pokemon-card-of-the-day

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3152: Fairy Charm UB (Team Up)

Fairy Charm UB was yet another Pokemon Tool to attach to Fairy-types. This one, when attached, prevented all damage to the Fairy-type Pokemon it was attached to that was done by attacks from the opponent's Ultra Beast Pokemon-GX or Pokemon-EX (the second didn't exist). This was worth including in Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX decks since it did so well against Blacephalon-GX and Naganadel-GX. That was generally the extent of the use here, but being able to prevent Blacephalon-GX from blowing up on your bulky attacker was good enough that it was really hard to justify not having a copy of this in a Fairy-type deck.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #fairy charm ub #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3151: Jynx (Team Up)

Jynx had a weird role to play. It could actually spread damage around, but not a lot and it did depend on the opponent. This resulted in a few spots where it could be quite good and also a lot that it wasn't that impressive. Still, it did seem to fit in well with an existing deck that provided it Energy, so finding a landing spot wasn't an issue. The game around it was possibly a different story.

The stats here weren't impressive. 90 HP wasn't holding up to much abuse, and the Psychic Weakness didn't change much due to that. The Retreat Cost was reasonable at just 1, so moving around wasn't too big of a deal. You'd be using this with Malamar anyway.

Dazzle Dance worked for a Colorless Energy and simply Confused the opponent's Active Pokemon. Confusion wasn't the most impressive Special Condition and was just an annoyance to anyone you used this against.

Mysterious Dance, in many spots, wasn't great either, as 2 Energy meant putting a damage counter on the opponent's Pokemon for each of their Benched Pokemon. These damage counters could be placed however you wanted, which gave some freedom. While somewhat bad on paper, it had a few moments. Being able to pick off a big weakened Pokemon wasn't too common, but could work from time to time. It also had an amusing Spiritomb match-up, as that was something that had to damage itself on the Bench over time while another Spiritomb attacked. Jynx could take out a couple of Spiritomb at once sometimes. There was also some application against stall decks, not letting them activate Counter Catcher while spreading damage around to blow up a lot of the board at once later. Obviously, not every deck gave these opportunities, but the attack was solid sometimes.

Jynx was something you might pick in Psychic decks for a way to place damage counters in a way people might not have prepared for. It helped against a few things, and sometimes it was worth the single slot alongside Malamar. In the majority of games, however, Jynx wasn't going to contribute much if anything, and it was often fine to just go for a card to cover another need instead.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #jynx #team up

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Learned yesterday that I wasn't actually enjoying posting and scrolling a lot so I might not be on the thing I linked yesterday much oops

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3150: Mr. Mime-GX (Team Up)

Mr. Mime-GX came a little later than you might expect. It was released in a different set than the one that blocked even amounts of damage. The goal was still the same, blocking half the damage numbers but being very vulnerable to strong attacks hitting any even number. 150 was a notable amount at the time, and 230 would eventually be as well, so there were certainly targets here. There were also ways for many decks to play around this sort of thing, and they weren't rare either.

150 HP was awful for a Basic Pokemon-GX, but was entirely expected for something that stopped damage from so many attacks. There was also no Weakness or Resistance. The lack of Weakness was important since any attack that hit a Weakness would have done even amounts of damage, and that would ruin the idea of the card. The Retreat Cost was 2, and you'd probably want to have a way to switch out without paying it since Mr. Mime-GX was a hard wall against some things and terrible against others.

Magic Odds was an Ability that blocked any damage done to Mr. Mime-GX by the opponent's attacks as long as it was an odd amount multiplied by 10. 10, 30, 50... All the way to 250 was covered. If you could get above 250, the Ability didn't do anything, but that was almost never important because the few things that ever got that far either already hit for even damage or could vary damage to just hit for an even amount without going all the way to overkill. This did have some nice moments. Blocking the main attack from Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX, for example, was nice, and Zacian V wasn't touching this without ADP support. You'd think this would work great against Pikachu & Zekrom-GX as well, but a single Electropower use just nullified the advantage there. A lot of other decks, like Blacephalon of any sort or Mewtwo & Mew-GX, could vary damage in ways that this Ability was functionally a lot less reliable than you'd think.

