For today’s review, I decided to take a look at Empoleon from Majestic Dawn. This card was very popular back in 2008 along with Gardevior/Gallade and its partner, Bronzong MD. For starters, Empoleon has 130 HP and a +30 Lightning Weakness.

If playing Gyarados and Machamp becomes so uncommon that LuxChomp players drop Lucario GL from their lists, Empoleon will be a lot harder to be KOed by Luxray GL Lv.X. Also, with the expected rise of DialgaChomp to counter LostGar will inevitably cause (at the very least) a small reduction in LuxChomp players.

Water typing will help against a few more uncommon decks (e.g., Charizard and Donphan). Finally, the Retreat Cost of 2 is kinda high, but in a spread deck it isn’t as large of an issue (because you usually leave the spread attacker active until they die, so they do as much damage as possible).

While Empoleon lacks a Poke-Power or Poke-Body, it has two good attacks. Its first attack, “Dual Splash”, costs a mediocre WC (not amazing, not terrible) and does 30 damage to two of your opponent’s benched Pokemon. It’s actually a very decent spread attack hitting for a decent amount of damage and can use Call/Warp/Cyclone Energies.

“Surf Together”, since it costs WWC, will take three turns to power up without help from the outside world (aka Feraligatr Prime). While the base damage is 50, it does an additional 10 damage for each Pokemon on your bench. However, you must flip a coin as well. If the result is heads, “Surf Together” does 10 damage to each of your benched Pokemon.

While that last bit is unfortunate, you have the potential to hit for 100 damage, which is quite powerful. If you were to add in on an Expert Belt, you have a 150 HP Pokemon hitting for 120 damage. When I see this card, it reminds me of a fork in the road. You can choose to focus a deck on “Dual Splash” in a spread deck (EmpoZong 2.0?) or a heavy-hitting, tank like deck.

Since Seeker, Super Scoop Up and Garchomp C Lv.X are so popular in the format, a spread deck could be tricky.

My Recommendation: I think this card has a bit of untapped potential in this format, but I doubt it will ever be as prominent as it was in ’08 because of all this healing in the format.

My Rating: 3.25/5

Empoleon (Majestic Dawn MD 17) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Simple, Eevee is different. Most Pokemon that evolve have one predetermined Pokemon they evolve into and that’s that. Some can alter between two (like Politoed and Poliwrath). However, Eevee can evolve into seven different Pokemon (Flareon, Jolteon, Vaporeon, Umbreon, Espeon, Leafeon and Glaceon).

Today, I’ll be looking at Glaceon Lv.X, which was released in Majestic Dawn. To start off, Glaceon Lv.X is a Level Up of Glaceon, which is an Eeveelution. Being an Eeveelution does come with its benefits which include a number of playable Eevees, but also the support of Espeon and Umbreon MD if you choose to run them.

For a Stage 1 Level Up, 100 HP is quite low. Since it’s a Water type, you can hit Donphan and Charizard for Weakness. Now, Glaceon Lv.X also comes with the uncommon +30 Metal Weakness. To round it off, it has a very manageable Retreat Cost of C.

“Chilly Breath” is where this card shines. “As long as Glaceon is your active Pokemon, your opponent’s Pokemon can’t use any Poke-Powers.” Wow, that is good!

In Regigigas decks, they’re forced to run 3 Mesprit, four Super Scoop Ups, as well as a combination of Seekers and VS Seeker to keep their opponent’s Poke-Powers locked throughout the game. All Glaceon has to do is be active and bam, Poke-Powers are locked.

We’re certainly off to a great start with Chilly Breath, can “Avalanche” keep the stride going? Well, not really. For the high cost of WWC (while it can’t benefit from DCE, at least it has one C in its Energy Cost, meaning it can use Cyclone, Warp or Call Energy to power it up), the attack does a low 70 damage. In addition, you flip a coin. If it’s head, 20 damage to each of your opponent’s benched Pokemon.

Unfortunately, between having a low damage output, a high cost and a flip effect, Avalanche isn’t a very solid attack. But, then I began to think, just because a card isn’t a strong attacker, doesn’t mean it isn’t good (Claydol’s attack was terrible).

I had started to consider pairing up Glaceon with some sort of Hit-and-Run attacker such as Magnezone or Gliscor Lv.X. You attack with Magnezone/Gliscor/Whoever, then switch Glaceon active, locking all of their Poke-Powers.

