Friday, April 30, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Kingdra Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Kingdra Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. This set actually doesn't come out until May 12, 2010 but I was requested to do this review so I thought I would since I found a scan of the card already. If you still don't know exactly what Prime Pokemon are you can click here to find out more information about them. Kingdra Prime for being a stage 2 Pokemon has a pretty decent hp of 130. A x2 weakness to electric type Pokemon is much better than a x2 weakness to grass types since electric types are much less prevalent. A resistance could have made Kingdra's 130 hp that much better but 130 hp is still really good. And a low 1 colorless energy retreat cost allows you to easily retreat Kingdra Prime if it starts to get in trouble. Kingdra's Poke-Power Spray Splash allows you to put one damage counter on one of your opponent's Pokemon every turn as long as Kingdra isn't affected by a special condition. So if you get Kingdra onto your bench right away it can wreak havoc on your opponent's benched Pokemon, especially their basic Pokemon. Kingdra Prime's only move is called Dragon Steam and for only 1 water energy does 60 hp damage unless your opponent has any fire Pokemon in play than its base damage is only 20. But still even if you are battling a fire Pokemon and use Dragon Steam more than likely your opponent's Pokemon, if it is powerful at all will have a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, so Dragon Steam will do 40 hp damage for 1 energy which is still really good. As far as strategy goes, like I was saying I would get Kingdra onto your bench as soon as possible so that you can use Spray Splash as soon and as often as possible. I really wouldn't play Kingdra as your active Pokemon if your opponent has any fire Pokemon just because a 20 hp difference in a move makes a lot of difference, especially after 2 moves, because 120 hp damage will knock out pretty much all basic and stage 1 Pokemon, whereas 80 hp damage after 2 turns with a fire type Pokemon in play will knock out most basic Pokemon and a few stage 1 Pokemon. But even if you are forced to play this card since it is your last Pokemon you have on your bench, this card will be able to do a considerate amount of damage and last quite awhile with 130 hp. I am very excited to start opening some Unleashed packs when they come out in about 2 weeks, and once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Staraptor FB Lv. X.

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gyarados (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gyarados from the Stormfront set. This card has an amazing 130 hp for a stage 1 Pokemon card, but it should be extra powerful considering how bad most Magikarp cards are, you need something to look forward to by having Magikarp in your deck. A +30 weakness to electric type Pokemon is actually good instead of a x2 weakness or any kind of weakness to grass Pokemon since grass Pokemon are much more prevalent and usually more powerful. A -20 hp resistance to fighting Pokemon is nice and can make Gyarados last that much longer since it already has a high 130 hp. The only bad thing about this card is that it has a very high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards, so if you are going to play this card, you are more than likely going to play it until it feints unless you want to lose a lot of energy cards by retreating it. But I guess it makes sense that Gyarados would have a high energy cost since its most powerful move takes 5 energy cards and you aren't supposed to be able to retreat Gyarados and then put it back in right away and then use its most powerful move within 1 turn. Gyarados doesn't have any Poke-Body or Poke-Power but it does have 3 moves. The first move, called Tail Revenge, doesn't take any energy cards and does 30x damage for each Magikarp you have in your discard pile. So you most likely won't be able to use this move, if you are good, but if you have more than 1 Gyarados in your deck then this will be able to do at least 30 damage the second time you use Gyarados. Gyarados's second move is called Wreak Havoc and does 40 hp damage for 2 energy cards, 1 colorless, 1 water. Not only does this do 40 hp damage but you can flip a coin and discard the top card of your opponent's deck for each heads you get until you flip a coin. Gyarados's third and most powerful move is called Dragon Beat and does 100 hp damage for a very costly 5 energy cards, 3 colorless and 2 water. Not only does this do major damage, but you also flip a coin and if you get heads you get to discard 1 energy attached to each of your opponent's Pokemon. As far as strategy goes, I would stock up Gyarados with energy cards before I put it has my active Pokemon then I would use Dragon Beat every turn if I had the necessary energy. Another way I would use Gyarados would be to only have the one Gyarados in your deck and save it until the very end of the game when your opponent has few cards in their deck and then use Wreak Havoc to make your opponent lose the game by running out of cards in their deck. I really like this card because it can not only do a lot of hp damage to your opponent but also its two main moves both do other things that benefit Gyarados besides doing damage. So I would definitely consider this card when building a water deck and once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Kingdra Prime from the new Unleashed set.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Uxie Lv. X (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Uxie Lv. X from the Legends Awakened set. If you want more information on Lv. X Pokemon click here. For a stage 1 Pokemon card, 90 hp is really average, I thought for a Lv. X card it should have been at least 10 hp higher. A x2 weakness to Psychic Pokemon could be killer especially with a low hp like Uxie had. I wish it would have had a resistance type so it could last a little longer but it doesn't. At least it does have a low retreat cost of 1 colorless energy card. Uxie's Poke-Power Trade Off is the main reason I would use this card, it allows you every turn to look at the top 2 cards of your deck choose one of them and put it into your hand, and put the other one on the bottom of your deck. Just make sure when you use this Poke-Power that you don't use it too much and run out of cards in your deck too soon. I would suggest using this Poke-Power in a deck that you know you can win the game quickly so you can get an extra card from your deck every turn. Uxie's only move Zen Blade is actually a pretty good move, for only 2 colorless energy cards, it allows you to do 60 hp, the only downside is that you can't use Zen Garden the next turn you'll have to use on of the Basic Uxie's moves. As far as strategy goes I would definitely include Uxie Lv. X in just about every deck I made if I want to get as many cards as possible as soon as possible, so if I had Pokemon that needed a lot of energy cards to do attacks Trade Off would be a very good way of getting energy cards quickly, since you would be able to get 2 cards from your deck every turn and then use a supporter or trainer card to get even more energy cards from your deck. I like how Zen Garden needs only colorless energy so you can put Uxie into any type deck, but if you want to attack with Uxie every turn you should put it in a Psychic deck. And if you have Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit Lv. X all in your deck then you can't utilize Mesprit's move that does 200 hp at once. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Gyarados from Stormfront.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Darkrai Lv. X (Great Encounters)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Darkrai Lv. X from the Great Encounters set. For more information on Lv. X Pokemon click here. Darkrai Lv. X is a stage 1 Pokemon card and has a little above average hp for one with 100 hp. A x2 weakness is pretty bad for not too high of an hp but at least the weakness is to fighting type Pokemon which aren't too prevalent. A -20 resistance to Psychic Pokemon can help Darkrai last longer since Psychic Pokemon are pretty popular. And I also like that Darkrai has a small energy cost of only 1 colorless energy card so you can retreat it pretty easily. Darkrai's Poke-Body Dark Shadow is amazing, it increases the damage done by any of your dark type Pokemon by 10 hp for each darkness energy card you have attached to that Pokemon. Darkrai's only move Endless Darkness is really powerful it does base damage of 40 hp for only 3 energy cards, 2 darkness, and 1 colorless. It also makes the defending Pokemon asleep and makes them flip two coins to wake up from their sleep, and if either of them is tails the Pokemon is still asleep and if both are tails the defending Pokemon is knocked out. As far as strategy goes this card would be the card I construct my deck around because it is so powerful. I would try to attach 3 darkness energy cards to Darkrai so that when I use Endless Darkness it will be 70 damage instead of the 40 hp damage since I will be using Darkrai's Poke-Body when I perform this move. If I wanted to be really strategic then I would include in my deck some dark type Pokemon that has a really strong move that can do damage to your opponent's benched Pokemon and low or no retreat cost so I could play Darkrai Lv. X and make the defending Pokemon asleep then retreat Darkrai for only one energy card and then move in the strong Pokemon and then attack the bench. Because more than likely at least 1 or 2 turns in a row your opponent's active Pokemon will be asleep and if it does happen to wake up you can just attack it with your Powerful Pokemon. So thanks for reading my card review of Darkrai Lv. X and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Uxie Lv. X from Legends Awakened.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Banette ex (EX Legend Maker)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Banette Lv. X from the EX Legend Maker set. This is an ex card so if this card is knocked out your opponent gets to take 2 prize cards. With that being said this is a stage 1 Pokemon card so it only has an hp of 90 which won't take long to get knocked out. A x2 weakness to Dark Pokemon won't be any problem because there aren't very many dark Pokemon out there. A -30 hp resistance to fighting Pokemon is really good, especially since Banette has a low hp. Also a 1 colorless energy card retreat cost is nice so you can retreat it pretty easily so you don't get knocked out. Now on to Banette's Poke-Power which is called Shady Move and as long as Banette is your active Pokemon it allows you to move 1 damage counter from one of your Pokemon or your opponent's Pokemon and move it to one of either yours or your opponent's Pokemon depending on which side you take it from to begin with. This can either help you if you are close to dying a 10 hp reduction will allow you to stay alive for one more turn, all you have to do is move 10 hp to one of your high hp Pokemon, or you can move 10 hp to one of your opponent's Pokemon so you can knock it out with the Poke-Power or knock it out the next turn. Banette's only move is called Shadow Chant and does 30+ hp damage for only two energy cards, 1 Psychic, 1 colorless. It does 30 damage plus 10 more damage for each supporter card you have in your discard pile up to 60 total hp. As far as strategy goes I would try and wait as long as possible to put Banette ex in so you can utilize its Poke-Power better, if you include Pokemon in your deck which do spread damage then you use Shady Move to try and knock out the bench Pokemon. And waiting to use Banette makes Shadow Chant more powerful since you'll more than likely have more supporter cards in your discard pile. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Darkrai Lv. X from Great Encounters.