Breakdown punished large hand sizes. A Psychic and a Colorless Energy let you put a damage counter on the opponent's Active Pokemon for each card in their hand. This also wasn't the most reliable thing in the world, and usually made somewhat slow progress. It was the only source of damage Mr. Mime-GX had, so you'd be using it if not going full stall with your deck.

Life Trick GX healed all damage from Mr. Mime-GX for a Colorless Energy and your team's GX attack. You'd usually buy one turn if this attack was useful at a time, and sometimes that was worth it but usually not. The HP here was a bit low for this to make a giant impact.

Mr. Mime-GX occasionally had games that it just walled things. Those games were, however, somewhat rare, as most top decks had at least one way around it. Just changing the amount of damage with a modifier or having a back-up was usually enough, and Power Plant could shut off the Ability. While a very cool concept, the game was built in a way that this card was too vulnerable too often to be a serious threat.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #mr. mime #mr. mime-gx #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3149: Erika's Hospitality (Team Up)

Erika's Hospitality was one of quite a few draw cards available. It was a Supporter that was even more limited, only playable if you had 4 or fewer cards in your hand. You got to draw a card for each of your opponent's Pokemon in play in return. There were a lot of decks at the time that could get to low hand sizes rather easily, as Items that discarded other cards to be used were pretty typical. The main issue here was that it was less reliable than most other forms of card drawing. You did need to get the hand to the right size, but also this was way better against something like Malamar that stacked the Bench than, say, Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX that could handle having a relatively sparse play field. Quite a few decks did decide to use this, but the standard for those that did was just 1 copy. When Erika's Hospitality went off, it could get an impressive 6 cards. It just didn't always do that, so the low count was a fair middle ground here.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #erika's hospitality #team up

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The way this works is on brand for a cat too so this fits nicely

Pokemon Card of the Day #3148: Counterattack Claws (Neo Destiny)

Counterattack Claws was another new Tool in Neo Destiny, and it brought another potential coin flip. If the Pokemon this was attached to was your Active Pokemon and was damaged by an opponent's attack, you flipped a coin. A heads flip put 2 damage counters on the Defending Pokemon, then Counterattack Claws got discarded. You were using something for a 50% chance to get a bit of chip damage, and there was some argument for sing this in a few decks that commonly fell just short of KO numbers. Kingdra liked it against common Fire-types, for example. It was almost never better than just using Gold Berry or Focus Band for their stronger overall impacts, as a flip for an entire free turn was bigger than a flip for 20 damage and a big heal could also buy a turn pretty often. It was still decent enough when it worked in the right spot, but the one chance then discard thing was hard to overcome.

#don't know much about digimon #but I do have a cat #only does what you want sometimes? yes that's a cat

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3148: Counterattack Claws (Neo Destiny)

Counterattack Claws was another new Tool in Neo Destiny, and it brought another potential coin flip. If the Pokemon this was attached to was your Active Pokemon and was damaged by an opponent's attack, you flipped a coin. A heads flip put 2 damage counters on the Defending Pokemon, then Counterattack Claws got discarded. You were using something for a 50% chance to get a bit of chip damage, and there was some argument for sing this in a few decks that commonly fell just short of KO numbers. Kingdra liked it against common Fire-types, for example. It was almost never better than just using Gold Berry or Focus Band for their stronger overall impacts, as a flip for an entire free turn was bigger than a flip for 20 damage and a big heal could also buy a turn pretty often. It was still decent enough when it worked in the right spot, but the one chance then discard thing was hard to overcome.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #counterattack claws #neo destiny

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3147: EXP.ALL (Neo Destiny)

EXP.ALL was a Pokemon Tool that you wanted to attach to something on your Bench. Whenever your Active Pokemon would be Knocked Out by the opponent's attack, you took 1 of the basic Energy cards from your Active Pokemon, attached it to the Pokemon with EXP. ALL attached, then if you chose to move an Energy (you could decide not to, avoiding extra Espeon damage, I guess) you discarded EXP.ALL.

