Pokemon Card of the Day: Kingdra Prime (Unleashed)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Kingdra Prime from the Heart Gold/Soul Silver Unleashed set. This set actually doesn't come out until May 12, 2010 but I was requested to do this review so I thought I would since I found a scan of the card already. If you still don't know exactly what Prime Pokemon are you can click here to find out more information about them. Kingdra Prime for being a stage 2 Pokemon has a pretty decent hp of 130. A x2 weakness to electric type Pokemon is much better than a x2 weakness to grass types since electric types are much less prevalent. A resistance could have made Kingdra's 130 hp that much better but 130 hp is still really good. And a low 1 colorless energy retreat cost allows you to easily retreat Kingdra Prime if it starts to get in trouble. Kingdra's Poke-Power Spray Splash allows you to put one damage counter on one of your opponent's Pokemon every turn as long as Kingdra isn't affected by a special condition. So if you get Kingdra onto your bench right away it can wreak havoc on your opponent's benched Pokemon, especially their basic Pokemon. Kingdra Prime's only move is called Dragon Steam and for only 1 water energy does 60 hp damage unless your opponent has any fire Pokemon in play than its base damage is only 20. But still even if you are battling a fire Pokemon and use Dragon Steam more than likely your opponent's Pokemon, if it is powerful at all will have a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, so Dragon Steam will do 40 hp damage for 1 energy which is still really good. As far as strategy goes, like I was saying I would get Kingdra onto your bench as soon as possible so that you can use Spray Splash as soon and as often as possible. I really wouldn't play Kingdra as your active Pokemon if your opponent has any fire Pokemon just because a 20 hp difference in a move makes a lot of difference, especially after 2 moves, because 120 hp damage will knock out pretty much all basic and stage 1 Pokemon, whereas 80 hp damage after 2 turns with a fire type Pokemon in play will knock out most basic Pokemon and a few stage 1 Pokemon. But even if you are forced to play this card since it is your last Pokemon you have on your bench, this card will be able to do a considerate amount of damage and last quite awhile with 130 hp. I am very excited to start opening some Unleashed packs when they come out in about 2 weeks, and once again thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Staraptor FB Lv. X.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Gyarados (Stormfront)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Gyarados from the Stormfront set. This card has an amazing 130 hp for a stage 1 Pokemon card, but it should be extra powerful considering how bad most Magikarp cards are, you need something to look forward to by having Magikarp in your deck. A +30 weakness to electric type Pokemon is actually good instead of a x2 weakness or any kind of weakness to grass Pokemon since grass Pokemon are much more prevalent and usually more powerful. A -20 hp resistance to fighting Pokemon is nice and can make Gyarados last that much longer since it already has a high 130 hp. The only bad thing about this card is that it has a very high retreat cost of 3 colorless energy cards, so if you are going to play this card, you are more than likely going to play it until it feints unless you want to lose a lot of energy cards by retreating it. But I guess it makes sense that Gyarados would have a high energy cost since its most powerful move takes 5 energy cards and you aren't supposed to be able to retreat Gyarados and then put it back in right away and then use its most powerful move within 1 turn. Gyarados doesn't have any Poke-Body or Poke-Power but it does have 3 moves. The first move, called Tail Revenge, doesn't take any energy cards and does 30x damage for each Magikarp you have in your discard pile. So you most likely won't be able to use this move, if you are good, but if you have more than 1 Gyarados in your deck then this will be able to do at least 30 damage the second time you use Gyarados. Gyarados's second move is called Wreak Havoc and does 40 hp damage for 2 energy cards, 1 colorless, 1 water. Not only does this do 40 hp damage but you can flip a coin and discard the top card of your opponent's deck for each heads you get until you flip a coin. Gyarados's third and most powerful move is called Dragon Beat and does 100 hp damage for a very costly 5 energy cards, 3 colorless and 2 water. Not only does this do major damage, but you also flip a coin and if you get heads you get to discard 1 energy attached to each of your opponent's Pokemon. As far as strategy goes, I would stock up Gyarados with energy cards before I put it has my active Pokemon then I would use Dragon Beat every turn if I had the necessary energy. Another way I would use Gyarados would be to only have the one Gyarados in your deck and save it until the very end of the game when your opponent has few cards in their deck and then use Wreak Havoc to make your opponent lose the game by running out of cards in their deck. I really like this card because it can not only do a lot of hp damage to your opponent but also its two main moves both do other things that benefit Gyarados besides doing damage. So I would definitely consider this card when building a water deck and once again thanks for reading this review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Kingdra Prime from the new Unleashed set.