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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Our Top 13 countdown continues today with a card that will likely see play in decks because it's a great counter to a very commonly played Pokemon. Today's Card of the Day is Sigilyph.   Sigilyph is a Basic Psychic Pokemon. Mewtwo-EX is far and away the most common Psychic-type Pokemon that sees play in Modified, but others do pop up on occasion, including Gothitelle and the new Garbodor and Mew-EX. 90 HP is just about average for a non-legendary Basic Pokemon, and Sigilyph should be able to take a medium-sized hit before going down. Psychic Weakness would normally be bad against Mewtwo, but isn't in most cases (I'll get to that in a minute), so you'll only have to worry about less common attackers. No Resistance is strange, because Sigilyph is a Flying-type in the video games, making Fighting Resistance a natural choice. To round out the bottom stats, a Retreat Cost of 1 is easy to pay.   The Avianoid Pokemon has an Ability and a single attack. Safeguard prevents all effects of attacks, including damage, done to Sigilyph by Pokemon-EX. This protective Ability is great, as Pokemon-EX are incredibly common in Modified. More specifically, Safeguard forces your opponent to attack Sigilyph with a non-EX Pokemon, which greatly lowers the viability of "quad" decks revolving around Pokemon-EX, such as Quad Entei-EX. In other situations, Sigilyph can make an excellent wall if you opponent only has a Pokemon-EX powered up, and also makes an excellent counter to Mewtwo-EX, which also has a Psychic Weakness. One quick note to keep in mind about Safeguard, however, is that Giratina-EX's Shred attack WILL bypass Safeguard, so Sigilyph isn't totally resistant to Pokemon-EX.   Psychic, Sigilyph's attack, starts off at 50 damage for a Psychic and two Colorless, and does 10 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon. This attack is tailor-made to take down opposing Mewtwo-EX, as each Energy the opponent adds to Mewtwo for X Ball will also power up Psychic as well. While Mewtwo needs to have four Energy on it to guarantee a KO (barring effects like Eviolite or Giant Cape), but in most cases, that won't be too uncommon. One potential drawback of Psychic is the attack's Energy cost, as there's not an easy way to power up Psychic without some form of acceleration. However, given that Sigilyph will most often be used as a tech, chances are the deck it fits into will have some sort of acceleration amenable to the Avianoid Pokemon, such as Eelektrik's Dynamotor.   Modified: 3.5/5 Sigilyph is a very solid Mewtwo-EX counter, but is also very narrow. While Sigilyph can hold its own against most of the other Pokemon-EX, Sigilyph truly shines against Mewtwo-EX, which has a Psychic Weakness an an attack that will easily increase Psychic's damage output. However, the flip side to this is that Sigilyph will only see as much play as Mewtwo, so if Mewtwo-EX usage drops, Sigilyph will be of limited use. However, given the overall power level of Mewtwo-EX, chances are it will still see quite a bit of play even after people experiment with other decks, meaning Sigilyph can be an excellent tech in many decks in the Modified format.   Limited: 3/5 Sigilyph is one of the few Pokemon that isn't as good in Limited as it is in Modified. While Safeguard is still quite nice in the Limited format, Pokemon-EX are also much harder to come by, meaning that Safeguard will often times be useless against your opponent's attacks. Additionally, while Psychic is still steady damage for a reasonable cost, you're still reliant on the opponent to help you out with a majority of your attacks. That being said, Sigilyph is a great Basic to fit into any deck running Psychic Energy, and will especially be important if you happen to run into any Pokemon-EX.
