokemon like Snorlax who has moves that does more damage if the defending Pokemon is asleep, if somehow I could get retreat costs to be much lower for all Pokemon I would switch back and forth between Mewtwo and another card quite rapidly. Mewtwo's second move is called Psychic and for 3 energy cards, 2 colorless and 1 Psychic it does 40+ damage, so it does 40 base damage plus 10 more damage for each energy card attached to the defending Pokemon. So Mewtwo's moves contradict each other in a way since the first move makes the defending Pokemon fall asleep and then the second move is better if the defending Pokemon has a lot of energy cards on it, if my Pokemon is asleep I wouldn't attach any energy cards to it, so if you put the defending Pokemon asleep right away Psychic will probably only do minimal damage each turn instead of more than 40 each turn. As far as strategy goes I would either just use Hypnoblast and combine that with Pokemon who benefit from the defending Pokemon being asleep or be more of an attacker with this card and just use Psychic. So thanks for reading this card review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Empoleon Lv. X from Diamond and Pearl.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Entei & Raikou Legend (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Raikou & Entei Legend from the Unleashed set. A Legend card is a card that you need both halves of the card in your hand before you can play the card, you then have to put down both cards together on your bench. Raikou & Entei Legend has the worst hp of the 3 Legend cards in the Unleashed set with 140 hp. It is a Fire and Electric type card and has a x2 weakness to water and fighting type Pokemon. It doesn't have a resistance type and it also doesn't have a retreat cost so you can move it in and out of play without giving up any energy cards. Raikou & Entei Legend doesn't have a Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it actually works out well that it doesn't with one of the moves it has that I will talk about later. The first move on Raikou & Entei Legend is a fire type move and is called Detonation Spin and for only two energy cards, 1 fire energy and 1 colorless energy it does 90 hp which is way above average for only two energy cards, when you use this move you then have to discard a fire energy card from Raikou & Entei Legend. Raikou & Entei Legend's second move is the electric type move and it is called Thunder Fall and requires two energy cards, 1 electric and 1 colorless. This move does 80 hp damage to each Pokemon in play, your and your opponent's who has a Poke-Power, you have to discard all energy cards attached to Raikou & Entei Legend after using the move. As far as strategy goes, you can either put this card in a Fire and Electric type deck or just use one of its types. I would definitely use Detonation Spin more often than Thunder Fall unless your opponent relies on Poke-Powers and you don't use Poke-Powers at all, then Thunder Fall would be the best move, but I would use this move solely for Detonation Spin. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Mewtwo from Legends Awakened.

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Infernape (Diamond and Pearl)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Infernape from the Diamond and Pearl set. This is a stage 2 Pokemon card and it only has 100 hp which isn't very good, but I suppose you could always level it up to Infernape Lv. X. But for only having 100 hp it's weakness is only +30 hp to water type Pokemon which isn't too bad, it always could have been x2, it doesn't have a resistance type and it doesn't have a retreat cost. So for having a somewhat low hp a not too strong weakness and no retreat cost make up for it. This card has no Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two pretty decent moves. The first is called Meteor Punch and takes only one colorless energy card, it lets you flip a coin until you get tails and for each heads you get it does 30x damage. Infernape's second move is called Flare Blitz and for only two fire energy cards it does 90 hp damage, this move is way above average in terms of energy cards needed to damage done but you also have to discard both energy cards when you use this move. As far as strategy goes I would definitely try and use Flare Blitz as often as I could, but I guess I don't have much of an option if I only have 1 energy card on it I would have to use Meteor Punch. But as soon as I get 2 energy cards on it I would use Flare Blitz no matter what. And if you had the Infernape Lv. X card from this set in your deck you could use one of its moves to get up to 8 fire energy cards out of your discard pile and put them back into your deck, this way you will always have enough fire energy cards to be able to use Flare Blitz endlessly. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of the last Legend card from Unleashed which is Entei & Raikou Legend. Also make sure and vote on my new poll at the bottom of my blog page. Which Legend card do you like the best is the poll.

Friday, May 28, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Steelix (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Steelix from Stormfront. First off I have to say that this card is really powerful and if you are using a metal deck this card is a must, or you could even put this card in just about any deck since Outbreak Power only needs colorless energy cards for that move and with that move you can do damage to possibly all your opponent's benched Pokemon. So for a stage 1 Pokemon card this card has a high hp of 130. A +30 weakness isn't too bad for such a powerful Pokemon even though fire type Pokemon are the most widely used in the game. It does have a -20 resistance to Psychic type Pokemon which will help out. Steelix has an extremely high retreat cost of 4 colorless energy cards so if you retreat it you will lose a lot of energy cards. Steelix's first move is called Outbreak Power, this move takes one colorless energy card to perform, and it does 20 hp to how ever many benched Pokemon your opponent has as long as you have an energy card for that Pokemon. So if you have 3 energy cards attached to Steelix you can do 20 damage to 3 of their benched Pokemon. Steelix's second move is called Iron Tail and takes 4 energy cards, 2 colorless and 2 metal. It does 100x damage, you determine the amount of damage by flipping a coin until you get tails, it does 100 x damage for each heads you flip in a row. This is definitely a big hit or miss move since if you get heads the defending Pokemon will be knocked out or almost knocked out but if you get tails it won't do anything and you could have used Outbreak Power and done 20 damage to 4 of your opponent's Pokemon instead. As far as strategy goes it is pretty straightforward, I would definitely use Outbreak Power until you get four energy cards on Steelix and once I get 4 energy cards on Steelix I would continue using this move if my opponent had a lot of benched Pokemon, I would only use Iron Tail if the defending Pokemon is really powerful and needs to be knocked out as soon as possible. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of a card, suggestions please.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Suicune & Entei Legend (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Suicune & Entei Legend from the Unleashed set. This is a Legend card meaning that in order to play this card you have to have both top and bottom halves in your hand and you have to put both cards down onto your bench at the same time. This card is a water and fire type combo so lots of Pokemon will be weak to this card. It has 160 hp which is good considering this is only a basic/stage 1 Pokemon card depending on how you look at it. For being such a powerful card and for it being two types, it also has two types it is weak to, it has both a x2 weakness to electric and water which are two types of Pokemon that are vastly popular in the TCG today. Suicune & Entei Legend doesn't have a resistance type which is expected from such a powerful card as this one, but it does have a cheap retreat cost of only 1 colorless energy. Suicune & Entei Legend has no Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two moves, one water and one fire. The first move is its Torrent Blade and takes 3 energy cards to execute, 2 water and 1 colorless, it lets you do 100 hp damage to one of your opponent's Pokemon, so if they have any basic Pokemon or stage 1 Pokemon on their bench you can more than likely knock them out with this one move. The only downfall is that you have to move both the water energy cards required for this move back to your hand, but at least you don't have to discard them. While you are waiting to stock back up on water energy cards you can use Suicune & Entei Legend's other move which is fire type and is called Bursting Inferno and takes 3 energy cards, two colorless and one fire. It does 80 hp damage and burns the defending Pokemon. Overall both of Suicune & Entei Legend's moves are very powerful and much better than average. Since Suicune & Entei Legend is a two type Pokemon card I would try to include this card in a split deck of water and fire type Pokemon, it is nice since both of Suicune & Entei Legend's moves only require one of either water or fire energy and the rest can be whatever so it should be pretty easy to use its moves since getting the energy shouldn't be a problem. I would personally load this thing up with energy cards on my bench before playing it as my active Pokemon, then when I would go in I would use Bursting Inferno first to burn the defending Pokemon that way when I use Torrent Blade the next turn on one of their benched Pokemon I can still inflict some damage on the active Pokemon even though I didn't attack it that turn. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Steelix from Stormfront.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Mesprit Lv. X (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Mesprit Lv. X from the Legends Awakened set. It has an hp of 90 which is somewhat low for a stage 1 Lv. X card. A x2 weakness to Psychic Pokemon can knock out this card really fast and it would have been nice for this card to have a resistance type, but at least you can retreat Mesprit Lv. X fairly easy since it only needs 1 colorless energy card to retreat. Mesprit Lv. X has no Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two moves. The first move is a healing move and it is called Healing Look and for no energy at all it lets you remove 3 damage counters from each of your benched Pokemon. Mesprit Lv. X's second move is the only move on this card that does damage and it does an incredible 200 hp. This move called Supreme Blast needs only 2 energy cards to do 200 damage, but in order to do this damage you have to also have Uxie and Azelf Lv. X in play. So that gives you some strategy with that card right away, if you want to utilize Mesprit Lv. X's best move you have to have the other Lv. X cards in your deck too. The only drawback to Supreme Blast is that if you don't have these other Lv. X cards in play you can't use this move and if you are able to execute this move you have to discard both energy cards when finished with the move, the only good thing about this is that it is only two energy cards, both Psychic. As far as strategy goes, unless the Mesprit card you are evolving Mesprit Lv. X from is powerful, I would wait as long as possible to use this card. You then can put Mesprit Lv. X into play and at least start healing your Pokemon, Mesprit Lv. X should be able to last two turns so you should get at least 60 damage removed from each of your benched Pokemon, and by waiting longer you have better chances of being able to use Supreme Blast since you'll more likely have the other two Lv. X cards in play necessary for this move to work. If you don't have these other two Lv. X cards in your deck, make sure your regular Mesprit has some good attacking moves. I would just use Mesprit Lv. X myself for its healing power at the end of the game since you can do healing with no energy cards and then you can put 1 energy card on Mesprit and retreat it. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Entei & Suicune Legend.

