Alph Lithograph (HeartGold & SoulSilver HS ONE)

Alph Lithograph (HeartGold & SoulSilver HS ONE) – Card of the Day

Written by Dane Carlson | March 31, 2011 | 22 comments | 1,971 views | Rating: +1

What’s up, guys! I’m here with yet another Card of the Day. Today, I’m going to talk about Alph Lithograph from HeartGold & SoulSilver.

This is definitely an interesting card. The Unowns translate into “LOOK AT YOUR OPPONENTS HAND!”. In straight LostGar (no Vileplume), this card can easily be used instead of Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime’s “Trick Reveal” Poke-Power says that your opponent needs to reveal his or her hand.

The downside? You have to show your hand as well. That is why Alph Lithograph ONE, in my opinion, is superior to Mr. Mime. Mr. Mime should be reserved to Trainer Lock LostGar, and Trainer Lock LostGar only.

I mean, your opponent can totally cripple your set up with cards like Judge, Giratina (PL #9), and Cyrus’s Initiative, and they know whether or not to use their Smeargle next turn with Mr. Mime. Alph Lithograph ONE prevents that.

But don’t just reserve this for LostGar… it is a very helpful disruption card, as well! You can put it into pretty much any deck (save Trainer Lock), and it can help. Also, Trainer cards can’t be Power Sprayed, while Poke-Powers (obviously) can.

Running this with Dialga G LV.X can also help, as you can then use Alph Lithograph ONE no matter what (except for when they use that blasted Level Down power… Power Spray, here we come! :D). I think that this card can be very helpful, as with all of the Alph Litho’s. They are all overlooked, and thought to be just a collector’s card. I would be glad to obtain one.

Pairing this card with just about any deck would be great, especially if that deck is LostGar or DialgaChomp (DialgaChomp has Dialga G LV.X for Vileplumes, PlusPower Sprays for those pesky Level Down’s). I would definitely keep this as a tech. Just like Jay Hornung said in his last article, I would definitely bring tech cards such as this one in a small binder for last-minute changes.

So I’d rate this card a 4 out of 5, mainly because it is so versatile. This card can be very helpful for any deck, save Trainer Lock, like I stated earlier. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch ya later. See ya! :)

Anonymous

cool i knew a few were good it’s that one and the triumphant one that lets you look at all your face down
prize cards but this one is onlygood for next format

Anonymous

combined with judge/giratina the ud one could be used against lostgar but i agree with you 90%

Anonymous

Once again, the review is good, but the card is rated Way to high. a 1.5/5 might be better. It is easily outclassed by MR. Mime COL because Mime is searchable, and you can use him over again.

Anonymous

Noctowl is searchable. Can we please stop forgetting about promo noctowl?

Anonymous

The reason Promoowl isn’t discussed much is because its inferior. Its
a stage 1 which kills its speed, and Mr. Mime having to show your hand
is a very little price to pay.
Anonymous

It can be a little price, but late game it could be bigger.
Anonymous

noctowl isnt as good since hes a stge 1 meaninng collecotr wont do it all. also he’s basically a free kill to luxchomp. his x2 weakness to electric is easy to maniuplate with luxray and garchomp is 10 away from the kill. anyone wanna say crobat g?
Anonymous

you would simply use bebe’s search. I know it isn’t as good, but showing off to vilegar or letting your opponent know you have a key card so they’d have to use plan b will make you regret using Mr. Mime. And let’s not forget that Alph Litograph isn’t searchable either. It may bee a free prize to LuxChomp, but so is Mime.

(Bright Look+Flash Bite/Dragon Rush)

Anonymous

According to the Cotd articles Alph Lithograph is a better card than Flygon, Yanmega Prime, Poke Drawer +, Infernape 4 Lv.X, Kingdra Prime, Mesprit, Donphan Prime, Bronzong G and Steelix Prime. I don’t mean to be a troll, I think some of the Cotd articles are very good. But to a new player these Cotd articles could be very misleading. It seems all of the Cotd writers have a different scale in which they use to rate cards and it makes the articles look very inconsistent.

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001734489773 Dakota Streck

Yeah, I can definitely see that.

Anonymous

The problem with this Alph lithograph is that you don’t get anything else for being able to look at your opponent’s hand. Cyrus’s Initiative lets you get rid of up to 2 cards, Looker’s Investigation lets you shuffle away either their hand or yours, Smeargle lets you (makes you) use a supporter that is hidden there, and Mr. Mime is searchable from the deck. Of course, each of those cards has a downside, but none of them are Trainer Locked by VileGar.

So yes, I agree that the card was weighted much too highly, although I think the author does do a good job of explaining why he rated it so well.
Anonymous

well one argument for mr.mime is that he can be used every turn but only takes up 1 card. where as this card gets maxed out at 4 cards and most decks barely have room for that 1 card needed for mr.mime alsoa there are huge amount of search cards to get mr.mime since hes a basic.

Anonymous

which is why i say noctowl is the superior option. it combines the + sides of both.

Anonymous

I’m sorry but why use it in Trainer Lock LostGar? Yeah, it is good and I don’t mean to troll but if you are going to use it mid-game when there is most likely a Vileplume out or something, how could you use it? And early game if you have a Spiritomb start you won’t really be able to use it. Just sayin’.

Anonymous

“In straight LostGar (no Vileplume), this card can easily be used…,” says the article.

Anonymous

FFF… lol I guess that I misread the thing lol. Thanks for pointing that out.

Anonymous

I’m realizing that rating cards on a 0-5 scale is useless. Cards aren’t so one dimensional as to be able to be rated on a simple scale like that. Why not just load your deck with all 5/5s? It’s clearly much more complex than that. There’s really just not much value in a single number score for any card. And besides all that, the almost arbitrary ratings on every article seems to cause controversy every time.

Anyway! I thought the review was fine. Maybe a little too optimistic about it being worth the space in some of those decks, but a good discussion of its uses.
http://twitter.com/soujiroelric Carlos Vergara

Just one thing… It might not be power sprayed, but it can be certainly trainer locked which has bigger backdraws, plus the limited amount of times you can use this card.
Anonymous

April fools? I actually liked the article, but like many others, I think the score is way off. I agree that we should stop having scores for COTD, because it makes so sense and causes ridiculous internet debates.

Peace Out.
Anonymous

promo noctowl is the same as mime, except you don’t reveal your hand. and you can use it more than four times during your turn.
Anonymous

OK, I see your point guys. I think I’ll start rating on a 0-10 scale, because I think I rate so high because I don’t want to give it a low number. What about a 7 out of 10? Do you guys agree with that?
Anonymous

OK, I see your point guys. I think I’ll start rating on a 0-10 scale, because I think I rate so high because I don’t want to give it a low number. What about a 7 out of 10? Do you guys agree with that?