Otaku	We continue our Top 10 Top 13 Promising Picks of Dragons Exalted with the card that just barley missed the Top 10, Sigilyph (BW: Dragons Exalted 52/124)! As a reminder, since the cards are not tournament legal until after Worlds and there isn’t much happening between then and the rotation just over two weeks later, I’ll be scoring only for BW-On Modified. Stats Sigilyph is a Basic Pokémon, the easiest to run (and oddly best supported) Stage of Pokémon at the moment. It can benefit from cards such as Eviolite and Prism Energy, and be searched out and Benched via things like the Call For Family attack on Emolga (BW: Dragons Exalted 45/124). It is also a Psychic-Type, which has a few pieces of support, but most importantly allows it to hit Mewtwo EX (BW: Next Destinies 54/99, 98/99) for double damage (due to Weakness). 90 HP is a bit small for a Basic Pokémon. Normally I would try to put a better face on it by pointing out at least this card can be searched out and added to your hand through Level Ball (and indeed it can be), but due this card’s Ability the HP will often be sufficient; many dominant attackers won’t be able to touch Sigilyph. This will be good because the Psychic Weakness would otherwise be a problem; however as we’ll soon discuss the most likely Pokémon to attack in a deck won’t actually be able to harm Sigilyph. For the same reason, the lack of Resistance is even less of an issue than normal. Last for its Stats is the Retreat Cost of one, which Skyarrow Bridge can easily drop to a perfect “free” Retreat Cost. If that isn’t an option, it is still quite good even if you have to pay for it normally. Effects Alright, finally discussing what anyone who read the scan knows will make or break this card, the Ability “Safeguard”. This is an effect that actually first showed up as a Poké-Body almost nine full years ago! Back then it affected Pokémon ex, the predecessors of Pokémon EX that have a similar name but are not considered to be the “same thing”. So as the earlier versions did against Pokémon ex, the current version prevents all effects of attacks, including damage, done to “this Pokémon” (in this case, Sigilyph) by Pokémon EX. So Mewtwo EX, Darkrai EX, etc. can’t touch Sigilyph. It isn’t foolproof, however: Giratina EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 92/124, 124/124) posses an attack called “Shred” that ignores all effects on the Defending Pokémon (note that Weakness and Resistance are considered fundamental stats/mechanics like HP and not an “effect”), and Mew EX (BW: Dragons Exalted 46/124, 120/124) possess an Ability that would allow it to copy such attacks. There is also Garbodor (BW: Dragons Exalted 54/124) whose Ability would shut off Sigilyph. Lastly, a decent amount of Pokémon EX can hit Benched Pokémon, so those are not totally helpless against it either unless all you have in play are Sigilyph. Sigilyph packs a splashable attack: (PCC) isn’t too hard to pay for and Psychic (also something we’ve seen before) delivers 50 points of damage plus 10 for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokémon. Psychic would be too weak on its own; for the cost of three Energy, an attack needs to deliver from 70 to 120 points of damage to fall into a “competitive” range. Far too often you’ll be hitting for 80 or less points of damage. Fortunately this is a Basic Pokémon that can use Prism Energy or Blend Energy GRPD to slip into off-Type decks, tap commonly used Energy acceleration, and of course walls against Pokémon EX. I wish this would have been released alongside Mewtwo EX, but I’ll still gladly take it now. Usage Normally I’d begin by comparing and contrasting with other Sigilyph, but instead I am going to discuss Wobbuffet (EX: Sandstorm 26/100, EX: Power Keepers 24/108). This was the first card we got with Safeguard (the old, Pokémon ex stopping Poké-Body version), but it is clear Sigilyph is this card updated to a current generation Pokémon and with stats and an attack updated for power creep. The differences (besides the obvious) are that Wobbuffet has only 80 HP, needed two Energy to Retreat, and for (PCC) only hit for 50 points of damage while placing a damage counter on itself. One might also consider that Wobbuffet had Wynaut (EX: Sandstorm 54/100) to optionally “Evolve” from; this gave you an opening Pokémon that could search your deck for a Pokémon per Energy attached to itself, and add those Pokémon to hand. This Wynaut also possessed a Poké-Power known as Baby Evolution, which allowed you to Evolve Wynaut into Wobbuffet as if Wobbuffet was a Stage 1 Pokémon; this included all the normal