Heatran Lv.X is a Level-Up for Heatran. It’s got quite a few options for basic Heatrans, and I can’t tell you which ones are better than the others. It all depends on how you want to run your Heatran Lv.X, and really, there isn’t a wrong choice for that.

Heatran Lv.X has a Poke-Body and a Poke-Power. I love these types of Lv.X. It just adds depth to a card that is already on the field. First off, its body, “Heat Metal”. Heat Metal intensifies the burn condition: It can no longer be removed by evolving, and whenever your opponent flips for burn damage, it’s tails. So you gain another 40 damage every time you burn a Pokemon that can’t switch out. I immediately think of combning Heatran Lv.X, Heatran AR, and Vileplume to make Viletran and burning everything forever, although it probably isn’t just that easy. It could also be used with Blaziken FB, although using a Lv.X to improve a tech is sort of silly.

Heatran Lv.X’s Poke-Power, “Heat Wave:, is much more practical. At the end of the turn, if Heatran is on your bench, you may take any two basic energies from your Fire or Metal typed Active Pokemon that you discarded that turn, and reattach two of them. It’s basically Typhlosion Prime, only it works solely for the active Pokemon, and works for two Energies with no damage. Even cards generally overlooked such as Typhlosion HGSS 32 can become powehouses with this effect in play. I’m actually surprised no one has used that combo yet… but I can understand why.

I waited till the end for the bad news. 120 HP isn’t bad, but a 4 retreat cost simply eliminates most possibilities of using this card. Unless coupled with Warp Point, Switch, Warp Energy, or some other device for switching, it’s simply not feasible to use Heatran Lv.X as a tech in any sort of deck. If it were Bright Looked, you might as well scoop. Combining it with Level MAX wouldn’t be good either, as the flippiness would always be against you.

However, I will contend that Heatran Lv.X could be played with the Heatran from AR and Vileplume, and perhaps Luxray GL Lv.X, as a deck of its own. Bright Look something active, burn it, and watch your opponent struggle to retreat.

I give Heatran Lv.X a 2/5. I contend that its basic forms are good enough to warrant it this rating, and despite all its shortcomings, it can still be a successful card when played correctly.

Heatran Lv.X (Stormfront SF 97) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Bibarel SF is a Stage 1 Water-type, with a meaty 100 HP. It’s got a +30 weakness to fighting, unusual for a water Pokemon, and no resistance. Too bad! And a 3 retreat cost! Laughable!

As it evolves from Bidoof, I’ll say that Bidoofs aren’t good and are very flippy, and that I’d probably use the one from Stormfront.

Let’s get to the good stuff. “Unaware”, its Poke-body,  prevents all effects of attacks except damage done to Bibarel. This may seem similar to Steelix Prime’s Poke-body, which prevents Special Conditions, but in reality, It’s much better. Bibarel is not affected by attacks that drag it out onto the field, prevent it from attacking, Special Conditions, or even the placement of damage counters. That’s pretty good!

Its first attack, “Amnesia”, costs two colorless (Double Colorless Energy anyone?) and deals 20 damage. Not great, but it also allows you to prevent the opponent from using one of their attacks next turn. So it goes from not great to… still not that great. Unfortunately, it’s too easy to switch and switch back.

And then we have “Surf”. Surf costs two water energy and deals 60 damage with no drawbacks. That may not sound fantastic, but if we think about it, that’s pretty good… If we give it an Expert Belt, it can hit as hard as Garchomp C Lv.X (without sniping ability, that is) and it’ll be 10 HP bulkier. Not bad! It also hits a few of the common decks for weakness, such as Donphan and Charizard.

Bibarel SF is an oddity: Very few Stage 1 Pokemon can hit as hard and as fast as Bibarel without any drawbacks. Its Poke-body makes it even more annoying, and 100 HP is enough to take punishment. 60 damage for 2W allows Bibarel to attack faster than a lot of decks can get set up. I’d go as far as to say that Bibarel could make a decent deck, if someone took the time out of their day to make a list. If Seviper CL can compete, this certainly can.

Perhaps the biggest advantage Bibarel has is that it’s simply frustrating to play against. It’s not cool-looking, it’s not Donphan, or Steelix, or Garchomp. It’s some silly little beaver-thing, and it hits like a bear. I’ll give it a 3/5, which is probably higher than a lot of the readers would rate it. What I say to them is to get a 4-4 line and take it to the tables, and it’ll probably earn you respect pretty quickly.