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Arceus Lv. X (Arceus)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Arceus Lv. X from the Arceus set. This Lv. X card is also the same card you get if you buy the Lv. X Arceus tin, but the artwork is just different and it says it is a promo on the bottom right of the card. This Lv. X has a hp of 120 which is pretty good for a stage 1 Lv. X card. It doesn't have any weakness or resistance which makes its 120 hp that much better if there is no Pokemon type that can do x2 damage to it. And Arceus also only has a retreat cost of only 1 colorless energy so you can retreat it quite easily. This Arceus Lv. X card doesn't have any moves, so you'll have to rely on the card you evolved it from to do moves from, but this card does have two Poke-Bodies. The first Poke-Body is called Multitype and is the same Poke-Body present on all the other Arceus Lv. X variations. It makes this card the same type as the card you evolved it from. This works well especially if your opponent is weak to the type of Pokemon the regular Arceus card is and then you evolve it into Arceus Lv. X and instead of switching then to a colorless type Pokemon you can make it whatever the type was before so your opponent will still be weak to your Pokemon. Its second Poke-Body is called Omniscient and allows Arceus Lv. X to use any of the moves from all your Arceus cards you have in play. But by allowing this it means that you have to have in your deck lots of different types of energy cards or as many possible of special energy cards like multi-energy and rainbow energy. The way I would use this card is to put it in an all Arceus deck and include 4 each of as many special energy cards as I could find so that I could use all kinds of different moves against my opponent. I don't think I would use this card at all if I didn't have at least 1 or 2 more Arceus cards in my deck, because if this was the only Arceus card in your deck you wouldn't be able to utilize Omniscient very well at all. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Banette ex.

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Garchomp (Supreme Victors)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Garchomp from the Supreme Victors set. First off I would like to say this card has a lot of potential especially with 130 hp and no retreat cost. And this card doesn't even have a x2 weakness to normal type Pokemon but only a +30 weakness. Garchomp also has no resistance. This card has a Poke-Body and then two excellent moves. Garchomp's Poke-Body Dragon Intimidation can only be used when Garchomp is your active Pokemon, if any Pokemon does damage to Garchomp, no matter if it knocks it out or not, you can choose an energy card attached to the defending Pokemon and return it to their hand. This Poke-Body allows for you to make your opponent do one of two things: The first thing your opponent might do is not attack you one turn so it can add an energy to do a more powerful move the next turn. The other option your opponent can do without using supporter/trainer cards is just attack with a weak move and then never be able to get more energy cards attached to it then just the one you put back in their hand the next turn. So it will prevent them from using more powerful attacks or make them wait to play their powerful attacks. Garchomp has two moves, the first move Guard Claw does 40 hp damage for 2 colorless energy cards, and once you perform Guard Claw the next turn any damage done to Garchomp by your opponent is reduced by 20 hp, so in effect this can act like Garchomp's resistance. Garchomp's second move Speed Impact takes three colorless energy cards and does 120 hp damage minus 20 hp for each energy card attached to your opponent's active Pokemon, so the faster you can get Garchomp out the more effective this move will be for you. As far as strategy goes, I would try and get Garchomp to be my active Pokemon as soon as possible so I could limit the number of energy cards attached to the defending Pokemon, if I get Garchomp out there when the defending Pokemon has no energy cards attached to it, the most energy they can attach to it, more than likely, will be 1 since they'll have to put the energy card back into their hand every time if they attack, since I will use Garchomp's Poke-Body. And if your opponent waits two or three turns to before it attacks it should be knocked out by Speed Impact, since it will do 120 damage on the first turn, and 100 damage on the second turn, and there are no Pokemon out there will higher than 220 hp. The only time I would use Guard Claw is if I was close to feinting and the -20 hp the move does will help me stay alive for more than one turn. So overall I highly recommend this card and would use it in just about any deck I would make. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Arceus Lv. X. Any suggestions on which one?

Friday, April 23, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Floatzel GL Lv. X (Rising Rivals)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Floatzel GL Lv. X, if you are wondering what GL means click here to find out. This is basically a stage 1 Pokemon since it evolves from a basic Pokemon so 100 hp is pretty good but the Shaymin I reviewed yesterday has 110 hp so this card definitely could be better. A x2 Weakness to electric Pokemon means that Floatzel can get knocked out pretty quick by a powerful electric type Pokemon but good thing it has a zero energy retreat cost so you can move it to your bench any time you want. Floatzel also doesn't have a resistance which would have been nice since this card doesn't have a very high hp for a level x. Now onto Floatzel's Poke-Body Water Rescue, this allows you to "rescue" any Water Pokemon that is knocked out by your opponent, by rescue I mean that instead of putting it in your discard pile you can put it back into your hand. Your opponent still gets to take a prize card but this Poke-Body is beneficial in two ways: It allows for one of your powerful Pokemon who is knocked out to be used again essentially right away. And it allows for you to be a little more dangerous with your Pokemon if you can just use them again in a few turns. Floatzel's only move Energy Cyclone does 20x damage for two water energy cards. However many energy cards you have in your hand and show to your opponent is the number of x20 damage you can inflict. This move can be powerful in one sense since you can have a lot of trainers and supporters that allow you to get a lot of energy cards into your hand but at the same time you can't add any other energy cards to any other Pokemon on your bench without losing some power of Energy Cyclone. My strategy for this card would be to really stack up your hand with energy cards and then only use Floatzel when you have at least 5 cards in your hand that are energy cards. I know this seems like a lot but you can use the regular Floatzel card in this set to do 5o hp damage every other turn. I would definitely keep this card on my bench if I had it in a water deck the whole time, since it keeps all your important cards that you used right away in your deck and allows you to use them again. This card can inflict a lot of damage with Energy Cyclone but it will take time to develop and if Floatzel is knocked out a lot of energy cards will be wasted. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Garchomp from Supreme Victors.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Shaymin Land Form Lv. X (Platinum)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Shaymin Land Form Lv. X, there are two Shaymin Level Xs from the Platinum set but I chose to review this one because I really like its Poke-Body. Starting things off Shaymin has 100 hp which isn't bad for a Stage 1 Lv. X card. A x2 weakness to fire Pokemon is really going to hurt Shaymin since 100 hp isn't that high overall and there are a lot of fire Pokemon out there ready to do x2 damage to this card. A -20 resistance to Water Pokemon is nice to have because Water Pokemon are the second most common type used and a 1 colorless energy retreat cost is good because you can easily retreat Shaymin and just use its Poke-Body the rest of the game. Wow, the more I look at this card the more I fall in love with it. First off Shaymin's Poke-Body Thankfullness provides every other grass Pokemon of yours in play with 40 additional hp, but this is excluding Shaymin. I would definitely want to have this card in any grass type deck I would ever make because 40 hp is a huge difference and most grass Pokemon already have high hp's so by adding 40 more to that they will become unstoppable and be able to last really long. Shaymin's only move Seed Flare is also really good, for 3 energy cards, 2 colorless and 1 grass, it does 40 hp damage plus 20 more damage for each energy card you move from your hand to one of your active Pokemon. So if you have even one grass energy card in your hand you will be able to do 60 damage for only 3 energy which is right about average. So as far as strategy goes, I would definitely keep Shaymin on your bench the whole game, I would try and use Seed Flare towards the beginning of the game so that you can stack up energy cards on your bench Pokemon and at the same time do some massive damage to your opponent's Pokemon, once I get enough energy cards on my other grass Pokemon I would retreat Shaymin Lv. X for the rest of the game and just use its Poke-Body so all your other grass Pokemon can have more hp and last longer. So I would definitely include this card in an all grass deck and I would try and find 1 or 2 other really powerful attackers to include in your grass deck so you can load them up with energy cards really fast by using Shaymin's move and then switch to one of those Pokemon and sit back and watch your opponent get all their Pokemon wiped out one after the other. So thanks for reading my Shaymin review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Floatzel GL Lv. X.