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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Latios - Nintendo Promo


Date Reviewed: 1.27.04

Ratings & Reviews below

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

Thundachu Latios (Nintendo Promo)

Overview: IMO, this isn't a very good card unless you're playing Rainbow deck. Latios' first attack, SuperPsy, does 10 damage for 1 psychic energy. Solid attack, not enough damage. Then the 2nd attack, Freeze Dry, lets you flip a coin and if heads the defending pokemon is paralyzed. 30 damage automaticly. The energy cost is outrageous: 1 water, 1 psychic, and 1 lightning. Weakness to Psychic is hard in Modified espeacilly with the current Gardevoir craze. No resistance. Retreat of 3 is way too high for any basic pokemon, though the 80HP is a nice touch, I still wouldn't play it.

Unlimited: Lets play Lugia(Neo Genesis) AND this =D. *Final scores posted* wow... we didn't win anything =x 1/5

Modified: Short and simple: No. 1.5/5

Draft: Sadly, the time when you can draft promo cards hasn't been invented yet. We can always hope though. But when this time comes, if you are able to draft this, don't play it. N/A

Patriarch
Sorry, Nintendo...I don't know who said it: may it be one individual or everybody as a whole, but who misses promos like the old mewtwo? Not to be TOO much of a spike...it's just that the only fun or entertaining NEW promos I've seen were the Groudon and Kyogre, but those are a tad clunky, we'll say. How do these compare? Well, we'll just see, kiddos.

80 HP is pretty nice for a basic! However, the attacks are seriously lacking. Super Psy (10 for P) is average, and Freeze Dry (30 and tails-fails paralysis for WLP) is a bit tough. Lady Outing COULD solve that, I suppose, but meh.

Unlimited (1.75/5): Argh, this thing could be eaten alive by Sprout Tower, and all those other cards that don't like Colorless pokes. Not to mention that its retreat is 3 =/

Modified (2.25/5): I don't see it working...at all. Any Psychic will totally annihilate this dude! Regular Gardevoir has the beef to OHKO it, as do Wobbuffet and Espeon, the last two are played often enough for that to count.

Draft (hardee-harhar!/5): You can't draft this kiddie! That is, unless some newbs ages and ages from now play a vintage draft, thinking that this is from a set ;P.

Otaku

Name: Latios

Set/Card#: Nintendo Promo #015

Type: Colorless

Stage: Basic

HP: 80

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: CCC

Attack#1: (P) Super Psy [10]

Attack#2: (WPL) Freeze Dry [30]

Flip a coin.  If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.

 

Attributes: It’s the only “plain” Latios out right now.  It is a Basic, you can drop it into play at anytime if you bench has room.  It is Colorless, which is pretty in good in Modified-no Resistance, but now there is Weakness.  In Unlimited, you see few Colorless Weak Pokémon, and there are two cards that each can reduce damage done by Colorless Pokémon by 30 (and they do stack, so it can drop by 60)” Sprout Tower and Unown N.  80 HP is good for a Basic.  Weakness to Psychic is not in either format: Gardevoir ex is considered to be top dog by many for Modified, and Mewtwo ex has a good presence in both.  There is no Resistance (grrrr…) so I will move onto the retreat.  It is three.  This is not happy-just high enough to cause problems more often than not.  Run this with an alternative means of benching it, or let it go down swinging.

 

Abilities: Super Psy is over-priced: pay for 15, get 10.  I know they don’t deviate from multiples of 10, but they could have made it a Psyshock attack for (P) that did 10 with a 50% chance to paralyze, and it would have been fair.  Freeze dry is worse-you pay for at least 40 and a chance to paralyze, but only get 30.  With needing three different energy types, get the 45 we’d expect for three colored energy requirements and then maybe 10 more for being three different types… so 50 with paralysis would be fair.  So yeah, both attacks are over priced separately and really bad together.

 

Uses/Combinations: I guess you might consider it in Sceptile TecH-which usually runs enough Rainbows that it can shuffle 3 onto Latios to pay for its attack.  80 HP would make it easier to time a Pokémon Nurse for it.  Still, Zangoose is just 10 HP less, but only one retreat, and has much better abilities.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5-Use a Jungle Lickitung or Kangaskhan over this.

 

Modified: 1.5/5-Just use Zangoose.

 

Limited: 2/5-If you could somehow draft it-3 color decks are not unheard of, and it is a big basic with an over-priced but solid attack.

 

2-on-2: 1/5-Like Modified, but it dies faster.

 

Summary

You expect a promo this bad in Yu-Gi-Oh, not Pokémon.  You know, when you bust open a prize back and get something like this instead of (tries to think of Pokémon equivalent)… the possible DR Charizard?  Guess that was a bad analogy, but my pain is funny, so I’ll leave it in. ;)

 

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