Bibarel (Stormfront SF 32) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Dusknoir Lv.X, as its name suggests, is a Level-Up of the Stage-2 Dusknoir. It’s got 140 HP. Awful bulky for a ghost. A x2 weakness to Dark isn’t anything to really be worried about, and a -20 resistance to colorless is a blessing. A retreat cost of 3 is high, but not too bad for a Lv.X, I guess…

As far as Dusknoirs go, Stormfront 17 is the one you’ll want to pair with this. It has an interesting Poke-body, but it isn’t the Card of the Day.

Dusknoir Lv.X has no attacks, so you’ll rely on the Dusknoir you leveled up from to hit with. But it does have a very unique Poke-power, “Ectoplasm”. When Dusknoir Lv.X is knocked out by damage from your opponent’s attack, Dusknoir Lv.X has the ability to enter play as a Stadium card. How cool is that??

So, when Dusknoir Lv.X enters play as a Stadium, your opponent still takes a prize card, and in-between turns, you put one damage counter on all your opponent’s Pokemon. That’s serious. Damage creep will hurt them a TON and opens opportunities for dozens of combos. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The problem here, folks, lies in Dusknoir Lv.X’s Poke-power. It’s a Poke-power. Even if you did get “Ectoplasm” to activate, it’s as simple as your opponent producing another Stadium to end its effect. Your opponent will inevitably be up one prize when you do this, too. It’s just the nature of the card. We’re not even counting in the difficulty of getting a Level Up of a Stage-2 Pokemon in play.

Dusknoir Lv.X gets a 5/5 for originality, but a 2/5 for playability. It’s simply too difficult to set up and too easy to counter. It’s a very interesting card, and has a lot of potential in different formats. But that’s not what is, unfortunately, and Dusknoir Lv.X will end up with the short end of the stick, becoming binder fodder despite being what should be a really cool card.

Dusknoir Lv.X (Stormfront SF 96) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

However, during Worlds 2009 all of this changed. A player from France not only used Gyarados at Worlds but also made it into the Top 16 (I think his result was 5th or 8th place, but I cannot recall for certain).

Enough with the introductions, let’s check out Gyarados SF!

Gyarados is a Stage 1 that evolves from Magikarp, so don’t expect to get any help from its lower evolutions. Being Water isn’t too bad as not much resists you, but you won’t be hitting anything other than Donphan and Charizard for Weakness either. A +30 Lightning Weakness stings because of Luxray GL and Magnezone, but the -20 Fighting Resistance certainly helps against Machamp. The three Retreat Cost is really disappointing, but is expected.

Gyarados has no three attacks, two of which do nothing to up Gyarados’s playability. “Dragon Beat”, for the gigantic WWCCC does 100 damage and provides a coin flip. If heads, you can discard an Energy attached to each of your opponent’s Pokemon. Ignoring the fact that it requires an obscene amount of Energy, 100 damage and mass-Energy removal can actually be useful.

Not only should it KO the opposing Pokemon, but it could potentially make a Revenge KO more difficult for your opponent. Unfortunately, the cost is just to high to make the attack useful. However, as a fun deck, you could combo Gyarados with Feraligatr Prime for accelerated Water Energy attachment.

“Wreak Havoc”, for WC, does 40 damage along with one of those “flip until you get tails” effects. In this case, for each heads you receive, you get to discard the top card of your opponent’s deck. The funny thing about these types of attacks it that, if you were to get 15+ heads in a row, they would be obscenely good for low damage. However, the luck factor just plays to large of a role in this attack.

“Tail Revenge” is where Gyarados really shines, it does 30 damage times the number of Magikarp you have in your Discard Pile for free(!) That’s right, you can do up to 90 damage for no Energy Requirements once so ever. Obviously, this is the attack that has kept Gyarados from being binder fodder and allowed it to see some serious competitive play.

The object of most Gyarados decks is to use Regice, Junk Arm or in some cases Volkner’s Philosophy to get three Magikarp into your Discard Pile as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, you get a Gyarados (preferable with an Expert Belt attached) swinging for 90 (110) damage each turn (for no Energy!). The use of Super Scoop Ups, Seekers + Warp Energies, Pokemon Rescue, Rescue Energy and Combee ensures that you always have a Gyarados ready to attack.

The biggest threat to Gyarados is, in my opinion, Gengar Prime. When Lost World is released in Call of Legends, LostGar is sure to be a very powerful force in the format. Unfortunately, with Gengar’s ability to send Magikarp’s to the Lost Zone (either by taking them from your hand or by KOing a Gyarados in play), Gyarados will have a very difficult time against it.