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Machamp Lv. X (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Machamp Lv. X from the Stormfront set. It has 150 hp which is really good until you look at its Poke-Body which won't make it as good but is definitely a huge benefit to its Poke-Body. A +40 hp weakness to Psychic Pokemon is good, since I thought it would have been a x2 weakness, Machamp doesn't have any resistance and has a high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards. So if you end up retreating Machamp it will take quite awhile to build Machamp Lv. X back up again. Machamp's Poke-Body is really interesting...it is called No Guard and as long as Machamp Lv. X is your active Pokemon it increases all of Machamp's moves done to your opponent's active Pokemon by 60 hp but it also does the same against Machamp so all attacks done by Machamp are increased by 60 hp. It is just a good thing Machamp has more hp than most Pokemon with 150 hp. Machamp's only move on this card is called Strong-Willed and it does only 20 hp damage to your opponent's active Pokemon for 3 energy cards, 1 fighting and 2 colorless, but it also allows you to flip a coin if you are knocked out the following turn and if the coin is heads you aren't knocked out but have 10 hp remaining on you. As far as strategy goes, since all moves are increased by 60 hp, I would use the moves on the Machamp rare card from Stormfront, on that card you can do a move that does 40 hp damage for 1 fighting energy. And if the Pokemon you attack with this move isn't evolved it will knock it out. So basically with Machamp Lv. X's Poke-Body you can do 100 hp damage every turn for only 1 fighting energy. That has to be about the best move in the entire TCG game. As far as using the move on the Lv. X card I would only use it if you think you're going to be knocked out the next turn since you can prevent that with Strong-Willed and it does do a respectable 80 hp damage for 3 energy cards when you use Machamp's Poke-Body. So overall this card is very powerful and can knock out everything really fast, it just is a matter of how long you can keep this card in play, make sure you have some trainers/supporters that can remove damage from Machamp Lv. X and you should be fine. So once again, thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Shaymin Land Forme Lv. X.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Lucario Lv. X (Mysterious Treasures)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Lucario Lv. X from the Mysterious Treasures set, I actually use this card in one of my decks that I posted on YouTube, click here for that video. The main reason I use this card in my deck is for the Poke-Power and that it has 20 more hp than the Legends Awakened card I use. But I just use all the moves off of there unless I need to use a move that does 80 hp damage. So to get things started for this review if you want to know what a Lv. X card is you can click here. This Lucario has 110 hp which really isn't too much but Lucario is only a stage 1 Pokemon normally so this is pretty decent for that kind of Pokemon. A x2 weakness to Psychic Pokemon can be deadly since they are very popular in the trading card game and Lucario doesn't have too much hp to begin with. It would have helped for Lucario to have a resistance type but it doesn't, and at least you can retreat Lucario Lv. X for only 1 colorless energy in case it gets in trouble. Lucario's Poke-Power is the main reason I use this card, its Poke-Power called Stance says that once you play Lucario Lv. X from your hand to your Lucario in play all effects of an attack including damage are prevented. Lucario's only move is Close Combat and it does 80 hp for only 3 energy cards, 2 fighting and 1 colorless, but the next turn damage done to Lucario is increased by 30 hp. So I would be aware of using this move especially if you aren't close to being knocked out, because if you are close to being knocked out it won't matter if your opponent can do any more damage to you or not. As far as strategy is concerned with this card, I would keep my regular Lucario card in as long as possible since if you use the Legends Awakened one it can hold its own for quite awhile and once you get into trouble I would bring in Lucario Lv. X and then use Close Combat so you can at least knock out 1 Pokemon before you feint yourself. This card definitely wouldn't be the main card in my deck, in my deck I used Armaldo from Legends Awakened as my main card and then used Lucario and Hitmonlee as my other two Pokemon. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Machamp Lv. X from Stormfront.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Salamence ex (EX Deoxys)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Salamence ex out of the EX Deoxys set. For more information on ex Pokemon click here. Salamence ex has a monstrous hp of 160 which is way more than any other ex card in this set. A x2 weakness is expected from a powerful normal type Pokemon like this one and what is really nice about this card is that it has 2 resistance types both of -30 hp to fire and fighting type Pokemon which are really prevalent throughout the trading card game. Also a 2 colorless energy retreat cost is pretty cheap for a powerful stage 2 Pokemon like this one and good thing it doesn't take up too much energy since you'll want to retreat it if you are getting close to feinting since ex cards let your opponent take 2 prize cards once they are knocked out, but feinting shouldn't be too much of a problem with this card because of its high hp and a two type resistance. Salamence's Poke-Body Dragon Lift is reason enough to include this card in your deck, you can just leave it on your bench the whole game and let all your other Pokemon have free retreat costs as long as they're not ex Pokemon or baby Pokemon. So getting into the strategy already, I would try and get Salamence onto the bench as soon as possible so then if you have some other powerful cards in your deck, especially if you have a fire and water type deck since those are the two energy types Salamence needs to execute its moves you can rotate between Pokemon frequently to better dominate your opponent's Pokemon. Salamence ex has two fairly decent moves the first is called Flame Jet and for two energy cards, 1 colorless and 1 fire, it does 40 hp damage to any of your opponent's Pokemon you choose and isn't affected by weakness or resistance, so two turns with this move and you can knock out most basic Pokemon on your opponent's bench. Salamence ex's second move Bright Flame is a powerful and a costly one, not only does it take 4 energy cards to execute, 1 fire, 1 water, and 2 colorless, you need to discard two energy cards ever time you do the move, so unless you have some Poke-Power or something in play that allows you to move energy from one Pokemon to another you can only use this move every 2 turns, but nonetheless it does 120 hp damage, which will knock just about any Pokemon out in 1 move and every Pokemon out in two moves. As far as which moves I would use, I would use Flame Jet if Salamence was my active Pokemon and I didn't have 4 energy cards on it yet, but I would attack a weaker bench Pokemon of my opponents hoping that I could knock it out in two turns, then once I get 4 energy cards on Salamence ex I would use Bright Flame and if the active Pokemon is finished off by 120 damage I would use Flame Jet the next turn to knock it out. As far as trainers or supporters go I would probably want to have some that let you retrieve energy cards from the discard pile if you plan on using Salamence for your main Pokemon, I wouldn't worry about potions or anything like that because 160 hp with 2 resistance types will be able to endure quite a lot of damage and last for many turns. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Lucario Lv. X from Mysterious Treasures.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gengar (Diamond and Pearl)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gengar which is a rare non-holo from the Diamond and Pearl set. It is has an hp of 110 which isn't bad for a stage 2 psychic Pokemon. A +30 weakness to dark Pokemon won't do too much, personally I thought it would have been a x2 weakness but a +30 weakness to Dark Pokemon is good because they aren't very prevalent. A -20 resistance to normal type Pokemon is also really good because normal type Pokemon are a staple in about every deck out there. Also a 1 colorless energy retreat cost is good, but you probably won't ever need to use it when you can just use Shadow Dance to do damage and retreat and the same time. The first of Gengar's moves is super powerful, for only one Psychic energy, Life Drain, allows you to put damage counters on the defending Pokemon until it is 10 hp away from feinting, so if you have a Pokemon that has 200 hp you can do 190 hp in one turn with one Psychic energy card, the only thing that is a downfall to this card is that you have to flip a coin to see if you can use this move at all, if you get heads you can if you get tails you can't, so you have a 50% chance of doing 190 hp damage, I would take that chance any day. Gengar's second move is called Shadow Dance which takes 3 energy, 2 Psychic and 1 colorless, and does 40 hp damage in any way you like to your opponent's Pokemon, but you almost must switch Gengar with one of your benched Pokemon, so you can use Life Drain first and then finish the Pokemon off with Shadow Dance and then retreat and let another Pokemon do some damage. The way I would use this card would be to get it out as your active Pokemon as soon as possible and then use Life Drain to get it 10 hp away from dying, then I would use Shadow Dance the next turn to knock the Pokemon out, then when I have to switch Pokemon, I would either have a Pokemon on my bench that has a free retreat cost so I could put Gengar right back in there, or have a powerful Pokemon already built up on my bench so I could start dominating with that. All in all, this Gengar can cause a lot of havoc and do damage quick for only one energy, it is definitely a card to keep in my when you are looking at Psychic decks and you could also use this card with Gengar Lv. X, which I reviewed here. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Salamence ex from EX Deoxys.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