benefits with the addition removing all damage counters from it. In the format these two existed in, there was a form of Psychic Energy acceleration (from the deck no less) with the drawback of placing two damage counters on the recipient of the Energy. As you weren’t as likely to take a lot of damage the first turn or two, this created a potent combo with Wobbuffet. So I recount all this to point out that the most likely place to find Wobbuffet was in a particular deck, and even then it wasn’t a must run. Many decks were able to use Wobbuffet, but because your opponent could play around it or could bring up a non-Pokémon ex attacker to render Safeguard irrelevant, it wasn’t something you relied on. So at last we come to Sigilyph usage; it shouldn’t be in every deck, or if it should it will be a one-of. Even without being everywhere, decks will need to be built as if they expected to always face at least one Sigilyph per game: anything less is inviting a loss. There are two other Sigilyph to pick from; let us look at them on the unlikely chance they would be more useful than today’s version. They are BW: Emerging Powers 41/98 and BW: Emerging Powers 42/98. Both are 90 HP Basic Pokémon with Retreat Costs of just one, like today’s CotD. These two are Lightning Weak, possess Fighting Resistance (yay!), and two have attacks instead of one. BW: Emerging Powers 41/98 can reduce the damage it takes next turn (from an opponent’s attacks) by 40 for (P); better than nothing but not very good. It should shelter Sigilyph from most first turn attacks, and keep it from being OHKOed (outside of Weakness) by most attackers, but remember that besides Pokémon Catcher shenanigans to reset the effect and raw power, your opponent might have something with Shred (to handle today’s Sigilyph). The second attack lets you deal 50 points of damage to the opposing Pokémon of your choice for (PCC), but does not apply Weakness/Resistance at all (even against the Defending Pokémon). The second attack might periodically be handy, but not enough to actually run it. BW: Emerging Powers 42/98 also has two attacks: the first is again filler, this time giving two coin flips yielding 10 points of damage per “heads” for (P). A pity it wasn’t even a half-decent set-up attack, as the second attack has much more potential; for (CCC) you score 40 points of damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on the Defending Pokémon. Since it can use any Energy for this attack, any Energy acceleration not restricted to what it can attach to could fuel it in a single turn. Yes, a Pokémon must already have been “softened up” but in a format of 2HKOs this is actually quite likely. I can finish off anything that has already taken a) damage equal to half its maximum HP (rounded up to the nearest 10) less 40 if it is neither Psychic Weak nor Resistant b) damage equal to a quarter of its maximum HP (rounded up to the nearest 10) less 40 if it is Psychic Weak c) damage equal to half its maximum HP less (rounded up to the nearest 10) less 20 if it is Psychic Resistant. As you can tell, I kind of like BW: Emerging Powers 42/98 and wonder if we shouldn’t have been using it sooner. With a PlusPower it could OHKO even an uninjured copy of today’s Sigilyph. Still, this isn’t likely to push out today’s version from a deck or to compliment it. In Unlimited, right now there isn’t a need to worry about Pokémon EX because of decks that win first turn and obscene damage potential if you do encounter a more “traditional” deck. In Limited play, this is an excellent pick because odds are you’ll run into someone with a Pokémon EX. Aside from that, the usual provisions apply; lower average HP/damage output and the ability to fit into decks with only a few Psychic Energy included. Ratings Unlimited: 1/5 Modified: 3.5/5 Limited: 4/5 Combos with: Prism Energy, Double Colorless Energy Summary Sigilyph will shape the format even without being heavily run; as such, I placed this Pokémon at number nine due to impact I expected it to have (and not according to direct usage). At best we’ll see decks all working in one copy, but at worst decks will have to make sure they include at least one, solid non-Pokémon EX attacker or Safeguard counter to prevent some serious hardship. Please check out my eBay sales by clicking here. It’s me whittling away at about two decades worth of attempted collecting, spanning action figures, comic books, TCGs, and video games. Exactly what is up is a bit random. Pojo.com is in no way responsible for any transactions; Pojo is merely doing me a favor by letting me link at the end of my reviews.
