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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Ludicolo Lv. 47

Diamond & Pearl
Secret Wonders

 

Date Reviewed: 11.27.07

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 1.00
Modified: 1.67
Limited: 2.75

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


Jermy101
2005 World
Champion

Check out my eBay Store
Ludicolo

Unlimited - Bad bad bad. You could rain dance waters on this guy unlike yesterday's COTD, but why would you want to? Just rain dance on to Suicune ex. 1/5

Modified - 100 HP on a stage 2 is bad these days. Its Poke-Body may not come in handy with how easily Ludicolo can be OHKOed. Your opponent won't play a stadium once he sees the Lotad hit the bench, because Confusion can be scary. Besides, stadiums aren't really played much anymore. Even if you play your own stadiums so Ludi can do 80 damage, that's still only mediocre damage on a mediocre Pokemon. Shoebox card :(. 2/5

Limited - Pokemon in limited usually attack for wimpy amounts of damage, so Rain Dish will be very helpful. On the other hand, good luck getting out a Stage 2! 2/5

Otaku

Name/LV: Ludicolo LV.47

Set/#: Secret Wonders 13/132

Rarity: Holographic Rare (Super Rare)

Type: Water

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Lombre)

HP: 100

Weakness: (L) +30

Resistance: None

Retreat Cost: CC

Poké-Body: Rain Dish

At any time between turns, remove 1 damage counter from Ludicolo.

Attack: (WWC) Nature Power [60+]

If you have a Stadium card in play, this attack does 60 damage plus 20 more damage.  If your opponent has a Stadium card in play, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused.

Name/LV: Lombre LV.26

Set/#: Secret Wonders 54/132

Rarity: Uncommon

Type: Water

Stage: 1 (Evolves from Lotad)

HP: 70

Weakness: (L)+20

Resistance: None

Retreat Cost: C

Attack#1: (CC) Torment [20]

Flip a coin.  If heads, your opponent can’t play Supporter cards from his or her hand during his or her next turn.

Attack#2: (WW) Absorb [40]

Remove 2 damage counters from Lombre.

Name/LV: Lotad LV.13

Set/#: Secret Wonders 92/132

Rarity: Common

Type: Water

Stage: Basic

HP: 50

Weakness: (L)+10

Resistance: None

Retreat Cost: C

Attack#1: (W) Water Sport [10+]

If Lotad has less Energy attached to it than the Defending Pokémon, this attack does 10 damage plus 20 more damage.

Attack#2: (WC) Ram [20]

 

Attributes: Ludicolo is a Water Type, giving it a natural advantage against most Fire-Type Pokémon as they are rarely anything but Water Weak.  It will also give you a leg up against a handful of Fighting-, Lightning-, and Psychic-Type Pokémon plus one each of Metal- and Dark-Type Pokémon (both a kind of Charizard).  Granted, few of the cards I saw that were Water Weak and not Fire-Types are apt to be played.  Resistance to Water attacks is still somewhat rare, though it does exist and thus if you plan to run any Water deck, it would be good to familiarize oneself with said Pokémon.

 