It's a pretty nice day today outside here in Minnesota, I'm just relaxing and on the Internet and listening to the radio station KDWB, they play mostly hit music. I haven't done much today at all I finished up my economic development homework, I was going to start studying for my Microeconomics test but I'll wait until tomorrow to study for that. I was watching the NBA playoffs earlier today, I watched the Bulls vs. Cavaliers game, which was a lot closer than I thought it was going to be, my roommate here in college is a Bulls fan since he is from Chicago so he was pretty upset the Bulls lost even though he knew they would. Other than that I've been answering comments and messages on YouTube and Facebook most of the day, I guess I slept in until 11 this morning so I haven't been up too long today. I'm glad I don't get too many channels on my TV in my dorm room otherwise I would be watching that all day especially with the NBA playoffs starting and the Minnesota Twins playing almost everyday. Hopefully I will be able to bring my car up to school next year then I probably will go watch some Timberwolves games up in Minneapolis since it won't be too far away from college. On facebook today I had some new suggestions for cards of the day, so I will be doing Machamp Lv. X and Shaymin Sky Forme Lv. X later this week, so make sure if you want me to review some cards tell me in the comments of this post, I only do what you all request. I have had a lot of trade requests lately on YouTube but I won't be able to trade or anything until the summer because I am at college until May 26th and all my Pokemon cards are at home. That is the main reason I can't do give aways and trades so much on YouTube because I am never at home, I usually make a lot of videos at once and then post them once a week while I'm at school. This is completely random but I bought a Pibb Xtra today out of the vending machine and I got 2 for the price of one so I was pretty happy about that, I then always go to mycokerewards.com and put in my codes there so I can get the points and try to win stuff there, I play this instant win game there that takes 3 points and you play a slot machine to see if you can win a $15 gift card to Best Buy. I don't know what I would buy if I won that though, maybe Pokemon Heart Gold/Soul Silver but I would never have enough time to play one of those games, maybe I would buy something for my car there, but I already have a sound system in my car so I don't know what else best buy would have. I was thinking when I get home that I would post a video on youtube of my car and car system what would you think of that? Would you guys be interested in seeing that or do you just want me to only open Pokemon cards and that's it? I guess I don't have much else to say, so this is PrimetimePokemon and I'm out.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Giratina Lv. X (Platinum)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Giratina Lv. X from the Platinum series. It is one of the best Lv. X cards from the Platinum set, it has 130 hp which is the best of the Lv. X cards in the set. A x2 weakness to dark Pokemon isn't too bad because dark Pokemon aren't really used that much, a -20 resistance to Normal type Pokemon can come in handy because a lot of quick start Pokemon in decks are normal type and basic so a -20 resistance will make them not be able to do any damage to Giratina at all. A 3 colorless energy card retreat cost is pretty spendy so it looks like if you're going to retreat Giratina it will take almost all the energy cards it had on it to begin with. Giratina's Poke-Body Invisible Tentacles is a really good Poke-Body it says that every time your opponent tries to attack they have to discard a card from their hand before doing the move, and if they can't discard a card they can't do the move. So this basically means that after a few turns using Invisible Tentacles if your opponent uses any other cards then placing an energy card down they will be at risk of not having in cards left in their hand so then they are at risk of not being able to attack. Giratina's only attack Darkness Lost takes four energy cards, 2 psychic, 2 colorless, and does 30 hp damage to each of your opponent's Pokemon. And if you knock them out, they have to move every one of the cards attached to that Pokemon and the Pokemon card itself to the Lost Zone, so basically you can't ever use any supporters/trainers to get them back. The Lost Zone is an area considered to be a more advanced form of the discard pile. Unlike cards in the discard pile, cards moved to the Lost Zone are kept face-up and are considered to be "outside" the play area due to the fact they are not kept on the playmat if one is used. As such, cards moved to the Lost Zone are no longer considered to be in play, and cannot be retrieved at any time, or by any means, during gameplay. As far as strategy goes with Giratina I would try and get Giratina Lv. X onto your bench as soon as possible so you can use its Poke-Body and when you put Giratina into your active Pokemon spot I would use Darkness Lost every turn so you can knock out many Pokemon at once, you will probably have to last 3 to 4 turns with Giratina out there to knock out most of your opponent's Pokemon and then they'll all have to go to the Lost Zone and they won't be able to them again in play. So even though it does seem expensive for Giratina to only be able to do 30 hp to each Pokemon of your opponent's for 4 energy, just think if your opponent has 3 Pokemon in play, 1 active and 2 benched, 1 turn of Darkness Lost can do 90 hp with 4 energy cards, which isn't bad at all. I think this card has a lot of potential and I would definitely consider it if I was making a Psychic type deck. So thanks for reading my Giratina Lv. X review, stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Gengar from the Diamond and Pearl set.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Dragonite ex (EX Dragon Frontiers)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Dragonite ex from the EX Dragon Frontiers set, I already did a Dragonite ex review but that one was out of the EX Dragon set, for that review click here. As you'll notice when you first look at this card, Dragonite is a grass type Pokemon, the reason for this change is that this card is a Delta Species Pokemon, for information on Delta Species Pokemon click here. Besides Dragonite being a grass Pokemon, nothing else has really changed about Dragonite, it is still a very powerful card. What I really like about this card is that it doesn't have any weakness but at the same time it doesn't have any resistance, but with 150 hp it doesn't need much help to stay along for a long time, especially with no weakness to get a big hit on Dragonite. A 2 colorless energy retreat cost is about average for stage 2 Pokemon and this one in no exception to the rule. Dragonite ex doesn't have any Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies but it does have two exceptional moves. The first move is called Deafen and for 2 colorless energy cards it does 40 hp damage to your opponent's active Pokemon and prevents them from using any trainers the next turn. So they won't be able to use anything to remove damage counters from their Pokemon. Dragonite's next move is called Dragon Roar and for four energy cards, 2 grass, 2 colorless, does 80 hp damage every turn even if your opponent's active Pokemon needs only 20 hp to be knocked out the rest of the attack which would be 60 hp in this example could go towards any of your opponent's benched Pokemon in any way you like, you just can't knock out their benched Pokemon. What I would do with this move is to spread the damage evenly on their benched Pokemon so whenever one comes in from the bench you can knock it out with one move, because if you just stock pile damage onto 1 Pokemon on their bench you can't knock it out on the bench and they won't switch that Pokemon to be their active Pokemon unless that is their only Pokemon left. As far as strategy goes I would definitely try and get Dragonite ex as your active Pokemon as soon as possible, I wouldn't ever use Deafen if I could avoid it, I would always stick with Dragon Roar because with Deafen preventing your opponent from using trainers isn't that big a deal because you can always find ways to heal your Pokemon without them, if it be other Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies or Supporter Cards. I would just hit with Dragon Roar every time because you can always do that move since you never have to discard any of the energy cards during the attack. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Giratina Lv. X from the Platinum set.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Charizard ex (EX FireRed LeafGreen)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Charizard ex from the EX FireRed LeafGreen set. If you're unsure of exactly what an ex card is click here. This is one of the cards that I've always wanted but could never get. I opened a ton of FireRed LeafGreen booster packs and never got one. And I would buy more today just to try and get one but the boxes are so expensive I don't want to spend that much. Besides it being an ex card and being the almighty Charizard, it actually isn't too great in my opinion for a Pokemon card, I actually prefer Blastoise ex and Venusaur ex over this card. Sorry for that bad news but lets get on with the card review. Charizard ex does have 160 hp, 10 more than the other two starters. What really can kill this card is that it has two weaknesses, both x2, the first being water which is also the most prevalent and the second being electric type, it doesn't have any resistance and a retreat cost of 2 colorless energy isn't very expensive except for the fact if you use Burn Down you won't have any energy left on Charizard to retreat. And if Charizard ex is knocked out your opponent gets two prize cards. Charizard's Poke-Body Energy Flame makes all energy attached to Charizard fire energy, this helps if you have this card in a split deck with two types of energy, and since Charizard needs a lot of energy to do its moves this Poke-Body can come in handy. Charizard's first move is Slash which does 50 hp damage for 3 colorless energy cards, this move is about average I've definitely seen better for three energy cards but it is a nice starter move for Charizard. Charizard's other move Burn Down does 200 hp damage for 5 fire energy cards and also isn't affected at all by weakness or resistance. But you also have to discard all 5 energy cards once you do this move. As far as strategy goes I would definitely wait as long as possible to make Charizard your active Pokemon because it takes way too long to get 5 energy cards on this thing. I would put it on your bench right away and start attaching energy cards to it, but I wouldn't move it out to play until you only have 1 more prize card to take or your opponent's Pokemon is too strong for all your other Pokemon cards. Because every Pokemon out there will be knocked out in one move with Burn Down. So I would stick to using Slash as much as possible so you don't have to discard energy so much and since Charizard has 160 hp, a 50 hp damage move every turn is good enough for me. I am just going to use Burn Down as a last resort or a finisher card. Also make sure you have some way of retrieving all those energy cards out of your discard pile from Burn Down so you don't lose the game by running out of cards in your deck. All in all I think this Charizard card can be very powerful but it will take a lot of patience to build up Burn Down if you want to use it a lot, I would try and find another powerful fire type Pokemon to build your deck around and use Charizard ex as a stopper card to your opponent's strongest Pokemon. So thanks for reading today's review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Dragonite ex from EX Dragon Frontiers.