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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

		Palkia & Dialga Legend HS Triumphant Date Reviewed: Oct. 27, 2010 Ratings & Reviews Summary Modified: 2.75 Limited: 1.50 Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 being the worst.  3 ... average.   5 is the highest rating. Back to the main COTD Page
Combos With:

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Palkia & Dialga LEGEND (Triumphant) You know how to win a game of Pokémon don’t you? Just take six Prizes and the game is yours right? Not necessarily. Triumphant brings us a Pokémon that tramples all over one of the game’s fundamental principles. Palkia and Dialga LEGEND (PDL from now on) is one of those two-Pokémon Legend cards that come with quite a few drawbacks before we even begin to look at the card: they are tough to get into play, they give up two Prizes, have two Weaknesses and they are vulnerable to OHKOs from Machamp. Like most Legend cards, PDL is very Energy-hungry and has big HP (160). You would expect a beast like this to do some pretty big damage, but the fact is that it does none. Nothing at all. Instead it has two attacks which are all about the effects. The first, Sudden Delete, costs [W][C][C] and requires your opponent to put a Benched Pokémon of your choice and all cards attached back into their hand. Obviously, this has some uses: it can temporarily get rid of a threatening attacker which your opponent is building, or an annoying tech like Vileplume with its Trainer Locking Body. The effect IS only temporary, however and ultimately of little use, especially if the opponent is playing an all-Basics deck, or has Broken Time-Space to let them play everything right back down again. The unique selling point of PDL is its second attack, Time Control. This costs [M][M][C] and has the startling effect of taking the top two cards from your opponent’s deck and making them Prize cards. It has been ruled that there is no limit to the number of Prize cards you can give your opponent in this way, so provided PDL survives, and you can keep fulfilling the cost of discarding all Metal Energy from PDL when you use it (Heatran LV X anyone?), you can put them in an impossible situation. Sure, you aren’t knocking anything out, but when time is called, you will certainly be ahead. Amazing huh? And proof that Pokémon can still come up with interesting new attacks and mechanics even after 10 years. I have my doubts as to whether this is a viable strategy for a tournament deck. The attacks are slow, PDL is by no means immune to being knocked out quickly, and giving up two Prizes when it goes could put you and your opponent right back where you started. The combo with Heatran LV X is very difficult to pull off in actual games, since you are trying to use two Pokémon that are very slow and clumsy to get into play. That said, PDL would be a hilarious way to win in sudden death . . . 3-1 on Prizes! It’s very tempting to try and build something with this card. Although I don’t see it winning too many tournaments, I can see it being a lot of fun. Rating Modified: 2.5 (Bonus points for originality, potential, and the ability to scare opponents) Limited: 1.25 (chances of pulling both halves are so remote, it’s not worth discussing) Combos with . . . Heatran LV X
virusyosh	Hello once again, Pojoers! Today's Card of the Day is one of the new LEGENDs from the new HS Triumphant expansion. Today's COTD is Palkia and Dialga LEGEND. Palkia and Dialga LEGEND is a Pokemon LEGEND: It is composed of two cards, and both must be played onto the Bench at the same time for the Pokemon to come into play. It is Water and Metal, corresponding to Palkia and Dialga's non-Dragon typing in the video game. 160 HP is a fitting amount for this legendary behemoth, meaning that it should definitely take a hit or two from opponents. Unfortunately, it is weak to Fire and Lightning, two of the more common types and also the typing of the sometimes seen Entei and Raikou LEGEND. This means that Entei and Raikou can hit Palkia and Dialga for x4 damage! No Resistance is unfortunate, and a Retreat Cost of 3 is rather large, if not unexpected. Also, since this is a two-Pokemon LEGEND, keep in mind that if your opponent knocks this out, they take two Prizes. LEGEND