My Recommendation: Right now, it’s a great play. If LostGar becomes popular, you’ll almost be forced to run Dialga G Lv.X to make it more difficult for your opponent to “Lost Zone” your Magikarps (the only way they’ll be able to do so is by taking them from your hand via “Hurl into Darkness”.

My Rating: 4.5/5

Gyarados (Stormfront SF 19) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

So let’s take a look. Lumineon has some pretty below-average stats for this metagame, given that it’s a Stage 1 with only 80 HP (Can anyone say “Dragon Rush”?) and a Lightning weakness (just enough to score a “Flash Impact” OHKO). It’s got a Poke-Power, meaning it’s “Shadow Room” bait, so it’d better be worth it. No resistance, no retreat cost, yadda yadda — I’m sure you can see for yourself on that image to the right.

Lumineon SF has some pretty underpowered yet inexpensive attacks. For no energy, you can do a 20 snipe that isn’t affected by weakness or resistance, even on the active. Cheap, but you get your money’s (energy attachment’s) worth. Snipe isn’t bad, but, most of the time, 20 damage isn’t going to do anything game-changing.

The other attack, for one energy, does a decent thirty damage and allows you to flip a coin. If heads, your opponent can’t do anything to Lumineon. Problem is, if Lumineon gets forced to the bench, the effect ends, and you can just snipe around it. That, and it only works half the time you use it.

So obviously, we’re going to look at the Poke-Power. I’ll give you a moment to read what it does.

When I first read that text, the thing that came to mind was Dusknoir from Diamond & Pearl. (For those of you who aren’t in the know, if your opponent has four or more benched Pokemon, its Poke-Power lets you pick one and shuffle it back into the deck.) The idea is to send out Lumineon, drag a basic Pokemon active, have Dusknoir shuffle away something important, retreat Lumineon, and then either KO that weak basic or snipe around it. Great combo — I heard that it was its own deck back in the day.

Obviously, we don’t have Dusknoir anymore, so I thought, “What can Lumineon be used for?” It won’t work too well against VileGar and Gyarados, as they both usually have pretty full benches. You don’t want to use it against LuxChomp, given that they: a) keep basic Pokemon in their hand primarily because putting them down would do them no good, b) generally have a full bench, and c) would KO the Lumineon before you even finished saying the Poke-Power. (And even if you would get something good out of it, they’d Power Spray it.)

The answer lies in something very similar to Dusknoir: Palkia G Lv.X.

Now, bear with me: This is a wild, wild idea and I’m not even sure if it’ll work. But the one thing that could possibly save Lumineon from being “binder candy with strange effects” status is Lost World.

Basically, get Palkia G Lv.X out, keep your bench size to 3, fish out basics with Lumineon, and then “Lost Cyclone” your opponent’s Pokemon away until you get to six Pokemon in the Lost Zone and declare victory.

Additionally, you could use cards like Judge, Looker’s Investigation, and Spiritomb TM to keep your opponent’s hand fresh and full of Pokemon.

Obviously, your opponent can play around that pretty easily. But it’s an idea worth looking in to.

In short, it’s binder candy. You can try comboing it with Palkia G Lv.X and Lost World, but, for the most part, it won’t do you any good. And it dies too easily. It does have an interesting and unique Poke-Power, though.

1.5/5

Lumineon (Stormfront SF 4) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

If you play one, you get the simple effect of drawing one card. While its not a terrible effect, it would never see play over Pokedex Handy 910is. However, when you play two at a time, you may search your deck for ANY two cards you like and add them to your hand. Yes, you heard right, they don’t even have to be Pokemon. You can get that Rare Candy you need to get Machamp in play or that desperately needed Copycat for a new hand, etc. The possibilities with this card are endless.

However, there are a few downsides to this. First of all, you must have two at a time to get the effect, which means you’ll probably need to play the maximum four copies of this card. This means that you must devote four slots in your deck and have four times the liability against Trainer lock. However, despite these set backs, I still consider Poke Drawer + to be a great, unique tool for mid-speed decks to get what they need.

My Recommendation: Don’t play it in super fast decks like SP or slower ones like Steelix, but in decks that are somewhere in the middle. Also, I really suggest trying it in Charizard and Magnezone decks, where they each have a great engine to reliably get two of them when they’re needed. Also, Junk Arm works great with this card.

My Rating: 3.5/5 (Good card, just a little luck based.)

Help: If anyone knows why they changed Pokedex Handy 910 to 910is, I would love to know. In fact, the first person to send me an e-mail saying why they did this as well as explaining if they’re counted as the same name Unlimited will get to choose any card they would like for me to review and I promise I’ll do so within 7 days.

