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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Linoone - Ruby & Sapphire

Date Reviewed:
January 28, 2014

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.00
Limited: 3.00

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

Linoone (Ruby Sapphire) 

Unlike yesterday’s Pokémon, Linoone has never been especially notable, or even noticed much. It’s basically from the line of standard rodent-type Pokémon that you meet at the start of every game. It didn’t manage to achieve the same cult/meme status as Bidoof and Bibarel either, despite the fact that it’s also a good HM slave with the slightly bizarre ability to learn Surf. 

It wasn’t easy to find a playable Linoone, though, and this is the best I can do. It’s clearly intended as a starter/set up Pokémon and is actually pretty good at that job. Seek Out costs just one Colourless Energy and lets you search your deck for any two cards, which is honestly brilliant: grab a rare Candy and a Stage 2, for example, or whatever else you need, and you’re in a great position on your next turn. 

The problem? Linoone is a Stage 1, which means you have to wait a turn for it and devote more deckspace that you do to a Basic starter. When this attack was reprinted as Keen Eye on Secret Wonders Furret it was very popular for a few brief months until everyone switched to Claydol GE. Poor old Linoone also had some fantastic cards in direct competition with it, including Dunsparce SS (arguably the best starter ever printed) and later Wishing Star Jirachi from the Deoxys set. 

Linoone dates from before my time in the Pokémon TCG, so I can’t say for sure if it was ever played much. As far as I’m aware, it’s not a card that gets remembered very often . . . sadly, you can say the same about the Pokémon itself. 

Nostalgia Rating 

Unfortunately, an anonymous Pokémon and an outclassed card: 2


HEZ
Intro to
Unlimited 150

Linoone (Ruby Sapphire)

Continuing the theme of Pokémon that haven’t been printed on cards for 6 years is Linoone!

Modified:
A card from the first set in the original ex series, you should remember there’s been incredible power-creep since then, which is unfortunate as Nintendo kept it in check all the way up until the end of the original ex series. This card didn’t really see any play though as it was obsoleted in the same set by another Stage 1 Colorless Pokémon, Delcatty which did see play in competitive decks. Being able to draw 3 random cards from the Bench is much better than any 2 and using up your attack. Still, the old “Flip a coin until you get tails” style attacks are alluring to some who love the chance to KO anything with one attack, even if it’s a slim chance… I know I did!

Limited:
This Linoone is only an Uncommon, so it would be fairly easy to pull 1 or even 2. Once you get it out and able to attack you can use Seek Out to find the real “bombs” in your deck. Even just 1 coin flip of heads nets you an acceptable 40 damage, not bad considering the maximum HP in the whole set is 120.

Unlimited 150:
Being able to search out any card at all is very important in a 100 card deck format, 2 is even better. However, much like when it was in Modified, there’s Pokémon that can do a similar job from the bench (Magcargo from Deoxys and Pigeot from FRLG spring to mind) meaning it’s probably not worth wasting a turn using an attack to achieve the same. Still, if you absolutely love Linoone, there’s much worse cards you can play. The Great Encounters Zigzagoon can retrieve any 1 card from your discard pile too which is a very powerful effect when you only get 1 of each card. You can get some decent utility out of these Pokémon but with no other remotely playable Linoone you’ll have to decide if your love of speeding badgers exceeds the risks of playing a 1-1 line.

Ratings.
Modified: 2
Limited: 3
Unlimited 150: 2


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