|
Jigglypuff13 |
3/11 Blastoise Lv. 60 (PL)
It's Wednesday and we have a card that received a lot of
hype before the release of Platinum, Blastoise! This is
a great card, but let's start with the basics of the
card. First off is 130 HP, which is the standard amount
for a normal Stage 2 at the moment. I would like a
little more, but it will survive at least 1 hit normally
at the moment, so it isn't too bad. +30 Lightning
Weakness is slightly annoying due to Ampharos (PL,
reviewed yesterday), but there aren't many Lightning
Pokémon in the metagame at the moment, so you probably
won't have too many fears for this. No Resistance shall
be glossed over. 2 Retreat Cost is about average for a
stage 2 again, but this can be reduced by using Mantine
(MT) if you need it.
Now for the abilities, which are just superb. The Poké-Power,
Dig Well, which allows you to look at the top 3 cards of
your deck, then choose as many Water energies as you
want from there and attach them to your Pokémon in any
way you like, then discard the rest. Maybe it's just me,
but I'm not a fan of discarding possible important
cards, like Rare Candy, or other Blastoises (unless some
specialised deck wants to stuff everything in the
discard pile). However, the energy acceleration granted
by Dig Well, however, is just brilliant. So long as you
can keep at least 1 energy onto of your deck, Dig Well
will definitely have some results. However, it's the
making sure you have energies on top of your deck that's
the problem. There are combos to sort this downfall out
(discussed later), but other than that, it's really nice
acceleration.
The attacks compliment this Poké-Power nicely. Aqua
Press does a meagre 20 for WC, but then does an extra 10
damage for all Water energies in play. With Dig Well
hopefully giving you at least 1 extra energy per turn,
the damage for Aqua Press will increase a lot quite
quickly. Also, if you are playing against another Water
deck, then Aqua Press becomes even more efficient since
their energies are added to the damage. I suppose it is
restricted by Dig Well and how quickly you get the
energies out, but thanks to the energy acceleration, as
I said, it should become quite powerful quite quickly.
Aqua Press is a nice beatdown attack, but Double
Launcher is a nice little sniping attack. It costs WWCC,
which would normally be quite slow, but thanks to Dig
Well, shouldn't be much of a problem. You also have to
discard 2 Waters, which, again, isn't much of a problem
because of Dig Well. You then get to choose 2 of your
opponents Pokémon and deal 60 damage to both of them.
That is quite a high powered double snipe, so definitely
worth the cost. Just a shame, then, that you can't use
Double Launcher again next turn, since with the use of
Spiritomb (LA) and Crobat G (PL), it's easy to get the
required 130 damage needed to KO most main attackers at
the moment with 2 Double Launchers. Still, Aqua Press is
a nice attack to be able to fall back on between Double
Launchers.
Combos, and first of all, you will want something that
will keep putting energies on top of your deck. So far,
there are 2 cards, both in PL, that can help. First,
there's the widely hyped Delcatty, which puts 2 energies
from your Discard Pile on top of your deck, and puts 2
damage counters on Delcatty. Quite a fair little cost
that will see you consistently get 2 or more energies in
to play with Dig Well. The other card is Dialga #5,
which when put onto your bench from your hand, will put
up to 3 in combination of Pokémon (not Lv.X's) and basic
energies on top of your deck. It's not as consistent as
Delcatty, since it's only one use, but you do get a nice
one time 3 energy Dig Well, which is nice. If you want
to use Double Launcher twice in a row, then you can use
Mantine (MT) to make your Blastoises Retreat Cost 0, so
after a Double Launcher from your active Blastoise, you
can then put in a benched one for free, and get to use
Double Launcher again. It's nice and all, but I'm not
certain on how useful it is, and also gets in the way of
the important Diagla G Lv.X (PL) tech that most people
would put in a Blastoise deck.
Counters for Blastoise are simple. First of all, power
haters are a good bet. Ampharos will happily stop
Blastoise using Dig Well if Blastoise has at least 1
damage counter on it, Aerodactyl (MD) will put 2 damage
counters on it every time it uses Dig Well, Mesprit
(LA), Gardevoir (SW) and Glaceon Lv.X (MD) will all
happily stop Dig Well as well. Or just inflict it with a
Special Condition. Any of these to stop the insane
energy acceleration that Dig Well gives. Another nice
little idea that might or might not work is to use a
Pokémon that know Amnesia, and use the attack after
they've used Double Launcher, then stop them using Aqua
Press, and then you have an extra turn of safety, and
without fear. Until they Retreat at least.
Ratings:
Modified: This is a great card. It combines brilliant,
if wasteful, energy acceleration, with powerful attacks
that will happily take advantage of it. This is a
combined energy accelerator and main attacker, so you
don't need to find another one. However, you do need a
combo to make Dig Well as efficient as possible, and I
do wish it didn't discard the non-Water Energy Cards,
but otherwise, it's a brilliant card. Some decks that
will be played will happily stop Dig Well, but in a
metagame without Ampharos mainly, it should be quite a
nice little card to use. 4.25/5
Limited: It's not quite as good here. First, it's a
Stage 2, which are, of course, quite hard to get out.
Secondly, whilst you will be playing plenty of energies
here, you will probably find Dig Well to be discarding
more cards than in Modified. Aqua Press will KO most of
what you find here, but it probably won't be powered up
by your opponent. Double Launcher is still nice as well.
2.5/5 |
Eevee |
Hey
everyone! ^^ Eevee here once again to review one tought
pokemon! It's the water starter Blastoise! ^^ Let's look
at it's stats.
Poké-POWER:
Dig Well - Once during your turn (before your attack),
you may look at the top 3 cards of your deck, choose as
many Energy cards as you like, and attach them to your
Pokémon in any way you like. Discard the other cards.
This power can't be used if Blastoise is affected by a
Special Condition.
Attacks:
(W)(C) Aqua Press - 20+ damage - Does 20 damage plus 10
more damage for each Energy attached to all Pokémon
(both yours and your opponent's).
(W)(W)(C)(C)
Double Launcher - Discard 2 Energy attached to
Blastoise. Choose 2 of your opponent's Benched Pokémon.
This attack does 60 damage to each of them. (Don’t apply
Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) Blastoise
can't use Double Launcher during your next turn.
Type:
Water
HP: 130
Weakness: +30 to lightning
Resistance: none
Retreat: (C)(C)
Ok, review
time. First of all it's stats. 130 HP on a stage is
pretty much par for the course here lately. Weakness
shouldn't be too much of a problem considering that the
only electric deck you may run in to is a few Raichu
decks. Not having a resistance is always a bummer. As
far as it's retreat goes it's pretty good. I mean no one
likes discarding two energy but it's much better
compared to previous Blastoise who have a 3-4 retreat.
^^
It's
Poke-Power is Dig Well. I think it could come in pretty
handy, especialy if you combo it with something that
let's you search and place. ^^
Attack
wise it's not lacky either. It's first attack, Aqua
press, is really just too good of an attack! ^^
Especially if it's combined with Kingdra! A definate
must use! It's second attack is a little hight energy
wise tho. Altho, if your opponet is still setting up you
could get a possible 2-OHK farely easy so it's worth the
energy!
Over all I
thin this is a must have if you play water decks!
Modified:
4.5/5
Limited: 4/5 |
