Malamar -- Burning Shadows Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Malamar from the Burning Shadows Pokemon Card Set.  Malamar is a Stage 1, Darkness type Pokemon card, with a HP of 100. 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 card does not have an Ability but it does have two moves.  The first move on this card is called Psybeam, for one Darkness Energy card, this move does 20 damage, plus it Confuses the defending Pokemon.  The second move on this card is called Energy Slosh, for three Energy cards, one Darkness and two Colorless, this move does 70 damage, however, you must move all Energy from this Pokemon to one of your Benched Pokemon.

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 it was a below average Basic Pokemon card overall.  At first glance, the card does seem decent, with a solid HP, two moves, and a low retreat cost, but upon further inspection, the card isn't that great, since its first move is based off of a coin flip, and can't do damage, and the second move requires two Energy cards to attack and only does 20 damage.  So knowing this about Inkay and looking at this Malamar card, this card is pretty similar.  This card has a good HP and two moves, plus a low retreat cost.  Unless you have a Pokemon in your deck that benefits from a Special Condition being inflicted upon the defending Pokemon, there is no reason to use this Malamar card in a deck, mainly because it is under-powered, and if you do decide to use Energy Slosh and do 70 damage, you must move all Energy attached to Malamar.  So I would pass on this line of Pokemon when deck building.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 2 out of 5 rating.  In my opinion, this is a below average Stage 1 Pokemon card from the Burning Shadows set.  Like I mentioned, although this card has a decent HP, low retreat cost, and number of moves, there isn't anything above average on this card and really nothing worth using.  Because of this, combining this card with Inkay from the set, I would give the two cards a 1 out of 5 rating, look elsewhere.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Malamar from the Burning Shadows set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Ralts, 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 --
At what level does Inkay evolve into Malamar?
Please respond with the correct answer and a link to your YouTube channel. 24 hours from now I will be randomly selecting a correct response to my question and sending a private message to this person with a free code on YouTube.