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Meganium Prime (Heart Gold/Soul Silver)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Meganium Prime, sorry about saying yesterday I was going to review Feraligatr Prime but I actually already reviewed that and you can read that review HERE. But anyways today's card is Meganium Prime, it has the best Hp out of all 3 Prime starters with 150 hp. But usually grass Pokemon do have higher hps. Meganium has a x2 weakness to fire which could hurt it quite a bit since Fire Pokemon are pretty prevalent but at least Meganium has a really high hp. It has a -20 resistance to water Pokemon which can help a little since Water Pokemon are pretty popular too, a 2 colorless energy retreat cost is the same as the other Prime starters, which isn't very expensive for a powerful stage 2 Pokemon card like this one. Now onto Meganium's Poke-Power Leaf Trans which allows you to transfer a grass energy card from one of your Pokemon to another as many times as you like during your turn. Meganium Prime's only move is Solarbeam does 80 hp damage for 4 energy cards, two grass and two colorless, this is an expensive move but it doesn't have any side effects so it is pretty good as long as you can get 4 energy cards on Meganium. As far as strategy goes I would wait a little while into the game to play this card, at least until you can get enough energy cards on your active Pokemon and bench Pokemon that way when you put Meganium Prime on your bench you can start moving energy cards if your active Pokemon needs to discard energy cards to execute a really powerful move. This would be the only reason I can think of to use Meganium's Poke-Power because if you wanted to put an energy card on another Pokemon you would just do that. As far as using Meganium for attacking I would use Solarbeam pretty often, you should be able to knock out quite a few Pokemon with this card once you get 4 energy cards, because 80 hp can knock out almost all basic Pokemon, and pretty much all Pokemon in 2 turns. And also Meganium has quite a high hp so it will be able to last quite a few turns without needing to use trainers or supporters to remove damage from it. So thanks again for reading this review and tomorrow I will be reviewing Charizard ex.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

I hope everyone is having a good night, I decided to write a little something on here before I go to bed. First off I changed my channel design on youtube, you should go there click here and tell me what you think of it. YourHelpTube made the background for me and then I changed the other colors on my page to match the charizard in the top right corner of my channel. Also I added another thing onto my channel which is an other channel box, I wish I would have started this earlier but I will post other channels you guys should check out there for a week or so at a time, so whenever I get free cards or someone makes something for me and I use it, I will post their channel on my channel for a week's time. Right now on there I have two channels promoted, YourHelpTube for making my new background and Primetimeseminoles for sending me free cards. Another Pokemon related matter I need attending to is that my weekly poll is ending tomorrow on my blog here and I need suggestions on a new poll, please post a comment telling me what you recommend. I will be posting the last of the Prime tins tomorrow on YouTube so make sure you check that out. So that's it for the Pokemon stuff now onto more personal matters. I'm pretty sore today from doing a new Weight Lifting program, I just started it yesterday and my biceps and chest hurt really bad today, I was lifting again today and had to do some weighted sit ups and it hurt my arms so bad I could hardly even do any sit ups they hurt so bad. I didn't have much homework today at all I met with have of my ethics group to work on my computer science project but we didn't get much done other than look at the privacy policy for facebook. I just got done eating some Ranch Wheat Thins and Chocolate Muscle Milk, I had to get some protein in me so I could start rebuilding some muscle over night. I don't think I'm going to have too busy of a week at all this week, next week I know I have a Microeconomics test so that will be a pain to study for but that's all I see in my future for homework at least. I'm going to head to bed though, so I hope everyone has a good night and until my Pokemon review tomorrow, this is PrimetimePokemon and I'm out.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Typhlosion Prime (Heart Gold/Soul Silver)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Typhlosion Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver set. First off if you aren't familiar with Prime Pokemon click here to read about what exactly Prime Pokemon are and how they differ from Lv. X Pokemon, once you read that you will know exactly how to use Prime cards. Now for the review. Typhlosion has 140 hp which is really good for a fire type stage 2 Pokemon, Feraligatr Prime in this same set has the same hp and Meganium a grass type Pokemon has 150 hp but usually grass Pokemon have higher hp. Typhlosion has a x2 weakness to water Pokemon which is to be expected for a powerful card like this, it has no resistance type, and it has a retreat cost of two colorless energy cards which is pretty good for a stage 2 Pokemon. Typhlosion's Poke-Power After Burner which can be highly effective for Typhlosion itself, its Poke-Power reads like this: Once during your turn before your attack you may search your discard pile for a fire energy and attach it to one of your Pokemon, the only downfall to this is that whatever Pokemon you attach it to you have to move 1 damage counter which is 10 hp to that Pokemon. As I was saying this is most beneficial to Typhlosion because of its only move Flare Destroy which does 70 hp damage for 3 energy, 2 fire and 1 colorless, once you use this move both you and your opponent's active Pokemon have to discard one energy card. Now here is where you can utilize After Burner, whenever you have to discard a card, just get it back right away the next turn which After Burner, even though you have to put a damage counter on Typhlosion it won't really affect it because it has 140 total hp and 10 is nothing to it. I would of course play an energy card from your hand first if you have that option available but at least you'll always be able to use Flare Destroy when you first get 3 energy cards on Typhlosion. Another strategy I would use with this Typhlosion Prime card is to put some Pokemon in your deck that have high hp and high cost energy moves, that way you can use Typhlosion Prime to power those cards up while you hit with Flare Destroy every turn. Make sure that you have trainers/supporters that allow you to get energy cards into your hand if you strategize this way, because if you don't you will just have a powerful Pokemon on the bench with no energy cards attached to it or Typhlosion as your active Pokemon always needing 1 more energy card to use Flare Destroy. Also I would suggest using trainers/supporters which remove damage from Pokemon especially if you are going to use After Burner a lot to get energy cards on your Pokemon. So thanks for reading this review, stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Meganium Prime.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Marowak (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Marowak from Legends Awakened, I am doing this card on request and just to notice before I start this review this card is only an uncommon as you can tell by the diamond in the bottom right hand corner of the card, so don't expect this card to be as powerful as most of the other reviews I have done, but still this card is pretty good for only being an uncommon. First of all for a Stage 1 Pokemon it has 90 Hp which is the norm for Stage 1 fighting Pokemon, I know Lucario from this set also has the same Hp, both Marowak's weakness and resistance is 20 hp, but its weakness is probably going to be effected more since water is much more prevalent than electric type Pokemon in battling. Also a two colorless energy retreat cost is pretty expensive for a stage 1 Pokemon. This Marowak card has two moves the first is called Heavy Bone which for only 1 colorless energy card it will do 40 hp which is really good and really cheap the only downfall to this move is that you have to flip a coin every time you do the move and if you flip tails you can't perform Heavy Bone the following turn. Now Marowak's second move is called Bone Rush and can really be a powerful Pokemon, but it's basically a hit or miss move, since it takes two fighting energy cards and lets you flip a coin until you get tails and for each heads it does 50x hp damage. Like I was saying earlier this move is definitely hit or miss you could waste a turn on this move and not do any damage and the next turn you might try it again and get to do 150 hp damage. Now for my strategy: I definitely wouldn't make this card the main Pokemon in any deck but it is a nice card to supplement a more powerful card, this card can do major damage with few energy cards. I would actually stick with Heavy Bone most of the time, unless you flipped a tail and were forced to you Bone Rush. The reason I would stick with Heavy Bone is because most Pokemon don't need 100 hp damage or more to be knocked out especially if they are Stage 1 or Basic Pokemon, I would rather hit 40 hp 3 times in a row then waste 3 turns on Bone Rush, but that is just me, I guess if you are facing a really strong Pokemon in regards to Hp I would probably use Bone Rush to try and put a big dent in your opponent's active Pokemon. But overall, especially for an uncommon card, this Marowak is really powerful and can be a useful attacker next to your main Pokemon. