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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Jigglypuff13	11/18 Salamence Lv.66 (SF)   Hello, and welcome to Tuesday, and our COTD today in the form of Salamence. To start off with, the basics of the card, and first of all, it has a rather nice, rather tank-like 140 HP, which means if it doesn't survive a hit or two, something has gone seriously wrong. However, while it may remind you of a great tank, Torterra (DP), it won't be the same since Salamence has no real tanking attacks. Not as though that's a bad thing or anything, I just felt like I should point it out. +30 Colorless Weakness isn't too bad really, with there only being a few good Colorless Pokémon at the moment (mainly Blissey (MT) and Garchomp (MT) really), so it shouldn't be so bad at the moment. -20 Fighting Resistance is nice, but again, there aren't many good Fighting Pokémon being played at the moment, though Machamp (SF) will be played a lot, so the Resistance will be helpful. Gallade (SW) is still around, somewhere, so the Resistance will be helpful there as well, but Machamp is the main one. The Retreat Cost is pretty hefty. 3 Retreat Cost means you will want to pack a fair few Switches/Warp Points into your deck to make sure you can get Salamence to the (relative) safety of the bench when you want.   Abilities, and the big one here is it's Poké-Body, Battle Rush. For those who haven't read the card, what it does is remove all Colorless energy requirements from this Salamences attacks if your opponent has a Pokémon in play with a maximum HP of at least 120. With the average HP for a Stage 2 always looking as though it's increasing, and Blissey (MT) and a couple of other tanking Stage 1's with large HP around, Battle Rush is very useful. However, there are a couple of big decks that will not active Battle Rush. The biggest two of the lot are Raichu (SF) and Gengar (SF). Gengar is the worst for this due to it's Resistance to Colorless, but a simple Plus Power or even Weavile (SW) will quickly turn an otherwise 2HKO into a OHKO with Steam Twister (to be talked about later). Combustion is you standard sort of beatdown attack, which is good for the energy cost. 50 for RC or 50 for R with Battle Rush activated. Clearly, it won't ever be the main attack, but if you can KO something with this attack, it will be a good idea so you don't waste any energies. Steam Twister, though, it obviously the main attack. 120 for WRCC or WR with Battle Rush activated, is very nice, but you do have to discard a R and a W energy in order to use the attack. This wouldn't be so bad if there was an easy way of getting Water Energies back, but there isn't. For Fire, with have Typhlosion (MT) which can then be Energy Link-ed from the bench to Salamence straight away, but Water is the problem. There's always Energy Pick-up, but that's flippy, and is limited to only 4 uses. Rotom (MD) might be a good idea. It may use an attack, so will probably have to be sacrificed in order to use Dual Trans, but is a way of getting Water energies back. Another idea might be to use Night Maintenance (which you should be anyway) to get energies back into the deck, then use Togekiss (GE) to Serene Grace the energies back to Salamence.   Actually, out of all of the ideas of getting energies onto Salamence, Togekiss is probably one of the best, but only if you get lucky. If you are able to get at least a couple of Water and Fire energies onto Salamence, then that's set Steam Twister up for a couple of turns at least. However, there is still the problem of getting the energies back, and Salamence will burn (pun not intended) through them quickly. Rotom is probably the best here again, though it will be a sacrifice if you are going down that route. If ony we still had Magneton (PK), since that would've been quite nice with Leafeon Lv.X (MD) to accelerate Salamence.   Survivability, well, with 140 HP, it should survive at least one hit, though probably 2. The Resistance makes it a bit harder for Machamp, which is going to be helpful, the Colorless weakness makes it a little easier for the come back of Blissey, and for Garchomp. also actually makes it a little easier for anyone who may be playing Togekiss as an energy accelerator in their deck.   Ratings:   Modified: I truely like this card. However, I'd like it more if there was an easy way of getting the Water energies back for Steam Twister. Without it, it will only be a decent rouge, which isn't exactly a bad thing. With it, I'm certain it would be an archetype. Largely played or not, I'm not sure, but it would be a threat in the metagame. Togekiss and Rotom do help it a little, but not enough. 3/5   Limited: Battle Rush will almost always never be in effect. However, it doesn't matter too much since Combustion will take care of most of the Pokémon you find here in 2 attacks. If you ever do find Salamence up against your opponents big hitter, Steam Twister followed by Combustion with 2HKO everything bar Dusknoir Lv.X. 140 HP will see Salamence survive for a while, though you will need to be careful against an Colorless types you find yourself up against. However, Salamence will be a little hard to get out, but with Great Ball, Luxury Ball and Poké Drawer +, it's easier than a Stage 2 in any other pre-release. 3.5/5