Sadly, with a low 100 HP and +30 Metal Weakness, it is very likely it will be KOed and since it is a Stage 1 Level Up, it is almost impossible to have another one ready turn after turn. In addition, Dialga G Lv.X shuts off “Chilly Breath”. Any deck that tried to win with this strategy would have next to an auto-loss against DialgaChomp.

My Recommendation: It has an amazing Poke-Body, but the rest of the card just doesn’t keep up. I personally don’t think it’s good enough to be played. If you’re a really big Eeveelutions fanboy/girl insisting on playing Eevees every week at League and you don’t have Umbreon UD, this is your best bet.

My Rating: ~3/5

Note: “~” is a mathematical term that means roughly or about.

Glaceon Lv.X (Majestic Dawn MD 98) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Back on earth…

For your COTD, I will be reviewing Aerodactyl from the Majestic Dawn expansion. Aerodactyl MD has always been an interesting card. It can utilize the fossil engine quite effectively and is a Stage 1 Pokemon, allowing cards, such as Broken Time-Space, to be used alongside it. Its attack requires only a Double Colorless Energy, allowing a turn 1 Aerodactyl possible.

Aerodactyl MD’s Poke-Body, “Primal Claw”, states that after one of your opponent’s Pokemon uses a Poke-Power, you put 2 damage counters on that Pokemon. This means that you will be spreading damage all around the board as Poke-Powers are present in every deck, barring Scizor/Cherrim. The best part about this is that it is stackable, meaning that, if you have 4 Aerodactyl MD in play, the Pokemon using the Poke-Power will take 80 Damage.

I seem to remember 3 Pokemon that each have 70 HP and a Poke-Power: Uxie LA, Azelf LA, and Mesprit LA. Uxie and Azelf are present in nearly every single deck, with Mesprit being in 20% of decks. Each of these Pokemon has a Poke-Power that can be used when played from the hand. Should you have 4 Aerodactyl MD in play, if your opponent uses a “Set Up”, “Time Walk”, or “Psychic Bind”, it will put them behind on prizes.

However, it all goes downhill from there. 80 HP and a +20 weakness to Lightning puts you perfectly within KO range by Luxray GL Lv.X’s “Flash Impact”. 1 retreat cost is very reasonable for a Flying Pokemon made out of stone, and resistance to Fighting is okay. Aerodactyl MD’s attack for DCE does 30 damage and has a 50% chance of confusion.

Aerodactyl MD is a very interesting card. I don’t think that many competitive decks would use it but It would make a very fun rogue deck, maybe partnered with Garchomp C Lv.X to snipe the Pokemon without a Poke-Power.

My rating: 2.7/5

Card of the Day – Aerodactyl (Majestic Dawn MD 15) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Infernape comes with two attacks, “Mach Punch” (which sounds like it should be on Machamp, not Infernape) and “Mega Bravo”. “Mach Punch”, for the very reasonable cost of C, dishes out 30 damage and 10 to a Pokemon on your opponent’s bench. While this is actually pretty good value (40 damage for C), it just won’t cut it when much more powerful attackers are in the format.

“Mega Bravo”, for a single Fire Energy, allows you to discard as many Fire Energy attached to Infernape as you like. For each one you discard, this attack does 40 damage. First let me say that Infernape, like Magnezone Prime, has a very nice attack that, granted you have the proper Energy, can OHKO anything. However, the biggest problem with this attack will be providing a consistent Energy stream to Infernape.

Since Infernape is a Fire-type Pokemon that uses Fire Energy, you will have access to a number of helpful Fire-yype Pokemon, most notably Heatran Lv.X and Typhlosion Prime. Heatran Lv.X allows you to get back two of those Fire Energy you lost, which will allow you to shoot out a minimum of 80 damage each turn with Infernape.

Your other option is to use Tyhplosion Prime, which, at the cost of putting one damage counter on Infernape, will allow you to take a Fire Energy from your discard pile and attach it to Infernape. While this does give you the option to potentially get more than two Energy on to Infernape each turn, the damage will add up very quickly. Overall, Heatran Lv.X would be your best bet, but I don’t recommend either one as Infernape just isn’t a good enough attacker. If you’re going for something like this, go with Magnezone Prime.

My Rating 1.5/5

Infernape (Majestic Dawn MD 22) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Recover Energy has never been considered a good card, so I’ll give you a rundown: Recover Energy provides one Colorless Energy. This is okay as it allows most cards to utilize Recover Energy. However, if you are only using Recover Energy for the Colorless typing, then Call Energy, Warp Energy, Rescue Energy, and Double Colorless Energy outclass it rather easily. It is a Special Energy, meaning that cards like Machamp Prime and Scizor Prime have an advantage over Pokemon with Recover Energy attached.

