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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Linoone - Sandstorm


Date Reviewed: 09.17.03

Ratings & Reviews below

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

Otaku
To start off, let me say I buggered up royally yesterday. Having just reviewed Manectric, I guess it was stuck in my head, as I talked about it in combo with Wailord ex and not the real choices: Sandstorm Elekid and and Electabuzz ("Best" Promo or Sandstorm).  Manectric can only nab Lightning Energies with its first attack, but Elekid's first attack is Gather Energy,  which for (L) let's the Elekid search the deck for a basic Energy card and attach it to 1 of your Pokemon.  It then has the new Baby Evolution Poke-Power that let' it "evolve" into an Electabuzz, counting as a normal evolution (thus removing Special Conditions) but also heals all damage that was on Elekid.  This works with Wailord ex thusly: if you cans et up with an active Elekid and benched Wailmer, you can power them up simultaneously, then before Elekid is KO'd (a small opening), you can try to "evolve" it into Electabuzz to give yourself a cleaner and avoid giving your opponent a quick prize.  Tricky, but the best way I can think of to play Wailord ex in Nintendo-only and possibly with the WotC E-card sets (there are some other options in there).  I also forgot the full text for Super Deep Dive. >_<
 
Okay, now for today's show:
 
Name: Linoone
Type: Colorless
Stage: 1 (evolves from Zigzagoon)
HP: 70
Weakness: Fighting
Resistance: None
Retreat: None
Attack#1: (C) Sniffout
Put any 1 card from your discard pile into your hand.
Attack#2: (CC) Fury Swipes [20x]
Flip 3 coins.  This attack does 20 damage times the number of heads.

Again, let's see exactly what is in a name.  There is one other Linoone currently available, from Ruby & Saphirre.  it is very similar to this one, except for three things: it's retreat cost is (C), its first attack selects 2 cards from your deck and not 1 from your discard pile, and its second attack is 40x, where the "x" is the number of heads from flipping a coin until it comes up tails.  It was reviewed at this site on 8/19/03, and recieved mixed marks.  As for me, I see it being incredibly useful in E-on Modified (Expedition on up) and practically a staple for Exon (Nintendo only sets; EX Ruby & Saphirre and up).  This both helps and hurts this version of Linoone.  The downside is, of course, as you can only have four cards named "Linoone" in your deck, that you can thus only total 4 of these guys together.  So running more of one means less of the other.  The upside is that you can run one or two of each of them and then three to four Zigzagoon (which they evolve from), which is much less deck space than we would need if this was, say, a Clefable.  Now we notice that this is a Colorless Pokemon.  In terms of attacking for damage, this is not good: in formats where they are allowed, Unown N and Sprout Tower can drop its damage by 30 each or a total of 60 together!  Fortunately, this card is not one to use for damage.  There is no natural Weakness/Resistance to Colorless Pokemon currently, which tends to balance out.  As a Stage 1, we of course need to have its Basic stage in the deck to play it (other than Brock's Ninetales, which is only legal in Unlimited).  There are two Zigzagoons: both are Colorless Basic Pokemon with 40HP, Fighting Weakness, no Resistance and a Retreat of (C).  There is an obvious choice here in my opinion though: the RS version has Fury Swipes, an okay attack, but the Sandstorm version has two attacks, a straight 20 for CC from Headbutt and you can draw a card for (C) with Collect.  As such, I would go with the Sandstorm version as even if you max out and do 30 with Fury Swipes, it won't KO many non-Baby Pokemon(original WotC versions).  Better to get a card or be able to do a soild 20 a turn if you must attack with it.  As for Linoone's own HP, it has 70, the minimum acceptable for a Stage 1 (anyless and its to easy to KO even sans Weakness).  Sadly, it suffers from Fighting Weakness, possibly the worst Weakness in any Format.  There are so many Fighting Pokemon that can be tossed easily into any deck.  It has no Resistance, which I find poor, since the former choice for colorless, Psychics, are seeming so strong that it would no longer hinder them... however, TPC has done more research on this than me, so I probably should leave it to them. ;)  Linoone does have a free retreat, which is off course the best retreat.  Linoone's first attack, Sniff out, is a powered-up Item Finder.  You have to use up your attack for the turn, of course, but it can grab any one card from your discard pile, and has no discard cost to use.  As I learned against one of those cra... er... "kooky" Unown decks, getting Trainers back from the discard, even in a Format with relatively weak Trainers, is fantastic.  take something that is normally pretty bad, like SER2, and make it useable, or a good but balanced card like Bill and make it seem broken.  Since a used Trainer will of course return to the discard, you can grab it back each turn to use again and again.  This can also nab back precious Special Energy cards and of course Pokemon as well.  The only downsides to the attack are that it is an attack, so you won't be damaging your opponent and you'll have to wait to use the card you grab, and that a card must of course have gone to the discard to be a viable target.  Fury Swipes, while flippy, is a good attack.  This version is priced to average 20, but it actually averages 30, which should cost (CCC).  Its attacks are also both colorless (which I am sure you already noticed) and thus it can be used with just about anything (which I am sure occurred to you, but some people may not have had their morning coffee ;) ).

