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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Clefable  

- Plasma Storm

Date Reviewed:
February 28, 2013

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.87
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

Combos With: See Below

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Clefable (Plasma Storm) 

For the last couple of days we have reviewed Pokémon with decent(ish) attacks that won’t be able to cut it in competitive play because they are Stage 2s and therefore slow to get into play and very difficult to keep replacing when they get KO’d. Today we look at the Pokémon that was probably intended to solve those problems: Clefable. 

Clefable is a Stage 1 Pokémon with 90 HP (poor), a Retreat cost of one (acceptable), and a Weakness to Fighting (not great). It also has rubbish attack called Moon impact which does 50 points of vanilla damage for three Colourless Energy. The only part of that which matters is that Clefable is very easy to KO if the opponent drags it from its natural habitat on the Bench with Pokémon Catcher. 

Yes, Clefable is a Pokémon that is designed for nothing else except to sit on the Bench and use its Ability. But how good is that Ability and will it be worthwhile including in a deck? Let’s take a look. 

Moon Guidance lets you flip a coin once per turn. If heads you can search your deck for a card that evolves from one of your Pokémon and put it onto that Pokémon. Sounds good, right? Except there is a bit more text to read: This counts as evolving that Pokémon. That part is crucial. It means that you cannot use Moon Guidance to evolve a Pokémon that you Benched that turn, and you cannot then evolve it again until your next turn (no Moon Guidance for the Stage 1, then play down the Stage 2). At this point, I’m failing to see how Clefable speeds up an evolution deck at all. It’s more of a restricted-use Pokéball (or Victory Medal) than anything else. But the problems don’t end there: it’s flip-dependant (and therefore unreliable); it takes up a ton of deck space (not just for itself but by forcing you to run more copies of the Stage 1); and an easy Prize for your opponent. It’s also worth noting that if you use Moon Guidance to evolve from the deck, you won’t get to use any play-from-hand Abilities such as Ninetales DRX’s Bright Look or Aggron DRX’s Toppling Wind. 

You can see the intention behind Clefable, but the execution is pretty much a failure. If you want to play Stage 2s, then max out the Rare Candy and leave this card in the binder. 

Rating 

Modified: 1.75 (gimmicky . . . the bad kind of gimmicky)

Limited: 4 (if you are using thin evolution lines, it’s worth a try)

virusyosh

Greetings once again, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing a new card of one of my personal favorite Pokemon. Today's Card of the Day is Clefable from Plasma Storm.
 
Clefable is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. Colorless Pokemon are valuable in that they easily fit into any deck type, making them very good supporting Pokemon. Clefable's 90 HP is unfortunately about what we'd expect from a Stage 1, and will probably only be able to take a medium-sized hit before being Knocked Out. Fighting Weakness is a major problem against the likes of Landorus and Terrakion, as both will easily take out Clefable with Land's Judgment or a boosted Retaliate. Clefable also has no Resistance and a single Retreat Cost, which can easily be paid if necessary.
 
This version of the Fairy Pokemon has a very interesting Ability and a single attack. Moon Guidance is really cool, allowing you to flip a coin, and search your deck for a card that evolves from one of your Pokemon and put it onto that Pokemon if you flip heads. Now, nearly all coin flips in the Pokemon TCG are bad, but this one is slightly less so because it doesn't cost an attack and doesn't use up a potentially useful resource like a Trainer card. However, at the same time, coin flips make this Ability very unreliable, so it would be very difficult to build a deck around anyway. Of course, being able to search Evolutions out of your deck and evolve for free is great, so if your deck runs a lot of Evolutions, you may want to consider running Clefable (though you're probably just better running more copies of your Evolutions for consistency).
 
Clefable's only attack, Moon Impact, does 50 damage for three Colorless Energy. You likely won't use this outside of Limited, where it does a decent job. In Modified, there are many better options.
 
Modified: 2/5 Clefable's Ability has a really cool concept behind it, but ultimately fails to impress in a metagame dominated by big Basics. Clefable's Ability being on a Stage 1 puts it in some awkward design space where you need to use multiple resources to get to the Ability, and then once you get Clefable out, you have to flip heads. Clefable would be a lot more playable if the Ability didn't require a coin flip or if the Ability were instead on a Basic Pokemon, but as it stands, even decks that run multiple evolutionary lines should probably just run more copies of those lines to increase their consistency, as it will be much faster and more reliable that way.
 
Limited: 5/5 On the other hand, Clefable is fantastic in Limited. Colorless typing means that the Fairy Pokemon can fit easily into any deck, and Moon Guidance is useful here even if you can't always get the coins to flip your way. Additionally, Moon Impact is also pretty good here, dealing solid damage for Colorless Energy without a drawback. Overall, you'll probably look to run Clefable in your deck if you have multiple evolutionary lines, which most Limited decks tend to have.


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