I’m at dstreck96@yahoo.com

-Dakota

Poke Drawer + (Stormfront SF 89) – Card of the Day is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Regigigas Lv.X is a non-SP basic Lv.X with a massive 150 HP (160 is a stage 2 Tyranitar Prime!), so it should survive a pretty good beating. It has a x2 fighting weakness, so watch out for double damage from Promocroak and Donphan Prime. I excluded Machamp since Regigigas Lv.X is a basic, so it’ll already be OHKOed by it regardless. The retreat cost of CCCC is massive, but expected seeing as it’s a “Regi” Pokemon.

Regigigas Lv.X offers benefit to its level down version in the form of a Poke-Power and an attack. It’s Poke-Power, “Sacrifice”, forces you to knock out one of your own Pokemon, which is a very steep price, so the reward needs to be pretty nice for this card to see play. When you “Sacrifice” one of your Pokemon, you remove 8 damage counters from Regigigas. In addition, you search your discard pile for up to 2 basic energy cards and attach them to it.

So, for the steep price, you get a pretty good reward (if you hadn’t, it wouldn’t have been able to be in a top 32 deck at Worlds this year). Now, let’s move on to the reason why you’d want those energy on it.

Regigigas Lv.X boasts the attack “Giga Blaster” which for the massive, difficult cost of WFMC, (W for Regice, F for Regirock, M for Registeel, C for Regigigas, in case you didn’t know), does a nice 100 damage and also provides some disruption by discarding the top card from your opponent’s deck and one random card from your opponent’s hand. Lastly, Regigigas cannot use “Giga Blaster” during your next turn.

Many players, some excellent and some not, have tried out a Regigigas Lv.X deck with a number of different partners, with the most common being Mesprit LA. The idea was to lock your opponent out of Poke-Powers as long as possible while to get Regigigas set up. Then, you go kick some butt with Regigigas Lv.X. The other popular partner was Abomasnow SF, which really helped the match, with one plus being a counter to Donphan as well as helping against the Machamp match.

Regigigas Lv.X’s biggest threat would obviously be Machamp SF, being able to OHKO Regigigas, making your entire investment useless with the second being Donphan as Donphan can do 120 to Regigigas Lv.X (or OHKO it with an Expert Belt). One other deck that it would probably have trouble with is VileTomb, due to Gengar SF’s “Fainting Spell”. One heads and your entire investment goes down the drain.

Overall, I think that Regigigas was better in the last format, where Gengar wasn’t as popular and it had Unown G to prevent a Machamp Auto-loss. I don’t think that Abomasnow will be able to fight these matches alone and Regigigas won’t be much help.

Rating 2.75 (The Meta is just too stacked against it, unfortunately.)

I want to know what cards YOU want reviewed. I posted a thread in the forums asking what cards You want reviewed. I’ll do pretty much any card that’s wanted, whether it be a situational tech, staple, new card, main attacker, trainer, supporter, energy, whatever! You can also post any other suggestions or ideas you have for the card of the day.

Link: http://www.sixprizes.com/forums/showthread.php?1460-Card-of-the-Day-Request-Thread

Card of the Day – Regigigas Lv.X (Stormfront SF 100) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Machamp Lv.X is a Stage 2 Lv.X, meaning it will take a few turns to get into play. It has a +40 Weakness to Psychic, so be careful of Uxie Lv.X and Gengar. It levels up from Machamp SF, aka the SP Killer, which is a good thing to have and already increases Machamp Lv.X’s playability a bit. Machamp Lv.X also has 150 HP, so you’d think it could take a few hits before going down, right? Not exactly…

Machamp’s Poke-Body, “No Guard” increases all damage Machamp does to the defending Pokemon by 60. However, the drawback is that it also takes 60 more damage from attacks.

This is a Poke-Body that, if used at the perfect time, can win you the game and if used at the wrong time could really hurt your shot of winning. It should basically be used if you are short damage for a KO. Its attack, “Strong Willed” tries to make for the shortcoming of it’s Poke-Body. Strong Willed, for FCC will do 20 damage (80 With Poke-Body) and if it’s knocked out by damage from an attack next turn, flip a coin. If heads, it’s HP is reduced to 10 instead.

Overall, it’s a pretty good Pokemon with a very useful Poke-Body that helps provide OHKOs but will probably be KOed in return.