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Uxie Lv. X (Legends Awakened)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Uxie Lv. X from the Legends Awakened set. If you want more information on Lv. X Pokemon click here. For a stage 1 Pokemon card, 90 hp is really average, I thought for a Lv. X card it should have been at least 10 hp higher. A x2 weakness to Psychic Pokemon could be killer especially with a low hp like Uxie had. I wish it would have had a resistance type so it could last a little longer but it doesn't. At least it does have a low retreat cost of 1 colorless energy card. Uxie's Poke-Power Trade Off is the main reason I would use this card, it allows you every turn to look at the top 2 cards of your deck choose one of them and put it into your hand, and put the other one on the bottom of your deck. Just make sure when you use this Poke-Power that you don't use it too much and run out of cards in your deck too soon. I would suggest using this Poke-Power in a deck that you know you can win the game quickly so you can get an extra card from your deck every turn. Uxie's only move Zen Blade is actually a pretty good move, for only 2 colorless energy cards, it allows you to do 60 hp, the only downside is that you can't use Zen Garden the next turn you'll have to use on of the Basic Uxie's moves. As far as strategy goes I would definitely include Uxie Lv. X in just about every deck I made if I want to get as many cards as possible as soon as possible, so if I had Pokemon that needed a lot of energy cards to do attacks Trade Off would be a very good way of getting energy cards quickly, since you would be able to get 2 cards from your deck every turn and then use a supporter or trainer card to get even more energy cards from your deck. I like how Zen Garden needs only colorless energy so you can put Uxie into any type deck, but if you want to attack with Uxie every turn you should put it in a Psychic deck. And if you have Uxie, Azelf, and Mesprit Lv. X all in your deck then you can't utilize Mesprit's move that does 200 hp at once. So thanks for reading my review and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Gyarados from Stormfront.

Pokemon Card of the Day: Darkrai Lv. X (Great Encounters)

Today's Pokemon Card of the Day is Darkrai Lv. X from the Great Encounters set. For more information on Lv. X Pokemon click here. Darkrai Lv. X is a stage 1 Pokemon card and has a little above average hp for one with 100 hp. A x2 weakness is pretty bad for not too high of an hp but at least the weakness is to fighting type Pokemon which aren't too prevalent. A -20 resistance to Psychic Pokemon can help Darkrai last longer since Psychic Pokemon are pretty popular. And I also like that Darkrai has a small energy cost of only 1 colorless energy card so you can retreat it pretty easily. Darkrai's Poke-Body Dark Shadow is amazing, it increases the damage done by any of your dark type Pokemon by 10 hp for each darkness energy card you have attached to that Pokemon. Darkrai's only move Endless Darkness is really powerful it does base damage of 40 hp for only 3 energy cards, 2 darkness, and 1 colorless. It also makes the defending Pokemon asleep and makes them flip two coins to wake up from their sleep, and if either of them is tails the Pokemon is still asleep and if both are tails the defending Pokemon is knocked out. As far as strategy goes this card would be the card I construct my deck around because it is so powerful. I would try to attach 3 darkness energy cards to Darkrai so that when I use Endless Darkness it will be 70 damage instead of the 40 hp damage since I will be using Darkrai's Poke-Body when I perform this move. If I wanted to be really strategic then I would include in my deck some dark type Pokemon that has a really strong move that can do damage to your opponent's benched Pokemon and low or no retreat cost so I could play Darkrai Lv. X and make the defending Pokemon asleep then retreat Darkrai for only one energy card and then move in the strong Pokemon and then attack the bench. Because more than likely at least 1 or 2 turns in a row your opponent's active Pokemon will be asleep and if it does happen to wake up you can just attack it with your Powerful Pokemon. So thanks for reading my card review of Darkrai Lv. X and stay tuned for tomorrow's review of Uxie Lv. X from Legends Awakened.