As a Stage 2 Pokémon, you will of course have to run at least the Basic Ludicolo eventually Evolves from, Lotad, and will also probably run at least one copy of its Stage 1 predecessor, Lombre.  The newest Lotad has average stats for a Diamond & Pearl era Basic that Evolves twice, and somewhat disappointing attacks: given its small stature and standing as a Basic, how often will you want it to be facing an opponent with more than one Energy on their Active?  Not very.  For that matter, you’d probably only have it Active your first or second turn, and at that point, your opponent will probably have one or no Energy on their own Active.  At least it says Energy and not “Energy cards” so if someone does drop a Double Rainbow Energy or Holon’s Castform on their Active, you can smack them good.  Ram has you paying for 25 points of Energy and receiving 20, so I assume the disappointing Water Sport attack was expected to be a bit more potent.  The Lombre from this set fairs slightly better: its Torment attack would be great except half the time it just does the 20 damage you paid for (in terms of Energy).  Stage 1 Pokémon, even when they further Evolve, generally deserve a bit of a cost break.  Even as a free effect, this is a let down.  Oh, denying Supporter card usage is very potent, but only if it is reliable.  Otherwise, a well made deck will have enough Poké-Powers, Poké-Bodies, and Trainers to get by for a turn.  Plus, if it fails before it works, they’ve already begun to set up and Lombre is apt to be KO’d before it can attack again: it has somewhat low HP for a Stage 1 nowadays, with the rest of its attributes being average.  The mere 70 HP also hurts the second attack: while 40 damage is good for just two Water Energy and even better when it includes a free “Potion” effect, if you get OHKO’d what does it really matter?  As for what I recommend a player uses, still go with the newest Lotad simply because it uses the new Weakness rules and is thus less apt to be OHKO’d.  I would use a mixture of the two Lombre: the newer version for the same reason the newer Lotad, the older version because it can discard Trainer cards attached to the Defending Pokémon, which is pretty vital if you are low of Windstorm.  If you have four copies of Windstorm and can easily make room for them in your deck, go pure Secret Wonders.

 

Ludicolo has 100 HP, which is small for a Stage 2.  It has a bad (but not the worst) Lightning Weakness at plus 30.    This means it can be smacked around by things like a normally Bench-sitting Magneton in Hurricane decks.  Realistically, though, it has to worry about Electivire the most.  This is due both to the actual prowess of Electivire as well as the residual popularity of Electabuzz: it and Scyther were featured early on in the Pokémon cartoon and it was considered “rare” in Red and wasn’t in Blue or Yellow at all.  On top of that, players from the early days of the TCG remember that Base Set Electabuzz was a force to be reckoned with.  Ludicolo’s HP and Weakness aren’t so bad that it becomes an easy OHKO, but it certainly doesn’t help.  Sadly, there is no Resistance balancing this out, and as usual I find that annoying: Resistance is a part of Pokémon, and especially under the new rules no more difficult to understand than Weakness.  Last for attributes, let us look at the Retreat Cost: two Energy is low enough you can Retreat but high enough you won’t want to, so in the end it is “average”.

 

Abilities: Ludicolo has a Poké-Body and a single attack.  The Poké-Body helps to offset its lower HP score a little: between turns you can remove a damage counter from Ludicolo at any time.  This will frustrate widespread but low damage themed decks, but won’t help against big damage decks.  Even against moderate damage decks, it might not be enough: 100 damage is pretty easy to do when it comes down to other top Evolutions.  Still, let me point out a bright side: you choose exactly when to use Rain Dish between turns: if you wanted to let Poison KO your Ludicolo, hey, you can.  That may seem lame, but if we ever get any of the classic “remove damage counters between turns” Berry Pokémon Tools back, it gives a very realistic reason why the control matters: choose whether or not to keep damage to trigger the Berry when it is most desirable.  No threats on the horizon?  Drop the damage and save the Berry.  Yes, all this assumes you are only damaged to the exact minimum trigger point and one damage counter matters, but it is something.

 

The Nature Power attack is hurt by the prevalence of Windstorm: people have once again cut back on Stadiums.  I have always advocated Stadium use, and any deck wanting to use Pokémon Tools would be smart to include some annoying or otherwise useful Stadiums as “bait” for Windstorm (just don’t be silly and lay both Stadium and Tool out at once).  Still, you can always add a few good Stadiums to your deck to act as “double” Plus Powers due to the attacks effect and 80 for three Energy is then pretty solid.  If the opponent actually runs Stadiums, Confusion can be very handy against many big, hard to KO Pokémon.

 

So both abilities are pretty solid, but nothing special, and given the attributes, this is a problem.

