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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Terrakion #63

Emerging Powers

Date Reviewed: August 11, 2011

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 3.50
Limited: 4.50

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


Otaku

Time to review some new Pokémon! Terrakion is a part of the “musketeer trio” of Legendary Pokémon according to Bulbapedia. Since I don’t own Pokémon Black or Pokémon White and probably won’t for quite some time, I decided to allow this part to be “spoiled” to better review the cards.

So first this tells me that it is a Basic Pokémon that has no Evolutions available: the burden to see play rests solely on its stout shoulders. It is a Fighting-Type, which makes sense since in the video games it is a Rock/Fighting hybrid, so far the only representative of that Type combination. Terrakion has 120 HP, and that is great! The only Basic Pokémon to surpass that are Reshiram and Zekrom while many Stage 1 (and even some Stage 2) Pokémon aren’t that large! Terrakion can definitely take a hit, except perhaps from its Weakness. Grass Weakness means a Grass-Type only has to do 60 points of base damage to OHKO the “Cavern Pokémon”. Of course Grass Pokémon might be the least played type right now and have a poor track record of dealing big damage reliably. Even those that do usually have to rely on some trick or combo: Terrakion is most fortunate in this regard. The lack of Resistance is a disappointment, but not only is it largely irrelevant as usual (due to so many Pokémon lacking it) this card is already shaping up well enough that it might not have needed one anyway. Well, we do have one really bad stat for this card, the Retreat Cost: four is awful and you’ll rarely be able to pay it, let alone want to. Make sure you have another card to get this out of the Active slot or be prepared to let it go down fighting… and be forced up prematurely by Pokémon Catcher.

The first attack on this card is Boulder Crush. Boulder Crush is a solid attack, doing 40 points of damage for (FC). There is no other effect, and while I wish the card could attack for a single Energy, this is enough to take out many Fighting Weak Pokémon and with a PlusPower and a decent amount of Basic Pokémon in general. The second attack is an adaptation of a video game attack with the same name: Sacred Sword. I don’t know if it is a good conversion of the attack, but for (FFC) it does 100 points of damage. There is a major drawback to it though: you can’t use it the next turn! Still, between the two attacks you’ll average 70 points of damage per turn, and by splitting the damage in this manner, you can pull off some solid tricks. Examples would be changing out one Terrakion for another, or if your opponent KOs (or nearly KOs) Terrakion before you have the full three Energy attached, you can adapt. I’d say these attacks are adequate… which since the stats are fantastic means we still have a good card.

Of course had the attacks been priced at (CC) and (FCC) respectively we’d have had something to rival Reshiram and Zekrom, even with the attack restricting clause on Sacred Sword. As is, can we find a use for it? I believe so. My basic thought for this card is open with Tyrogue (or any Pokémon that allows you to attack without Energy) so that you can ignore the turn where it can’t attack. Next turn drop a second Energy and decide: keep attacking with the no-Energy opener or Retreat back Terrakion. In the case of the latter your opponent is going to have a very hard time OHKOing it, and if they aren’t making any headway you can easily drop the third Energy needed and go for a Sacred Sword.

Now I did set this up for a particular deck… Machamp Prime. It is a bit risky using one of the HS Baby Pokémon, protected by Sweet Sleeping Face, now that we have Pokémon Catcher but keep reading because we are going to make the opponent think hard about what they hit. If they take out the Baby, it is fine so long as you got the needed Energy on Terrakion to attack. If they take out Terrakion quickly then obviously I was really wrong about this idea. Personally I think most decks will need at least two shots, especially this early, to take it down, which means you can rescue the two Fighting Energy used to power it by dropping Machamp Prime and using its Poké-Power to both Bench Terrakion and transfer said Fighting Energy. Then its your choice whether you rebuild Terrakion and/ whether to keep the damage counters it might have accumulated on it or use a Seeker to bounce it to hand then drop it back down, fresh as a large, angry daisy with horns. The other Modified use I can come up with is a musketeer trio deck, specifically one backed by Serperior with Royal Heal. The other two members have tricks that offset there just slightly lower HP scores, and 120 HP could go a long way with that healing.

So what about Unlimited play? Probably too slow, but at least it is less sad than most first attempts at Legendary Pokémon. The HP does mean that if you are a little more donk resistant than some other Pokémon, so if you aren’t alternatively caught by a lock/disruption strategy you might be able to set-up the Pokémon needed to speed Terrakion up and keep it going. Too bad they’d be better used on something different. In Limited play I am assuming this card will be great. Unless there are a lot of decent Grass Pokémon in this set, you just need to work in four or five Fighting Energy so you can at least reliably use the first attack: Terrakion should be a force to reckon with. Sacred Sword might not even be needed, and even when it is it will probably be a OHKO. Sacred Sword for KO, Boulder Crush twice for KO, and you might even still have enough HP for one more Sacred Sword after that!

Ratings

Unlimited: 1.25/5

Modified: 3.5/5

Limited: 4.5/5

Summary

I really doubt Terrakion will make the impact of Zekrom or Reshiram, but I can honestly see real potential despite the drawbacks.

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