Again, let's see exactly what is in a name.  There is one other Linoone currently available, from Ruby & Saphirre.  it is very similar to this one, except for three things: it's retreat cost is (C), its first attack selects 2 cards from your deck and not 1 from your discard pile, and its second attack is 40x, where the "x" is the number of heads from flipping a coin until it comes up tails.  It was reviewed at this site on 8/19/03, and recieved mixed marks.  As for me, I see it being incredibly useful in E-on Modified (Expedition on up) and practically a staple for Exon (Nintendo only sets; EX Ruby & Saphirre and up).  This both helps and hurts this version of Linoone.  The downside is, of course, as you can only have four cards named "Linoone" in your deck, that you can thus only total 4 of these guys together.  So running more of one means less of the other.  The upside is that you can run one or two of each of them and then three to four Zigzagoon (which they evolve from), which is much less deck space than we would need if this was, say, a Clefable.  Now we notice that this is a Colorless Pokemon.  In terms of attacking for damage, this is not good: in formats where they are allowed, Unown N and Sprout Tower can drop its damage by 30 each or a total of 60 together!  Fortunately, this card is not one to use for damage.  There is no natural Weakness/Resistance to Colorless Pokemon currently, which tends to balance out.  As a Stage 1, we of course need to have its Basic stage in the deck to play it (other than Brock's Ninetales, which is only legal in Unlimited).  There are two Zigzagoons: both are Colorless Basic Pokemon with 40HP, Fighting Weakness, no Resistance and a Retreat of (C).  There is an obvious choice here in my opinion though: the RS version has Fury Swipes, an okay attack, but the Sandstorm version has two attacks, a straight 20 for CC from Headbutt and you can draw a card for (C) with Collect.  As such, I would go with the Sandstorm version as even if you max out and do 30 with Fury Swipes, it won't KO many non-Baby Pokemon(original WotC versions).  Better to get a card or be able to do a soild 20 a turn if you must attack with it.  As for Linoone's own HP, it has 70, the minimum acceptable for a Stage 1 (anyless and its to easy to KO even sans Weakness).  Sadly, it suffers from Fighting Weakness, possibly the worst Weakness in any Format.  There are so many Fighting Pokemon that can be tossed easily into any deck.  It has no Resistance, which I find poor, since the former choice for colorless, Psychics, are seeming so strong that it would no longer hinder them... however, TPC has done more research on this than me, so I probably should leave it to them. ;)  Linoone does have a free retreat, which is off course the best retreat.  Linoone's first attack, Sniff out, is a powered-up Item Finder.  You have to use up your attack for the turn, of course, but it can grab any one card from your discard pile, and has no discard cost to use.  As I learned against one of those cra... er... "kooky" Unown decks, getting Trainers back from the discard, even in a Format with relatively weak Trainers, is fantastic.  take something that is normally pretty bad, like SER2, and make it useable, or a good but balanced card like Bill and make it seem broken.  Since a used Trainer will of course return to the discard, you can grab it back each turn to use again and again.  This can also nab back precious Special Energy cards and of course Pokemon as well.  The only downsides to the attack are that it is an attack, so you won't be damaging your opponent and you'll have to wait to use the card you grab, and that a card must of course have gone to the discard to be a viable target.  Fury Swipes, while flippy, is a good attack.  This version is priced to average 20, but it actually averages 30, which should cost (CCC).  Its attacks are also both colorless (which I am sure you already noticed) and thus it can be used with just about anything (which I am sure occurred to you, but some people may not have had their morning coffee ;) ).

So, why and how to use this?  Seems to be that the RS version of Linoone is a pretty solid Pokemon, just like this one.  I think that they would work well together.  Use the RS-version's attack to nab every nasty card you have, then change to the Sandstorm version to re-use said cards.  This can be quite powerful: as stated earlier, Trainers like SER2 aren't so bad when you can use a single copy once a turn for 4 turns.  On average, that would be 2 failures, once removing your own energy (no big deal if you plan it right) and once removing all your opponent's active's energy.  Doesn't sound like a big deal?  Imagine if its a fully powered (as in 4 of that energy type) Dark or Metal Pokemon, let alone something like Camerupt that's loaded for a good 3-5 repeated blasts.  Otherwise you can resurrect a useful bit of TecH or nab all those Darkness Energies Sharpedo lost.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1.5/5-It's abilities are still fantastic, but so many things can OHKO it without Weakness or Plus Powers, and ever heavily played offensive Pokemon can and will OHKO it if we do factor those in.

Modified (Neon w/Nintendo): 2.5/5-If it weren't for Tyrogue, then... well, we still have Fighting basics with inexpensive attacks that can be splashed into nearly any deck, so it would still be hard pressed to live long enough to use its attack more than once.

Modified (LC/Eon): 3/5-here is where you tend to be able to pull things like the "infinite" SER2 trick mentioned above.  You could combo it with Expedition Vileplume so you could do some damage (with its poisoning Poke-Power) while recycling some nasty Trainers to keep your opponent off balance (this can be played in Neon but works better here).

Nintendo Only: 3.5/5-This will go up if we some some better non-Supporters.  Still, its great for decks that run Special Energies.  Comboed with its RS sibling, you get "free" Computer Searches and Item Finders.  There are also much fewer free retreaters so it can be more useful here for that and its attack.  Lastly, the slower pace means you can probably keep it alive a little longer if it shows up earlier.

Draft: 4/5-take that one really cool thing your drafted and re-use it!  Without that attack, it still is nice as an inexpensive attacker with a free retreat.

TMP: 3/5-Having a partner to keep up the attack and help heal you means you can take the best Trainers of Neon Modified and use them over and over again.

2-on-2: 3/5-there is twice the chance the the opponent's active will be able to hurt you badly.

Please note that if I make a mistake I will include a small correction in my next CotD.

-Otaku