Monday, May 24, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gallade (Secret Wonders)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gallade from Secret Wonders, I know I just reviewed Gallade 4 Lv. X yesterday, but Cheetahosu was the first person to respond to my request and he wanted me to do this card so I will. For a stage 2 Pokemon card 130 hp is just around average, it is nice it only has a +30 hp weakness to Psychic type Pokemon and no resistance type which I wished there was one. A 2 colorless energy retreat cost is quite normal too for a stage 2 Pokemon. This Gallade card doesn't have any Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two moves, 1 Psychic and 1 Fighting. The first move is a Fighting type move and is called Sonic Blade which takes two energy cards, 1 colorless, 1 fighting and does damage to the defending Pokemon until it is 50 hp away from feinting, if you do this, your opponent switches their active Pokemon with one of their benched Pokemon. With this move I would definitely use it on high hp Pokemon, it wouldn't be any use on basic Pokemon with hp's of 50. But this is a good spread damage type of move, so if you have a mainly Psychic deck and your opponent has a lot of high hp type Pokemon you can dove a lot of damage to most of them and then send them back to the bench and then use another Psychic Pokemon that does damage to all your opponent's benched Pokemon, then you can end up knocking out many of your opponent's Pokemon at once. Gallade's second move is a Psychic type move and is called Psychic Cut and takes 3 energy cards, 1 Psychic, and 2 colorless. It does 60 hp damage plus 20 more for each prize card of yours you decide to face up, but once you turn over the prize card it remains face up the rest of the game. As far as strategy goes I would put this card in a mostly Psychic deck, and just add some special energy cards in there to be able to use Sonic Blade, since it only requires 1 fighting energy you definitely don't have to have a fighting type deck. Like I was saying earlier I would use Sonic Blade if the defending Pokemon has a high hp, for example if the defending Pokemon had an hp of 150 then Sonic Blade could do 100 damage for only 2 energy cards and then that Pokemon would have to go to the bench. Then if you had a spread damage Pokemon card you could use that and try and knock out that card you sent to the bench. As far as using Gallade's other move Psychic Cut, the best way to utilize it is to get Gallade out there as fast as possible so you can turn over all 6 prize cards and do 120 damage in 1 turn. I would only do this if your opponent had a really strong Pokemon out there, because if they didn't I would spread out the damage more by turning up less than all 6 prize cards at once, but you do want to turn over prize cards quite quickly because the more Pokemon you knock out, the less chances you'll have to utilize Psychic Cut's 20+ hp by turning a prize card over. So I hope you like my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of a Mesprit card, I'm not sure which one yet. Any suggestions?

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gallade 4 Lv. X (Rising Rivals)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gallade 4 Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set. Before I get too far into my review this card can only put on Gallade 4 not a regular Gallade. For a stage 1 Lv. X card this card has pretty average hp with 100. A x2 weakness is expected from a Lv. X card but with Gallade only having 100 hp a x2 weakness does seem a little too troubling for this card but luckily most Psychic Pokemon's moves just spread damage around. I wish Gallade would have had a resistance type but unfortunately it doesn't but it does have a fairly low retreat cost of one colorless energy card, so it shouldn't be too hard to retreat Gallade if it gets in trouble. Gallade's Poke-Power called Blade Storm lets you put one damage counter on each of the defending Pokemon when you put Gallade 4 Lv. X onto your active Gallade 4 card. Gallade's only move entitled Aimed Cut does 40+ hp damage for only 3 energy cards, two colorless and one Psychic. This move works very well with its Poke-Power because Aimed Cut does 10 more hp damage for each damage counter on the defending Pokemon and when you use Blade Storm you know for sure that there should be at least 1 damage counter on the defending Pokemon, so this move will do at least 50 damage guaranteed. With that being said I would wait awhile into the game before putting Gallade 4 Lv. X into play. I would wait until my opponent has his bench full to evolve Gallade 4, so I can put 10 hp on each of their Pokemon. I wouldn't actually put Gallade 4 Lv. X into my active Pokemon position until the defending Pokemon has at least 30 hp for it so then I can knock it out in two moves for sure. That's all I have to say about this card, I am not sure what card I am going to review tomorrow so please comment on this post and tell me which card you would like me to review tomorrow and thanks for reading this review.