cards generally have pretty big effects and attacks, and Palkia and Dialga certainly live up to expectations. The first attack, Sudden Delete, costs [WCC] and bounces one of your opponent's Benched Pokemon with all cards attached to their hand. Some annoying support Pokemon bothering you? Is your opponent constantly switching between two Pokemon? Get rid of one of them temporarily with Sudden Delete. This works even better if you have some kind of way to Trainer lock, like Dialga G Lv. X, Spiritomb AR, or Vileplume UD. This attack can even easily be paid for with Feraligatr Prime's Rain Dance. However, there are a few downsides: First of all, if there is a Broken Time-Space in play, your opponent will most likely just simply replay all of the evolution cards on the bounced Pokemon again next turn (This can be slightly more difficult if the opposing Pokemon was a Lv. X, though). Also, the new Seeker Supporter card from Triumphant has a similar effect, and doesn't cost 3 Energy or an attack to perform. Therefore, using that may be a better option. The second attack, Time Control, is where the hype exists for this card. For the decent price of [MMC], you can discard all Metal Energy attached to Palkia and Dialga LEGEND in order to take the top two cards of your opponent's deck and add them to their Prize cards. This attack's effect is crazy, as it can really set your opponent back with minimal effort on your part. The best part is a potential combo with this attack and Heatran Lv. X. Heatran Lv. X's Poke-Power allows you to return up to two basic Fire or Metal Energy cards that you discarded during an attack to that Pokemon at the end of your turn. So, if you have two basic Metals attached to Palkia and Dialga and another Energy of another type, you can effectively keep using this attack every turn, building up your opponent's Prizes until they get rid of this card, Heatran, or the energy attached. A very original and potentially very powerful attack. Modified: 3.5/5 Yes, it's a LEGEND, meaning it's very difficult to get out. Yes, it dies fairly easily to Luxray and Magnezone. Yes, the attack takes three Energy. Even still, I feel as if this card may actually be a very playable LEGEND. Sudden Delete is nice, but Time Control can really screw your opponent up, especially if they don't have a good answer for Palkia and Dialga and/or you're using both this and Heatran Lv. X. It may be a bit too slow to see widespread play, but I'm sure that someone will find a great way to abuse this to make a killer rogue deck. Limited: 1.75/5 If you can manage to get both pieces of the LEGEND in Limited, there will be not much to stop you from putting a great majority of your opponent's cards in their Prizes or bouncing their Bench, however getting both pieces is a ridiculous feat and is generally really tough to do. Combos With: Heatran Lv. X
Wes1234	Hello again, Pojo readers!  Today, we'll be discussing one of the new LEGENDS that the new set has brought us.  In the past, LEGENDS have, for the most part, not brought us any true competitive value with the exception of a few Entei&Raikou LEGENDS roaming about.  Will the deities of space and time join them, or will Palkia&Dialga LEGEND join the many whiffed LEGENDS in their eternal sleep in the binder?   As with all post-HGSS LEGEND cards, two come with the nasty 2-prize value should they be KOd.  160 HP is on the high side for LEGEND pokemon, but this HP total is virtually halved by what is perhaps the worst weakness combination in the existence of the format currently: electric and fire weaknesses.  Luxray GL Lv X and Blaziken FB Lv X, anyone?  To make matters worse, the new Magnezone Prime will likely revive Magnezone decks from last format, and that's another group of electric-type hitters (some were known to run Entei&Raikou LEGEND, too, which hits P&D LEGEND for 4x damage). Charizard decks are also still around with the Ninetales draw engine, even if they aren't tier 1 competitive, but enough about shunning its disastrous weakness.  Its typing combination of water and metal are virtually made irrelevant due to no attacks with damage effects, but it does make itself searchable via Magnezone SF's Magnetic Search power.  Finally, the horrendous retreat Cost of three is going to hurt its chances of beating a hasty retreat when needed.   