Pokemon Card of the Day - Pokemon Tips - Pojo.com

Rand0m	Wednesday - Kabutops (SKY) By the way, to start this off, I'm just going to say: Although I'm reviewing cards for three formats, I'm basically talking about Modified. Modified is the "supreme" format right now, and that's where a lot of these cards take effect. There's been a lot of talk about this card, and I'm about to (try to) dispel all of that right now. Let's take a look at it. 90 HP, fighting. Not bad, except that there are a LOT of cards that resist fighting, which makes it difficult to play. Bottom stats: 2 Retreat, which is nothing out of the ordinary, weakness to grass (Someone scream FLAW FLAW FLAW!!!) and resistance to NOTHING. The weakness to grass is going to hurt. With Beedrill in the format, 3 heads out of 4 will kill off Kabutops, and that's not something you want, because that isn't that rare to see Beedrill decks. They're quite common, actually. The Pokemon Power has been the subject of ideas, because it's essentially Aerodactyl. Here are the obvious flaws: First, it has to be active for it to work. "OOPS, I just double gusted it for Cleffa, I guess I CAN'T evolve now... OOOOOOOH" Also, it's easy to kill. That doesn't really help matters much. AND it's a Stage 2, which means usually it'll take a few turns to get it out. The Pokemon Power is good on paper, but not really in the game itself. It's attack is actually pretty good. Averaging 50 for FCC is not bad, considering sometimes you'll get 100 (and sometimes you'll get 0 ;x). Overall, this isn't something I'd base a deck around. It's power is really easy to shut off, and that's not something you want when your entire deck is based around it. Unlimited: 1.5/5 (Fighting is good, but Aerodactyl is a much better pokemon) Modified: 2/5 (The ability to get rid of it is so great that it just cannot be played consistently) Limited/Draft: 3/5 (Although evolutions aren't used as much, the ability to get rid of it isn't as great and the attack is VERY good.) ~ RaNd0m
X- Act	Skyridge Kabutops The primitive Pokemon returns, bringing with him some of its primal aura. If it is Active, no player can evolve any of his or her Benched Pokemon. And Mirage Stadium can maybe be used so that your opponent cannot retreat to evolve in the Active spot. So Kabutops seems like an interesting Pokemon. In reality, its power is not as useful as you might think, because (1) your opponent can still evolve his Active Pokemon, which allows Skyridge Beedrill to obliterate this Kabutops (by switching off its power, and attacking Kabutops with twice the oomph, due to Kabutops' Grass weakness) and (2) your opponent can just Double Gust or Cyclone Energy your Kabutops away from the Active spot to evolve normally. Kabutops seemed to be a viable Pokemon, at first sight, but it seems now to be on the receiving end of the metagame, since Beedrill, like, _totally_ owns it. Umm, speaking of being owned, Promo Scyther owns it too, because it is not only a Grass Pokemon, but it is also resistant to Kabutops itself, AND it is a Basic Pokemon. That's cruel. Kabutops' attack isn't bad, it averages 50 damage for [FCC], which is quite decent, especially against Lightning decks (it practically OHKOes any Ampharos). This card can, of course, beat Lightning. But not much else, it seems. Unlimited: Umm, if you really want your opponent not to evolve, play the Fossil Aerodactyl (and your opponent would grin, gust it and Slash it for a Prize). Hmm, speaking of Scyther, it owns this Kabutops bad too. So, don't risk playing against a Scizor deck (which _hopefully_ plays Scyther) with Kabutops. It's like David versus Goliath, except that David gets slaughtered by Goliath. Umm, that wasn't a very good metaphor, right? Lol. 1/5 Modified: It can fare better here, but Beedrill is too much for him, as I already explained. Not only Beedrill, actually. The major archetypes all have a 75% chance (at least) of beating this guy. Even Ampharos/Ho-oh could beat this. That's what you get for being a Fighting Pokemon: you beat Lightning decks, and... that's pretty much it. Especially a Grass-weak Fighting Pokemon. 2/5 Draft: Here it could do well. With lack of Gust cards in Skyridge (except Cyclone Energy), it will be hard to fend off the Kabutops so that you're be able to evolve from the Bench. So you end up evolving from the Active Spot, which is dangerous as you're probably being dealt 50 a turn. In addition to that, if the Kabutops player happened to draft Mirage Stadium, it becomes all the more difficult. And evolving Buried Fossil takes only one turn, usually. The trouble is, Kabuto isn't Common in Skyridge. However, if you happen to get a few Kabutos and Buried Fossils, by no means draft the Kabutops, because it's quite good here. Just watch out for Grass Pokemon. And, something tells me that Grass isn't something nobody Drafts, nor is it rare in Skyridge. I suppose the powers-that-be really did anything they could to ensure that this card isn't broken in any format. 3/5 Inspired by Meganium45's COTDs, I end this COTD in a similar fashion. See you in #pojo! ;)