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Hippowdon Lv. X (Rising Rivals)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Hippowdon Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set. This is a stage 2 Lv. X card and it has 130 hp which is just below average for this type of Lv. X card. But still 130 hp is pretty good. A x2 weakness to Water type Pokemon might make that 130 hp seem like a little less, but Hippowdon Lv. X does have a resistance to Electric type Pokemon of -20 so it will be more successful against those Luxray GL Lv. X cards out there. A 4 colorless energy retreat cost is very expensive and if you retreat Hippowdon Lv. X it won't be worth it to use it again since it will take along time to get another 4 energy cards on it. I would actually let this card get knocked out before I would retreat it, and it will be hard to retreat especially if you use its only move which makes you discard 2 energy cards when you do it so it will be hard for Hippowdon Lv. X to even keep four energy cards on it. Hippowdon Lv. X's Poke-Power is called Sand Reset and it says that before your attack both you and your opponent should shuffle all your cards in play, excluding Pokemon and supporter cards, back into your deck. You can only use this Poke-Power once per game. But it could be very vital to your team's success if your opponent begins to stack up their bench Pokemon with energy cards, you can then have them shuffle those energy cards back into their deck and this also affects their active Pokemon, so I would especially use this Poke-Power when your opponent has a powerful attacking Pokemon out there which needs a lot of energy cards to attack, just before they get enough energy to attack I would use Sand Reset, because if a Pokemon needs lets say 5 energy cards to do 100 hp then you can make them wait another 5 turns at the most to do that move again if you use Sand Reset. Hippowdon Lv. X's only move on this card, you can always use the moves from the card you evolved Hippowdon Lv. X from, is called Double Shoot and takes 4 energy cards, 2 Fighting and 2 colorless. This move does 40 hp to two of your opponent's bench Pokemon, but when you use this move you have to discard two Fighting energy cards. As far as strategy goes, I would either use Double Shoot twice and try and knock out some basic Pokemon on my opponent's bench, but this would mean somehow getting two energy cards on Hippowdon Lv. X fast since you have to discard the two energy cards when you use Double Shoot the first time, or if I want to be more of an attacker every turn I would rely on a regular Hippowdon card for my moves. Like I was saying earlier I would use Hippowdon Lv. X's Poke-Power to combat my opponent's most powerful Pokemon, making them completely reattach all the necessary energy cards to their most powerful Pokemon. I would wait until my opponent is almost ready to use this card and then use Sand Reset so they have to do it all over again. But once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Gallade 4 Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set as well.

Saturday, May 22, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Electivire FB Lv. X (Supreme Victors)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Electivire FB Lv. X from the Supreme Victors set. For a stage 1 Lv. X card this has a really high hp of 120. Most Lv. X cards like this usually have an hp of 100 or 110. A x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon is expected from a Lv. X Pokemon card and fighting Pokemon aren't that popular so it shouldn't be too big of a problem to have this weakness. A -20 resistance to metal type Pokemon will help a little bit even though there aren't too many metal type Pokemon out there. A 3 colorless energy retreat cost is really expensive and if you retreat Electivire FB Lv. X you won't have any energy cards left on it. But you can just use its Poke-Power called Energy Recycle the next turn if you need energy cards for Electivire FB Lv. X that bad, Energy Recycle lets you each turn, before your attack, search your discard pile for 3 energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like but if you do this then you can't attack that turn. Electivire FB Lv. X's only move is called Powerful Spark and is very similar to the move on Lanturn Prime. This move takes 3 energy cards, 1 electric, and 2 colorless energy cards, and does 30 hp plus 10 more hp damage for each energy attached to your Pokemon. As far as strategy goes I would play a normal game for most of the game and try and use a lot of your energy cards so they're in the discard pile and then you could put Electivire FB Lv. X on your bench and start using Energy Recycle, when doing this make sure you have a high hp Pokemon as your active Pokemon so it will be able to withstand a lot of damage. So if you use Energy Recycle 3 times, it will mean you could have 3 energy cards on Electivire to do Powerful Spark and then you would have at least 6 energy cards on the rest of your Pokemon at a minimum. So you could then retreat the active Pokemon and put Electivire FB Lv. X in and use Powerful Spark and you could do at least 90 hp every turn and knock out just about every Pokemon in two turns, knocking most basic and stage 1 Pokemon cards out in 1 turn. And then the longer you have Electivire FB Lv. X out there the more energy cards you can attach to your benched Pokemon therefore increasing Powerful Spark, making Electivire FB Lv. X a one hit KO machine. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Hippowdon Lv. X from Rising Rivals.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Lanturn Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Lanturn Prime from the Unleashed set. This is the last of the Prime cards from the Unleashed set that I have to review. This card has 110 hp which isn't too bad for a stage 1 Pokemon card. Lanturn has no resistant type which could have been helpful because 110 hp isn't too high. And a 2 colorless energy card retreat cost is about average for a stage 1 Pokemon card. Lanturn's Poke-Power is very interesting, it is called Underwater Dive and lets you each turn if you want, change Lanturn's type to Water. By doing this you can inflict more damage to Pokemon that have a weakness to water type Pokemon or if they have a resistance to electric type Pokemon you can switch to water and be able to do the right amount of damage which is indicated on your card. Lanturn's only move is called Powerful Spark and takes 3 energy cards, 1 electric and 2 colorless. It does 40 damage plus 10 more damage for each energy card attached to all of your Pokemon. So this move sets up an obvious strategy for playing Lanturn. You want to have as much energy attached to all your Pokemon before you use this card, and the way I understand this move is that you can attach more cards to Lanturn than the 3 necessary for this move and they will count as 10 more hp as well. I don't know why you would want to do that since you can attach them to other Pokemon and have them contribute to its energy costs, but if you don't have many Pokemon left you can overload Lanturn with energy cards. Even if you have 4 other energy cards attached to all your other Pokemon in two turns Lanturn will be able to knock out just about every Pokemon card out there. Plus you can inflict even more damage if the defending Pokemon is weak to water or electric type Pokemon since you can switch back and forth between the two types. So once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Electivire FB Lv. X from the Supreme Victors set.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Crobat Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Crobat Prime from the Unleashed set. It has a pretty good hp for a stage 2 Pokemon with an hp of 130, which is the same as Kingdra Prime in this set. A x2 weakness to Electric type Pokemon could hurt Crobat quite badly since Luxray GL Lv. X is so popular nowadays, but it still should be able to last awhile with such a high hp. A -20 resistance to fighting type Pokemon will help Crobat stay alive longer and make its weakness seem not so bad. One of my favorite parts about this card is that it has a free retreat cost, the other part I really like about this move is that it is extremely fast, both of Crobat's moves only take 1 Psychic energy card. Crobat's first move is called Severe Poison and for only one Psychic energy card you can Poison the defending Pokemon, and between each turn you can put 4 damage counters on that Pokemon while it is still poisoned. Crobat's second move is called Skill Dive and again takes only one psychic energy card and this move does 30 hp damage to any of your opponent's active Pokemon. You get to choose whichever one you would like to do the damage to. As far as strategy goes, this card would be a staple card for a spread damage deck since you can poison the active Pokemon giving it 40 hp damage every turn and while the active Pokemon is receiving damage from the poison you can attack with Crobat's other move, Skill Dive and start creating havoc on your opponent's benched Pokemon. Another strategy I would utilize would be Crobat's free retreat cost, this way you could poison the active Pokemon with Severe Poison, then the next turn retreat Crobat for free and move in a more powerful Pokemon that may be able to do more damage to more than one of your benched Pokemon. You don't just want to put in a card that does major damage to the active Pokemon because there would be no reason to use Crobat then. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Lanturn Prime.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Steelix Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Steelix Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. This card has the second highest hp of the Prime's in the set with 140 hp. A x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon will definitely make this 140 hp seem much lower but for all Pokemon except fire Pokemon, this card will be able to hold its own for quite some time especially with its Poke-Body which I will talk about later. A -20 hp resistance to Psychic type Pokemon is handy since they usually don't do too much hp damage anyways so their attacks on Steelix will be minimal, an extremely high retreat cost of 4 colorless energy cards will take almost all Steelix's energy cards required to do its best move but that is okay since you should have one energy card left on Steelix when you retreat it and then you can put it back in, attach one energy card to it and be able to do its move for only two energy cards. Steelix's Poke-Body called Perfect Metal can be really helpful in making Steelix last really long because this Body makes Steelix unaffected by special conditions, so if your opponent depends on using special conditions to defeat their opponents if you have a couple of Steelix in your deck their plans will be ruined. Steelix has two moves, the first one is called Energy Stream and for two colorless energy cards it allows you to do 30 damage and it says to also search your discard pile for an energy card and attach it to Steelix. This energy attaching is really helpful for Steelix's second move called Gaia Crush which takes 5 energy cards, 2 metal, 3 colorless, you just have to use Energy Stream twice and then you'll have enough energy cards to use Gaia Crush, that's if you are attaching energy cards from your hand to Steelix too. This move does 100 hp damage and the good thing about this move is that you don't have to discard any energy cards or anything like that when you use Gaia Crush, instead you may discard a stadium card in play if you want. As far as strategy goes I would just use Gaia Crush every move if I had the sufficient amount of energy on Steelix, I probably wouldn't move Steelix into my active Pokemon position until I had at least 3 energy cards on it so that by the next turn I could use Gaia Crush. So once again, thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Crobat Prime from Unleashed.

