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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Raticate LV 31 Believe it or not, there was actually a tiny bit of hype for this card prior to release. Hype? For a Raticate? Yep. No joke. The reason for the hype? Well, it certainly isn’t the first attack, Recruit. For [C], this lets you see your opponent’s hand (good) and then lets you use a Supporter there as the effect of the attack (horribly unreliable – what if they don’t have a Supporter? Or have one that’s no use to you such as Aaron’s Collection or Bertha’s Warmth?). No, the reason for the hype was Extend Fang. For the same cost as Recruit, Raticate does 20 damage. Nothing special, but when you add a Tool, this does 60 damage, which is great. If that Tool is Expert Belt you are doing 80 damage for 1 Energy! Potentially on your first Trainer turn if you can evolve with Broken Time-Space! If that doesn’t look like a donk, I don’t know what does. So, why isn’t the format swarming with T2 Raticate donk decks? Well, it does have a few issues. Firstly, Rattata is a horrible weak Basic with only 30 HP, meaning it stands a good chance of being KO’d first turn itself. Secondly, Trainer lock is very big in the format thanks to Spiritomb and Dialga G’s Deafen. If you can’t attach a Tool to Raticate, it’s just a very low HP Stage 1 that does very weak damage (though you could still use an Unown Tool, I suppose). Thirdly, if Raticate doesn’t get that second turn KO win for whatever reason (high HP Basics, your opponent has benched Pokémon), then it is extremely vulnerable itself, having a mere 70 HP. Really, Raticate is the ultimate high-risk ‘T2 win or lose’ Pokémon. Might be fun to try out, especially if you are the sort of player who likes their games to finish quickly. As far as tournament play goes, though, playing this would be taking an insane risk. You might win a couple of games (though not many friends!), but never consistently enough to hit the top cut. Rating Modified: 2.25 (All or nothing donk card – only for the very brave!) Limited: 4 (low Energy, high damage and lots of Tools to use)
virusyosh	Happy Thursday, Pojo readers! Our Card of the Day today is one of my personal favorites from the Arceus set, Raticate. Raticate is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. 70 HP for a Stage 1 is absurdly low in the DP-on format, as there are many basics (SPs and otherwise) that have the same amount of HP, if not more. Weakness to Fighting isn't too problematic, though Machamp SF will still one-hit KO. Raticate has no Resistance, and a wonderful free Retreat Cost. Arceus Raticate has two attacks, both for the price of [C]. The first attack, Recruit, allows you to look at your opponent's hand, choose a Supporter there, and discard it to use that card's effect as the effect of the attack. The use of this attack obviously depends on your opponent, so this would be best used with something that would help you look at your opponent's hand, like Gengar SF's Poltergeist or something similar. Raticate's second attack, Extend Fang, does 20 damage at first, but if Raticate has a Pokemon Tool attached to it, the attack does 40 more damage. Extend Fang combos very well with Expert Belt from the Arceus set, dealing a pretty decent 80 damage for just one energy. If you can pull this off early game, say turn 2, it could be quite damaging for your opponent. However, even with the Expert Belt, Raticate still has very low HP, and is bound to get KOed very easily. Raticate could potentially work in a deck with Luxray AR and Porygon-Z G for some bizarre kind of Pokemon Tool manipulation deck, but I don't know how well it would actually work in Modified. Modified: 1.5/5 I really wish I could rate this higher, given that it has the possibility to deal 80 damage with an Expert Belt for a single Energy. However, 70 HP is really low for a Stage 1, and it requires Tools to be effective. Unfortunately, it probably won't be able to do much to your opponent before it is KOed. Limited: 3/5 Colorless energy requirements and free Retreat are very good in Limited, and both of Raticate's attacks require a very cheap single Colorless Energy. Couple this with the ability to have a good damage output for Limited (Extend Fang does 60 with a Bench Shield or Lucky Egg, and does 80 with an Expert Belt) and you have yourself a card that's decent in Limited. Unfortunately, there are only two Supporters in Arceus to Recruit, but Department Store Girl could potentially help you fetch your own Tools to put onto Raticate, even if that is very situational. The low HP is still a problem here, though.
BoDragon	Raticate LV.31 Platinum--Arceus, #29 Raticate appears in Platinum--Arceus at LV.31 with two attacks, Recruit and Extend Fang. Both attacks cost {C}. Recruit causes you to look at your opponent's hand, choose a Supporter card you see there, discard it, then use the effect of it as the effect of the attack. This attack works as a second Supporter or as the Supporter for the turn without the Supporter Card. Extend Fang does 20 damage, then 40 additional damage if Raticate as a Pokémon Tool card attached. This is another Pokémon who benefits from the use of Expert Belt, which provides 20 additional HP and 20 additional damage to your Pokémon's attacks it is attached to. Using Extend Fang for 80 damage for 1 Energy can go a long way. Raticate has typical resistance to Fighting-type Pokémon with +20 damage. It has an excellent zero Energy retreat cost. Its 70 HP is a major drawback, something Raticate can use more of. This is the better Raticate I have seen in awhile, and hope it will see use in a decent attacking deck. Ratings: Modified: 4/5 Limited: 4/5 BoDragon