Pokemon Card of the Day: Steelix (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Steelix from the Unleashed set. Steelix is a stage 1, metal type Pokemon card with an hp of 120. It has a x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon, a -20 resistance type to Psychic Pokemon, and a retreat cost of 4 colorless energy cards. Steelix does not have a Poke-Power of Poke-Body but it does have two moves, the first move is called Guard Press and does 40 damage for 3 energy cards, 1 metal and 2 colorless. Besides doing the damage, when you use Guard Press, during your opponent's next turn any damage done to Steelix by attacks is reduced by 20. Steelix's second move is called Steel Swing and this move does 80 damage times the number of heads you get when you flip two coins, this move requires 4 energy cards, 2 each of metal and colorless. As far as strategy goes you're going to want to have some energy cards on Steelix before you use it since both of its moves cost quite a bit energy-wise. I would either evolve Steelix on the bench or find a good Onix card to use in the deck which I could then put into my active Pokemon spot and attack with that card until I could use Steelix. When Steelix is the active Pokemon I would mostly use Steel Swing which is somewhat unusually for me since I don't usually like to use moves that are coin based but in this case since each heads you get is 80 damage it is well worth it to take the risk of getting two tails, but more than likely you should be able to do at least 80 damage every other turn. The only time I would consider using Guard Press is if Steelix would be knocked out the next move or if the defending Pokemon has 40 hp or less on it before it would be knocked out. I wouldn't rely on Guard Press too much though since an hp of 120 is high enough to last a few turns without needing to prevent damage or use a trainer to remove damage. I would rate this card a 3 out of 5 because even though Steelix does have good hp for a stage 1 Pokemon, and it does have two moves that can do quite a bit of damage, both moves cost a lot, and if you ever do need to retreat Steelix you'll have to give up all energy cards attached to it and pretty much take away any chance of using Steelix later in the game since it will take so long to get 3 or 4 energy cards back on it. So overall I think the good and bad balance evenly on this card so I rate it a 3 out of 5. So thanks for reading today's review of Steelix from the Unleashed set and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Torkoal from the same set. I know there have been quite a few people who have signed up for my Blog to win a theme deck but I want to know who actually reads my reviews, so if you do read them, please comment below with your thoughts on my new video series' the Rare Pokemon Cards, Theme Deck Reviews, or How To Play the TCG. Tell me what you think about any of these and also after today's poll ends I will be starting a new Poll asking for your opinion on my FCBM videos and how often I should post them. So thanks for reading and if you post your comments below about anything I mentioned in this post you'll definitely have a better chance of winning a theme deck from me this Friday or in the future.