Flareon -- Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Flareon from the Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Set.  Flareon is a stage 1, fire type Pokemon card, with an hp of 90.  It has a x2 weakness to water type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a one colorless energy card retreat cost.  Flareon doesn't have an Ability, but it does have two moves, the first move is called Sand-Attack which takes one colorless energy card and does 20 damage, plus if your opponent tries to attack the next turn after using Sand-Attack if they get a tails when they flip a coin they can't attack.  Flareon's second move is called Fire Slash and for three energy cards, two colorless and one fire, it does 60 damage plus 30 more damage if you decide to discard a fire energy card from Flareon.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since this card doesn't have an Ability on it, I would recommend using Flareon as soon as you get one energy card on it, I would preferably use Fire Slash every turn but if you only have one or two energy cards on Flareon you don't have much of a choice.  I would however either consider putting 4 or 5 energy cards on Flareon or having plenty of fire energy cards in your hand so that you could do 90 damage every turn with Fire Slash since you'd have enough energy cards every turn to use Fire Slash.  Since this card requires mainly colorless energy cards I would include this card in a deck with more than one type and I would definitely consider putting another Eevee-evolution in this deck, so I would include 4 Eevees and then a couple of each Eevee-evolution you want to use.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 4 out of 5 rating. Even though this card has an average hp, weakness, and retreat cost, I like how Flareon can do 90 damage every turn and then if it is close to being knocked out, you have a 50/50 chance of preventing your opponent from attacking the next turn by using Sand-Attack, I think this is a solid stage 1 card, and I would consider it for any fire type deck I may make.

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

Crustle -- Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Crustle from the Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Set.  Crustle is a stage 1, grass type Pokemon card with an hp of 110.  It has a x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a three colorless energy card retreat cost.  Crustle does not have an Ability but it does have two moves, the first move is called Cut and for two energy cards, one each of grass and colorless, it does 30 damage.  Crustle's second move is called Heavy Bullet which takes three energy cards, two colorless and one grass, and does 70 damage, plus 20 more damage to one of your opponent's benched Pokemon if you get a heads when you flip a coin.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, since this card doesn't have an Ability on it, I would recommend using Crustle as soon as you get two energy cards on it, I would preferably use Heavy Bullet every turn but if you only have two energy cards on Crustle you don't have much of a choice.  I would include this card in a dual type deck since it requires mainly colorless energy cards to attack, I would also make sure that there are spread damage type cards in the deck so if you get a heads when you use Heavy Bullet you could possibly knock out one of your opponent's benched Pokemon.  Since Crustle is only a stage 1 Pokemon, I would only have a 2-1 line of Dwebble and Crustle in a deck.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 4 out of 5 rating. Even though this card isn't too great, I am still going to give this card an above average rating, I like how it has 20 more hp than most stage 1 Pokemon, and its move that requires three energy cards does 10 more and possibly 30 more damage than most moves that require three energy cards.  The only bad thing about this card is that it is somewhat slow and has a high retreat cost.

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

Scyther -- Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Scyther from the Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Set.  Scyther is a basic, grass type Pokemon card, with an hp of 80.  It has a x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon, no resistance type, and a 1 colorless energy card retreat cost.  Scyther doesn't have an Ability and it only has one move called Air Slash which takes three colorless energy cards and does 60 damage, however you must discard an energy card attached to Scyther after using Air Slash.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, I would recommend evolving Scyther into Scizor if you can, there isn't a Scizor card in any of the Black and White sets to date, but there are some Scizor cards in the HG/SS sets, and since Scyther only requires colorless energy cards, it doesn't matter what type Scizor may be.  But if you only have Scyther in your deck or have to put it into the active Pokemon spot you'll want to have some energy cards attached to it already so you can attack with Air Slash fairly quickly, also make sure to have plenty of energy cards in your hand or more than three energy cards attached to Scyther so you can attack every turn, instead of having to wait several turns until you're able to attach another energy card to Scyther.  I would only put 1 or 2 Scyther cards in a deck maximum.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 2 out of 5 rating. Even though this card has a low retreat cost, and can do a fair amount of damage with any type of energy cards, I am still going to give this card a below average rating, it is too slow for my likes and if you spend the time to get three energy cards on Scyther you may get knocked out quite soon since it only has 80 hp.  So I would only use this card with extreme caution.

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

Ivysaur -- Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Review

Pokemon Card Overview:
Today's Pokemon Card Review is of Ivysaur from the Dark Explorers Pokemon Card Set.  This is the first of several more uncommon Dark Explorers Pokemon card reviews I'll be doing. Ivysaur is a stage 1, grass type Pokemon card, with an hp of 90.  It has a x2 weakness to fire type Pokemon, a -20 resistance to water type Pokemon, and a three colorless energy card retreat cost.  Ivysaur doesn't have an Ability but it does have two moves, the first move is called Sleep Powder and for two energy cards, one each of grass and colorless, it does 20 damage and puts the defending Pokemon to sleep.  Ivysaur's second move is called Poison Powder which takes three energy cards, two grass and one colorless, does 50 damage and poisons the defending Pokemon.

Pokemon Card Strategy:
So as far as strategy goes, you'll definitely want to evolve Ivysaur into Venusaur as soon as possible so you can do more damage and take more damage since Venusaur has a much higher hp.  I would preferably leave Ivysaur on the bench until I could evolve it into Venusaur but if you have to put Ivysaur into play, depending on the number of energy cards you have on Ivysaur will depend on the move you do.  I would use Poison Powder more often than Sleep Powder because it does more damage but if the defending Pokemon has more than 100 hp I would consider using Sleep Powder first and then Poison Powder after that.  One thing to keep in mind when moving Ivysaur from your bench to the active Pokemon spot is that it does have a high retreat cost so if you don't think you'll be able to evolve into Venusaur soon I would recommend not moving Ivysaur into that active Pokemon spot.

Pokemon Card Rating:
I would give this card a 3 out of 5 rating.  This is a pretty average stage 1 Pokemon card, and surprisingly I wouldn't be too worried if I actually had to use it for awhile during the game, I think it could hold its own.  I like how both of its moves inflict special conditions and does damage, but Ivysaur is slow and doesn't have too high of an hp.

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