The Poke`mon Master 1110	Kabutops: A fun card, to be sure. I personally think that the Kabutops/Omastar lines are much more playable now that Buried Fossil is here. It just makes it much easier to play them. And the Kabutops can certainly be a thorn in your opponent's side. 90 hp is just a tad low for a stage 2, but it really isn't that big a deal, is it? The power, when played right, can shut down your opponent pretty well. And the attack, while only 2 coins, can be devastating. Averages 50, and a lucky flip will send 100 damage their way! Not bad, eh? Unlimited: Still a little to slow. There are MUCH better flipping attackers here >_<: 1.5/5 Modified: Better here. I could see it being used, but Jumpluff kills this thing so bad it isn't funny. Also Scizor is the most common Modified deck right now. Scizor evolves from Scyther. Scyther is grass. Kabutops is weak to grass. Not cool =( : 3/5 Limited: Well, it will keep your opponent from evolving, which the prolly wont be doing much of anyway. The attack is real nice if you get it powered up. But it would be next to imposable to get enough Buried fossils AND Kabutops to make him workable, so I'd pass it up, unless your rare drafting. 2.25/5 The Bottom Line: 2.25/5
Meganium45	Kabutops - eh - Skyridge, not Discovery, Interesting This is the fossil evolution stage 2 that just got a lot easier to get out, thanks to Skyridge's buried fossil. Discovery Kabuto is still the card of choice. 90 HP, pretty average for a stage 2. Not bad, but not great. Grass weakness, that hurts in this envio containing Beedrill, Jumpluff and others! No resistance, could have at least thrown us a lightning bone, but no! 2 retreat is average Pokemon Power, neither of you can evolve your benched Pokemon while Tops is active! Nice. This keeps creatures like Muk from hitting the board, or swarms of creatures appearing, like Kabutops! This power hurts this card as much as it helps it. If you are ahead, this is fine. If you are behind, ouch. Fighting type. Boy, this was not a nice touch. Dodrio is resistant, Crobat is resistant, Gengar is resistant, a lot of things are resistant! The attack does big damage, but, heh, not that big! Attack, 2 fighting and a colorless for flip 2 coins, does 50 times the number of heads. Great if it goes off, and on average, 50 for 3 is fine, but when 0 go off, this hurts. At least Crobat gives you the booby prize of status effects. Let's compare this to its Discovery Brother, both weak to Grass, Discovery is a water type, Discovery has no pokemon power (no Pichu bait), discovery for 3 energy (only one having to be fighting) flips 3 coins, 40 times the heads. Discovery wins. Ratings - Unlimited - a 3 energy attack, not many evos in this envio that are not stage 1, fighting helps against Chansey, Wigglytuff and Clefable, but, still does not cut it - 1.5/5. Modified - a good choice, but in my mind, inferior to the Neo discovery Kabutops. Can combine him with Crobat or Noctowl to make people miserable, but, not the best choice here. His attack is large enough not to have him ignored. 3/5 Limited (Draft) - This card is too good if you can get it out. Unfortunately, Skyridge has some great grass pokes that can take this down. If you have the chance to draft it early, get it, and if you can get it late, you may want to take this card out of your pod! Stage 2s are hard to get out in draft, especially a SK draft! 3.5/5
