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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	...so, uh, I'm confused.  Spinda's an 80 HP Basic non-EX/GX. His only attack is Teeter Punch, a 1-for-30 that Confuses the opponent. That's pretty much it.  ...I don't really know why it's on the list for review. Maybe someone's using it out there in the world, or maybe it's just a card to put to the side so we don't have to worry about you readers going, "Hey when are you going to review another Spinda card? I really like that guy!" And I like Spinda too...  ...this is totally because of you guys isn't it?  Rating  Standard: 1/5 (sorry folks, Spinda's not that great)  Expanded: 1/5 (I'd be optimistic based on the auto-Confusion)  Limited: 2/5 (but really, that's only asking so much)  Arora Notealus: Spinda needs a very limited format to benefit from - something that doesn't allow for Ultra Roads or Rush Ins or SWITCH. Just SWITCH.  Weekend Thought: What're your thoughts on these weeks of cards? I know I haven't posed much of a question the last couple of weeks, but hey, I'm sure there's something with potential! Herdier seems like a solid card, but maybe you're thinking of how to make a Spinda-based deck that proves me wrong! DO IT. PROVE ME WRONG. I'd love to see Spinda take the top spot in competitive cause of his Confusion~
21times	Spinda (Sun & Moon, 102/149) twirls its way into the meta through the Sun & Moon expansion last February.  A Coloress Basic Pokemon with 80 HP, it has one attack, Teeter Punch, which does 30 damage and leaves the active Pokemon confused.  And that’s it.  It does not have a Stage 1 evolution, and it has nothing else to talk about.  Certainly, it cannot possibly function as a feature Pokemon, and I can’t for the life of me think of a deck it would complement or have any synergy with.  It’s the definition of, “Meh.”  So … umm … either this is going to be the shortest review ever, or I need to come up with something else to cover.  Well, let’s look at the Primal Clash version of Spinda (Primal Clash, 115/160).  Like its SUM counterpart, it also has 80 HP, but possesses two attacks.  Both attacks cost only a single colorless energy.  Staggering Steps involves a coin flip -  heads the opponent’s active Pokemon is confused, tails your active is confused.  I’ll focus on the second attack, Uproar.  This attack does ten damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon.  I LOVE spread attackers.  These are my favorite Pokemon in the game, and I have spent a lot of time trying to get them to get them into some kind of viability.  My favorite “spreaders” include Trevenant Break (Breakpoint, 66/122) and Greninja (XY162).  Vanilluxe (Guardians Rising, 35/145) shows promise as it does 20 damage to each of the opponent’s Pokemon for a single water energy.  Although Spinda only does ten damage to each of the opponent’s Pokemon, it is the only Basic spreader, and it is the only Colorless spreader.  Many Pokemon exist as complements to the spreaders: Gengar (Breakthrough, 60/162), M Tyranitar EX (Ancient Origins, 43 / 98), M Alakazam EX (Fates Collide, 26/124), and Aegislash (Breakpoint, 62/122) are all decks that I have tried to make as competitive as possible.  Trevenant Break and Aegislash are one pairing that I’ve worked especially hard on.  This duo doesn’t win a lot, but when it does it can be spectacular.  I once took nine prize cards to end the game with that combo.  Honchkrow (Guardians Rising, 79/145) will come from Guardians Rising and for two Colorless energy does ten damage plus ten more damage for each damage counter on your opponent’s Pokemon.  This is just screaming, “Put four Lysandres (Ancient Origins, 78/98) in your deck and pair me with Decidueye GX (Sun & Moon, 12/149).”  Unfortunately, the SUM Spinda did not have any kind of spread damage like its older predecessor from Primal Clash.  Sorry for going off on a tangent, but the SUM Spinda didn’t give me anything really to talk about. Rating Standard: 1 out of 5 Conclusion Spinda just doesn’t have anything to make me want to play it.  At least its older counterpart from Primal Clash had one redeeming quality, even if its spread attack was outclassed by many other spreaders.
