Salamence -- Roaring Skies Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Salamence from the Roaring Skies Pokemon Card Set.  Salamence is a stage 2, dragon type Pokemon card, with an hp of 160.  It has a x2 weakness to fairy type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a four colorless energy card retreat cost.  Salamence does not have an Ancient Trait or an Ability but it does have three moves.  The first move that this card has is called Shatter, for one fire energy card this move does 60 damage plus you have to discard any Stadium card in play.  Salamence's second move is called Power Howl and for three energy cards, two colorless and one water, this move does 20 damage times the number of cards in your opponent's hand.  The third and final move that Salamence has is called Steam Blast, this move requires four energy cards to use, two fire and one each of water and colorless, and does 170 damage, however you must discard 3 energy cards attached to Salamence.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Salamence is a stage 2 Pokemon card, you'll first have to get Bagon into play and then evolve it into Shelgon before you can evolve Shelgon into Salamence, both of those Pokemon are from this set and I've reviewed all three cards, since there are two Bagon cards, the past three days.  If you've read my reviews of those cards you'll know that I thought all three cards were below average, I gave the first Bagon card from the set only a 1 out of 5 rating because the only move it had was based on a coin flip, the second Bagon card I gave a 2 out of 5 rating, it  could do damage every time, even though it did damage to itself also.  The Shelgon from this set I gave a 2 out of 5 rating, it had a good Ability but lower HP and the one move it had was slow on the attack and required multiple energy types to use.  So knowing this about the first Pokemon in this line and looking at this Salamence card, if you want some versatility when attacking and the ability to do major damage, this is definitely a card worth considering.  However, make sure to include this only in a dual type deck of water and fire so you can utilize any of this card's moves.  Because the first two Pokemon in this line are so bad, I would only recommend using a 1-1-1 line of this Pokemon family, and getting Salamence into the active Pokemon spot as soon as possible since it can attack for only one energy card.  I would mainly stick to using Power Howl especially if it does more than 60 damage, otherwise using Shatter for weaker Pokemon.  The only time I would use Steam Blast is if using that move would win the game for me, or if I know Salamence is going to be knocked out before its next turn.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 4 out of 5 rating.  In my opinion this is an above average Stage 2 Pokemon card from the Roaring Skies set.  There are definitely some great positives about this card like the fact it has three moves, each being able to do major damage for the amount of energy the move requires, plus its HP is pretty solid for a Stage 2, the only downside to this card is that it has such a high retreat cost, plus add in discarding energy when using Steam Blast and this card is pretty hard to retreat.  Overall, I can't give this entire Pokemon family more than a 3 out of 5 rating, I would recommend it for a deck, but I just wish the first two stages of this family were a bit better.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Salamence from the Roaring Skies set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Latios EX, which is from this same set.  Make sure to check below for the Free Pokemon TCG Online Codes!

Free Pokemon TCG Online Code Cards:
Today's Quiz for a Pokemon TCG Online Code Card --
True or False?  Salamence is one of my favorite Pokemon.
Please respond by including your YouTube username and link to your YouTube channel.  If the question is quite tough, the first correct comment will win, otherwise I'll use a random number generator to choose a winner.