Recover Energy has an effect that states that when you attach Recover Energy to one of your Pokemon, you may remove all special conditions from that Pokemon. This may not seem like much but I believe there are a few decks that could make good use of Recover Energy.

Leafeon UD received a good amount of hype when it was released because of its “Miasma Wind” attack. However, as soon people realized that you needed to have a full bench or drop an energy every turn to make Leafeon UD work. Skuntank G PL was then considered but quickly dropped as it poisoned Leafeon too.

With Recover Energy, however, Leafeon could use Skuntank G PL to poison both defending Pokemon and Recover Energy to remove the special condition.

While not the best tactic, I believe Recover Energy could be a good card, and I hope someone considers plopping it into their next build.

My Rating: 2/5

Card of the Day – Recover Energy (Majestic Dawn MD 96) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

The reason Call Energy is so good is that it allows you to search out Pokemon during the first turn of the game, when you are not allowed to play Trainers or Supporters. Normally you would want to play a card such as Roseanne’s Research to get your basic Pokemon out, but this is not possible if you “win” the coin flip. Getting your Pokemon out this first turn is of utmost importance because it gives you a chance to evolve or Level Up these Pokemon during your next turn.

If you were not able to get these Pokemon out during that first turn, you would have to play a Roseanne’s Research the next turn and then wait a whole other turn to evolve or Level Up. This basically puts you behind a whole turn, which can easily be the determining factor in whether you win or lose.

Its good to use Call Energy in conjunction with Roseanne’s Research, just to have more than one way to get your Pokemon in play. There also seems to be a real need at least at the moment to have these multiple sources of basic Pokemon fetching when you have tech cards such as Uxie LA and Unown G GE which you have to get into play much of the time.

Call Energy is also nice because of the simple fact that it is an Energy. You don’t have to really clear out space to fit it in; just play it as part of your grand total number of Energy.

Another nifty, yet sometimes overlooked feature of Call Energy is that you can use its effect even when you’re Paralyzed, Asleep, or Confused. I know that I have used this fact to my benefit many times in the past.

Again, I can’t stress enough how important it is to play at least 3, if not 4 (if you can fit it), of this Pokemon card in every deck. It helps with consistency, can help prevent turn 1 benching (think Machamp or Kingdra knocking out your lone Pokemon), and it’s an Energy too.

The only time you may not want to use Call Energy would be in something like turn 1 Kingdra or Machamp. In all other cases, especially Stage 2 set up decks, you need it. Even in Kingdra or Machamp I would still heavily consider using it.

I know this may be an obvious point to some people, but I still see people using decks without Call Energy, and I feel they are just making themselves more reliant on luck than they need to be.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your thoughts on the card, and I should have a new contest sometime next week (with Arceus cards as prizes!).

-Adam

Card of the Day – Call Energy is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Chatot can be considered as a really good starting Pokemon. With free retreat, resistant to fighting, and an attack to refresh your hand, Chatot makes do as a great starting Pokemon that can be worked into almost any deck.

With 60 HP and colorless, Chatot’s first attack can help you get out of sticky situations. For example, a bad start. Everyone has one every once in a while. Chatot can come in handy to rid you of that bad hand. Also, the ever popular Power Spray which could annoyingly stop that crucial Cosmic Power or Set Up could leave you with a small hand and unable to draw. Chatot’s attack gives you an opportunity to bypass those annoying power stopping cards. You could even Warp Point Chatot out to refresh your hand and either leave him there as a sacrifice to buy time or just free retreat him to the bench and send out a main attacker.

It’s second attack, Chatter, although most likely will never be used, can be fairly annoying. Chatter, for 2 energy, deals 20 damage and stops the defending Pokemon from retreating. This attack can be best used if your opponent has a bad start, for example, a Baltoy start. This adds stalling power and could potentially slow your opponent down.

A starter without retreat of course is really good. It’s attack is useful, but I believe that it is not very reliable. Personally, I would rather have something solid as a start rather than a card to refresh my hand to a bunch of random cards. Also, you cannot control how many cards your opponent has in their hand, so Chatot can end up pretty useless if your opponent has only 1 card in his/her hand…

Thoughts, comments, concerns? We’d like to hear it!

Chatot Majestic Dawn MD 55 – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.