Combusken -- Primal Clash Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Combusken from the Primal Clash Pokemon Card set.  Combusken is a stage 1, fire type Pokemon card, with an hp of 80.  It has a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a one colorless energy card retreat cost.  Combusken does not have an Ability but it does have two moves.  The first move that this card has is called Quick Attack, for one fire energy card this move does 20 damage plus 20 more damage if you get a heads when flipping a coin.  Combusken's second move is called Spiral Kick, this move requires two energy cards to use, one each of fire and colorless, and does 30 damage.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Combusken is a stage 1 Pokemon card, you'll first have to get one of the two Torchic cards from this set into play (I reviewed both of those cards the past two days) and then evolve Torchic into Combusken.  Combusken does have a stage 2 evolution in Blaziken that you'll probably want to use with this Pokemon line but since I haven't reviewed that card yet, the strategy below will act like Combusken is the final evolution in this line.  So if you read my reviews of the Torchic cards from this set, you'll know that I wasn't the greatest of fans of either card from this set, the first card that I reviewed, numbered 25/160 was definitely the one I recommended since it could do damage every turn, and it had a decent HP.  So knowing this about the Torchic cards from this set and looking at Combusken, I would definitely consider using a 1-1 line of Torchic and Combusken in a deck, trying to get Combusken into the active Pokemon spot as quickly as possible and then trying to use either of Combusken's moves early in the game, thus being able to knock out most Basic Pokemon in two moves.  Other than early in the game, this card won't be that great because of its low HP, so that is why if I were to use this line at all, I would only include 1 of each, but more than likely I wouldn't use it at all.

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 Primal Clash set.  Other than having a lower HP, this card is pretty solid, it has two moves, that are both quick and do a fair amount of damage, plus it has a low retreat cost.  But because Torchic isn't that great and Combusken has a lower HP, I wouldn't necessarily recommend using this card in a deck even though I gave it an average rating, because combined with the Torchic cards from this set, I can only give them a 2 out of 5 rating.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Combusken from the Primal Clash set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Combusken's stage 2 evolution in Blaziken, 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 --
What is the highest rarity of any Combusken card in the English TCG?
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.

Combusken -- Furious Fists Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Combusken from the Furious Fists Pokemon Card set.  Combusken is a stage 1, fire type Pokemon card, with an hp of 80.  It has a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a one colorless energy card retreat cost.  Combusken does not have an Ability but it does have two moves.  The first move that this card has is called Slash, for two colorless energy cards this move does 30 damage.  Combusken's second move is called Midair Strike, for three energy cards, two colorless and one fire, this move does 50 damage, plus if you get a heads when you flip a coin, this move does 20 more damage for a total of 70 damage.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Combusken is a stage 1 Pokemon card, you'll first have to get Torchic into play (I reviewed Torchic from this set yesterday) and then evolve Torchic into Combusken.  Combusken does have a stage 2 evolution in Blaziken that you'll probably want to use with this Pokemon line but since I haven't reviewed that card yet, the strategy below will act like Combusken is the final evolution in this line.  So if you read yesterday's review of Torchic, you'll know that I thought that card was an average Basic Pokemon card even though it required two energy cards for its only attack and may only do 10 damage a turn, but I still gave it an average rating because Torchic's only move had the potential to do 40 damage a turn and the HP and retreat cost on that card were both good.  So knowing that Torchic could be used on its own in a deck and looking at this Combusken card, I could possibly see using a 2-1 line of Torchic and Combusken in a deck, but I would probably either just use Torchic or make sure to use Blaziken in my deck as well.  I say this because Combusken is similar to Torchic in that the moves it has are okay, but based on a coin flip they could be better.  But because both Torchic and Combusken rely on the strategy and because Combusken has a lower HP, I would be more cautious using Combusken in my deck.  But if you do use Combusken in your deck, I would make sure to have two energy cards on Torchic before you evolve it, that way you can use Slash every turn or put one more energy card on Combusken and use Midair Strike.  This move does do below average damage, but can do slightly more than average damage with a heads when flipping a coin.

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 Furious Fists set.  Even though I say it is an average card, it is probably at the bottom of my 3 rating range, thus I would recommend against using this card in a deck without Blaziken just because Combusken as a lower HP, and Midair Strike does below average damage if you're not lucky.  So just looking at Combusken it is average, but if you combine it with Torchic from this set, which is always based on coin flips, I would give these two cards together a 2 out of 5 rating and like I said earlier, I would rather use Torchic alone than pair it with Combusken.  So I gave both of these Pokemon individually 3 ratings, but together they get a 2.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Combusken from the Furious Fists set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Combusken's stage 2 evolution in Blaziken 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 --
What is the highest rarity of any English Combusken card, and how many times has Combusken been this rarity?
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.

Combusken -- Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Combusken from the Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Set.  This is a stage 1 Pokemon card that evolves from Torchic and evolves into Blaziken.  Combusken is a fire type Pokemon card, with an hp of 80.  It has a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a one colorless energy card retreat cost.  Combusken doesn't have an Ability but it does have two moves, the first move is called Double Kick which takes one colorless energy card and does 20 damage times the number of heads you get when you flip two coins.  Combusken's second move is called Flamethrower and for three energy cards, two fire and one colorless, it does 70 damage however you must discard an energy card attached to Combusken after using this move.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since Combusken is a stage 1 Pokemon that evolves into a stage 2 Pokemon, you'll want to evolve Combusken into Blaziken as soon as possible, and I would recommend using the Blaziken rare card from this set.  My strategy with this card would be to evolve Torchic and Combusken on the bench into Blaziken, while evolving on the bench I would attach energy cards to these Pokemon so that if you have to put Combusken into the active Pokemon spot you can move it into play and either use Double Kick or Flamethrower, I would prefer to use Flamethrower every turn.  Combusken's evolution, Blaziken is a pretty good card that I could definitely build a deck around, so I would have a 4-3-2 line of Torchic, Combusken, and Blaziken in a fire type deck.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 3 out of 5 rating. This card has some ups and downs that come with it which in the end even out to an average stage 1 Pokemon card, it has a low hp, and one weak move, but it does have a good retreat cost, and one good move, so overall it is average, but I wouldn't plan on using this card for long in an actual game I would want to evolve Combusken into Blaziken as soon as possible.

Tomorrow's Pokemon Card:
So thanks for reading today's Pokemon card review of Combusken from the Dark Explorers set, stay tuned for tomorrow's card review of Torkoal from the same set.