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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Empoleon  

- Legendary Treasures

Date Reviewed:
January 14, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.13
Limited: 2.63

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

Empoleon (Legendary Treasures) 

Our final card of the week is the only one which isn’t a reprint (though some might wish they had given us Empoleon DEX all over again). kawayoo’s artwork, with Phione in the background and Trubbish along for the ride is absolutely 100% certified adorable though. 

The card itself is a lot less spectacular. It seems decent, sure: Surf is a fairly cheap way of doing an effect-free 50 damage, and Emperor’s strike is reasonably priced for what it does: 70 damage, plus another 60 if the Defending Pokémon has more HP than Empoleon. But can you spot the fatal design flaw here? A Surf for 50 + Emperor’s Strike for 130 = 180 damage, also known as a OHKO on an EX Pokémon. Unfortunately, if you did use Surf you just reduced a Defending EX Pokémon’s HP below the level needed to trigger the extra damage from Emperor’s Strike. D’oh! 

Ok, I get that if they damage Empoleon without KOing it on their turn then it will still work out, but who wants to rely on their opponent’s mistakes in order for their attacks to work? No-one (I assume). It’s hard enough for a Stage 2 attacker to work in this format as it is, and Empoleon could certainly do without that kind of failure. This may not be a terrible card, but the fact remains that it isn’t even the best Empoleon in the format, and is very unlikely to see any competitive play. 

Rating 

Modified: 2.25 (they needed to think this one through better)

Limited: 2.75 (kind of an average Stage 2 here)


HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150

Empoleon.

 

Modified:

This is not the Empoleon you're looking for. There's really no reason you'd use this in Modified when there's another Empoleon that's simply much, much better. To see use in Modified a Stage 2 need a great Ability and/or a powerful, cheap attack. The other Empoleon has both! This one doesn't have either. 

Anyway, at least it's got one of the cute "story" arts of this set, connecting with Trubbish and Phione!

 

Limited:

Stage 2. Next.

 

Unlimited 150:

Empoleon seems like it could be a serious competitor in this format but can it challenge Blastoise for the Stage 2 Water type spot? There's now many playable Empoleon, the aforementioned Dark Explorers version knocked down to size by the ex rule but still Very powerful! This rebalance of power makes Legendary Treasures Empoleon look quite a bit better than normal so its main competition will be with other older Empoleon. 140 HP is very respectable in this format and with just 20 damage on itself it is able to deal out a considerable 130 damage to big Basics like Zekrom, Kyurem and Giratina. 70 isn't bad as base damage either, 2 hitting most things. It also has the ability to Level Up in this format, it doesn't gain any HP but adds a very disruptive hand control Poke-Power and snipe utility, perfect for KOing a draw engine like Claydol then further punishing their limited hand.

Overall, it's nothing too impressive by itself but perhaps it can find a place in an Empoleon deck supporting the other more interesting versions but simply hitting decent amounts of damage for an acceptable 3 energy.

 

Ratings.

Modified: 2 (Not actually that bad but the other is SO much better)

Limited: 1

Unlimited 150: 2.5


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