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Ursaring Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Ursaring Prime from the Unleashed set. This is a stage 1 Pokemon Card and it has 110 hp which is about average. A x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon can knock Ursaring out quite fast, just hope you aren't battling any fighting type Pokemon. A resistant type would have been nice to have on this card since it has low hp and a x2 weakness but it doesn't. And a 3 colorless energy retreat cost is pretty expensive considering it's only a stage 1 Pokemon, but when you look at Ursaring's moves since they take so much energy, a 3 colorless energy retreat cost seems more reasonable. Ursaring's Poke-Body makes up for the high energy costs associated with both of Ursaring's moves. The Poke-Body, called Berserk, lets you do 60 more hp damage to the defending Pokemon as long as Ursaring has at least 1 damage counter on it. So instead of Ursaring's moves doing 30 and 60 damage they do 90 and 120 damage when Ursaring has some damage on it. Ursaring has two pretty straightforward attacks, the first is called Hammer Arm and it does 30 damage for 3 colorless energy cards and it also lets you discard the top card from opponent's deck. Ursaring's second move is called Megaton Lariat and for four energy cards, all colorless it does 60 damage. The strategy for this card is straight forward, I would use Ursaring right away and start using either of its moves depending on how many energy cards you attached to it, and once Ursaring gets some damage on it, you should use Megaton Lariat every move so that you can do 120 hp damage which will knock out a majority of Pokemon. Another thing I like about this card is that it is a normal type Pokemon so all of its moves use colorless energy so you can include this card in any deck you need a powerful attacker in. So once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Steelix Prime from the Unleashed set again.

Monday, May 17, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Charizard (Secret Wonders)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Charizard from the Secret Wonders set. This card has the best hp of the 3 starters in the Secret Wonders set with 130 hp. A +40 weakness to water type Pokemon isn't too bad, I thought it would be a x2 weakness to water Pokemon myself. A -20 hp resistance to fighting type Pokemon is always nice to have and a 3 colorless energy card retreat cost is pretty expensive especially considering that when using Blast Burn you may have to discard all 4 energy cards, so you'll probably just have to use this card until you win the game or it feints. Charizard's Poke-Body called Fury Blaze can be really powerful, if your opponent has 3 or less prize cards left than each of Charizard's moves does 50 more hp. This can greatly increase Charizard's only move Blast Burn which already does 120 hp damage for 4 energy cards, 3 fire and 1 colorless. So if your opponent doesn't have very many prize cards left Blast Burn can do 170 hp which will knock out just about any Pokemon. The only downside to Blast Burn is that you have to flip a coin every time you use the move and if it's heads you have to discard 2 energy cards from Charizard, if it's tails you have to discard all 4 energy cards. So with this downfall you'll either have to stockpile Charizard with energy cards so you don't have to wait every 2 or 4 turns to perform Blast Burn again, or you should use some type of Pokemon that has a Poke-Power that lets you move fire energy from one Pokemon to another, either way you'll end up having a lot of energy cards in the discard pile, so you'll want to make sure you have supporters in your deck or another Pokemon with a move or Poke-Power that lets you retrieve energy cards from the discard pile. So once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Ursaring Prime from Unleashed.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Tyranitar Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Tyranitar Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. This Prime card has the most hp of any of the Prime's in the Unleashed set with 160 hp, which is pretty good. A x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon isn't too bad since fighting Pokemon aren't that popular, but any x2 weakness can do a fair amount of damage. I was surprised to see this card had a resistance type since most powerful Pokemon don't, but this card has a resistance to Psychic type Pokemon of -20 hp, which could be really beneficial since Psychic Pokemon usually like to spread damage around so any damage done to Tyranitar Prime by a Psychic Pokemon would be minimal. A 3 colorless energy retreat cost is just above average for a card like this and you should be able to retreat if you have to because Megaton Tail takes 4 energy cards so you'll be left with one energy card if you do retreat it and you'll still be able to do a move with one energy card on Tyranitar Prime if you need to put it into play soon after again. As far as Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies go Tyranitar Prime doesn't have any but it does have 3 moves that do some damage. The first is called Darkness Howl and for one darkness energy it does 20 hp damage to each Pokemon in play yours and your opponents, so my strategy with this would be to only use this move if you have dark Pokemon in play, which shouldn't be hard if you have a mainly dark Pokemon deck. Tyranitar Prime's second move is called Power Claw and for 3 energy cards, 1 darkness, 2 colorless, it does 60 hp damage, which is average for 3 energy cards, but the thing I like about this move is that it is not affected by Poke-Powers, weaknesses, or resistances. Tyranitar Prime's third move is Megaton Tail which takes 4 energy cards, 2 colorless energy cards, and 2 darkness energy cards, and does 120 hp, which is really powerful but the downside to this move is that you have to discard the top 3 cards off your deck. As far as strategy goes I wouldn't put Tyranitar Prime into your active Pokemon position until you have 3 energy cards on it so you can at least execute Power Claw and knock out most Pokemon in two turns. I would suggest using Megaton Tail just about every turn, especially if you have some type of Poke-Power or Supporter Card in your deck that allows you to retain Pokemon cards from your discard pile. Another strategy to play with this card is to make sure you only have dark Pokemon in your deck and then use Darkness Howl as many turns as you can without getting knocked out so you can probably get at least 60 damage on each of your opponent's Pokemon and then you should be able to knock out all of them with one strong Pokemon. So once again, thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Charizard from Secret Wonders.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Torterra Lv. X (Diamond and Pearl)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Torterra Lv. X from the Diamond and Pearl set. This card has the highest hp of the 3 Lv. X cards in the set with 160 hp. It also only has a +30 hp weakness to fire type Pokemon which is really nice because usually it is a x2 weakness for Lv. X cards and Torterra Lv. X already has 160 hp so 30 more damage from its weakness type is pretty weak. Torterra Lv. X doesn't have any resistance type but it doesn't need one with such a strong hp and it has an extremely high retreat cost of 4 colorless energy cards, so if you retreat it you'll have to discard all the energy cards attached to Torterra, since Torterra Lv. X's move cost 4 energy cards. Now on to Torterra Lv. X's Forest Murmurs, this Poke-Power lets you switch the defending Pokemon with one of their benched Pokemon if you have more prize cards left than your opponent does, you can use this power once per turn. This power makes it optimal for you to bring in Torterra Lv. X later in the game when some of your Pokemon have already knocked out so you can just switch in the weaker Pokemon of your opponent's and knock them out in one move, since you should have 4 energy cards on Torterra Lv. X by now, with Vigorous Dash which does 100 hp damage to the defending Pokemon, 30 damage to one of their benched Pokemon and 30 damage to Torterra Lv. X for 4 energy cards, 3 grass, 1 colorless. As far as strategy goes as I was talking about earlier I would wait awhile to use Torterra Lv. X even though you could use the Poke-Power while Torterra Lv. X is still on the bench I would prefer to use it when Torterra Lv. X was my active Pokemon. Since you can first use Vigorous Dash on the active Pokemon and do 30 damage to a benched Pokemon then the next turn you can use its Poke-Power and switch the active Pokemon with the Pokemon you just did 30 damage to the previous turn and do Vigorous Damage to that and do 30 damage to the Pokemon you did Vigorous Dash to the previous turn, by doing this you're able to do 130 hp damage to two Pokemon in two turns, and more than likely knock out both of those Pokemon too. The only bad thing about using Vigorous Dash so much is that the damage will add up on Torterra Lv. X so you can either start using the regular Torterra's moves or retreat Torterra Lv. X and just use the Poke-Power with another Pokemon if you're still behind in the game. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Tyranitar Prime from the Unleashed Set.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Alakazam 4 Lv. X (Rising Rivals)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Alakazam 4 Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set. It is a 4 Pokemon card meaning that it is an Elite Four's Pokemon so this card is only a stage 1 Pokemon card since Alakazam 4 is just a basic Pokemon card. With that being said a stage 1 Lv. X card with 100 hp is right about average. A x2 weakness to Psychic Pokemon is expected and isn't necessarily too bad since Psychic Pokemon usually spread damage so their moves won't be as powerful. Alakazam 4 Lv. X has no resistance type and has a 2 colorless energy card retreat cost which is somewhat high for a stage 1 Pokemon card. Alakazam 4 Lv. X's Poke-Power, Damage Switch, can be really powerful depending on the rest of the Pokemon in your deck, Damage Switch lets you move as often as you like during a turn one damage from one SP Pokemon to another SP Pokemon. SP Pokemon are any Pokemon that have something after their name, like 4, FB, G, etc...So if your deck is full of these SP Pokemon you can just use Alakazam 4 Lv. X's Poke-Power and have one really strong SP Pokemon on your team and keep it out there the entire game by moving damage to other SP Pokemon cards on your bench. Alakazam 4 Lv. X's only move is called Mind Shock and takes 3 energy cards to perform, two Psychic and one colorless. This move does 50 hp damage and isn't affected by weakness or resistance. This move isn't anything special since a lot of Pokemon can do at least 60 hp for 3 energy cards. So as far as strategy goes I would suggest just using Alakazam 4 Lv. X for its Poke-Power, but in order to do so make sure and have just about all your Pokemon in your deck be SP Pokemon so you can move damage around as much as you like. Another necessity when doing this type of strategy would be to have a Pokemon in your deck with a really high hp so you can just move the bulk of your damage to that Pokemon. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Torterra Lv. X.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Raikou & Suicune Legend (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Raikou & Suicune Legend from the new Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. A legend card is different than other cards because you have to have both parts of this card before you can put it into play. For the Legends from Unleashed this card has the most hp with 160 which is really good, especially considering its move Aurora Gain which lets you remove 5 damage counters each turn you use it which will really make this card unstoppable. A x2 weakness to fighting and electric type Pokemon could be troubling especially with the popularity of Luxray GL Lv. X. This card has no resistance type and only needs one colorless energy card to retreat which is really nice and inexpensive. Raikou & Suicune Legend has two moves, one electric, one water. The first move is called Thunderbolt Spear and is obviously the electric type move, and for only 3 energy cards, 2 electric, 1 colorless it does an incredible 150 hp, the only downside to this move is that it does 50 hp damage to Raikou & Suicune Legend. But this damage is okay because Raikou & Suicune Legend's second move is called Aurora Gain and for 3 energy cards again, this time 2 colorless and 1 water, you can do 50 hp damage and also remove 5 damage counters from Raikou & Suicune Legend. As far as strategy goes, I would try and make Raikou & Suicune Legend your active Pokemon as soon as possible, as soon as I get 3 energies on it, it will be my active Pokemon. I will use Thunderbolt Spear every time unless doing 50 damage to myself would kill me or the remaining hp left on Raikou & Suicune Legend wouldn't be enough to endure your opponent's next move. In this case I would use Aurora Gain until I felt safe with the remaining hp on Raikou & Suicune Legend. I personally like this card, I always thought water and electric Pokemon made good combinations to build a deck around since some water type Pokemon have electric type moves, i.e. Lanturn. I would just split up the energy cards in my deck to have an equal number of electric and water energy cards, since you don't need 1 energy more than the other with this card. So once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Alakazam 4 Lv. X.



Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Milotic ex (EX Emerald)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Milotic ex from EX Emerald. It has an hp of 130 which is rather high compared to the rest of the ex cards in the set. A x2 weakness to electric type Pokemon could be deadly if you are playing in an unlimited format since Luxray GL Lv. X is one of the most popular Pokemon cards right now so there are a lot of electric type Pokemon out there. A resistance type would have been nice but 130 hp is good enough to last awhile without depending on a resistance. A 2 colorless energy retreat cost isn't bad for an ex Pokemon, you will definitely have 2 energy cards on Milotic ex if you need to retreat it and you could even put it back in quite quickly and at least do one of its moves since it only takes 1 energy card to do. Milotic ex has a Poke-Body and 2 moves both doing damage. Milotic ex's Poke-Body is called Mystic Scale and says that as long as Milotic ex is in play both you and your opponent must discard all Technical Machine cards and you can't play any while Milotic is in play. This could definitely be useful if your opponent plays a lot of TMs but I really don't think this Poke-Body will have too much of an effect. Milotic ex's first move is called Gentle Wrap and for 1 water energy it does 30 hp damage and it makes the defending Pokemon unable to retreat the next turn. This is an extremely nice move especially when the defending Pokemon is getting close to feinting, using this move will almost guarantee a knock out your next turn. Milotic ex's second move is called Reflect Energy and for 3 energy cards, 1 water and 2 colorless does 70 hp damage the only downfall is that you have to move 1 of the energy cards attached to Milotic ex to one of your benched Pokemon. But at least you don't have to discard the energy. I would try and incorporate in my deck some type of card that allows for free passing of energy, specifically water type energy, from one card to another, so that you could always use Reflect Energy. As far as strategy goes I would always use Reflect Energy if I can unless the defending Pokemon has more than 70 hp left then I would use Gentle Wrap and make it unable to retreat the next turn and then do my 30 damage to it, then the next turn since it will have to have stayed in play you can knock it out with Reflect Energy. So once again, thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Raikou Legend from the newly released Unleashed set.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Luxray GL Lv. X (Rising Rivals)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Luxray GL Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set. It has fairly decent hp of 110 which is above average for stage 1 Lv. X cards. A x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon is nice because fighting Pokemon aren't that popular, it could be a lot worse if Luxray GL Lv. X was weak to fire or water Pokemon then it could easily be knocked out in two moves. A resistance of -20 to metal type Pokemon won't do much since they aren't too prevalent. What is really nice about Luxray GL Lv. X is that it doesn't have any retreat cost so you are free to move Luxray GL Lv. X in and out of your active Pokemon position as often as you like. Luxray GL Lv. X's Poke-Power Bright Look can only basically be used once but it can all but guarantee a knock out of a defending Pokemon if you play it right. Bright Light allows you to, when you play Luxray GL Lv. X onto Luxray GL, switch your opponent's active Pokemon with one of their benched Pokemon whichever one you choose, the Pokemon to switch in there would be a Pokemon you could knock out on that one turn. To knock out the defending Pokemon you could always use Luxray GL's only move Flash Impact which takes 2 energy cards, 1 colorless and 1 electric and does 60 damage, which is quite high for only two energy cards, the only downside with this move is that it does 30 damage to one of your own Pokemon, at your choosing. As far as playing Luxray GL Lv. X I would definitely utilize it's Poke-Power and knock out one of the defending Pokemon and it is a really quick card too, since it only needs two energy cards to do 60 damage so if you are lacking energy on other powerful Pokemon you can just put Luxray GL Lv. X and do your 60 damage and then retreat it the next turn for free. So thanks again for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Milotic ex from EX Emerald.