This wasn't bad, in that a lot of things just used Basic Energy and had somewhat high attack costs in this era and saving a single Energy could mean not missing a turn. It would have been a lot better if it could be used multiple times while attacking with other Pokemon like the modern Exp. Share, though. It also meant not attaching something like a Focus Band, and the combination meant that this wasn't used too often. It did, at least, have some role to play if you were running one of the many Pokemon running Basic Energy, so it wasn't a bad idea either.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #exp.all #neo destiny

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3146: Light Flareon (Neo Destiny)

Light Flareon could hit pretty hard if it got its coin flips. Really, even decent luck resulted in a solid attack here, and on a Pokemon that wasn't particularly frail that was notable. On the other hand, there was very direct competition from another Fire-type to consider. It was hard to get out of the shadow of one of the best attackers in the era, and it was going to take one of two small traits to have a chance in this case.

80 HP was a solid number for a Stage 1, leaving only Water-types (mostly due to a Weakness) and things like Blaine's Arcanine and Magcargo hitting hard enough to break through quickly. Most attackers would take 2 turns, which Light Flareon could keep up with reasonably well. To be fair, that Water Weakness was a huge pain, mostly for both Feraligatr decks but also in case Kabutops showed up to help Steelix against Fire-types. Light Flareon could retreat for a single Energy, which was one of the perks it had over Magcargo. Going back to hide behind a Cleffa was much easier to do with this.

Warm Up was the other thing Light Flareon had over Magcargo. It required a Fire Energy, and while it did no damage, it did let you search your deck for a Fire Energy card to attach to 1 of your Benched Pokemon. Placing down an Entei was far better than this, but this was here if you really couldn't find one and couldn't shuffle your deck with Cleffa. That was not a common occurrence but was better than nothing.

Burning Flame started at a slightly low 30 damage for 2 Fire and a Colorless Energy. Then, 2 coins were flipped, and each heads did 20 more damage but also made you discard a Fire Energy attached to Light Flareon to use the attack. The average output was 50 with 1 discard here, which was rather decent.

Of course, Light Flareon was simply a worse Magcargo, as Magcargo was a Pokemon that started at 40 damage and can choose how much Energy to discard for extra damage instead of flipping to decide. The lower Retreat Cost and Warm Up weren't even close to enough, and while this wasn't really a bad card, you'd never pick it over its counterpart in any situation.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #flareon #light flareon #neo destiny

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3145: Mr. Mime (Team Up)

Mr. Mime was an extremely niche Pokemon. All it did was block scoop up effects from anything damaged on the opponent's side. This didn't come into its own until Scoop Up Net was released, at which point said effects were very accessible. This meant that any sort of spread damage after that point could work well with Mr. Mime, though effects were limited in any other sort of deck so there was a really limited window for a card like this.

80 HP wasn't going to win any awards, and moderate hits were enough to deal with this. The Psychic Weakness didn't matter very often as a result, especially in those later formats where Mr. Mime had better odds of finding a role. The Retreat Cost was just 1, so it wasn't a devastating thing to be stuck with this at the start of a game. Not ideal, but at least you could switch it reasonably well.

Scoop-Up Block was the reason to use Mr. Mime. The Ability made sure that any Pokemon the opponent had in play that were damaged at all couldn't be put into the opponent's hand. There were some early attempts to make use of this, generally in spread decks with Weezing, and it did block Acerola so it was worth considering in SUM-On in those marginally competitive decks. It was more useful later on, after a rotation and once Scoop Up Net was released. Dragapult VMAX's damage counter placements went well with this concept, and it could be a good choice in a combo with that.

Psy Bolt was not an attack to ever use. 20 damage and a flip for Paralysis was not worth it for 2 Colorless Energy.

Mr. Mime got occasional use alongside spread effects, and was nice to stop Scoop Up Net from denying Prizes. The thing here was that even its best competitive partner, Dragapult VMAX, ended up dropping it because the effect wasn't that important. Mr. Mime had a real niche, but you did have to consider whether it was important enough to use the deck space. Often, it did miss out, but if preventing scoop up effects sounded nice, you had your card here.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #mr. mime #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3144: Gengar & Mimikyu-GX (Team Up)

Gengar & Mimikyu-GX was all about punishing large hand sizes. It hit really hard if the opponent had a bunch of Trainer cards, but wasn't so great otherwise. This was hard to control, and you were very unlikely to see this was a main attacker as a result. It was, at least, good in enough spots and in an accessible enough package that some Psychic decks could seriously look at this. It wasn't like 2 Energy was a lot to pay for and it was a Basic Pokemon, so a backup role was certainly a possibility in theory.

