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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Cyndaquil #55/95 (Call of Legends) Another alternative Basic for a playable evolution line today. Typhlosion Prime (partnered with Reshiram and Ninetales) proved its worth as a top deck in the recent US National Championships where 13 managed to top cut despite the fact that it wasn’t a particularly popular deck choice. Those that did play the deck mostly did well. So, would you use this Cyndaquil in the deck? After all, it has a slightly better attack than the standard vanilla efforts offered by the HGSS version. Fireworks does 20 damage for a single Fire Energy and can discard that Energy on a coin flip: nothing spectacular, but the discard has some synergy with Typhlosion’s Energy accelerating Afterburner Power. Even so, you would have to be mental to use this Cyndaquil. Why? Because it only has 40 HP, that’s why. 40 HP is terrible in the current format. 40 HP is getting donked by a Tyrogue with a PlusPower. 40 HP is getting one-shot sniped by Yanmega Prime’s Linear Attack before you get a chance to evolve. I repeat, just in case anyone is still thinking of using this card, 40 HP is terrible in this format. The HGSS one? Yeah, it’s boring and predictable and doesn’t have a whole lot to offer, but what it does have is 60 HP, which is fantastic. It won’t be Tyrogue donked and even Yanmega variants running Kingdra Prime will need 2 Spray Splashes to OHKO it with a Linear Attack, and barring a god start for them and a poor one for you, that shouldn’t be happening before you get a chance to evolve. More than anything else, the first thing an evolving Basic has to do is stick around long enough to evolve. Cyndaquil CL fails miserably at this. Rating Modified: 1 (if this was the only Cyndaquil in the format, it would be hard to justify playing Typhlosion)
virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo! Today we continue our reviews of Call of Legends Basics by reviewing the latest version of one of the Johto starter Pokemon that may see some play in our HS-on Modified metagame. Today's Card of the Day is the Fire Mouse Pokemon, Cyndaquil. Cyndaquil, as I'm sure most of you already know, is a Basic Fire Pokemon. Fire Pokemon are relatively common in Modified right now, with Reshiram, Typhlosion, and Emboar are fairly common and in many different deck archetypes. Reshiram/Typhlosion has recently seen some success at recent major tournaments, like the US and Canadian National Championships. Since Cyndaquil is the lowest evolutionary stage of Typhlosion, there might be a chance that this Cyndaquil can see play in viable tournament decks. As for Cyndaquil's top and bottom stats, 40 HP isn't great for a Basic of any kind, as there is a possibility that Cyndaquil will be able to be donked (Tyrogue + PlusPower immediately comes to mind). To make matters worse, Yanmega Prime as been very popular lately, and its Linear Attack can OHKO Cyndaquil for free. Water Weakness isn't too bad right now due to Water not being a common type, but it's still important to note that Cyndaquil could be OHKOed by the likes of even some weak Water Pokemon due to its low HP. Finally, Cyndaquil has no Resistance, and a decent Retreat Cost of 1. Cyndaquil only has one attack, Fireworks, which deals 20 damage for the low cost of R, but if you flip tails, you have to discard an Energy attached to Cyndaquil. The Energy discard isn't that big of a deal if you run something like Energy Retrieval or Fisherman in your deck (and many Fire decks do right now), and combined with a PlusPower, this attack can easily knock out a Cleffa or Tyrogue, provided they aren't asleep. Modified: 2/5 While this Cyndaquil has utility for being able to Knock Out the now very common Baby Pokemon with a boost or Fire-Weak Basics such as Hoppip, Sunkern, and Caterpie. However, I still think that the HGSS Cyndaquil is a better choice for your deck with Typhlosion, due to the fact that it has a significantly higher 60 HP, preventing it from unfortunate donks or many snipers. Limited: 2.5/5 Cyndaquil's not so bad here. Fireworks does decent damage, but again, the HP lets it down. Even still, 20 damage for a single Energy is pretty good, and if you're running Fire, there's little reason not to run it. If you get a Quilava (and Typhlosion), even better.