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Tangrowth Lv. X (Arceus)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Tangrowth Lv. X from the Arceus set. The first thing I notice about this card is that it doesn't have any moves that do any damage. That being said I would have to use the regular Tangrowth card to do any damage, but nevertheless I'll review this card. Tangrowth Lv. X has 130 hp which isn't too bad for a stage 2 Lv. X Pokemon, it is less than both Salamence and Gengar Lv. X in the Arceus set but both of those Pokemon are basically stage 3 Pokemon. A x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon could knock out Tangrowth Lv. X pretty quickly but at least Tangrowth Lv. X has a -20 resistance to water type Pokemon. A 3 colorless energy retreat cost is very expensive and is another reason just to keep this card on your bench. Tangrowth Lv. X's Poke-Power is called Healing Growth and lets you once per turn flip a coin and if you get heads remove 4 damage counters from any Pokemon you like. This makes Tangrowth Lv. X's hp of 130 even more impressive if you are using it as your active Pokemon. Tangrowth Lv. X's only move is Big Growth and for only 1 grass energy card it lets you search your discard pile for as many grass energy cards and attach them to your Pokemon in any way you like. There is a lot of strategy that you could do with this card. First of all I would make sure and have Tangrowth Lv. X on my bench as soon as possible so you can have a chance at removing 4 damage counters every turn for your active Pokemon with Healing Growth. As far as actually using Tangrowth Lv. X as an active Pokemon, if I am only considering the Tangrowth Lv. X card I would try and have another grass type Pokemon which needed to discard energy cards to perform a move so that I could bring Tangrowth Lv. X into play late in the game and retrieve all those energy cards from the discard pile. I would try and make it so Tangrowth would have free retreat costs, I would do this by using some type of Stadium Card or using a Pokemon's Poke-Power that lets Pokemon retreat for free. But overall I would definitely use Tangrowth Lv. X in any grass type Pokemon deck just for its Poke-Power, because with Big Growth every Pokemon you have will seem like it has 40 or more hp to it, and since grass Pokemon usually have higher hp's than other Pokemon, one powerful grass Pokemon with a high hp should last quite awhile with Tangrowth Lv. X on your bench. Once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Luxray GL Lv. X from Rising Rivals.

Saturday, May 8, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Blastoise (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Blastoise from the yet to be released Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. I believe this set is coming out May 12th so make sure you go out and buy some I know I will be buying everything they make of Unleashed when I get done with college May 25th. Now lets get on to the review. Blastoise is a stage 2 Pokemon card and has a very respectable hp of 130 which is very good for a non Lv. X card. A x2 weakness to electric type Pokemon is expected from a stage 2 water Pokemon and Blastoise doesn't have any resistant type. It does have a very high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards, but at least you should have enough energy to retreat Blastoise if you get in trouble since its only move requires 4 energy cards. Blastoise's Poke-Power Wash Out lets you move as many water energy as you want from your benched Pokemon to your active Pokemon, so as long as you have Blastoise on your bench you can use this move even though I would more than likely want to have Blastoise be my active Pokemon and move a lot of energy cards at once to be able to perform Blastoise's only move really quickly. Blastoise's only move is called Hydro Launcher and takes 4 energy cards, 2 water, and 2 colorless and lets you do 100 hp damage to any of your opponent's Pokemon, so I would target any of your opponent's basic Pokemon so you can one it knock out them. But if they do have a really strong hp or attacker Pokemon I would use Hydro Launcher twice in a row on that Pokemon because pretty every Pokemon can be knocked out with 200 damage. The only bad thing about Hydro Launcher is that when you use it you have to move the 2 water energy cards necessary to use the move back to your hand. At least you don't have to discard them and I would use Blastoise later in the game when you have a lot of your other benched Pokemon already set up so you can use Wash Out and easily move two water energy cards from your benched Pokemon to Blastoise to be able to do Hydro Launcher for more than one turn in a row. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Tangrowth Lv. X.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Rhyperior Lv. X (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Rhyperior Lv. X from the Legends Awakened set. This is basically a stage 3 Pokemon card since the Rhyperior it evolves from is a stage 2 Pokemon. With this being said Rhyperior Lv. X has a really high hp of 170 which will make it tough for your opponents to take you down very quickly. A x2 weakness to water type Pokemon might make this high hp more defeatable, but at least Rhyperior Lv. X has a resistance of -20 to electric Pokemon to make up for these brutal weakness. A 4 colorless energy retreat cost is extremely high and it means in order to retreat Rhyperior Lv. X you'll have to have more energy on Rhyperior Lv. X than is necessary to execute any of the card's moves. So if I were using this card I would battle with it until I feinted. Rhyperior Lv. X has no Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two pretty powerful moves, the first is called Hard Crush and for no energy it does 50x hp damage. You have to look at the top 5 cards of your deck and for each energy card that is in those five cards it does 50x damage to your opponent's active Pokemon, but the downside to using this move is that you have to discard all 5 cards you look at from your deck. Rhyperior Lv. X second move aids Hard Crush a little bit and makes the move more player friendly, Rhyperior Lv. X's second move is called Upthrow and for 3 energy cards, two fighting, one colorless, it does 60 hp damage and it allows you to search through your entire discard pile and remove all fighting energy from there and move them all back into your deck. As far as strategy goes with Rhyperior Lv. X I would wait until I have 2 energy cards on Rhyperior Lv. X then I would move it into the position of my active Pokemon, I would start out with Hard Crush and discard the top 5 cards from my deck hoping for at least 2 energy cards. The next move I would use Hard Crush again, unless the defending Pokemon would be knocked out by 60 damage then I would use Upthrow. But I would use Hard Crush a few times in a row, and then use Upthrow the next turn to get back all those energy cards I discarded. So even if you use Hard Crush most of the time, you won't lose the game by running out of cards in your deck as long as Rhyperior Lv. X doesn't feint and you have at least 2 energy cards in your discard pile so you can put them back into your deck. If I were using this card I would also just make this a fighting type deck so I could put many fighting energy cards into it so that Hard Crush would be even more effective and you really wouldn't lose too many cards when you use Hard Crush because if they are mostly energy cards you can just retrieve them again using Upthrow. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Blastoise from Unleashed.