dontknow09	Skyridge Kabutops Hasn't been a good Kabutops since Neo Discovery. But can this new one change that? Well to start off, this Kabutops reverts back to... erm... Brown type. Like the Neo Discovery version, it has 90 HP, grass weakness and 2 retreat costs. It's stats are exact, with the exception of the type. What's different is its Poke-Body, Primal Aura. This Poke-Body is very good. Stopping evolution can basically determine the outcome of a match. Downsides- only works when Kabutops is active and the Poke-Body applies to you also. What's great about it is you can take out weak basic pokemon with Kabutops' attack. Dual Cutters is like a toned down version of Hydro Cutter. 2 flips is very risky. I'd rather have 3 and do less damage per flip. But for most basic pokemon, 1 heads is all you need. Unlimited- Well, the poke-body could just be substituted with Fossil Aerodactyl. That uses up less space and is faster to get out. Dual Cutters is too weak to SER. That's another advantage Hydro Cutter has over Dual Cutters. With Hydro Cutters, you still could risk 1 flip. Also, recycle energy could be used to help power Hydro Cutter. Overall, not good here. 1.5/5 Modified- Primal Aura would rule. If quick enough, a Kabutops could stop all evolutions early game, and thus not have to worry about receiving heavy damage from basic pokemon. The Poke-Body could also force an opponent to move a pokemon to the active just to evolve it, and this is where double gust could really screw things up. As for Dual Cutters, it should be more like Hydro Cutter. 3.5/5 Draft- If out of some miracle, you actually drafted cards to pull out Kabutops, which includes Kabuto, Buried Fossil, and Kabutops and probably some card to force you to discard a Kabuto to activate Buried Fossil, then there's probably a good chance that you could win. Again, if pulled out, the Poke-Body will cause major disruption. Retreat would be hard to do in draft, so that Poke-Body will really help. But sometimes, people go for the strong basic pokemon, and overlook those evolutions. To sum this up, its nearly impossible to actually pull a Kabutops out. If done, the Body can cause disruption, but is a little iffy. Dual Cutters will be strong, if you have to power it up. 1.5/5 <-- Mainly because its so hard to pull out. -dontknow09
TR Shadow	Kabutops 90 hp is pretty decent for a stage 2 Pokemon. The Pokemon Power is good. It's like one of those old Aerodactyls from fossil. The only difference is that your opponent can evolve their active Pokemon. If you need to evolve anything, you could just retreat Kabutops, though he has a bit of a high retreat. If you face one of these, Double Gusting it to the bench to evolve is probably your best bet. Dual Cut, on average, will only do fifty damage. That is barely worth the high costs. The Mysterious Fossil evolutions are a lot better now that we have Buried Fossil and Underground Lake. We still have the Fossil Egg, but a few more ways to get Kabutops out is nice. Unlimited 2/5 (C'mon, we have Aerodactyl) Modified 4/5 Limited 2.5/5 ~TR Shadow~
BondiBorg	Kabutops 90 HP Fighting Stage 2 (Evolves from Kabuto) Weakness - Grass Resistance - None Retreat - CC Poké-Body - Primal Aura As long as Kabutops is your Active Pokémon, neither player can play Basic Pokémon or Evolution cards from his or her hand to evolve Benched Pokémon. FFC - Dual Cut - 50x Flip 2 coins. This attack does 50 damage times the number of heads. Hmm...Aerodactyl, but with a bite. If you kill babies with a Tyrogue on a regular basis (those being the same odds as getting 100 damage with Dual Cut), then play this card by itself. Otherwise, toss it in to spice up a Neo2 Kabutops deck. For Unlimited, the Grass Weakness is too much of a liability. Scyther fits into any deck, and DCE would allow the opponent to blindside you with a harsh 60 damage upside the head. Are you lucky enough with flips to take the risk? For Modified, it stands a slightly better chance, though Promo Scyther will deal a hefty 80. Scizor decks are all-too-common, and Scyther is occasionally tossed into a deck for protection from 'Gatr, so it's still risky. However, the ability to stop evolution is great, as long as you're quick about getting set up. Ampharos decks wouldn't stand even the slightest chance... For Limited, this would be a fun deck to try out. Seems like a lot of good combos would come out of a Draft with Skyridge/Legendary. Between the two you would have access to 2 Kabutos, another Kabutops, Mysterious Fossil, Buried Fossil, Underground Lake...so many possibilities. Neo2 would be good too, since you have Kabuto, a VERY solid Kabutops, and Fossil Egg. Once you get it going, Kabutops will be unstoppable, especially since the opponent can't build any other Evolutions they might pull. Unlimited - 2.5 Modified - 3.4 Limited - 4.0 (4.7 if drafted with Legendary or Neo2) ~{BondiBorg}~

Pojo.com is here to provide guidance to all Pokemon trainers out there. Whether it's the Gameboy Game, N64 or the Trading Card Game, PoJo.com provides all the wisdom you desire.

If you have cool game tips, a killer deck, or breaking news ... send them to us. We'll post it on the site ... and give you all the credit.