Malamar -- Ancient Origins Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Malamar from the Ancient Origins Pokemon Card Set.  Malamar is a stage 1, darkness type Pokemon card, with an hp of 90.  It has a x2 weakness to fighting type Pokemon, a -20 resistance to psychic type Pokemon, and a one colorless energy card retreat cost.  This Malamar card does not have an Ancient Trait or an Ability but it does have two moves.  The first move that this card has is called Entangling Control, for one colorless energy card this move allows you to switch one of your opponent's benched Pokemon with their active Pokemon, their new active Pokemon is then confused.  Malamar's second move is called Trash Tentacle, for one darkness energy card, this move does 30 damage, and it also allows you to move a card from your discard pile to your hand.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Malamar is a stage 1 Pokemon card, you'll first have to get Inkay into play (I reviewed Inkay from this set yesterday) and then evolve Inkay into Malamar.  If you read yesterday's review of Inkay, you'll know that I thought that card was a slightly below average Pokemon card, the main two reasons being the card was limited in what it could do having only one move and that move only being able to do 10 damage, and secondly, the fact the card had a below average HP of only 50.  So knowing this about Inkay and looking at this Malamar card, I may consider using a 1-1 line of these two Pokemon in a spread damage type deck.  I would set this line up on the bench, make sure the opponent's Pokemon have plenty of damage on them, then if I were to move Malamar to the active Pokemon spot, I could use Entangling Control, move one of the benched Pokemon that has a lot of damage on it to the active Pokemon spot, confuse it, and potentially have the opponent knock out their own Pokemon when attacking.  Other than that, Malamar could be used to retrieve cards from your discard pile in addition to doing damage, but I would rather use a Trainer card for this.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 3 out of 5 rating.  In my opinion this is an average Stage 1 Pokemon card from the Ancient Origins set.  This card isn't great by any means, but it is definitely worth a look in spread damage type decks.  I do like that this card has two moves, both pretty quick, however this card can't do the greatest of damage so that limits its potential.  Together with Inkay from this set, which I gave a 2 out of 5 rating, I would give these two Pokemon a 2 out of 5 rating, there are better Pokemon lines to use out there.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Malamar from the Ancient Origins set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Beldum, 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 --
How many total darkness type Pokemon cards are in the Ancient Origins set?
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.