As mentioned before, P&D LEGEND's attacks deal no damage, so their effects will need to be top notch if it wishes to see any competitive play.   The first one is Sudden Delete, which costs [WCC] in order to bounce one of the opponent's benched pokemon of your choosing and all cards attached to it to their hand.  This may be a small annoyance, but that's as much as it'll ever be, as many pokemon use low-cost energy attacks, thus letting them easily recharge it.  It CAN be useful against tanking pokemon or pokemon that require many energy to accomplish its job.  Examples include T-Tar Prime, Steelix Prime, and Dialga G Lv X just to name a few.  Even if they're in the Active slot, a Warp Point or Pokemon Circulator can force it to the bench and allow you to thus target it.  Still, this is nothing more than a stall tactic that may set your opponent back a single turn at best, and you gain nothing in return.   The second attack uses a new intriguing and unique mechanic.  Costing [MMC], Time Control adds the top two cards of your opponent's deck to their prizes. This has never been seen before and is definitely an interesting twist to the game, but there are two problems.  For one, this requires you to discard all Metal energies attached to it, meaning that unless you have Magnezone SF with Super Conductivity for some energy acceleration, you'll be dedicating your energy resources to an every other two effect that doesn't touch your opponent's field.  You'll have to use it once just to break even, and twice to surpass that before it dies.   Palkia&Dialga brings a fun new mechanic to the table, but sadly, I doubt that this pair of god pokemon will be all that godly in competitive play, despite Twins making LEGENDS in general a bit more playable.  Sudden Delete only buys one turn at best, and Time Control is too costly to use.  Even if both of these obstacles could be overcome, its horrific weakness combination kills any chance that it has of being competitive right now.  On top of that, once Lost World comes out, Gengar Prime won't even break a sweat getting six pokemon into the opponent's Lost Zone and winning via Lost World.   Modified: 1.5/5  A fun deck at best, but nowhere close to competitive.  Too energy intensive and the weakness combination ruins this card's future.   Limited: 2/5  Bronzong makes this a little more playable, but it'll still be slow to get out Bronzong AND this LEGEND to begin with compared to the many other Stage 1 pokemon in the set.  If you get it out somehow, it'll stick around for a while, but be advised, Magnezone Prime will ruin your day with that weakness.   Combos with: Both Magnezone SF cards, Warp Point/Pokemon Circulator.   - Wes1234 Crazed Eeveelutionist
conical	10/27/10:Palkia & Dialga Legend   Hey kids! It's the first Legend card of the set! Hooray!   ...Whatever.   Anyways, it's Palkia/Dialga Legend, hereafter shortened to PDL. We're just going to cut to the chase and discuss the main feature of the card, Control Time. For 1MM, you discard all Metal energies attached to PDL and your opponent must make the top 2 cards of his deck prizes. The attack seems so ridiculous, so seemingly broken, there's gotta be a way to abuse it...right?   Like, it's part Metal-type, right? So you could tank with it, using Control Time to add so many prizes that your opponent has no chance of recovering? Well, the problem is that you have to discard Metal energies to use the attack, meaning that any tanking strategy will be short-lived. You could try to tank with it until near the time limit, then Control Time to give yourself a lead in prizes, but in today's format, it's nearly impossible to keep one Pokemon alive for an entire game without KO'ing your opponent's Pokemon before they can do the same.   And while we're at it, we'll discuss Sudden Delete, which...doesn't do much. You get to send a Benched Pokemon to your opponent's hand, which can be helpful in some situations, but what PDL desperately needs is a damaging attack(though that could make it broken).   Personally, I don't see a may to abuse Control Time to justify using it. It may make a nice tech because, as mentioned, it can be useful end-game, when the prize count is close. Otherwise, I don't see this being used.   Modified: 2.5/5 Limited:1.5/5 Combos With: ???