Otaku	Welcome to a wonderful Wednesday! I hope your day goes well. Today we look at Cyndaquil (Call of Legends 55/95). This Basic Fire Pokémon Evolves into Quilava and then Typhlosion, unless you use Rare Candy to go straight to Typhlosion. Typhlosion Prime is a card I have heard at least a few seasoned players praise as ultimately being the strongest fire deck, favoring its efficiency to Emboar and its raw power. This just means that it is well worth analyzing this Cyndaquil, and see if it is worth using over the other version (HearGold/SoulSilver 61/123). This version of Cyndaquil is small, especially by modern standards: just 40 HP! That might barely have been considered “average” for a Basic that eventually Evolves into a Stage 2 only in the earliest days of the game. I’d say “well at least this means its Water Weakness is irrelevant”… except that isn’t true. Cleffa (HeartGold/SoulSilver 17/123, HGSS Promos HGSS12, and Call of Legends 24/95) was a very popular opener at Nationals, but again but between the frustration with coin flips and pending release of Pokémon Catcher, Manaphy (HS: Unleashed 3/95) is looking like a probably and popular replacement. If that is the case, any deck that runs it just needs a Water Energy or Rainbow Energy to OHKO this Cyndaquil, and that definitely matters! No Resistance is as vexing as ever but probably wouldn’t confer enough protection to matter. The single Energy Retreat Cost is expected of Basic Pokémon and useful since it is easy to pay but even knowing Typhlosion Prime would allow you to recycle Fire Energy, this card needed a free Retreat Cost. That little change might have made it worth running what amounts to donk bait. This Cyndaquil has a single attack, and with the stats it had better be a great attack to justify running it over the other version. Sadly, it isn’t: Fireworks does do a nice 20 points of damage for a just (R), and the downside of discarding a (R) Energy from Cyndaquil might be somewhat mitigated since we are talking about running it with Typhlosion Prime. This Cyndaquil is being played to Evolve, not to attack. Any effects from Pokémon meant only to Evolve are best when they protect it or aid in set-up: both such effects would (hypothetically) help it Evolve faster and that is the point. If the card just does damage, then it needs to hit hard. It doesn’t have to be super reliable since you aren’t supposed to be relying on it, and you mostly need it for the fear factor: you want your opponent to be nervous about sending anything up to KO Cyndaquil in two hits because you might OHKO it back. 20 points of damage in one shot is not enough going to cut it. Stick with the other Cyndaquil (HearGold/SoulSilver 61/123). The attacks aren’t much better but at least it has two: the first does 10 points of damage for (C) and the second does 20 for (RC). Much more relevant is the 60 HP: still low enough to risk a OHKO, but at least it won’t be an easy OHKO. If you’re trying a Typhlosion deck in Unlimited (and at least a few might be worth it), then there are two choices better than either of them. Consider Mysterious Treasures 79/123 which enjoys 60 HP, a free attack for 10 points of damage, and was printed during the period where Weakness wasn’t automatically damage doubling. In fact, it enjoys the least damaging form of Weakness: Water just does an extra 10 points of damage! The other candidate would be Cyndaquil (EX: Hidden Legends 59/101). Only 50 HP and the traditional Water Weakness, but for (CC) it can do Rage for 10 points of damage plus another 10 per damage counter on Cyndaquil and more importantly, a Typhlosion if you use an effect like Memory Berry to allow said Typhlosion Evolved from this Cyndaquil to Rage. All these versions have no Resistance and a single Energy Retreat Cost. In Limited play, today’s Cyndaquil still isn’t a good pick. Only run it if you pulled an Evolution for it. You just can’t afford something this small and Energy hungry. Yes I often point out lower damage yields and average HP scores, but the only lower printed HP score on an actual Pokémon (not a Trainer pretending to be a Pokémon, like the old Clefairy Doll) is 30 HP. Since it has to discard a card providing (R) Energy on tails, it is a last resort choice as filler for a deck already using Fire Energy cards: that’s still too expensive here! Ratings Unlimited: 1/5 – Few other Cyndaquil are worse off than this version. Modified: 1/5 – There is only one other option here, but its plainly better. Limited: 1/5 – Unless you pull its Evolutions, don’t bother with it. Summary Ouch. I try to look on the positive side of cards, but to give you an idea; this is a nerfed version of one of the two original Cyndaquil. Specifically Neo Genesis 57/111, which had 50 HP, could discard any Energy type when Fireworks required it, and had a then fairly priced version of Quick Attack that required (CC) and did 10 points of damage plus an extra 20 on a “heads”. The best use for this card is to induce Confusion in players like me who overanalyze things. ;) Of course I am still selling my soon-to-be-former possessions on eBay here. Pojo.com is not responsible for any transactions.
Mad Mattezhion	Cyndaquil (Call of Legends)   Hey guys, we continue with another Johto starter, Cyndaquil. Sadly, this card really missed the boat because of one terrible stat.   Cyndaquil has the upside of being a Fire type that benefits from all of the [r] energy support we have right now and both the attack and retreat are relatively cheap (an [r] energy with a flip to discard for 20 damage and a single energy to get to the bench). The weakness is nothing unexpected but Magnezone Prime and Zekrom BW are keeping the Water presence down.   Evolving into Typhlosion Prime is a definite plus, and would make this card quite sought after, if not for the absolutely terrible HP.   40 HP is nowhere near enough for any current Poke'mon as some common, cheap sniping attacks can reach high enough to score an OHKO (Yanmega Prime's Linear Attack and Mandibuzz BW's Blindside come to mind). Many other cheap snipers can also get close to scoring a KO and will do so if you don't evolve immediately. You don't even want to think about having this Cyndaquil in the Active slot. *shudder*   Modified: 1.5 (bump that HP up to 60 and this card would be serviceable)   Limited: 2 (Typhlosion is awesome and Quilava is okay but you still don't want to run Cyndaquil as your Active)   Combos with: a HP booster