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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	#6 Sparkling Robe  Today’s card is the only one to make the collective top 10 that I didn’t have on my own top 10 list. Did I miss a trick here?  It’s not that I think Sparkling Robe is bad. Clearly, it has the potential to be a very useful card: like Virizion EX in the form of a Tool, it gives immunity from Special Conditions to the Pokémon it is attached to. No more Poison damage. or annoying turns where your Pokémon stays asleep after a Hypnotoxic Laser, is the main attraction here, though there are also a few Pokémon around that can cause Status-related trouble, such as M Venusaur EX.  Sparkling Robe does have a couple of advantages over Virizion: it doesn’t compel you to attach Grass (or Rainbow) Energy, and it isn’t shut off by Garbodor LTR’s Garbotoxin Ability. On the other hand, it is susceptible to Item Lock (see Seismitoad EX, Trevenant XY), and can be disposed of with Startling Megaphone. The real thing holding up widespread usage, however, is going to be the fact that players will likely prefer to use Muscle Band (for attackers) or Float Stone (for high retreat Bench-sitters) as their Tool of choice, especially as we have options like Virizion EX and even Keldeo EX to help out with Special Condition problems.  A good card in my opinion, and it could play a role here and there. Mostly though, I expect it to be squeezed out of lists in favour of some of the even better Tools we already have.  Rating  Modified: 3.25 (offence wins out over defence in this format) Expanded: 3.25 (Accelgor is a threat, but the item lock means this card will rarely be a counter to it) Limited: 4 (Special Conditions are always a big deal here, and this card would be great against something like Victreebel)
aroramage	Alright guys, wipe the sweat off your brow and get yourselves ready. We've got a great new Tool for anyone - and I mean ANYONE - who needs it! You ever feeling down in the dumps cause your opponent wiped you out with Hypno-Virbank again? Didn't you wish you could get rid of the Paralysis that Vanilluxe (NVI) gave out every time it flipped heads even once? Isn't having someone just obliterate you with Status Conditions just terrible? Not running Virizion-EX, are we? Then Sparkling Robe is the card for you!   Sparkling Robe isn't just for Fighting-types, even if it does look like one of those robes that boxers will sometimes wear when they come out onto the stage! This is a Tool everyone can use! And it's special cause it completely neutralizes Special Conditions on the Pokemon it's attached to! Alright, not bad, but what does that mean? Well for those decks that don't run Virizion-EX, that means your Active gets to remove its Poison and Sleep from Hypnotoxic Lasers and can't be affected by another one so long as the Robes are on! That's pretty good!   Now I had this pretty high up on my list for that reason, but that's all just the positives of Sparkling Robe, and in order to give a fair rating, we've gotta take a look at the negatives. So what's wrong with Sparkling Robe? Well nothing, to be honest, but there are some things that need to be taken into consideration. For starters, people use Hypnotoxic Laser and Virbank for the extra 2 damage counters in between turns since 30 damage is much more than 10. And if yesterday's card is any indicator, an extra 20 damage is the difference between a KO and scraping by! Attaching Sparkling Robe before a Hypnotoxic Laser comes out is the most assured way of preventing that from happening, since attaching it after only keeps the damage from stacking rather than removing the damage that's been done.   Another thing of note is Sparkling Robe is a Tool, and just like any other Tool, it's susceptible to the popular Startling Megaphone. So if your opponent has the right combination in hand, Sparkling Robe may only keep their Hypnotoxic at bay for a turn before they Startle it and Hypno-Virbank your Active for the 30 they need to KO it.   Still, I think Sparkling Robe will be a nice tech against Hypnotoxic Laser for most decks that aren't VirGen and need their big attacker to stay healthy for a while, and I'd imagine that it'll be run for that purpose. It's important to note that it's better as prevention rather than a countermeasure; perhaps we'll see some of it, perhaps Muscle Band and Startling Megaphone will keep it out, or perhaps Hypnotoxic will suddenly be less popular just for the sheer damage output in this set being more favorable than anything, neutralizing a need for this card to begin with. But for what it's worth, it's a pretty handy Tool to have. And hey, who knows when the next Vanilluxe-lock comes by?   Rating   Standard: 3.5/5 (good against Hypnotoxic Laser, and last I checked most decks aren't running Virizion-EX)   Expanded: 3.5/5 (same as Standard with the addition of being good against more Status-inflicters)   Limited: 4/5 (while most of the set is built around D-D-D-DAMAGE, this is great protection against the likes of Victreebel and Aurorus)   Arora Notealus: It is a very nice-looking set of robes. I can totally imagine a Pokemon coming out onto the stage with these on!...a little weird, but still cool!   Weekend Thought: Do you agree with our #10-6? What cards do you think will make the Top 5?   Next Time: Time to bring the ground into the sky!...or something like that.
Otaku	We close out our the bottom half of our the Top 10 Promising Picks of XY: Furious Fists with the close of this week!  As a reminder, the reviewers each compiled his own separate lists, and Pojo crunched the numbers to determine the site list.  As these cards aren’t technically legal for competitive play under NXD-On Modified (the “current” Standard Format until September 3rd), I’ll be using this list as the official transition point and using scores for the pending Standard format (BCR-On), new Expanded Format (BW-On) and the Limited format.  The number six collective pick is Sparkling Robe (XY: Furious Fists 99/111) and… it is pretty simple.  So much that I’m at a bit of a loss as to what to write about it, so I’ll start with the fundamentals, as usual; it is a Pokémon Tool that prevents the equipped Pokémon from being affected by Special Conditions, including removing any present at the moment it is attached.  Now, Pokémon Tools, for better or worse are affected by anything that applies to them specifically, anything that applies to Items and anything that applies to Trainers as a whole.  Right now, there aren’t a whole lot of things that apply to any of those categories, and what is there includes both support and counters.  The big deal would be Item blocking effects, like Quaking Punch courtesy of Seismitoad-EX and Tool discarding effects like Startling Megaphone.  Special Conditions are… sort of powerful.  Specifically, Hypnotoxic Laser is still a great card.  When they can be inflicted so easily, Poison and Sleep are pretty amazing.  The thing is, most decks already have answers to Special Conditions, some of which double as answers to all attack effects and several other tricks (hello Switch).  The second strike is what I just mentioned; this is not a good time to be a Pokémon Tool thanks to Item blocking effects and Startling Megaphone.  For me, the third strike is that most almost all Pokémon are restricted to one Tool at a time, meaning if I use this I can’t use Muscle Band, Float Stone, etc.  That doesn’t mean this is a bad card per se; its a lot more useful than Full Heal (unless you already have a Pokémon Tool attached) and as you can hold onto it until you need to treat a Special Condition (at the risk of one turn of Poison and/or Burn damage), you can avoid it being wasted by a sudden discard or KO.  A decent amount of decks are counting on Poison damage to boost their damage output, and this prevents that.  Ratings  Standard: 3/5 - A general score, made less impressive in a format where we’ve got the likes of Float Stone, Muscle Band and Silver Bangle, which all score much higher.  Expanded: 3/5 - I don’t foresee it doing any worse here, but also not any better.  Limited: 5/5 - Special Conditions are amazingly potent here, so make room for it if you pull it!  Summary: Sparkling Robe is good but not great, and while it does its job well this isn’t the best format for this kind of Pokémon Tool, outside perhaps of specialized combos of which I am unaware.  indeed, I am hoping that one of the other reviewers will do a better job of explaining why this card is good; it didn’t even make my own Top 10, and I tentatively put it as my 19th place result for my Top 20.  The way the Top 10 was compiled, it either was someone’s number one pick or else it was present on multiple lists.