Pokemon Card of the Day: Raichu (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Raichu from the Stormfront set. This is a stage 1 Pokemon card with an average hp of 90. Raichu has a +20 weakness to fighting type Pokemon and a -20 hp resistance to metal type Pokemon. And Raichu has a free retreat cost so it makes it very easy to move Raichu in and out of your active Pokemon position all game. Raichu doesn't have a Poke-Power or Poke-Body but it does have 3 attacking moves. The first move is called Slice and it doesn't even need any energy cards to use, it does 30 hp for no energy cards at all, but you can't use Slice two turns in a row. Raichu's second move is called Split Ball and for 3 colorless energy cards, Raichu can do 50 damage and when you use this move you have to move one of the energy cards you use for this move to one of your bench Pokemon, at least you don't have to discard any energy cards like you have to do in Raichu's third and final move called Burst Ball which does 100 hp damage for 3 energy cards, 2 electric and 1 colorless. But when you use this move you need to discard 3 energy cards from any of your Pokemon in any way you like, so you could remove 1 energy card from 3 of your Pokemon. As far as strategy goes I would always use Burst Ball when I can, I would use it and then discard the energy cards probably off of Raichu, I would just load up Raichu with energy cards, then I would use Splice the next turn and do 30 damage, and then I would try and use some type of Supporter, Stadium, or Poke-Body/Poke-Power that lets me attach an energy card from the discard pile, the deck, or my hand to Raichu so I could use Burst Ball again right away. The only time I would use Split Ball would be if I was running out of energy cards towards the end of the game, that way you can just move an energy card to one of your benched Pokemon when you use Split Ball and then use the Poke-Power or whatever you're using and move that card back onto Raichu. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of the Articuno reprint from Supreme Victors.