Jebulous Maryland Player	Sigilyph   Sigilyph is a Basic Psychic Pokemon with 90 HP.  It is weak to Psychic and has a retreat cost of 1.  It is searchable by Level Ball.   'Safeguard'  is what makes this card good at the moment.  It prevents all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokemon by Pokemon-EX.  With so many EXs running around, of course this guy will get hyped up.  If you go against Quad Entei, you pretty much win.  You can throw this guy in any deck for the ability, you just have to figure out if you only want him to stall (as you build up other Pokemon) or if you want him to attack as well (you need to have Psychic or Blend Energy for the attack).   'Psychic' costs 1 Psychic and 2 Colorless.  It does 50 plus 10 more for each energy attached to the Defending Pokemon.  So you want this guy attacking against EXs.  They usually need a minimum of 2 energy, so it will be doing 70 or more damage and not getting damaged.   So it will be interesting to see how much Sigiylph is played.  Its existence threatens decks with only EX Pokemon.  It will also make people reconsider loading so many EX Pokemon in their deck.  Though Pokemon Catcher can help you work around it, it would be best to have other non EX Pokemon to take it out.  With its Psychic weakness, there is potential for Sigilyph wars (I have to shake my head in disapproval if I see one of those).   Modified: 4/5 Limited: 3/5 Combo's With: your opponent's EX Pokemon   Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com
HD	Sigilyph: Guarding your safes for 1 year! Hello Pojo Readers! Today, we look at #11 of our Top 13 cards in the upcoming set, Dragons Exalted. That card is Sigilyph! Being a Basic Pokemon is great for the format, as it gives a Pokemon access to some great forms of support such as Eviolite and Skyarrow Bridge. Skyarrow Bridge works especially well with Sigilyph’s Retreat Cost of 1, and Eviolite is just a great card in general. Sigilyph has 90 HP, just like the other 2 Sigilyphs from EPO. 90 is the magic number for getting Level Ball support, so Sigilyph will be happy to take advantage of that. Despite his low HP, unlike his cousins, he is actually quite well protected, as we’ll see soon enough. This is the first Sigilyph to be weak to Psychic; the other two are weak to Lightning. This is actually good because Sigilyph is well protected against the main Psychic threat, again as we’ll see below. This is also the first Sigilyph to have no Resistance, which is unfortunate since the other two Sigilyphs both have the coveted Fighting Resistance. However, this doesn’t really hurt the card as a whole. The final part of Sigilyph’s defense is its Ability, “Safeguard”. This attack reads: “Prevent all effects of attacks, including damage, done to this Pokemon by Pokemon-EX.” Now this is why Sigilyph is on this list (In fact, this is the first card we’ve reviewed that’s on my personal Top 10 list, as #10 to be specific)! EXs can’t do a thing to it, and it actually doesn’t have a terrible offense. Speaking of offense, Psychic is [PCC] for 50 and does 10 more damage for each Energy attached to the Defending Pokemon. This will definitely 2HKO Mewtwo EX, which is very nice considering Mewtwo EX can’t do anything as long as Sigilyph is Active. Unfortunately, Darkrai can still snipe for 30 if Sigilyph’s Active, but at least he can’t snipe a Bench-sitting Sigilyph. In Limited, this guy is great to pull since normally EXs are quite powerful in Limited formats and this is one of the few counters to them. Ratings: Modified (BW-on): 4/5 Limited: 5/5 Combos with: Bouffalant DRX
