Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Wailord EX - Sandstorm

Date Reviewed: 09.15.03

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.

Well, this is certainly a historical card.  Let's take a peek and see why.  Again, it is one of the newer Pokemon introduced in Ruby/Sapphire.  This means that if we use it we have few cards we have to sacrifice (other than normal deck space all cards eat up).  There is only one other Wailord (not an ex, but they evolve from the same card).  Its is a Stage 1 Water ex Pokemon.  There are a good deal of Water Stage 1 Pokemon, even if we use Nintendo only.  As an ex it will lose two prizes, which is one reason why it compensates with a whopping 200HP, but we'll come back to the HP in a bit.  Its Basic stage is Wailmer, of which you have two choices.  Both are 80 HP, with Electric Weakness, no Resistance and retreats of CCC.  Neither are thrilling, though the Sandstorm version can attack with 2 of any other color energy and needs just one Water and two colorless to do 30 with auto-sleep.  The Ruby/Sapphire version has Rest and Watergun... and Rest is not like the GB (it only heals 40 damage).  200HP is quite a bit: in fact, it appears to be the new maximum.  That 200HP sounds insurmountable, but if you a solid attacker, it is doubtful to survive 4 hits.  So, like all the Pokemon ex, you have to have some sort of healing on hand if you wish to avoid two prizes for you opponent.  With healing though, it can last much, much longer.  They have sought to balance out the HP with dual Weakness (present on the other Pokemon ex with HP's exceeding 120).  Wailord ex gets hit hard: Lighting and Grass.  Now add that most formats (and potential formats) have some decent, hard-hitting basic of one or both of those types, and popular decks also built around one of them.  Some Examples?  Base Set Electabuzz averages 70 damage a turn after Weakness, and Jungle Scyther 60.  3 hits from 'buzz and 4 from Scyther and it bites the dust.  Barring energy removal, that would be 4 energy, 2 Pokemon and prizes versus 4 energy, 2 Pokemon and prizes if you have two of either basic "suicide" a Wailord ex.  Without the Weaknesses, a strong attacker can also take it down in 3-4 hits.  The worse Resistance is no Resistance. =/ Perhaps it was feared that it would render the appropriate deck type unplayable... that and the fact that Water almost never has a Resistance anyway.  The retreat cost is also record breaking: 5 energy.  Do not pay for the retreat unless your giving your opponent 2 prizes without doing so.  Thankfully, this is where the first attack can be handy.  If you've got a bench, you can bench Wailord ex and promote something in its stead.  You also remove 3 damage counters.  This can be good if you were in an awkward place an had to evolve from an injured, active Wailmer.  Then we get to the attack that has been exciting many.  Dwindling Wave does a base 100 damage.  Sadly, it does 10 less for each damage counter on it.  So once Wailmer is half dead, your attack does nothing.  Now, if you have a bench, you can use submerge... to get to a 30 damage version of the attack. -_- (WWWC) for 100 is great.  It stays good until it drops to 50 (since (WWWC) is approximately 55).  After that its kind of sad.

I can't think of many combos for Wailord ex: the most obvious, for Unlimited, to use it with Blastoise in a Raindance deck.  Problem is, one hit from most attackers in Unlimited would drop your damage to a pitiful amount, so you'd have to use Super Deep Dive and hope to avoid a GoW or some healing cards, most of which would flush your energy down the drain.  Once or twice is no problem for a Raindance, but after a the third time you start hurting for energies unless you are only powering this card up.  Mr.. Fuji (particularly if you have a benched Cleffa) might be your best bet.  Switch or Warp Energy to the bench and Fuji it and all its energy back into the deck.  Another possible option is to combo it with Slowking and turn it into a baby porter with Super Deep Dive.  For most other formats, if you have a helper (say the Manectric from yesterday, or Swellow for a free-retreater) to power up two of these bad boys fast, by the time both of them are two weak too attack well, you probably have won the game.  They might not need any help powering up either, when not facing something they are weak to.  It's best use is probably as "TecH" with the plain Wailord, and opening act for comparatively fast damage.

Ratings

Unlimited: 2.5/5.  Maybe in the above decks, though the other Wailord my be better as its slight;y higher attack gives a flat 70 damage and it is not Weak to Grass.  OH, and while only 120 HP, it isn't an ex.

Modified (Neon w/Nintendo): 2.5/5.  Same rating, as the two decks that maximized it are illegal here.  On is own, it might have a shot, but not really fast enough for Encargo or Jumpluff... let alone everyone would add Rainbow Energies and Best of Play Electabuzz's if it did prove solid. 

Modified (LC-on/E-on): 3/5.  Less competition makes this and its possible decks a tad more likely to survive.  The pace is slower too.  The cards in LC don''t really help or hurt it much, so I merged the categories.  Hiding on the bench is easier too.

Nintendo Only: 3.5/5.  Could be a contender here.  Less competition yet really pumps it up.  Watch out for Scyther and 'Buzz ex.

Team Multi-Player: 2/5.  Like Neon, but with twice the chance of getting hit by Electabuzz.

2-on-2: 3/5.  Like Nintendo-only, but with two guys beating on you, even the extra support can't hide the fact that Dwindling Wave will get really weak really fast.

Draft: 3.5/5.  The Wailmer in this set appears to be a decent draft candidate.  An 80HP basic that can do 20 for CC and 30 with Auto-sleep for WCC can be nice on is own.  So if you then get the Wailord ex, it should be able to net you 3 prizes, maybe even the game before fainting.

Hmm, overall, it scored fairly similar to Manectric.  Hope I aren't already in a rut...

-Otaku