Otaku	Name: Palkia & Dialga LEGEND Set ID: HS – Triumphant 101/102 (LEGEND) and HS – Triumphant 102/102 (LEGEND) Stage: Pokémon LEGEND (Unevolved Pokémon) Text#1: Put this card from your hand onto your Bench only with the other half of Palkia & Dialga LEGEND. Text#2: When this Pokémon has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards. HP: 160 Type: Water/Metal Weakness: Lighting/Fire x2 Resistance: None Retreat: CCC Attack#1: (WCC) Sudden Delete Choose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.  Put that Pokémon and all cards attached to it back into your opponent’s hand. Attack#2: (MMC) Time Control Discard all Metal Energy attached to Palkia & Dialga LEGEND.  Add the top 2 cards of your opponent’s deck to his or her Prize cards.   Attributes: First and foremost, this is a Pokémon LEGEND.  I listed this aspect under Stage for simplicity, though it is a bit more complicated than that.  Many cards effects care about this aspect: there are a select few pieces of LEGEND support available, like Legend Box.  I haven’t seen any specific counter cards, but they are possible.  You need both halves of a Pokémon LEGEND card in order to play it, and even if you have both halves you cannot put it into play during set up: Pokémon LEGEND count neither as Evolved Pokémon nor as Basic Pokémon.  Instead they are designated as “Unevolved Pokémon” in the Pokémon Rulings Compendium LVX.  This means cards that specific either Basic or Evolved can’t target them (like Pokémon Collector) but a card that just states it looks for a Pokémon (like Poké Ball) can.  Both halves share the same name, and thus you can run four copies of one half and zero of another (which makes you unable to play it), three of a half and one of the other, or two of each half.  Pokémon Legend still only occupy one Bench space (or Active space when Active).  This is a dual Pokémon LEGEND: it has two different Pokémon in its name and depicts those two in its art. There is also text explaining that it is worth two Prizes when KO’d (like the old Pokémon ex).  I see a mild rulings conflict where one ruling states that a Pokémon LEGEND isn’t considered “a Pokémon” while in the discard pile.  They count as “a Pokémon card”, but while Primeape’s Top Down attack can’t use either half as a reference for HP, apparently Garchomp Lv.X is only unable to revive a Pokémon LEGEND with Restore because it could only, theoretically target one half, and you cannot put a single half into play (as opposed to be unable to target it at all like Top Down).   Quite a bit to take in, but you do get some perks for all the mess.  First and foremost, a sturdy 160 HP, one of the highest scores in the game, both with the current card pool and those that have rotated out.  Water/Colorless is an okay type combo.  Will you hit double Weakness?  If you can, it’s a card I missed.  Will you hit one type or the other at least?  Yes, but Colorless Weakness isn’t especially common (many of the cards I found were members of the same line, even alternate versions of the same Pokémon).  What is a bit irritating is that Colorless Resistance is about twice as common as Colorless Weakness.  Water Resistance is about as common as Colorless Resistance, but Water Weakness is three to five times as common as Colorless Weakness, at a quick glance.  Speaking of Resistance, this card has none which is a major disappointment: given the nightmare with dual Weakness, at least a single Resistance would be nice (duel would be even better).  I should also clarify that I was complaining about the lack of Colorless Weakness earlier, and not the abundance of Colorless or Water Resistance.  I’ll polish off these cards' attributes with the Retreat Cost of three: hefty, but it makes sense in terms of game “flavor” (two Pokémon in one) and quite frankly, Pokémon LEGENDS tend to be designed to go down swinging and be the focus of a deck.   Abilities: Given that 160 HP for two Prizes is only “good” and not “great”, especially given the occasional hassle of getting this card into play, the attacks had better be stellar.  The first is Sudden Delete.  For (WCC) you can bounce an opponent’s Benched Pokémon back to their hand.  This is only really effective if your opponent has an Active about to be KO’d by Poison or Burned, or you can consistently force their best Pokémon to the Bench… best Pokémon that require a significant set up (e.g. Stage 2 Pokémon and/or a lot of Energy).  If your opponent is over-relying on Rare Candy it can be great, though.  Decks with Broken Time Space will shrug it off, especially if they are low Energy attackers (Donphan Prime).   What really caught my eye was the second attack: Time Control allows this dynamic duo to take the top two cards of your opponent’s deck and turn them into two additional Prizes.  There is no limit (save your opponent running out of potential cards) to how many Prize Cards your opponent can have.  