240 HP was a bit lower than the typical Tag Team. It combined with the Weakness to Darkness to actually cause a real problem in most formats. SUM-On had a lot of Zoroark-GX, and giving up 3 Prizes to a hit from that common of a Pokemon was not good at all. Spiritomb could also take advantage of it in UPR-On, then the later Eternatus VMAX could all cause problems in a big way. A Fighting Resistance was less likely to matter until the very end, where TEU-On had Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX to consider. It actually could let this card survive and extra turn and was nice there. The Retreat Cost was 2, so Switch was nice but not absolutely required.

Poltergeist was really good in the right spot but not too reliable. 2 Psychic Energy let you look at the opponent's hand. The attack did 50 damage for each Trainer card there, so even 3 Trainers made this reasonable. Big hand sizes could be punished nicely by this, but the attack was also prone to being awful against small hands and things like Judge or Marnie weren't going to guarantee a full hand of Trainers. This made Gengar & Mimikyu-GX terrifying in spots but pretty poor in others, but even seeing this card on the field made people have to play differently to avoid the attack so it had value in games in that way even if the big hit didn't go off.

Horror House GX was meant to set up Poltergeist, but you only got to do it once. The attack did no damage for a Psychic Energy, but it also prevented the opponent from playing cards of any sort from their hand during their next turn. Each player also drew cards until they had 7 in their hand. This basically forced the opponent to have 8 cards there during your next turn, and that gave a good chance at a huge Poltergeist. It also could prevent the opponent from setting up during that time, which was useful if you needed an extra turn and they didn't have their side ready to go.

Gengar & Mimikyu-GX found a role in several decks as a back-up attacker that took advantage of the spots it could hit really hard in. Malamar decks were the first ones to use it, and Psychic versions of Mewtwo & Mew-GX could access the attack here from the discard pile. Later decks like Dragapult VMAX and Shadow Rider Calyrex VMAX sometimes kept a copy of this around as well for the same reasons. While it was never the focus of the deck, it had enough moments that it was something you had to know was available when facing decks of the type.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #gengar #mimikyu #gengar & mimikyu-gx #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3143: Tapu Koko Prism Star (Team Up)

Tapu Koko Prism Star was all about Energy acceleration. If you could get Lightning Energy into the discard pile, you could use this card to get more Energy in play. This could only be used once, but that was still useful, and this was clearly another way for Lightning to be even better than it already was.

130 HP was pretty good for a Basic Pokemon, and meant that you'd sometimes be able to survive an early hit if stuck with this up front on turn 1. A Fighting Weakness wasn't the worst thing out there since Buzzwole was unlikely to have the boost needed at that point to take good advantage of it, while a Metal Resistance technically existed. Tapu Koko Prism Star also had a Retreat Cost of just 1. If starting with it, which sometimes happened even if not ideal, you could retreat easily while getting an Energy to the discard pile to accelerate. That still stopped the turn 2 Pikachu & Zekrom-GX play, but was less painful than it would be for most Pokemon.

Dance of the Ancients was the star here. The Ability only worked if Tapu Koko Prism Star was on the Bench, which was usually fine with a bunch of Pokemon and lots of switching cards in most decks using this. You could choose 2 of your Benched Pokemon and attach a Lightning Energy card from your discard pile to each of them. Then Tapu Koko Prism Star had all cards attached to it discarded (there wouldn't be any in practice) and the Pokemon itself went to the Lost Zone. This could be worth a lot for any deck, enabling access to attacks a turn early. It was most famous in the Pikachu & Zekrom-GX deck, as that was the most successful deck of the type, but it could be used with Zapdos, Boltund V, Rayquaza-GX, or whatever else used the type of Energy.

Mach Bolt wasn't the worst thing, at 120 damage for 3 Energy. It just wasn't what you wanted to use your Tapu Koko for, as it was better at supporting other things instead.