Modified: 3.25/5

Card of the Day – Machamp Lv.X (Stormfront SF 98) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Since Gengar has been released, it was instantly a powerhouse card capable of great things.

It is a Stage 2 Pokemon with 110 HP. Nowadays, that’s pretty low for a Stage 2, especially considering that there are beasts like Tyranitar Prime in the format. Its Poke-Power “Fainting Spell” says that if it is knocked out by damage from an opponent’s attack, you may flip a coin. If heads, you kill the defending Pokemon. WOW! That is one killer (pun intended) Poke-Power. It shows its true value when facing Tanking decks like Torterra and Tyranitar. It doesn’t matter if they can heal 100 a turn, if you get heads, they’re down for the count.

It also has a nice -20 colorless resistance and a free retreat. Darkness Pokemon will do an extra 30 to Gengar, but it shouldn’t be too bad as Dark Pokemon aren’t much of a problem because there’s a 50% chance that you’ll be taking them down with you.

Let’s move on to attacks. It’s first one is called “Shadow Room” which allows you to place 3 damage counters on one of your opponent’s Pokemon. However, if that Pokemon has a Poke-Power, place 6 damage counters instead. This is a pretty good attack. If you add in 1-2 Crobat G, you can OHKO Uxie, Azelf, Mesprit, Sunflora, etc.

Over the rotation, this card has both gained and lost power. It lost power because one of the most common cards that Gengar would snipe, Claydol GE, is out of the format. It gained power because Unown G, the card that can protect an opponent’s Pokemon is out of the format as well.

Its second attack “Poltergeist” for PC does 30 damage times the number of Supporters, Trainers, and Stadiums in your opponent’s hand. This attack works amazingly well with Vileplume UD, which stops your opponent’s trainers, meaning that you’ll typically be doing a minimum of 90 damage per attack. Sometimes this number can reach as high as 150-180!

Modified Rating: 4.75/5 (If it had 130 HP, it’d be a perfect score.)

Card of the Day – Gengar (Stormfront SF 18) is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.

Drifblim SF has always been one of my favorite cards. It has a decent amount of  HP, no retreat cost and has 2 really useful moves that require no energy to use. I honestly believe that it has the potential to be used competitively if people only gave it a chance. It has 3 Attacks which are “Delivery”,  ”Lifting” and “Ominous Wind.”

The Good

“Delivery” allows the player to take any 1 card from their discard pile and put it into their hand and requires no Energy to use. This is a pretty good attack as it can work well if you have a Luxury Ball in the discard pile, you can just put it into your hand then use it again to set up the Pokemon on your bench the next turn. You can also bring back other important cards such as Bebe’s Search, Roseanne’s Research, Rare Candy,  Energy cards both Special and Basic and ANY Pokemon in your discard pile. ”Lifting” allows the player to search their decks for up to 2 Basic Pokemon and put them on their bench . Also it allows you to find an energy for each Pokemon you chose. This can be really useful if you have a deck with different types of Pokemon or if you want to get Unown G, Baltoy GE or other important basics out such as your Pokemon G /FB/ 4/ SP/GL and give them an energy. No retreat cost on Driftblim SF allows you to easily switch it out with a Pokemon you set up in the previous turn or have already set up.

If you want to power up Drifblim SF and guarantee at least two uses of either move, give it the card that appears to be rising in popularity: the Expert Belt from the Arceus series. Expert Belt will increase it’s HP to 110 and give it’s moves an extra 20 damage. Expert Belt gives “Ominous Wind” the power to OHKO or heavily Damage many Psychic Lv.X Pokemon such as Mewtwo Lv.X and Cresselia Lv.X  as well as many Psychic and Fighting FB/SP/4/Gl/G pokemon. Expert Belt also allows you to  do 20 damage your opponent’s Pokemon while applying the effects of the attacks “Lifting” and “Delivery” for no energy at all.

The Bad

Drifblim SF can be extremely slow to set up being a stage one evolution and it’s setting up capabilities are slow. You’ll only have at least 1 good chance to use 1 of it’s attacks.  That being said these are also attacks we are talking about. Once you one  your turn ends. It’s not a Poke-Power or a Poke-Body so you must be very careful and consider the consequences before you use any of it’s attacks and if it has an Expert Belt is it really worth the 2 prize cards you risk if your opponent knocks it out? You decide. 

Do you think that Drifblim SF is worth using competitively in a deck because of it’s many uses or just be considered useless and unable to compete in the Competitive TCG world?

Free Delivery and Shipping: A look at Drifblim SF is an article featured on SixPrizes - Pokemon TCG Tips and Strategy.