Friday, May 7, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Regigigas Lv. X (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Regigigas Lv. X from the Stormfront set, I actually use this card in one of my decks that I made a video of on YouTube so I have a lot of personal experience with this card. For being basically a stage 1 Lv. X Regigigas Lv. X has 150 hp which is really good. A x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon isn't anything to worry about since fighting types aren't too prevalent an Regigigas Lv. X has a really high hp. Regigigas Lv. X doesn't have a resistance type which is really needed especially with its Poke-Power, and it has an extremely high retreat cost of 4 colorless energy cards, so you really won't be able to use this card again if you retreat it because it will waste a lot of energy and take forever to get another 4 energy cards on it. Onto Regigigas Lv. X's Poke-Power called Sacrifice, this is one of the main reasons I use this card, its Poke-Power reads like this once per turn you may choose any of your Pokemon in play and knock that Pokemon out, when you do so Regigigas Lv. X gets to remove 8 damage counters from it and also search the discard pile for two basic energy cards and attach them to Regigigas Lv. X. Regigigas Lv. X's only move on this card is called Giga Blaster and does 100 hp for four energy cards, one colorless, one metal, one water, and one fighting. When you execute this move you also get to remove the top card from your opponent's deck and move it to the discard pile, but the downfall is that you only can use Giga Blaster every other turn. As far as strategy goes I wouldn't ever use Giga Blaster because of two reasons, the first being that it takes too many different types of energy cards, which will make you stack your deck with all types of special energy cards, and the second reason is that you can only Giga Blaster every other turn so it seems like a waste to me to put all those different kind of energy cards into your deck and then not be able to use that move more than once in a row. My suggestion would be to use the rare Regigigas, not the holo version, from the Legends Awakened set, this card has the move Gigaton Punch which does 60 hp damage for 3 colorless energy cards and then if you flip a coin and get heads it does 20 more damage to the defending Pokemon and then you get to choose one of your opponent's benched Pokemon and do 20 damage to that as well. I like this card the best of all the regular Regigigas's because it has a colorless move so you can basically put it in any deck. And once you get Regigigas Lv. X to be your active Pokemon you can just use Gigaton Punch every turn and then if Regigigas Lv. X gets close to feinting you can have some basic Pokemon on your bench and sacrifice it to keep Regigigas Lv. X alive much longer. I know I could usually sweep my opponent a lot if I could get Regigigas Lv. X out right away and execute Gigaton Punch because in 2 moves you can knock out about anything and at the same time if you flip heads you can start spreading damage around on the bench so by the time one of your opponent's benched Pokemon comes in you can knock them out in one move. So once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Ryhperior Lv. X.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Drapion Lv. X (Platinum)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Drapion Lv. X from the Platinum set. This card is basically a stage 2 Pokemon card and has 130 hp which isn't too bad for a Lv. X and is the highest in the Platinum set, tied with Giratina. A x2 weakness to Psychic type Pokemon could hurt it, but like I said in one of my earlier reviews a lot of Psychic Pokemon don't have that powerful of hp attacks but rather have special condition moves or are able to spread damage around. Nevertheless Drapion has no resistance type and a high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards, so you'll lose a lot of cards if you decide to move Drapion to your active Pokemon spot. Drapion's Poke-Power Tri-Poison is very good, it lets you once per turn if you flip heads poison any one of the defending Pokemon and it allows you to put 3 damage counters on that Pokemon instead of 1. Drapion's only move works really well with Tri-Poison its move is called Sniping Tail and does 40 hp damage for a costly for energy cards, 2 darkness energy and 2 colorless, this move also does 40 damage to one of your opponent's benched Pokemon you choose and it also makes your opponent's Pokemon unable to retreat the following turn. The reason I say this works well with Tri-Poison is that one of the ways to remove poison from an active Pokemon is to retreat it but if you use Tri-Poison and flip a heads you are able to poison the defending Pokemon give it an additional 30 hp damage, then use Sniping Tail and do another 40 damage and 40 damage to another benched Pokemon and then force your opponent to stay in and face you, so if you get lucky enough to poison the active Pokemon and have enough energy to use Drapion's move you can basically knock out every Pokemon there is as long as your opponent doesn't have any supporters/trainers that remove poison and Drapion Lv. X can last long enough to knock out that Pokemon. As far as strategy goes I would try and get Drapion Lv. X onto your bench as soon as possible so you could utilize its Poke-Power, I would actually start poisoning the bench Pokemon first until you moved Drapion out to your active spot, then like I was saying earlier I would use Sniping Tail to make your opponent unable to retreat and knock it out very quickly. Because within 1 full turn and the beginning of another, Drapion can do 100 hp damage to the defending Pokemon if it is Poisoned and 40 damage to a benched Pokemon and also poison another Pokemon on your opponent's bench if you get lucky enough and spin a heads. So this card is very strong, I don't even think you would have to use this card in a dark deck but you could just use the card for its Poke-Power and keep it on your bench the whole time just to poison the defending Pokemon. Once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Regigigas Lv. X from Stormfront.

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gardevoir Lv. X (Secret Wonders)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gardevoir Lv. X from the Secret Wonders set. It has an hp of 130 which is pretty decent for a Lv. X. Unfortunately Gardevoir has a x2 weakness to psychic type Pokemon, which now that I think about it might not be too bad since a lot of psychic Pokemon don't actually have that powerful of moves but moves that either spread damage or inflict special conditions on the Pokemon. Gardevoir has no resistance and a retreat cost of 2 colorless energy cards. Gardevoir's Poke-Body which is called Teleportation and allows you to switch Gardevoir with one of your active or benched Pokemon, this Poke-Power eliminates the need to use Gardevoir's retreat cost of 2 colorless energy card because you can just teleport out of the active Pokemon position if you get in trouble. Gardevoir's only move is called Bring Down and takes 2 Psychic energy cards, it allows you to knock out the weakest Pokemon in play, excluding Gardevoir, so it doesn't matter whose Pokemon it is, if your Pokemon has the least amount of hp left then you would essentially be knocking out your own Pokemon. As far as strategy is concerned I would try and put Gardevoir onto your bench as soon as possible so that if any of my active Pokemon get in trouble I can retreat them for free by using Teleportation and putting Gardevoir to be your active Pokemon. My strategy for using Bring Down would be to stack my deck with high hp Pokemon so more than likely you will always have more hp remaining on your Pokemon than your opponent's Pokemon. This way I could one hit knock out all the defending Pokemon. In the case that you have the least amount of hp remaining on your Pokemon I would either use one of the Gardevoir card that you evolved into the Lv. X's moves or use Teleportation and put in a much stronger Pokemon. It just depends on the kind of moves you have on the Gardevoir regular card you played. But I would just use Teleportation again as soon as the defending player has a Pokemon with less remaining hp than yours, so I could use Bring Down and knock it out. So once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Drapion Lv. X.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Flygon ex (EX Legend Maker)