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Typhlosion Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver set.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Blaziken FB Lv. X (Supreme Victors)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Blaziken FB Lv. X from the Supreme Victors set and this is one of those cards that doesn't take very long to set up and it can do some damage quick. To start off this card has an Hp of 110 which is pretty good for basically being a Stage 1 Pokemon card, it increases 30 hp from the regular Blaziken FB card in this set. A x2 weakness to Water is expected from a fire type lv. X Pokemon, Blaziken doesn't have any resistance and it has a pretty cheap retreat cost of only 1 colorless energy card. Blaziken's Poke-Body Burning Spirit can be really powerful, its Poke-Body reads like this: Any damage done to a burned Pokemon is increased by 40 hp, so when you have Blaziken FB in play not this card in play you can use the move on that card which allows you to burn Pokemon, that way you should get as many Pokemon as possible burned so that way you can use Burning Spirit and then use Blaziken's only move Jet Shoot which does 80 hp damage for only 2 energy, 1 fire, and 1 colorless, but then the next turn any damage done to Blaziken is increased by 40 hp, this move basically offsets Blaziken's Poke-Body since it adds 40 hp to any move done to a burned Pokemon, so whichever Pokemon has the higher Hp will last the longest. Wow there really isn't too much to explain about this card but now I'll go into strategy. Like I said earlier you want to play Blaziken FB as soon as possible and get many Pokemon burned, not only then when you evolve Blaziken FB to Blaziken FB Lv. X will all Pokemon be increasing in damage from being burned but any damage done to them is increased by 40 hp. So Blaziken Lv. X's move Jet Shoot can then do 120 hp damage for only 2 energy, I don't think you can find a better move out there for 2 energy cards. But just be careful your opponent doesn't have any powerful Pokemon set up on there bench because if they do they will move that Pokemon to their active Pokemon and if you used Jet Shoot the previous turn to knock out a Pokemon you can probably say bye-bye to your Blaziken Lv. X. So my strategy would be to use Blaziken FB's moves not the Lv. X's moves unless you have to knock out a very powerful Pokemon of your opponent's. Also since Jet Shoot increases damage to Blaziken by 40 hp, I would include trainers/supporters that allow you to take damage off of Blaziken so that it will last longer. So once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Marowak from Legends Awakened.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

I've been adding a lot to my blog lately, if you check on the right side of my blog where it says pages I've added two new pages, the first one entitled Definition of Special Pokemon Cards, gives the definition of every special Pokemon card out there, like Lv. X, ex, Prime, etc and also includes pictures so you can recognize which cards are which. The second page I added is a list of all the symbols for the different Pokemon sets so you can identify what set your Pokemon card is from by looking at the symbol on the card. Other than working on those two pages I really haven't done too much today, I ordered Dominos Pizza for supper, I just had a medium Pepperoni pizza, it was awfully tasty. I spent a lot of my day trying to write blogs from my Microsoft Word program but I couldn't figure out how to upload pictures from there, so I just gave up after about 2 and a half hours. I actually have a lot of homework to do this weekend, 3 group projects are due, but none of my groups wanted to work on our stuff today, so hopefully we will meet tomorrow. I guess Friday night I watched the movie Black Sheep, which stars Chris Farley and David Spade and is very funny if you haven't seen it before you should definitely check it out. I also see the Minnesota Twins won 2-1 today, to improve to 5-1 on the season, I can't wait for their home opener Monday where they play at their brand new Target Field, I'll be interested to see what it looks like when they're actually playing in it, I haven't been inside the field yet, but when I went to a Minnesota Timberwolves game earlier this year I was really close to Target Field so I got a good glimpse of it and it looks really nice, I just hope the weather turns out for the game. I'll probably end up watching the Twins tomorrow if I have time since I actually get the channel they're on tomorrow and they play at 12 or 1 in the afternoon against the Chicago White Sox. I guess I don't have too much more to say, so I'll talk to you guys tomorrow, so this is PrimetimePokemon, and I'm out.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Flygon Lv. X

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Flygon Lv. X from the Rising Rivals set. When I first looked at this card I thought what an amazing card it can do 150 hp damage to any Pokemon it wants for only 3 energy cards but then I noticed it has to be a Lv. X Pokemon which ruined my excitement but nevertheless this card is still pretty powerful and even though Extreme Attack only can work on Lv. X cards you can still use regular Flygon's moves anytime you want. But enough with my complaining lets get to the review! Flygon Lv. X has 140 hp which is pretty good for basically a stage 3 Pokemon card, not many moves can knock it out in one move except if you're facing another Flygon Lv. X. Its x2 weakness to Normal type Pokemon is standard for a powerful Normal type Pokemon such as Flygon, a -20 resistance to electric Pokemon is different than the normal -20 resistance to fighting type Pokemon but both probably amount to about the same effectiveness since both types of Pokemon aren't used that much. What I really like about this card is that it has no retreat cost which allows it to go back and forth between active Pokemon and bench destroying Lv. X cards without ever losing any energy. Flygon's Poke-Body Wind Erosion can be really effective, it says if Flygon Lv. X is your active Pokemon then you should discard the top card of your opponent's deck between turns every turn. Not only does this limit the amount of cards your opponent will have available for him/her to find in their deck when they're searching using some type of trainer or supporter card, but also it makes them be careful about using too many cards to get cards out of the deck since Wind Erosion will make your opponent have a much higher risk of losing the game by running out of cards in their deck. Flygon's only move Extreme Attack is a very very powerful attack, it does 150 hp damage to any of your opponent's Lv. X Pokemon you choose for only 3 colorless energy cards. Not only is this a relatively low cost move with only needed 3 energy cards, but if your opponent has any Lv. X cards anywhere in play they are basically goners and this move doesn't need you to discard any energy or anything so you can use this move every turn without adding more energy cards to Flygon. As far as strategy goes with this card, I would make sure and stack your deck with the necessary trainers/supporters so you can get Flygon Lv. X as your active Pokemon as soon as possible, I would do this for two reasons, the first being that you can then utilize Flygon's Poke-Body and make your opponent discard a card from their deck every turn, and as long as you have 3 energy cards on Flygon you can do 2 things to your opponent, if they had any Lv. X cards anywhere in play you can use Extreme Attack and knock them out more than likely in 1 move, and secondly if they don't have any Lv. X cards in play, Extreme Attack will prevent them from using their Lv. X cards because they know they will be knocked out as soon as they evolve their Pokemon into Lv. X Pokemon. So after reviewing this card I would definitely try and include this card in my deck if I had the room, Extreme Attack and Wind Erosion are both extremely powerful and will cause a lot of damage to your opponent's strategy. Once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's Pokemon Card of the Day which will be Blaziken FB Lv. X from Supreme Victors.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Ho-oh Legend (Heart Gold/Soul Silver)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Ho-oh Legend from the new Heart Gold/Soul Silver set. This card in my opinion is better than the Lugia Legend card you can get in this set. For starters Ho-oh has ten more hp than Lugia with 140 hp it's weakness of x2 to Water Pokemon is expected from this powerful of Pokemon, as well as the -20 Resistance to fighting type Pokemon, the retreat cost of 2 colorless energy cards is pretty low for such a powerful Pokemon. Ho-oh's Poke-Body Sacred Rainbow allows every energy card you attach to Ho-oh to be a fire energy, so by utilizing this Poke-Body you could basically put Ho-oh in any type deck out there, this actually might be a good strategy to use because with this card in your deck, even if the main Pokemon in your deck is weak to your opponent's deck this one won't be and it could even be your opponent's weakness. Ho-oh Legend's only move Bright Wing does 100 hp damage for 4 fire energy, so with its Poke-Body this move takes 4 colorless energy cards, and for 4 energy cards it does 100 damage and you only have to discard 1 energy card every time you use this move, which isn't very tough to do since it's only 1 energy, so as long as you have enough energy you can use Bright Wing every turn. As far as strategy goes as soon as I have enough energy on Ho-oh to use Bright Wing I would make it your active Pokemon and just use Bright Wing every turn, also I would make sure I have trainer/supporter cards that not only allow you to search your deck for energy cards but your discard pile as well since you have to discard 1 energy card every turn with Ho-oh if you use its move. That's about all I have to say about this Ho-oh Legend card, there actually isn't too much strategy with this card since it's Poke-Body doesn't affect other Pokemon, all that you can strategize with this card is to decide what type of deck you would want to put it in. So once again, thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Flygon Lv. X.

