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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Gengar Lv X

Arceus

Date Reviewed: Nov. 2, 2011

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: See Below
Limited: See Below

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:  See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Gengar LV X (Arceus)

Gengar is one of those Pokémon (like Garchomp and Flygon) that seems to be favoured by the people who design the cards. Seriously, most Gengar are at least decent as far as playability goes.

Maybe the designers are too scared to give Gengar a bad card. After all, he can be pretty intimidating: a purple ghost with red eyes and a sinister perma-grin . . . not something you want to mess with.

As a TCG card, Gengar LV X basically provided a way for people playing Gengar SF to just heap more misery upon hapless opponents. The HP boost it gave made it all the more difficult to try and dodge Fainting Spell with tricks like Poison or Crobat G drops; the Level Down PokéPower was handy against (very rarely played) bench sitters like Heatran LV X, and could catch out a rash opponent who played this card first in mirror or who Levelled Up their Flygon or Dialga G. The Cursed Drops attack, though not bad, was only ever situationally useful, with most players preferring to stick with Shadow Room and Poltergeist. It certainly wasn’t a bad addition though, particularly when played with the ‘Curse’ Gengar from AR or Gengar Prime.

Gengar LV X continued to see play until the end of its life in modified despite the competition for space from the other great Gengars available. The main attraction was definitely the increased HP, but the card had enough going for it besides that to deserve its spot.

Rating

Fear Factor as a Pokémon: 4.25

Fear Factor as a TCG card: 3.75

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia

Gengar Lv X (Arceus)
 
Gengar is tied for first place on my list of favourite Poke'mon, sharing the top spot with Nidoking. Unlike the King however, Gengar has been the subject of adoration, good video game stats and various playable cards since Gen II, with today's review focusing on one of the best.
 
Gengar Lv X in itself wasn't a very powerful or intimidating card in and of itself, despite the useful attack and Poke-power. The reson this card struck fear into the hearts of players in the last format was that it worked brilliantly to boost Gengar SF. With Level Down to remove an opposing Lv X card (especially useful against SP decks using Dialga to shut down Spiritomb PA and Vilplume UD, Gengar's most common partners) and the power to use Compound Pain to capitalise on earlier damage from Shadow Room as well as Flash Bite on yesterday's card, this Lv X was a must run in VileGar builds last format. boosting Gengar's HP from a lowly 110 to a tanky 140 while keeping the free retreat certainly didn't hurt either, and it even gave an option for escaping Special Conditions since Spiritomb and Vileplume stopped you from using the common cards that dealt with the problem of your opponent trying to stall with Paralysis or Sleep.
 
The intimidation doesn't stop with the effects either. The card sports a brilliant picture of Gengar weaving it's magic in preparation for some devilry and is about to use Shadow Ball on some poor victim. Full marks to Shizurow for the artwork, I especially like the holofoil effect over the eyes that is a hallmark of the Lv X cards. With Gengar's red eyes, the holofoil makes them glow with just the right amount of mischievious intent!
 
Gengar Prime is still making waves in Modified despite the destructive power of the Tao Dragons, and Gengar SF will always be rembered for its verstaility in its offensive abilities (Fainting Spell remains my favourite Poke-power of all time!). With many other powerful cards in its proud history, Gengar will always cause excitement when it gets printed in a new set. Long live the Ghost!
 
Fear Factor as a Poke'mon: 5 (sure I'm biased, but it's a Ghost/Poison dual type that lives to cause fear and paranoia for its own amusement. Plus, it happens to be purple!)
 
Fear Factor as a TCG card: 4 (it isn't usable without a powerful Gengar to Level Up from, but there are no shortage of those!)
 
Combos with: it was a one-of tech in all good VileGar builds and appeared often enough in LostGar builds last format too. I'll always remember Gengar Lv X fondly as part of the old Speed Gengar swarm deck as well. Oh, the memories!

virusyosh

Happy midweek, Pojo viewers! Today we'll be continuing Scary Pokemon Week by reviewing a Ghost from the Arceus expansion. Today's Card of the Day is Gengar Lv. X.

Gengar Lv. X is a Level-Up of a Stage 2 Psychic Pokemon. Back when Gengar Lv. X was Modified legal, it saw a lot of play in various Gengar builds, most commonly VileGar (and later LostGar). 140 HP is fairly good for a Level-Up, although it could afford to be higher. That being said, Gengar will generally take a hit or two before going down. Psychic Weakness gives problems in the mirror match and would nowadays be a problem against Mew Prime and Gothitelle. Colorless Resistance was great against Garchomp C Lv. X back when Gengar was legal, and is good to have in general. Finally, Gengar has no Retreat Cost, making it easy to get out of the Active spot, if necessary.

Gengar Lv. X has a Poke-Power and a single attack on top of whatever other Gengar is underneath it. Level Down does exactly what the name implies: once per turn, you may take an opposing Lv. X and shuffle the Level-Up card back into your opponent's deck. This was the bane of Lv. X players everywhere, and made it especially difficult to stay set up, especially if something like Uxie was the Level Down target.

Compound Pain is Gengar Lv. X's form of offense, dealing 30 damage to each opposing Pokemon with damage counters on it for two Psychic and a Colorless. This works especially well with both Curse Gengar from Arceus as well as Gengar SF's Shadow Room, and undoubtedly adds another powerful attack in the Gengar deck's arsenal.

Modified: N/A Much like the other cards we've reviewed this week, Gengar Lv. X isn't Modified legal. However, back when it was, the combination of Level Down and Compound Pain on top of Gengar SF was truly something to be feared, making it quite powerful. If Gengar Lv. X were legal today, it would only be able to Level Up Gengar Prime, where Compound Pain would work very nicely with Gengar Prime's placement of damage counters and Catastrophe Poke-Body. Therefore, both then and now, I'd give it a 4/5.

Limited: 3.5/5 Gengar Lv. X is awesome in Limited, but it's a Level Up to a Stage 2, effectively making it a "Stage 3". Getting Stage 2s out in Limited is difficult enough, whereas adding another card in the chain can be even harder. That being said, both Level Down and Compound Pain can be very useful in Limited, especially against opposing Gengar or Salamence Lv. X.


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