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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day


 

Rocket’s Articuno ex - TRR


Date Reviewed: 01.03.05

Ratings & Reviews below

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


Otaku

If you think this review is too long to read, just skip straight to the scores and then read the summary for a concise overview!

 

Name: Rocket’s Articuno ex

Set: EX: Team Rocket Returns

Card#: 96/109

Rarity: Pokémon ex

Type: Darkness

Stage: Basic

HP: 100

Weakness: Metal

Resistance: None

Retreat: (C)

Poké-Body: Darkness Veil

As long as Rocket’s Articuno ex has any (D) Energy attached to it, prevent all effects, except damage, by an opponent’s attack done to Rocket’s Articuno.

Attack#1: (C) Freeze Solid [10]

Search your discard pile for a (W) Energy card and attach it to Rocket’s Articuno ex.

Attack#2: (WWC) Ice Wing [50]

 

Attributes: Being a Rocket’s Pokémon is good: you gain access to a lot of built in combos.  Being a Pokémon ex tends to be a bad thing: you get more power, but at a steep price: you lose two prizes instead of one.  Rocket’s Articuno ex so far has one thing going for it and one thing going against it.  As we continue, we see that it is a Darkness-Type Pokémon.  I would think they could have made it dual-typed, but at least if it gets stuck with only one type, it’s Darkness, which means nothing Resistant, a small number of Pokémon that are Weak to it, and most important of all, the ability to get extra damage from Darkness Energy.

 

Rocket’s Articuno ex is a Basic Pokémon.  This is the best: long as there is room, you can drop it into play.  It has 100 HP.  For a Pokémon ex, this is not a happy number.  It more or less breaks even with 90 HP, so it is acceptable, but due to the large amount of Desert Ruins being played, there are many times when this thing will seem like it only has 90, 80, sometimes even less HP as those damage counters from said Stadium pile up.  Fortunately, there are many excellent Rockets’ Stadiums to run as counters.  More on that later.  You shouldn’t really expect more HP: this is just 10 less than Articuno ex, and just 20 under [the current] maximum 120 HP seen on Basic Pokémon ex.

 

Moving onto the bottom stats, we see a mixed blessing: Metal Weakness.  Right now, no real Metal deck stands out.  Don’t misunderstand, there are a few that are quite nasty, but they haven’t yet proven themselves to be tier one decks.  Against those decks, Rocket’s Articuno ex is pretty much D.O.A.: they’ll soak any damage you do and probably OHKO you in response.  The slight upside is that Metal is nearly impossible to effectively TecH into most decks.  So in the end, we have a more or less “average” Weakness.  The Resistance, on the other hand, is the worst: nothing.  Considering Fighting Pokémon seem to specialize in ignoring Weakness/Resistance anymore, you’d think they’d at least give it that.  The last bottom stat is a great Retreat of one: as long as you wouldn’t be discarding something really important, it’s usually no problem to retreat.

 

Abilities: Rocket’s Articuno ex has a Poké-Body and two attacks.  The Poké-Body, Darkness Veil, is reasonably good.  Yes, it does require something providing at least one (D) be attached, but that is easy enough: Rainbow Energy is in most decks, and since you get the damage bonus, you probably would run a few in a deck with this anyway.  The effect is wonderful: Special Conditions won’t affect you.  Tricks like Smokescreen’s “make them flip to attack effect” won’t work.  You’ll only have to worry about damage management.  I guess there is one other downside: weird attacks that, for example, heal the Defending Pokémon won’t work on you.

 

The first attack, Freeze Solid, is good.  It can use any Energy, so you can drop a Darkness Energy and hit for 20 damage first turn.  More importantly, if you can somehow get a Water Energy into the discard first turn (other than by Retreating), you’ll just need to use your normal Water Energy attachment next turn to hit for a solid 60.  Speaking of which, Ice Wing is a nice, straight damage attack: 50 for (WWC) means a 10 damage bonus.  Unfortunately, here is where things hit a snag.  First, since it needs more than one Water Energy, Ice Wing doesn’t lend itself to a Darkness-Type Rocket’s Pokémon as well.  If it were (WCC), especially with the same damage, it’d be real slick: drop a Water, then even if you couldn’t use Freeze Solid First turn, you could drop an R Energy and do a quick 60.  Oh well.  The only reason to justify this being a Pokémon ex is solid HP (all recent Legendary Birds tend to clock in at 60 to 70 HP), and the combination of the two attacks and the Poké-Body.  The fact that you get the effect of Freeze Solid “for free” (you only paid for 10 damage with it) and that damage bonus to Ice Wing could be attributed to this card lacking pre-Evolutions or Evolutions.  In other words, its merely average for a Pokémon ex.

 

Uses/Combinations: If you are running a Dark/Water Deck, especially if it fits a Rocket Theme, consider this.  Otherwise, I might consider this on its own, teamed with Sandstorm Xatu to heal it, and Energy Draw Delcatty for speed, just because you’d be able to set up and attack relatively quickly and (assuming you have something providing (D) on it) you’d mainly just have to fend off OHKO’s: the Xatu would deal with damage while Darkness Veil handled anything else an attack could do.

 

Please refer to recent Pokémon CotDs if you are unfamiliar with the recent string of Rocket’s supporting cards.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 3.25/5-Given all the inherent support, you could always slap it with something like Dark Vileplume, then hope that you could just set up fast and OHKO most threats.  You would also stand a chance of re-setting up fast… the only real downside would be the double prize loss… or if you opponent out paces you.

 

Modified: 3/5-I just can’t think of a deck that really needs it, and yet, despite some of my complaints, it’s technically solid.  Maybe I am just being soft.

 

Limited: 3.75/5-Good here.  Special Conditions and other attack effects tend to become lethal here.  If you can actually snag two or three Dark Metal Energy, consider it a 4/5. On its own, it will just be a reasonably solid big Basic Pokémon ex that can power itself up a turn faster if there is Water Energy in the discard.  The only reason not to use it is if you aren’t running Water.  Just watch out for Dark Steelix.

 

Summary

Rocket’s Articuno ex needs a good home.  If you find it, it could be something special.  Chances are it will just be something pretty to go in your binder, or fill a spot in a Water deck while waiting for something better.

 

 


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