Otaku	We end the week with Spinda (Sun & Moon 102/149).  Are we looking at it because we’ve already thoroughly covered the rest of the SM-era’s “base set” or because it has some secret use, maybe depending upon cards from the freshly released SM: Guardians Rising?  Time to find out.  Spinda is a Colorless Type Pokémon, which means Weakness and Resistance aren’t a factor because we won’t be bothering with the Unlimited Format.  There are a few pieces of Colorless Pokémon based support and counters; the former might come in handy and the latter will likely never matter for competitive play.  Not being subject to most of the drawbacks of being a specific Type is good, but it sacrifices a lot of the strengths as well.  As I did mention Type specific counters/support, don’t consider this a stable position, either; the powers-that-be probably didn’t completely intend this state.  Being a Basic is the best, and this seems pretty intentional; both core game mechanics and specific card effects favor Basics, with only a few Stage-specific counters that really punish them.  80 HP means Spinda won’t survive an attack without help, either intentional (combos) or luck (your good or the opponent’s bad), at least if Spinda finds itself Active; it has a little staying power in terms of damage spread or secondary Bench hits.  80 HP also allows you to search it out with Level Ball (sometimes relevant).  Fighting Weakness all but ensures a Fighting Type scores a OHKO if it can attack; the Type is likely to spam damage bonuses, hitting fast, hard, and reliable or else scoring slow-ish OHKOs.  Lack of Resistance barely matters due to its common nature and this card’s HP.  The Retreat Cost of [C] is low and easy to pay.  “Teeter Punch” is the card’s only effect, an attack that costs [C] to do 30 damage and Confuse the opponent’s Active.  Decent damage and a decent effect, given the Energy, but unless you have some massive combos, I don’t see how it could carry a deck.  I am only seeing two other versions of Spinda legal for Expanded or Standard play: BW: Boundaries Crossed 115/153 and XY: Primal Clash 115/160.  Differences between them and today’s Sun & Moon 102/149 are only found in HP and effects.  BW: Boundaries Crossed 115/153 has 70 HP and the attack “Whimsy Tackle”, which costs [CC] to do 30 damage but requires a coin flip (“tails” means the attack does nothing).  This was poor when the card first released, and is still bad now.  XY: Primal Clash 102/149 has 80 HP and two attacks, each costing [C].  “Staggering Steps” has you flip a coin; “heads” means the opponent’s Active is Confused while “tails” means Spinda confuses itself.  Confusion can be a decent effect, hitting both your own Active and the opponent’s with the same effect is sometimes a good deal… but it will seldom be worth wasting an Energy and an attack for a 50% chance of Confusing the opponent’s Active, and the only reason Confusing your own Active isn’t a huge issue is because Spinda (and most Pokémon capable of copying the attack) aren’t too likely to survive the next turn.  The second attack is “Uproar” and it hits each of your opponent’s Pokémon for 10 damage.  That’s a fairly good attack, though lacking in raw power means you have to be countering a specific matchup for feeding your own combos.  We looked at XY: Primal Clash 102/149 here, and it turns out I had too high of hopes for it.  It hasn’t been a total no-show, as it is an easy TecH to counter Gyarados (XY: Black Star Promos XY60; XY: Ancient Origins 21/98) based decks, but it didn’t live up to my hopes.  So… what about Spinda (Sun & Moon 102/149)?  I’d love to have a new secret (or even not-so-secret) deck, but I’m mostly thinking of Limited/Theme deck play and, just maybe, a bit of TecH for certain decks.  Both revolve around luck because they revolve around Confusion.  A 50-50 chance of your attack not only failing to have its intended effect but also places three damage counters on itself.  When the coin flips go against your opponent, Teeter Punch effectively became a 60-for-one that also wasted your opponent’s attack; very nice!  Confusion used to be one of the best Special Conditions; not because it did 20 damage (instead of placing three damage counters) but because it also forced your opponent to make a Confusion check to manually retreat.  If your opponent can retreat, Confusion goes away.  Evolving gets rid of it.  Effects that change out your Active also cure it.  So how can this work as TecH?  Not every deck has an adequate supply of ways to shake Confusion; Spinda can force them to waste that just to KO a little ol’ Spinda.  Other decks lock an opponent out of the resources to easily shake Confusion; this also strengthens Teetering Punch.  Together, this just may create a niche for Spinda.  I mean, I would be scared to see this suddenly dropped, powered up, and promoted to attack when Vileplume (XY: Ancient Origins 3/98) is sitting on the Bench.  Even if I also dread my opponent setting up Decidueye-GX and attacking with it or something stronger, I’m probably struggling to setup multiple attackers of my own; I cannot afford to KO Spinda, cannot afford to fail the coin flip, and cannot afford to retreat out of Confusion.  In Limited and the PTCGO-only Theme Deck Formats, this still applies, except Spinda can do this in almost any deck!  Ratings  Standard: 2/5  Expanded: 2/5  Limited: 4/5  Theme: 4/5  Conclusion  Luck-based tactics aren’t appealing when you can handle the situation through skill or even raw power, but the Pokémon TCG seems to favor forcing a player to rely on it, at least some of the time.  Quite often, your opponent will have an answer to Confusion and so Spinda won’t save you… but the decks that deny your opponent, or need to counter a deck unusually vulnerable to Confusion, should give Spinda a whirl.