Pokemon Card of the Day: Maractus (Black and White)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day Maractus from the Black and White set. This is a basic, grass type Pokemon with an hp of 90. It has a x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon, a -20 resistance to water type Pokemon, and a two colorless energy card retreat cost. Maractus has two moves, the first move is called Continuous Shake which takes one grass energy card and allows you to flip three coins. If 1 of the coins is heads the attack does 20 damage. If 2 of them are heads the attack does 30 damage, and if all three are heads this move does 60 damage. Maractus's second move is called Giga Drain and for three grass energy cards, it does 50 damage to the defending Pokemon and lets you remove from Maractus the amount of damage you did to the defending Pokemon this turn. So as far as strategy goes, this is another card that removes hp, since the last two reviews have had moves that remove damage every turn. With Giga Drain it makes Maractus's hp seem even higher than the 90 it normally is. I would only use this card to stall to set up my bench with Pokemon I like. So I would get three grass energy cards on Maractus, put it in the active Pokemon spot, and use Giga Drain for as long as I can. You could always retreat Maractus when it gets close to feinting and if you have Serperior on your bench you can move it into the active Pokemon spot and move the one energy card left on Maractus to another Pokemon. I would give this card a 3 out 5. Even though this Pokemon can stay in play quite awhile and do a fair amount of damage, besides Giga Drain this card can't do much help and it can't heal any of your other Pokemon like the last few grass Pokemon I've reviewed can. So thanks for reading today's review of Maractus from the Black and White set, stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Emboar.