Welcome to another review from SixPrizes.com! Today will be a bit different layout for the COTD. Traditionally, I pick one card that is one of a few things:
1. Known main attacker
2. Tech
3. Staple
4. Interesting for some other reason
However, today’s cards fit into the forth category. I was just going to review Gallade 4 LV.X, but since neither it nor its basic form is very well known, I decided that, in order to give you a true understanding of the card, I’d need to review them both. On to the review!
Let’s start with the basic form, Gallade 4. It has a kinda low 80 HP for a Pokemon SP, meaning it’s well in OHKO range for Garchomp C LV.X, the Psychic weakness is bad because of Gengar SF‘s popularity. Other Pokemon that will hit it for weakness are Mewtwo LV.X, Nidoqueen RR, Uxie LV.X and a few others. One little bonus is that it’s Psychic type, meaning it can hit Uxie LV.X for weakness. It has the usual, but still disappointing no resistance and an average one retreat cost. So far, we’re off to a bad, bad start. Let’s check out it’s attacks.
Gallade 4′s first attack, “Chop Up” for PC (Psychic and an Energy-Gain) will do a 20 damage plus 10 to each of your opponent’s Pokemon. It’s not a terrible attack, but it’s not going to win it’s place in many decks with that attack alone. Unfortunately, it’s second attack, “Feint” for PCC will do 50 damage with the slight bonus of ignoring resistance. It has a very flexible attack cost, being able to use a Psychic and Double Colorless Energy or a Psychic, Colorless and an E-Gain. Sadly, it won’t matter much as you’ll rarely be using this attack. Unlike Garchomp C LV.X, Gallade 4 LV.X’s basic form isn’t really that great.
Now, let’s get to it. Gallade 4 LV.X is a Basic LV.X Pokemon with 100 HP, which is a bit low when comparing it to other basic Lv.Xs, such as Luxray GL, Blaziken FB, Garchomp C and Dialga G. It has a x2 Psychic weakness which doesn’t get any better when it levels up. It has a Poke-Power, “Blade Storm” which lets you put one damage counter on each of your opponent’s Pokemon upon it’s arrival to the field. This is actually not a bad Poke-Power at all, helping you power up it’s attack, “Aimed Cut”, which does a minor 40 damage for the expensive price of PCC. Again, DCE and E-Gain can still be used here. However, regardless if you use one of those two cards or not, it will require two energy drops to power up. In addition, “Aimed Cut” will do 10 damage for each damage counter on the defending Pokemon.
These two cards were obviously intended to be played in a spread deck that puts damage on all of your opponent’s Pokemon so you can OHKO them with “Aimed Cut” and/or another attacker. However, there are a few flaws with that idea, and they are Nidoqueen RR, Garchomp C LV.X and Poke-Turn. Nidoqueen will keep removing damage until you don’t have the ammunition to keep spreading, most likely giving them the win, Garchomp C LV.X will heal all of their SP Pokemon and Poke-Turn will scoop up their mortally damaged Pokemon before you can get the KO.
Nidoqueen has died down in play quite a bit this rotation, but still sees a good chunk of play. However, Garchomp C and Poke-Turn are just as popular as ever, with some that would argue that Garchomp C is seeing more play than ever. Sure, you can Power Spray “Healing Breath”, but if you can’t, you’ll probably end up scooping. Also, Poke-Turn and Nidoqueen can’t be Sprayed, meaning that you’ll only be able to counter 1 of the 3 big counters to your deck most of the time.
If those three cards were gone, this deck would have a great shot at being a tier 2-3 deck. There may be some way, either with the cards out already or with some new cards to give Gallade 4 a fighting chance against these cards, but right now, I just don’t see it.
Rating 3/5 (Good card, but the meta is just really stacked against it)
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http://www.sixprizes.com/forums/showthread.php?1460-Card-of-the-Day-Request-Thread