Narctiss	The dragon pokemon Salamence! As usual, straight in. I'll let everyone else do the essays! ^_^ Colourless - Okay, but there's nothing really weak against it right now... HP 140 - Good for current Stage 2's. Weakness: +30 Colourless. Unless up against a Garchomp or another Salamence, I don't see this being much of a problem. Resistance: -20 Fighting. Good to counter against any Machamp's that might spring up! Anything else alike too (Gliscor, Kabutops?). Poke-Body: Battle Rush. There are a number of high HP Pokemon being played. This works against the current Kingdra, Machamp and Dusknoir decks, along with many many others! It has a nice effect of making it's first attack 50dmg for just one fire energy! Bonus :D. Attacks: Combustion: 1F1C - 50dmg. Not bad straight forward damage for 2 I suppose, but brilliant when it's Poke-Body is in play. Amazing in fact. Steam Twister: 1F1W2C - 120dmg with 1 Fire and 1 Water discarded. Technically, again with the Body, that's only 1C, which isn't bad at all and makes for a very quick and snappy high damage attack. There's not all that much that can be done about the discard though to get it attacking like that twice in a row aside from an energy pikcup maybe. But doing a finishing 50 afterwards isn't bad if you have to build it up again :D. Finale: I don't think there's much to be worried about by way of it's weakness or any counter decks (until GC), but on that note, I also don't see many direct combinations with this either. I'm other players can, but I don't see something that has a synergy that screams out to be teched into a deck that runs Salamence. I suppose it could be teched into a deck very much the same way that a Dragonite can be (although that has a lot more versatility in other decks). The main idea that comes to mind would be a Garchomp. And so I don't imagine this deck will be played too much. It's a nice direct damager, but with not too many things to support it (unlike Raichu-Electivire with the discarding there), it won't do greatly for very long. Unless relying on doing T2 or something with a Rare Candy, once the opponent is set up, Salamence will be fighting an uphill battle. It may well win, but most of the time I don't think it will. I could be wrong! There may yet be a rogue Salamence deck out there to sweep all others! Modified: 3.5/5 - Good card, but not as powerful as other meta's. Limited: 3/5 - Again, good, takes a while to set up, but I doubt you'll be fighting too many other colourless here, and doing the 50 damage attack will most likely sweep the floor with your opponent. Although it's not the greatest amount of damage, and the second attack is risky in limited!
Otaku	Sorry folks, another abridged CotD.  Salamence Lv.66 is a Stage 2, so it probably needs to be the deck’s focus.  It is Colorless, and I honestly have no idea how good or bad that is in the current format.  It has 140 HP, which is a great amount, even for a Stage 2.  +30 Colorless Weakness is something I never liked, as for much of the game’s history, that was the easiest type to splash into other decks, and at that level even tiny hits from such supporting Pokémon can be trouble.  -20 Fighting Resistance is nice, but doesn’t feel like much compensation.  The Retreat Cost is a full three energy, high enough you’d better pack something else to force this card out of the Active slot in case it is forced up prematurely or is somehow incapacitated but not actually KO’d.  All in all, I find the stats wanting, but only a little.   The Poké-Body, Battle Rush, seems pretty good to me: if your opponent has anything big, that is something possessing 120 HP or more as the Defending Pokémon, you get to ignore the Colorless cost requirements of Salamence’s attacks.  What are the attacks?  A simple but effective 50 for (RC) and 120 for (RWCC) plus discarding both one Water and one Fire Energy attached to Salamence.  If something is too small to trip the Poké-Body, your opponent is small enough to OHKO with the second attack, and two-hit KO with the first attack and a Plus Power.  If you can OHKO them, you can probably afford a turn of down time either before or after the attack to stockpile some Energy.  If it is large enough to trip the Poké-Body, then you can two-hit KO them using both attacks, and conveniently that will be fast enough using your two, basic Energy attachments to do so: play a Rare Candy to go straight to Salamence (they probably did the same thing if they are that big already), drop a Fire Energy and whack them for 50.  Next turn, drop a Water Energy and discard both for the KO.  Wash, rinse, and repeat.   Potential combos to look for are ways to attach the Energy faster at which point you need to look at the Salamence from Secret Wonders, which would probably put such a trick to better use.  If you can only attach extra Fire Energy, it wouldn’t be much use.  If it was for Water Energy, then adding in a Bench Sniper is very nice.   I hate leaving out the lower Stages: the new Bagon and Shelgon are both solid cards, with more reliable attacks than the other currently legal version of each card.  Choose what fits your playing style unless we have available one of the tricks to use a lower Stage’s attack on the final Evolutionary Stage, in which case the Bagon with Rage would clearly be superior.   Ratings   Unlimited: 1/5 – I honestly can’t see this doing very well in a format where a good many Pokémon are as powerful or more powerful than it, use just as little Energy, but are smaller Basic or Stage 1 Pokémon.  Fear the Clefable and the Ditto my friends.   Modified: 4/5 – If this score seems high, it is probably because I like the relatively straightforward nature of the card.  So I think it might be a good card for those getting into the game for the first time, or returning like me, and that may have resulted in a slightly inflated score.   Limited: 4/5 – Here, HP scores are lower, and the Poké-Body is only useful against players who pulled extremely well… but that also means the “normal” opponents fall prey to your solid attacks.  Watch the Weakness, though.   Summary   As a relatively straightforward Pokémon good for those who want a relatively straightforward deck, Salamence hits hard without a lot of work and can take a beating itself.  A warning, though: recall I am ignorant of the current metagame.   -Otaku