Mad Mattezhion	Our Dragons Exalted Top 10: #11 Sigilyph   Psychics are making a strong showing in this set, with three of them making our list (spoiler alert). Today's card is going to be a heavily sought after budget option as well as a popular rogue tool. Here's another printing of everyone's favourite toilet brush, Sigilyph!   Sigilyph is looking to splash in Modified to to the mixture of its useful Psychic type (much coveted for the beating up Mewtwo EX and Gardevoir) and it's protective stats. The single energy retreat cost is easily cured by Skyarrow Bridge, and the Psychic Weakness is only a problem against other Sigilyph (Gardevoir doesn't hit for Weakness). The stats which I would change if I could are the HP amd the lack of Resistance. If Sigilyph had just 10 more HP or Fighting Resistance, it would be out of the immediate reach of Terrakion NV, which is likely to be the most common way to counter Sigilyph in addition to many other threats. The lack of Fighting Resistance in particular really hurts, since Sigilyph is a Flying dial type and raising the HP would stop it from being searchable by Level Ball.   Of course, a 90 HP non-evolving Basic Poke'mon would be nothing to write home about if not for Safeguard. As veterans of the 3rd generation of the game will remember, the old Safeguard Poke-body protected Poke'mon of the time from the predations of various Poke'mon ex and this new Ability does offer the same protection from the current Poke'mon EX. For those of you interested in playing Unlimited, the two types are different so Safeguard will only protect from one or the other, unless a new ruling is made.   Coming back to the present, Safeguard will make Sigilyph an effective wall against many popular Poke'mon EX such as Mewtwo, Darkrai, Zekrom, Reshiram, Entei, the soon to be released Rayquaza and the new Terrakion. That is an impressive list of cards for any one Poke'mon to neutralise, so Sigilyph has me salivating at the mouth.   Unfortunately for the mutant cousin to Unown, Sigilyph still has some powerful enemies that Safeguard will not stop. Groudon and Raikou won't particularly care since they can keep aiming for your bench while Sigilyph is Active (Darkrai is a little more hampered but the sentiment remains true) and the ever popular Terrakion NV appears in a lot of the various archetypes (damn the lack of Fighting Resistance!). Empoleon, both Zoroarks and the regular Zekrom are also able to bet Sigilyph unconscious with a minimum of effort.   The single attack is Psychic, which starts out at 50 damage for [p][c][c] and adds 10 damage for each energy attached to the defending Poke'mon. While this is powerful when hitting for Weakness (although Mewtwo will need 4 energy attached for a 1HKO with another needed to get through Eviolite), it is most likely a 3HKO against the majority of attackers. Fully energised threats like Zekrom BW, Terrakion NV and Darkrai EX will only be carrying 3 energy, and 80 damage less Resistance/Eviolite will not kill an opponent quickly enough. Consider that your opponent will likely answer with the unimpeded Terrakion NV or a Poke'mon Catcher before you can complete the Knock Out, and you can see clearly that Sigilyph would benefit a great deal from a more powerful offensive attack.   Sigilyph isn't going to be putting a stop to people playing Poke'mon EX and every tournament-viable archetype will have at least one effective counter to Safeguard without having to worry about including extra techs. But if you just need to buy an extra turn or two against the brutal Mewtwo EX, or you want keep Darkrai EX from chomping into the health of your evolving Basics, Sigilyph is a great choice. Especially since it happily abuses Prism Energy and DCE!   Modified: 3.5 (Sigilyph could completely fizzle or become a highly valuable tech in a remake of the Gardevoir/Mewtwo/Leavanny and Six Corners archetypes, depending on the future release of a way to boost Psychic's mediocre damage)   Limited: 5 (even without attacking, having a way to completely nullify your opponent's Poke'mon EX is truly awesome. You will never regret playing this)   Combos with: Sigilyph is a good frontman for Mewtwo/Gardevoir to buy you some breathing room and win the Mewtwo race, but wider acceptance will require the future release of a counter to Poke'mon Catcher and/or a reliable way to boost the damage dramatically. Without the ability to 2HKO Poke'mon EX without fail, this nothing but a delaying tactic.