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Magmortar (Secret Wonders)



Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Magmortar from Secret Wonders, I know I said today that it was going to be Magmortar Lv. X from Mysterious Treasures but after looking at the Lv. X card I discovered the only reason I wanted that card so much in all my deck opening videos is because it was a Lv. X card and because it gave Magmortar 20 extra hp. So I decided to do the better of the two cards and do it on the Magmortar rare card from Secret Wonders, there is actually a preconstructed theme deck built around this card called Lavaflow, and I built my fire deck around this card since it was so good. Click here for the link to that YouTube video of my deck. I will post a picture of Magmortar Lv. X just so you can take a look at it, I won't really review it but if you want me to, I could do that tomorrow, just tell me in your comments if you do want me to review it. So let's start this Magmortar review. For being a Stage 1 Pokemon 110 Hp is really good, and only a +30 weakness is good for a Pokemon as powerful as this one I thought for sure it would have had a x2 weakness to water. Magmortar has no resistance, but it really doesn't need one since it can be so powerful, it does however have a high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards, even though when I used this card, I always had plenty more than 3 energy cards attached to it so that I could have retreated it if I needed to. Magmortar's Poke-Body is really nice and can help you stay alive longer to build up Flame Blast. Its Poke-Body is called Flame Body and says that every time you attach a fire energy to Magmortar you may remove 2 damage counters which is 20 hp damage. Magmortar already has 110 Hp and its Poke-Body really helps it stay alive longer even though it will last long on its own with 110 Hp. Magmortar has 2 really good moves, the first move being my favorite move to use, the move is called Flame Blast and does 20x the number of Fire Energy cards attached to Magmortar. So this card can inflict unlimited amounts of damage depending on how many energy cards you have attached to it. Its second move called Fireball Bazooka needs 3 energy cards to be performed, 1 fire, and 2 colorless and this does 40 hp damage to the defending Pokemon and 20 hp damage to two of your opponent's benched Pokemon that you choose. When I would use this card in battling I found that I would get a lot of damage of the defending Pokemon using Flame Blast and then would either have only a few hp left on the defending Pokemon or my opponent would retreat the card, in both cases I would then use Fireball Bazooka so I would knock out 1 Pokemon and do 20 hp damage to 2 other Pokemon of my opponents. As far as strategy goes, I would get Magmortar or Magmar on your bench as soon as possible and start loading it will energy, so that when you need to put Magmortar in as your active Pokemon you can do at least 120 hp damage every turn and pretty much sweep your opponent, especially when you can keep attaching energy cards and take away 20 hp damage from Magmortar and at the same time add 20 more hp damage to your opponent's active Pokemon with Flame Blast. In my deck the only reason I wanted Magmortar Lv. X was so that I could make Magmortar virtually unstoppable with 130 hp, the Lv. X card does have a couple more moves but I basically stuck with the Magmortar rare card for all my moves, and used the Lv. X's Poke-Power so I could burn the defending Pokemon and have them get 30 hp damage every turn. So thanks for reading this review of Magmortar and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Ho-oh Legend from Heart Gold/Soul Silver.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

It's probably about time I actually wrote what is going on in my life, sorry I haven't done this for awhile but I have been really busy, even though I was on Spring Break and should have been relaxed. I'm sure you know that I bought a new car over break, a 2004 Pontiac Grand Am GT with only 43,000 miles on it, and I've been doing a lot with my car over the break. I had my neighbor put in two Rockford P1 10 inch subs and a Rockford Fosgate 300-2 Amp, as well as an Alpine CD deck with a USB connection. I was initially going to use my iPod touch with that deck but my touch was too new, so I used my shuffle for awhile but I didn't like the cord dragging all over the place in my car, so I went to Walmart the other day and bought a 4 GB flash drive for $14.97 and just put that in the USB connection, so now I can put a ton of songs on there for really cheap and just keep that flash drive in my car at all times. Now I'm looking at tinting my windows on the car, I live in Minnesota so the legal limit is 50% so I don't if I'm going to do that or not since the windows won't be very dark and it might not be worth it, I'll have to see how dark the tint is and how much it costs to install it, I actually had some spare time today and saw that I saved at least $300 on my sound system for my car by buying it from my friend's store that he works at instead of Best Buy, and that doesn't even include the cost of Bestbuy installing it, I thought I had a weak sound system but it cost about $850 total on Bestbuy, and I like the sound of it, so I'm glad I didn't try to buy anything really expensive. Other than that, I made a lot more videos of pack openings over break, as well as a collection and holo videos. I have about 20 videos to post on YouTube, I will be posting 1 pack opening every week while I'm at school here and probably one or two free card through the mail videos a week too, so look forward to those. Wow it does feel like forever since I wrote much on here, but make sure and check out my new poll at the bottom of my homepage on my blog, and I'm going to try and keep all my completed polls on there as well so you can see the results. I guess I only have about 8 more weeks of school left and next year I'll be a senior so I'm pretty happy about that, I wish I was done with school completely, I'll actually be the first one in my family to graduate from college if I make it another year and a half, which I really hope I do even though it is pretty hard at times. I will definitely try and post more of these personal blogs now that I have more time since I'm back at school, but I better get going I have to get up for work tomorrow at 5:30 in the morning, so this is PrimetimePokemon and I'm out.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Salamence Lv. X (Arceus)

Today's Pokemon card of the day is Salamence Lv. X from the Arceus set, first off it has 160 hp which is really good for a Pokemon and even above average for most Lv. X cards. A x2 weakness to normal Pokemon was expected, a -20 hp resistance to fighting Pokemon is normal and won't do too much for Salamence but a retreat cost of only 2 colorless energy cards is very good for a Pokemon as powerful as Salamence Lv. X. Salamence's Poke-Power can be very useful, its Poke-Power is called Double Fall and goes something like this: When you place Salamence Lv. X onto Salamence each Pokemon you knock out with Salamence's next move you can take one more prize card for each one. So if you knock out one Pokemon, which you more than likely will with Steam Blast you will get at least 2 prize cards, and if your opponent's Pokemon are poisoned and another Pokemon other than their active Pokemon is knocked out you can take 4 prize cards at once, wow what a great Poke-Power. Now onto Salamence's only move which is called Steam Blast and takes 4 energy cards to execute, 2 colorless, 1 fire, and 1 water. For these 4 energy cards it allows you to do 100 hp damage which will 1 hit knock out many Pokemon and like I was saying earlier if you just played Salamance Lv. X that turn you can take 2 prize cards for knocking out that Pokemon. The only downfall to this move is you have to discard one of the energy cards attached to Salamence, but this could have been way worse, you could have had to discard all or 1 of each type of energy card attached to Salamence. As far as strategy goes with this card, I would somehow like to use this card with a spread damage type deck, but usually these types of decks include grass and or psychic Pokemon so this probably isn't an option, but I would definitely make sure that when you play Salamence Lv. X that you have enough energy cards on it right away to knock out your opponent's active Pokemon so you can take 2 prize cards. Also I would either include this card in a water and fire deck or have special energy cards in play so you can use both energy types necessary to execute this move. So my only restriction on playing this card would be to wait until you have the necessary energy to perform Steam Blast and then evolve Salamence into Salamence Lv. X so you can claim 2 prize cards with 1 knock out. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Magmortar Lv. X from the Mysterious Treasures set.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Dragonite (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Dragonite from the Legends Awakened set, I actually tried to use this card in one of my decks but I thought it used too many energy cards so I had to remove it from my deck and add Kyogre from Legends Awakened to my Water deck instead. But enough of my deck, lets get on with the review. Dragonite has 140 Hp which is good even though it is a stage 2 Pokemon, surprisingly it only has a +30 weakness to colorless Pokemon instead of the x2 most powerful Pokemon have, and colorless Pokemon usually aren't too powerful, unless you are facing one of the dragon Pokemon, like Salamence, so this weakness shouldn't be a problem. A resistance to fighting of -20 hp is nice but nothing special. A 3 colorless energy retreat cost is costly but more than likely if you took the time to stack Dragonite with energy cards you don't want to retreat it. This Dragonite doesn't have any Poke-Powers or Poke-Bodies but it does have two moves. The first move is called Hyper Beam which needs 3 colorless energy cards to perform. This move does 40 hp damage and you also flip a coin and if it is heads you may discard an energy card from the defending Pokemon. I would have liked this move to be only 2 energy for doing only 40 damage, but I guess this move isn't unreasonable for 3 energy since it does give you the chance to discard an energy card from your opponent. Dragonite's second move can be deadly, it is called Draco Meteor and takes 4 colorless energy cards to perform. This move does 50 damage to each of your opponent's Pokemon you flip a heads on when you flip a coin for that Pokemon. So this card could be extraordinary, average, or worthless depending on your luck. But as I was saying earlier, especially if your opponent's deck has a type that is weak to normal Pokemon, i.e. normal type Pokemon, if you flip a head on that Pokemon and it is a basic Pokemon more than likely it will knock it out, so you could end up taking 2 or 3 prize cards on just one turn using this move. As far as playing Dragonite I would try and get Dragonite as your active Pokemon as soon as possible so you can use Draco Meteor on your opponent's benched Pokemon, and the sooner you use this move the more likely your opponent will have weaker Pokemon on their bench and the easier they will be to be knocked out. And most Pokemon will be knocked out in 2 turns with this move if you get 2 heads in a row on that Pokemon, so even if your opponent had time to evolve some Pokemon on their bench you can still knock them out. So all in all this card is powerful, and spreads the damage around using Draco Meteor, just be prepared to wait awhile to be able to use either of Dragonite's moves, I would definitely include trainers/supporters which let you find energy quickly and cards that let you search your deck for evolved Pokemon quickly so you can use Draco Meteor early in the game to inflict the most damage on your opponent. So thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review which will be on Salamence Lv. X.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Palkia G Lv. X (Platinum)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Palkia G Lv. X from the Platinum set, I did Dialga G Lv. X yesterday and this card is quite similar, but I think it is better than Dialga. To start off it has the same hp as Dialga, it has 120 hp, which is pretty good for a stage 1 Lv. X card. A x2 weakness to Electric type Pokemon is much better than a x2 weakness to Fire type Pokemon, but still a x2 weakness can be fatal. Palkia has no resistance which I wish it had at least something and a retreat cost of 2 colorless energy. Now onto the the Poke-Power which I really like, its Poke-Power is called Lost Cyclone which goes into effect if either player has more than 3 benched Pokemon chooses 3 of their Pokemon and all cards attached to them and moves them to the lost zone, especially if you place this card right, it can really mess up your opponent. Palkia G Lv. X's only move is called Hydro Shot and takes 4 energy cards to perform, 2 water, and 2 colorless. This move does 80 hp damage to anyone of your opponent's Pokemon you choose but the downfall to this move is you have to discard 2 energy to execute this move. Now onto the strategy which is very important with this card. I would want to utilize Palkia's Poke-Power the most so I would try and get pretty far into the game before you even let your opponent know you have Palkia in your deck, especially if he is familiar with Palkia's Poke-Power. By waiting to play Palkia, your opponent will more than likely set up his bench and start attaching energy cards to Pokemon they want to use later in the game, this is where Palkia G Lv. X can become a destroyer, as soon as you move Palkia to the bench, you can make your opponent move 3 of the Pokemon on its bench, assuming they have 4 or more bench Pokemon, to the Lost Zone, and they can no longer use those cards at all. If I was the opponent I would be devastated at having to lose that many cards, especially if you were building up some Pokemon on the bench. Hydro Shot can also be a very useful move, if you play it right, I would wait just a little bit into the game, when your opponent has a few basic Pokemon on their bench, so that I can then 1 hit KO your opponent's benched Pokemon and start taking prize cards early on. So it looks to me like there are two ways to play this card, the first way is to utilize its Poke-Power and wait until your opponent gets everything set up and then turn the game into havoc, this way is definitely more risky, the second is to use its move Hydro Shot and knock out weak basic Pokemon right away. The choice is yours which strategy you want to use. So thanks for reading my review of Palkia G Lv. X, stay tuned for my review tomorrow of Dragonite from Legends Awakened.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Pokemon Card of the Day: Dialga G Lv. X (Platinum)

Happy Easter everyone! Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Dialga G Lv. X from the Platinum set. It has 120 hp which is pretty decent and the same as the Palkia Lv. X card in this set. Its weakness which is x2 to fire type Pokemon will really destroy this card, especially since fire Pokemon are the most prevalent type in decks out there. A resistance of -20 to Psychic type Pokemon and a two colorless energy retreat cost are about both average for this type of card. Now onto Dialga's Poke-Body which is Time Crystal which says that each Pokemon both yours and your opponent's can't use any Poke-Body which can be extremely useful if you plan your deck around this idea using Pokemon which don't rely on Poke-Bodies and at the same time hoping your opponent depends on Poke-Bodies quite a bit. Dialga G's only move is called Remove Lost which does 80 hp damage for 4 energy, 2 metal and 2 colorless. Besides doing 80 hp damage you also flip a coin until you get tails, for each heads remove an energy card from the defending Pokemon and place it in the lost zone. This move even though costing a lot, can really hurt your opponent especially if they have a Pokemon that has an attack which also costs 4 or more energies, and also it will make your opponent need to search their deck more for energy cards since they can't retrieve the one's from the Lost Zone, so your opponent will go through the deck quicker and might lose that way as well. As far as strategy goes with this card, I would get it out as soon as possible onto your bench so that you can disable your opponent's Poke-Bodies therefore disrupting their game plan. I would make sure that I have the necessary trainers/supporters to get 4 energy cards onto Dialga G Lv. X as soon as possible so I can start dominating with Remove Lost. I would also try and have other cards in my deck which also use your opponent's Lost Zone so most of their cards will end up in there. So thanks for reading my review of Dialga G Lv. X from the Platinum set, and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Palkia G Lv. X from the Platinum set as well.