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.