Tapu Koko Prism Star would be used in almost every deck using Lightning Energy since 2 extra attachments early on was huge for getting going. It could enable a turn 2 hit from Pikachu & Zekrom-GX as its most famous trick and, with Energy Switch when going second, sometimes even something on turn 1. These kinds of plays were too good to ignore, and anyone building decks wanted to have one of these available.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #tapu koko #tapu koko prism star #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3142: Emolga (Team Up)

Emolga was all about searching Pokemon. Being able to get a Pokemon from an Ability was quite impressive, especially since it worked each turn. It was, however, limited to Pokemon with the Nuzzle attack, which was aimed more at being a gimmick than anything else. Things actually came together a bit for the concept after the expected big attacker for the deck rotated out, by pairing with a Pokemon capable of huge attacks without Nuzzle that could use Energy attached to other things. Maybe still something of a gimmick, but a gimmick that had some backing.

60 HP was not winning any awards, and it was low enough to make the Lightning Weakness mean basically nothing. A Fighting Resistance, honestly, meant little with this level of HP. It was nice that Emolga could retreat for free, as it provided a pivot to use after something was Knocked Out.

Nuzzly Gathering was an Ability that worked once per turn, and it let you search your deck for a Pokemon that had the Nuzzle attack to put into your hand. The goal was to get a ton of Pokemon with that attack in play and use Pachirisu to accelerate Energy to the field. The early, SUM-On version, used Raichu-GX to hit really had with all the Energy on the field, while the later version (UPR-On) actually used Boltund V. While Boltund V lacked Nuzzle, it was very powerful with a ton of Energy out there and resulted in the more powerful version of the deck.

Nuzzle existed here to let Emolga get searched out by another Emolga. The attack did no damage for a Lightning Energy and had a flip for Paralysis. This was quite bad if you had anything else you could be doing.

Emolga was absolutely required for Nuzzle decks since it could actually search out the Pokemon needed for the deck and save Items like Quick Ball for Boltund V. The problem was that you were relying on getting a few huge hits off from the big attacker while also likely sacrificing Pachirisu each time you had to get more Energy on the field. The result was that, while pretty dangerous when given extra time, the concept was still more of a casual thing than one you'd try to win a serious tournament with.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #emolga #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3141: Zebstrika (Team Up)

Zebstrika was a Pokemon who had a role that lasted for one turn. It evolved, hit hard for the price, then was a bit below average afterward. This was not going to be able to stand out in anything like a Pikachu & Zekrom deck, but some of the early quick-hitter Lightning decks using Zapdos could have more use for this. It was stronger than Zapdos while still giving up a single Prize, so that was its goal. Try to make use of that extra damage for a single turn. Pretty specific, but worth looking at.

120 HP on a single Prize Stage 1 was around what you'd expect, but just low enough that most of the top decks that weren't stall were going to find ways to get through that rather easily. The Fighting Weakness was notable against Buzzwole, and this was more of a problem here than with most Team Up cards simply because Buzzwole's remaining niche and Zebstrika's basically overlapped in time period. The Metal Resistance didn't change anything notable. Zebstrika was lucky enough to be able to retreat for a single Energy, which was good for something that only got its big attack in once.

The big attack was Raid. In most cases, it was a rather poor 30 damage for a Lightning and a Colorless Energy. If Zebstrika had evolved from Blitzle during that turn, 90 was added, and 120 for 2 was impressive. That was a solid chunk out of a Pokemon-GX in a lot of cases, and often just enough to take a Prize off Basic Pokemon that weren't GX. It could also hit on a Weakness, which was something Zapdos couldn't do.

Mach Bolt was available at all times. Sadly, 100 damage was not impressive at this point in the game's history when needing 3 Energy to get there. This was something you'd use in a pinch if you didn't have any other attackers ready and Zebstrika actually survived for a while.

Zebstrika got some rare use in early Zapdos decks as a way to hit harder without risking giving up an extra Prize. Being able to only do this once (and really, not being as strong as you'd think) was what held it back, and eventually people just went with the 2 Prize Tapu Koko-GX if they needed a big hitter for the deck. Zapdos eventually fell off to just being an occasional entrant in a Pikachu & Zekrom-GX deck, and with it went Zebstrika's chance as it wasn't doing anything better than any existing Pokemon over there. Interesting idea to have a 1 turn only evolving hit like this, but Lightning was so full of options that Zebstrika never really got to make use of it.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #zebstrika #team up

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3140: Heracross (Neo Destiny)

Heracross was the kind of Pokemon that only makes a ton of sense in the context of its time. Feraligatr was still viewed as absolutely terrifying, even with other decks starting to do well in tournaments alongside it by the time Neo Destiny was released. Anything that could mess with Feraligatr would get used to some extent. A Basic Grass-type that had a flip for a possible KO from full health on it certainly fit that bill, and people were willing to flip more back then since almost everything but Feraligatr itself was about coin flips anyway. Heracross actually did see use back then, though being locked to its home type which already had most of the anti-Feraligatr measures would limit its reach, and the Rocket-On format has not just the old version to look at, but the newer version with correct translations to consider as well.