The attack requires (MMC) and discards all Metal Energy attached to Palkia & Dialga LEGEND, so it’s hard to get it off rapid fire.  It’s a good attack though.  The attacks reflect the source material okay but really aren’t so hot together.  Be different if the first top-decked the Benched Pokémon or discarded all attached cards.   Uses and Combinations: There is still hope for this card.  In a dedicated deck, you have two options as far as I can see.  Magnezone from Stormfront let’s you attach a Metal Energy (or Lightning Energy) to your Active Pokémon, but then you have to put a damage counter on it.  Thus you’d need to run some healing as well.  If you do, though, you might have a viable stall deck… yeah, a viable stall deck!  Throw in some of yesterday’s card (Rescue Energy) and it doesn’t matter that you’re opponent is going to KO this card every few turns… they’ll never catch up and eventually their deck will be gone.  If you run some cards that let you discard Metal Energy early game, you might even be able to make the deck surprisingly fast, dropping Rescue Energy and attaching to Metal Energy all in one turn.  Forcing them to the Bench could let you bounce anything big to the hand as well, further allowing you to build up a Prize lead.  Two attacks from Time Control will net a two Prize lead after Palkia & Dialga LEGEND gets KO’d.  Plus, you can always periodically switch out with some sort of attacker when you know you can outpace your opponent in taking Prizes.   Option number two is Heatran Lv.X.  The downside is no Energy acceleration, but once you’re set up you’ll be able to constantly recycle two copies of basic Metal Energy and won’t inflict self damage.  It might give you a better back-up attacker and would also work with some other cards that are useful back-up attackers as well.  All in all, this looks to be the more reliable and easier to use deck.  Note you’ll still want to pack healing (and or protective) cards.   There is one other card I am thinking should be combined with Palkia & Dialga LEGEND: Driftblim (HS – Undaunted #12/90).  Why?  Anytime your opponent gets something big enough to threaten Palkia & Dialga LEGEND, especially if you have a Switch handy or they’ve already KO’d it and you’re going to be rebuilding, Driftblim comes out and sends it away into the deck.  If you’re lucky, you might even send part of it to the Prizes.  This is also might be the one thing that helps Magnezone based builds: it’s clunky but you can run Driftblim in there and as long as you did what I said and included some Supporters or other effects to discard “extra” copies of basic Metal Energy, slap them on Driftblim to power it up in one shot.  The damage won’t matter since it is going to the deck, and if it’s working like designed next turn you’ll have Palkia & Dialga LEGEND ready to start setting Prizes again while your opponent can only peck at them.   Wrapping this section up, in Limited play this isn’t that good.  Even if you manage to pull both halves, remember this card doesn’t actually do damage.  A perfect open, where you start with something you can get out of the Active slot while still powering Palkia & Dialga LEGEND up means it won’t be attacking until your third turn.  Unless your opponent wastes time building something on the Bench you’ll be doing good to get three attacks off with it.  Your opponent KOs it quickly, and the best case scenario is you netted four Prizes added and are facing off against something huge and well developed with three Energy attachments lost because they were on Palkia & Dialga LEGEND.  That’s the best case.   Ratings   Modified: 3/5 – Dedicated deck score.  It won’t work in just anything, and even in a deck built for it, it will probably just be functional and not a tournament winner.   Limited: 1.5/5 – If you’re lucky, you’ll dazzle them with opulence and make them panic.   Combos with: Magnezone (Stormfront #6/100), Heatran Lv.X, Driftblim (HS – Undaunted #12/90)   Summary   This is a bold experiment in Pokémon design, not just in being a LEGEND (that actually is the new fad mechanic) but in adding Prizes.  For that the designers are to be commended.  I think they overcompensated for the potential power of it.  The best case scenario is that it’s the focus of a rogue deck that will probably never win a tournament but will be infamous for knocking other decks that won’t be able to handle it… or players.   I am still selling my former collectables on eBay.  I’ve had a lot of hobbies over the years, so at various times I’ll have comic books, manga, action figures, and video games on the auction block.  You can take a look at what’s up for bids here.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for any transactions and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auctions here. ;)