 

Uses and Combinations: This could be run with a single copy of Ludicolo δ, as that would give you an edge against any remaining Pokémon-ex decks or Fire Weak decks.  Scott makes it easy to get several Stadiums to your hand quickly while simultaneously thinning your deck.  There are several Stadium cards that can disrupt common deck themes at the moment like Battle Frontier and Crystal Beach, plus Glacia’s Stadium is a must given your Weakness.  Lake Boundary could be good when you are the other decks Weakness, and I just love using Speed Stadium, though I tend to flip mostly heads.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5 – My review for Modified has a distinctly negative tone, and there is nothing here that suggests Unlimited would be anything but a worse place to use this card.

 

Modified: 2/5 – You could probably make an “okay” deck with it, but it would be because you love Ludicolo.

 

Limited: 3.5/5 – The healing effect has a chance to kick in often here, though there are no Stadiums to benefit the attack.

 

Summary

This Ludicolo isn’t especially bad, it just isn’t especially good either, lacking anything potent enough to warrant it being a deck focus, and lacking anything to make it a worthwhile support Pokémon.

 

-Otaku

 

Alex Bramham

UK Nationals Finalist 2007
Ludicolo

Sadly there isn't much to say about this card :( Nothing about it shines above any other cards it's simply a poor combination of an average and body that just aren't going to win games. Near bottom score does seem harsh but I just don't see how any deck could incorporate this into a strategy not outclassed by other cards!

1/5

Greenzan
goose
Ludicolo Lv.47 SW
 
Hello, today’s COTD is Ludicolo A.K.A the dance pokemon. This is one of my favorite pokemon off all time, whenever I think of this pokemon I think of this DDR song (Dance Dance Remix) (*Link*) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs7i8j48EJ4 (*Link*) Alright, now that the dancing is out of the way. Today’s Ludicolo is the new one from the SW set, but, it falls just short of the standard put up by the rest of the pokemon is the set. The HP needs to be bigger, 100 HP on a stage 2 is too small. The attack is O.K. as long as you hold the stadium, you do 80. As long as your opponent holds the stadium you do 60 and confuse. Add this with the many useful stadiums out and you could do 80 per turn without discard, flips, Ect… (Too bad, if it was 90 or 100 per turn I would be a lot quicker to use it.) The retreat cost is big, but expected for such a large pokemon, if you’ve ever tried to move your friend after a big party you know why this card has a large retreat cost. The poke-body on this guy is slightly less useful than it should be, even though you could make your pokemon 10 – 20 from being KOed it doesn’t matter much with so many plus-powers and strength charms everywhere. If it was 2 damage counters in between turns then we might have a much better pokemon. The weakness is O.K. as the only noteworthy electric pokemon right now is really Electrivire (Please don’t send angry letters saying otherwise, this is just an opinion.) And he either does 60 or 120, 60 can’t OHKO you with weakness and 120 could OHKO you without it anyways.
 
Pros –
80 damage with few strings
Heals 1 in between turns
Good weakness
 
Cons –
Lowish HP
Highish retreat cost
 
Unlimited – Nope, stage 2 = no good 1/5
 
Modified – could work if put together with things like potion, buffer piece, Ect. 3.75/5
 
Limited – A pokemon that heals itself? Almost unkillable in limited? Yes please! 4.75/5
 
*Dances to music*… *Stops to finish COTD*… *Continues dancing*,
 
“Mental Floss prevents Moral Decay.”
Raichu88
My name is Ludicolo
I look like a duck combined with a tree
But with my Poke-Body
You can remove damage from me
 
 
Unlimited: DX version is the best Ludicolo out there.
 
Rating : 1/5
 
 
Modified: Too high cost for such a low attack and 100 hp isn't that much in the current Metagame. That and Electivire is still around.
 
Rating : 1/5
 
 
Limited: If you can get it up and keep healing yourself this card rocks and it's attacks are quite good in Limited.
 
Rating : 2/5
 
 
Raichu88

 


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