60 HP wasn't going to win any awards, but it was decent enough. Being a Grass-type that did not just fall to a hit from Dark Feraligatr was pretty cool. The Fire Weakness saved the major attackers of the type from needing to discard Energy, though any deck using this would be focusing heavily on other attackers against those match-ups. The Retreat Cost was 2, and sometimes you might have to just pay it since usually you'd want to use Heracross with other things that just pivoted for free and therefore wouldn't be focusing on switching cards.

Tackle got you 20 damage for a Grass and a Colorless Energy. It was something, but not why you used Heracross.

Charging Horn was what got some attention. 3 Grass Energy started at just 30 damage, which wasn't impressive. If the coin flip was heads, 30 more was added, and 60 for 3 was quite good for the time. Anything with a Grass Weakness, including both Feraligatr forms, Donphan, and Kabutops, would just fall to that. It was not reliable by any means, but was on a Basic Pokemon and had a slightly higher chance of getting the KO than Crobat did so it was interesting in its own way.

Heracross got into a few decent decks back in the older version of Rocket-On, capitalizing on the higher use of Feraligatr and the lack of reliance on Trainers. While Crobat was generally better, Heracross could be used in said Crobat deck to get a better chance at a clean KO (50% compared to 31, and also on a Pokemon that had no need to evolve). It's really not worth going out of your way for it in the modern Rocket-On with less Slowking, though. While the targets all still exist, the format is more diverse and therefore you'd probably just focus on Crobat itself if running a Grass deck. Heracross is more of historical interest as a result, showing off what people were trying out in a format far different than anything seen today.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #heracross #neo destiny

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3139: Dark Haunter (Neo Destiny)

You wouldn't expect something like Dark Haunter to be good. It wasn't like it took hits that well or did much damage. Its entire goal was to make discarded Basic and Baby Pokemon go back to the opponent's Bench with a tiny bit of damage. This actually wasn't that useful in the old version of the Rocket-On format since Slowking wrecked the Trainers any decent use of this attack would rely on. The modern take on the format has things as if they were correctly translated, and suddenly things like Dark Crobat paired with Hyper Devolution Spray and Super Scoop Up could be used. Dark Haunter could pull Baby Pokemon into play, and those Pokemon could hit the Bench with Pokemon Powers when evolving. Suddenly, this one attack was looking really promising.

The stats here were pretty odd. 50 HP wasn't going to impress anyone, especially on a Stage 1. It wasn't a guaranteed loss against a decent number of things (Steelix had to flip heads to KO, for example, and Kingdra decks needed a second turn), but it did mean Dark Haunter was vulnerable to either Feraligatr and wasn't too fond about facing Crobat or either Blaine's Arcanine or Magcargo either. There was, at least, no Weakness here. There was also a Fighting Resistance, neutralizing any Tyrogue and meaning Giovanni's Machamp and Donphan would have a tougher time to say the least. Dark Haunter, like all of the best deck it could contribute to, could retreat for free. This made it very easy to go out to your own Cleffa if needed in a specific scenario. You'd often want to pull up a Pokemon when possible, but if low on important Trainers, retreating could indeed be the better play.

Call Back was the entire reason to use Dark Haunter. A Psychic Energy was all that was needed here. If the opponent's Bench wasn't full and if there was a Baby or Basic Pokemon in the opponent's discard pile, you got to move one of those Pokemon to their Bench and put a damage counter on it. This didn't seem like much on the surface. What it did do was make Cleffa, a card in every deck, a legitimate target. Filling up a Bench while not having any Baby Pokemon simply wasn't happening at the time, and Dark Haunter could be used to just recycle the Cleffa over and over to get Prizes off of it. Dark Crobat would be used to place damage counters, scooping and devolving to get multiple uses out of it over the course of the game. This strategy, which only worked in a game without the threat of Slowking, could be quite devastating to anything not running Trainer lock, though it was by no means unstoppable and anyone that got a Dark Vileplume up was probably in good shape. Doing that, however, could be easier said than done.