So, why and how to use this?  Seems to be that the RS version of Linoone is a pretty solid Pokemon, just like this one.  I think that they would work well together.  Use the RS-version's attack to nab every nasty card you have, then change to the Sandstorm version to re-use said cards.  This can be quite powerful: as stated earlier, Trainers like SER2 aren't so bad when you can use a single copy once a turn for 4 turns.  On average, that would be 2 failures, once removing your own energy (no big deal if you plan it right) and once removing all your opponent's active's energy.  Doesn't sound like a big deal?  Imagine if its a fully powered (as in 4 of that energy type) Dark or Metal Pokemon, let alone something like Camerupt that's loaded for a good 3-5 repeated blasts.  Otherwise you can resurrect a useful bit of TecH or nab all those Darkness Energies Sharpedo lost.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1.5/5-It's abilities are still fantastic, but so many things can OHKO it without Weakness or Plus Powers, and ever heavily played offensive Pokemon can and will OHKO it if we do factor those in.

Modified (Neon w/Nintendo): 2.5/5-If it weren't for Tyrogue, then... well, we still have Fighting basics with inexpensive attacks that can be splashed into nearly any deck, so it would still be hard pressed to live long enough to use its attack more than once.

Modified (LC/Eon): 3/5-here is where you tend to be able to pull things like the "infinite" SER2 trick mentioned above.  You could combo it with Expedition Vileplume so you could do some damage (with its poisoning Poke-Power) while recycling some nasty Trainers to keep your opponent off balance (this can be played in Neon but works better here).

Nintendo Only: 3.5/5-This will go up if we some some better non-Supporters.  Still, its great for decks that run Special Energies.  Comboed with its RS sibling, you get "free" Computer Searches and Item Finders.  There are also much fewer free retreaters so it can be more useful here for that and its attack.  Lastly, the slower pace means you can probably keep it alive a little longer if it shows up earlier.

Draft: 4/5-take that one really cool thing your drafted and re-use it!  Without that attack, it still is nice as an inexpensive attacker with a free retreat.

TMP: 3/5-Having a partner to keep up the attack and help heal you means you can take the best Trainers of Neon Modified and use them over and over again.

2-on-2: 3/5-there is twice the chance the the opponent's active will be able to hurt you badly.

Please note that if I make a mistake I will include a small correction in my next CotD.

-Otaku

pERfeCt0ne Linoone (sandstorm)

He can be just as useful as his lovable/useful R/S cousin.

Unlimited-  Besides using him to re-use Removals or get a free IF, he dies too fast.
rating--- 2.25

Modified-  He can help Sableye loop for tons of paralysis.  He could work with shiftry in an ER2 deck.  Besides sniff out, he cant be much of a threat, but with rare candy, you caqn try to use him starting with turn one.  Even if you havent discarded anything yet, he gets back rare candy.
rating--- 3

Draft-  I assume he wouldnt use sniff out very effectively here but he can take a hit or two and retreat.
rating--- 2.375

2 vs. 2-  Use him with Sableye or some combo of you own.  Try him out with pokemon that require kinds of discards.
rating--- 2.5

Multiplayer- Same as in modified really.
rating--- 3
Ralphy
Ralphy-
Both of the Linoones are pretty nice cards. I like that they are bringing the power of the best Base Set Trainers to the Linoones for an attack cost of *C*.
 
Unlimited- His first attack is real nice. A single colorless energy to put any card from your discard into your hand. I don't really see much use for him in Unlimited though because of Item Finder, NGR or even Recycle. If you play Sneasel, Steelix or any other Special Energy, this is one of the only sure ways to get back those Special Energies from the discard. 3/5 because it works nice with Sneasel.
 
Modified- Here all of those trainers I mentioned aren't legal, so this card just got more playable. A good line to run could be a 4-4 Linoone line with 2 from R/S and 2 from Sandstorm. The R/S ones to get your deck started quickly and the other 2 from Sandstorm to clean up in the late game. Get back an important trainer, or an evo that you have the basic for on the bench. 3.75/5 here.
 
Limited- Two words, First Pick. The Zigzagoon from Sandstorm is a real nice draft Basic. One colorless for card drawing and *CC* for 20. If you are drafting with R/S, that Ziggy ain't bad either. *C* for the usual Fury Swipes. Getting back your evolution that got KOed or your best trainer could win you the game. 4.75/5 here.
soslowpoke Linoone Too bad it couldn't be called "Dark Linoone" or something like that then there could be 4 of each in your deck... Well I hate to say it, but this one doesn't live up to the same status as the R/S one. I'd rather get my 2 cards from my deck than my one from the discard pile and I just like the 2nd attack of the R/S one better too. Could be more than useful in team play however.

Ratings: Card-e Modified- 3.7/5

Unlimited- 3/5

Team Multiplayer- 4.2/5

Limited- 3.5/5

Thundachu Linoone-

Overview: This is one of my favorite cards in Sandstorm. For 1 colorless energy you can Sniff Out by putting ANY card from your discard pile back in your hand. Ownage for draft because of the low draw power. Then for 2 colorless energy, flip 3 coins and does 20 for each heads. Love that =x. Weakness to Fighting makes it Tyrogue chow(if your playing in Neon). No resistance is ok(Back in my day, ALL colorless pokemon had resistance to sumthin!! Sure gramps...) 70HP for a stage 1 is ok. Could be a little higher.

Unlimited: 2.5/5

Modified: It is ok here. You can get back non basic energy and such with the 1st attack and Fury Swipes isnt that bad. 3/5

Draft: Being an uncommon makes it pretty easy to draft. And it evolves from Zigzagoon which could also be easy. So this is one of the stage 1 that wont be that hard to draft. I highly suggest it because of Sniff Out. Any kind of draw power is good even if it is from your discard pile. You can get a better draw power trainer back!

 


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