Today's Pokemon Card of the day is Flygon ex from the EX Legend Maker set, I think this is the third ex card I've reviewed in the last 3 days. But oh well these are really good cards and fun to review. Flygon has really good hp, which most colorless type Pokemon do, it has 150 hp which is really important for an ex card to have high hp since if it is knocked out your opponent gets to take two prize cards. A x2 weakness to colorless Pokemon can damage Flygon quite a bit, but these powerful weakness is supplemented by its -30 hp resistance to two types of Pokemon, electric and fighting, I think this is the first card I've done where a Pokemon has two resistance types, also a 2 colorless energy retreat cost isn't too bad for a powerful ex card like this one and a card with a move that requires 5 energy cards to perform. Flygon's Poke-Power Emerge Charge is quite handy when you decide to put Flygon ex into play you can search your discard pile for two energy cards and attach them to Flygon, if I were using this card I would search my discard pile for one grass energy and one electric energy so I could for sure use Dragon Claw in a few turns. Flygon's first move is called Reactive Blast and only takes 2 energy cards, 1 colorless, 1 electric and does 40+ damage depending on if you want to discard any react energy cards from Flygon while you perform the move, so in essence, Reactive Blast can do 100 damage for 2 energy cards, if both your energy cards attached to Flygon are react energy cards. For more information on react energy cards click here. Flygon's second move is called Dragon Claw and for 5 energy cards, 1 grass, 1 electric and 3 colorless it does 100 hp damage every time. As far as strategy goes with Flygon ex I would wait a while to evolve Vibrava into Flygon so you could utilize Flygon's Poke-Power and be able to attach two energy cards to Flygon from the discard pile. I would do this so I would have enough energy cards to use Dragon Claw every turn, all you basically need is two energy cards on Vibrava and then you can put Flygon ex out and attach two more energy cards to it and then attach one from your hand to Flygon and then move Flygon to be your active Pokemon if it isn't already and then you're ready to use Dragon Claw every turn. And you should be able to do quite a bit of damage since Flygon's hp is 150 and it has two -30 resistance types. So once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Gardevoir Lv. X.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Tyranitar ex (EX Dragon Frontiers)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Tyranitar ex from the EX Dragon set. First off you'll notice that Tyranitar is an electric type Pokemon, this is because Tyranitar is a Delta Species type Pokemon in this set, for more information on Delta Species Pokemon click here. This ex card has 150 hp which is very good considering you don't want this card to get knocked out since your opponent will be able to take two prize cards for it. It has a x2 weakness to grass type Pokemon which could hurt it but shouldn't be too bad. Tyranitar doesn't have any resistance and it has a costly 3 colorless energy retreat cost so if you have to retreat Tyranitar you'll have to take all the energy cards necessary for its moves off of it and put them in the discard pile. Tyranitar doesn't have any Poke-Body or Poke-Power but it does have 3 moves. The first is called Electromark and takes two energies, one electric, and one colorless and allows you to put a Shock-wave counter on any of your opponent's Pokemon. I wasn't sure what this Shock-Wave counter was so I had to look it up, I guess it is just a marker or any thing to let you know that there is a counter on that Pokemon and if there is a counter on that Pokemon you can knock it out with one of Tyranitar's moves. Tyranitar's second move is called Hyper Claws and does 70+ hp damage for 3 energy cards 1 electric and 2 colorless energy cards and if the defending Pokemon is a stage 2 evolved Pokemon it does 90 damage to it. So this move is pretty good for only 3 energy cards. Tyranitar's last move is the best and is called Shock-Wave and this move also takes 3 energy cards, but this time you need 2 electric type and 1 colorless energy cards. This move allows you to choose any of your opponent's Pokemon that has a Shock-wave marker on it which you were able to put on it by using Electromark earlier. So this move essentially could do unlimited damage to a defending Pokemon as long as they have a Shock-wave marker on it. So overall you can basically knock out any Pokemon no matter how high their hp in two turns by using Electromark and then Shock-wave the next turn. As for strategy goes I would use Hyper Claws mainly, unless your opponent has some strong Pokemon on their bench, because this way you can inflict damage every turn with Hyper Claws and in two turns Hyper Claws can do at least 140 damage which will knock out just about anything and if their Pokemon is over 140 hp then use Electromark and then Shock-wave. I would definitely shape my deck around this card, it is very powerful and can knock out anything. Once again, thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Flygon ex from EX Legend Maker.

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Kingdra ex (EX Dragon)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Kindra ex from the EX Dragon set. It has pretty good hp for an ex card with 150 hp. A x2 weakness to grass Pokemon and electric type Pokemon could hinder its great hp. I would have liked this card to have some resistance type but again 150 hp is really good. The retreat cost for this card is 3 colorless energy cards which is quite expensive so if you're going to use this card you will either have to play until it feints and give up two prize cards or discard all the energy cards required to do Hydrocannon to retreat Kingdra. Kingdra ex doesn't have any Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have two moves. The first is called Genetic Memory and for only 1 water energy card you can do any move from the Horsea or Seadra card under Kingdra for only 1 energy card no matter how many energy cards the move on the original card took, so this move gives Kingdra many more moves than just the two moves on this card. The second move Kingdra has is called Hydrocannon and for 3 colorless energy cards it does 50 hp damage which is slightly above average for 3 energy cards but not anything spectacular. You can also add up to two more water energy cards to this Kingdra card and for each water energy card you have in addition to the 3 energy cards you need for Hydrocannon increases Hydrocannon by 20 hp each, so at max Hydrocannon can do 90 hp damage for 5 energy cards, 2 water and 3 colorless. This is a pretty expensive move but you should be able to knock out just about any Pokemon in two moves and you also don't have to discard any energy cards when you use Hydrocannon so that is nice too. As far as strategy goes I would try and get Kingdra ex onto my deck as soon as possible because then all you need is 1 energy card to use any of the Pokemon under Kingdra's moves. But I would definitely use Hydrocannon as much as possible when I get 3 energy cards on Kingdra and I would make sure to put 5 energy cards on Kingdra so I could do 90 hp every turn and this way if Kingdra is close to being knocked out you can retreat it and put it back out the next turn again if you wanted and just add one energy card to it and you could do 50 hp damage right away. Since Kingdra needs so many energy cards I would definitely include supporters/trainers which allow you to get energy cards to your hand right away. I might also think about putting potions in your deck or some type of Poke-Power that lets you remove damage from Kingdra every turn so it can last just about the whole game. So once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Tyranitar ex.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Staraptor FB Lv. X (Supreme Victors)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Staraptor FB Lv. X from the Supreme Victors set. This is a stage 1 Lv. X card and has only 100 hp which is pretty low for a Lv. X, most of the other stage 1 Lv. X cards in this set have 10 more hp. A x2 weakness to electric type Pokemon can knock out Staraptor pretty fast, I wish this wasn't a x2 weakness because really this card isn't very powerful. A -20 resistance to fighting type Pokemon is helpful but it really can't make up for a x2 weakness to any type Pokemon. At least Staraptor has no retreat cost so you can easily retreat it if it is close to being knocked out. Staraptor's Poke-Power is about the only reason I would use this card, its Poke-Power is called Fast Call and allows you to search your deck for a supporter card and put it into your hand once every turn. I would use this Poke-Power to find supporter cards in your deck that allow you to search for evolved Pokemon so you can get your Powerful Pokemon into play as soon as possible. Staraptor FB's only move is called Defog and does only 40 hp damage for 3 colorless energy cards, which is pretty weak but if you discard any stadium card in play before you execute this move it does 70 hp damage instead of 40 hp damage. As far as strategy goes I would only use this card for its Poke-Power which can aid other Pokemon in your deck that either need a lot of energy to do their moves or that need to be evolved to their stage 2 Pokemon form to be effective. I wouldn't use Staraptor FB Lv. X at all for attacking because there are numerous Pokemon out there who can do more than 40 hp for 3 energy cards. So overall I really don't like this card too much, but its Poke-Power is really good, and if your opponent is using a stadium card you can use Defog and discard their Stadium Card and then deal them 70 hp damage. Once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Kingdra ex from EX Dragon.