Surround did 20 damage for 2 Psychic Energy. A heads flip also put the Defending Pokemon to Sleep, while tails meant it couldn't retreat. Tails actually hit the more reliable effect, but it wasn't like Dark Haunter would trap things exactly when it wanted every time. This wasn't great and was by no means like Murkrow.

Dark Haunter's job was simply to enable Dark Crobat to pick off weak Pokemon. In the errata version of Rocket-On, this combo was one of the better options, being quite scary as long as it had decent Trainer flip luck. It had quite a few chances to get it right, at least, which helped it out. It was vulnerable to bad luck and really did not like seeing Dark Vileplume show up, so it was going to have its share of problems. When things did even somewhat fall into place, Dark Haunter was able to help claim plenty of Prizes, and you had to know how this deck worked to have success in that one format.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #haunter #dark haunter #neo destiny

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Pokemon Card of the Day #3138: Ampharos-GX (Team Up)

Ampharos-GX had some interesting ideas all shoved onto one card. Getting a ton of Electropower back could set up for a big hit later, Impact Bolt was quite strong for its cost (but also had discarding), and it could also fetch a ton of Pokemon at once with a cheap GX attack. All of these things, however, were on a Stage 2, and some lesser versions of them were all available on more accessible things elsewhere. Using Ampharos-GX meant building toward revolving around a Stage 2 but also gaining access to the bigger versions of what it provided, so there was a lot of potential trade-offs going on here. This was big when considering how impressive Lightning already was as a type, with so much competition to be considered.

240 HP was about what you'd expect for a Stage 2 Pokemon-GX. Taking a big hit was expected here, as it took things like an ADP-Boosted Zacian V or the like to hit 240. Yes, Zacian V did do that through the Metal Resistance, making that trait pretty close to useless. The Fighting Weakness was mostly a thing in SUM-On when Buzzwole still showed up somewhat often. It technically also mattered right before rotation against Rapid Strike Urshifu VMAX, but there was basically no way you would be running Ampharos-GX by that point anyway. Some of the reasons for using this card were gone by that point. The Retreat Cost was 3, so having Switch around was a nice idea.

Power Recharge was weak. 30 damage was not what you wanted from a Stage 2 Pokemon-GX even if it was for a single Lightning Energy. The effect, in theory, was nice, as it had you put all Electropower cards from your discard pile into your hand. This was almost always worse than just using 2 solid attacks in a row, though there was the occasional exception involving forcing a switch into a Tag Team. That play could be ruined by something like a Reset Stamp or Marnie, so it wasn't too reliable at any point where hand disruption existed. It was, however, mostly better than Electrocharger if you were that desperate for the one specific play there.

Impact Bolt was a lot more impressive. 150 damage was really strong for just 2 Lightning Energy, even if you did have to discard all of the Lightning Energy attached to Ampharos-GX to use it. The main thing stopping this from being incredible was simply that Pikachu & Zekrom-GX existed. While the attack there required an extra Energy, it also accelerated to more Pokemon to attack with, and that was far better than the quicker first big attack. With Tapu Koko Prism Star also existing and Ampharos-GX needing to evolve, Impact Bolt was somehow almost entirely outclassed despite being really good on paper.

Electrical GX was a really interesting thing to put on an attack. Yes, it was a GX attack that did no damage, but when you paid only a Lightning Energy to search your deck for up to 7 Pokemon to put into your hand, you had the potential to set up well for the next turn. If, of course, you ran into any hand disruption, you wasted your turn and your GX attack, so this was best used in formats before the Unified Minds set was released.

Ampharos-GX was better on paper than it was in practice or in the context of what else was available around it. Power Recharge was rarely worth the use, and Impact Bolt, while powerful, was way too close to being a worse Pikachu & Zekrom-GX that the only reason you'd use this card was if you were a big fan of Ampharos in general. In fairness, the card could still hold its own reasonably well, as nothing on here was truly bad and Electrical GX could help set up more Ampharos-GX. This was the perfect example of a good card for casual play that had no real reason to be used competitively.

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