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

Heidi Craig 2000 WCSTS Champion	SuicineEX Modified 3/5 The weakness on this card could cause some problems since there are good lightning Pokemon being played in the modified format. The hit points are O.K. could be better since Suicine bottom attack takes three energy and involves discarding energy to deal more damage. Energy Flip can be a small disruption to your opponents strategy. It can move there energy off Pokemon they need it on to Pokemon it really won't help to have it on there. My dream 6 energy to the Dunsparce. Reverse Stream is a good attack and is even better if combined with Swampert from R&S doing 80 damage a turn can be very potent. Unlimited 4/5 Combined with Base Set Blastoise this card is very playable in this format. Since, you can put the energy back into your hand after you attack it's removal proof. The only problem is the weakness to lightning. Draft 5/5 Great card for this format. Solid attacks and good hit points.
Ausen	Suicune ex. FINALLY a great water starter. Lapras ex was pretty bad and there hasn't been a good one before that. Energy flip is decent, but 10 and messing up your opponent's strategy isn't terrible. The second attack is nice though. 3 for 50 is nice, but being able to return energy to your hand to do damage is even BETTER! Combine with Swampert from RS to return energy and then put them back for lots of fun. Unlimited 1/5 Useless here Modified 3.75/5 Decent starter for water FINALLY Draft 3.5/5 Great second attack, disruptive first attack, high HP. :) The bottom line: Play it if you play water. Nice starter if you can't find Dunsparce in modified and a solid hitter in Draft.
Thundachu	Overview: And now we start looking at the new ex Pokemon. Lets see how this one compares with the rest. For 1 water energy, Energy Flip does 10 damage to one of your opponent's benched Pokemon, and allows you to move an energy attached to that Pokemon to another one of your opponent's. Could be pretty good I suppose if one of your opponents is close to powering up. Then for 2 water and 1 colorless, Reverse Stream allows you to return all the basic energies attached to Suicune ex to your hand and it does 50 damage automtaicly, plus +10 for every energy returned. Pretty nice attack without the energy return, but can also be pretty good with it. Weakness to Lightning shouldn't be much of a problem unless your opponent has Team Aqua's Manectrik out. And a retreat of 2 is pretty good for a 100HP basic Pokemon. Being a Pokemon-ex, it allows your opponent 2 prizes when knocked out which could be a problem, but that's really about it. Reverse Stream can also do a pretty good dent in Blaziken ex's HP, 100 due to weakness. Unlimited: Now fast enough to power up and the 2 prizes is too much of a risk in Unlimited. 2/5 Modified: Reverse stream can do 100 out of Blaziken ex's 150HP, but odds are if you have it against Blazi, Blazi will already knock out Suicune. And being an ex pokemon, the 2 prizes get taken away. I wouldnt play it. 3.5/5 Draft: Pretty good attacks, and damage as well as a good strong HP. I would play it. 3/5 Sealed Deck: From what I saw at the PreRelease, VERY few people got any ex's, but if you are able to play it, I would definitley do so. Damage to benched pokemon, and capable of doing 80 damage with it's second attack. But if it is knocked out, it takes 2 prizes, which is 1/2 the game because in sealed deck, you only play with 4 prizes. 3/5
pERfeCt0nE	I would have liked to review this card when the next set comes out, but I guess I'll have to do it now. Unlimited- Its very doubtful that he will ever attack with sneasels gusting him out and SER's everywhere. Raindance has a new friend, but even then being a pokemon-ex makes him pathetic. rating--- 1.5 Modified- He can OHKO blaziken ex- true, but blaziken ex can OHKO it as well! Aquas Manectric can also OHKO suicune by itself. Suicunes first attack can really screw with BAR early in the game. It could send all of its energy onto Dunsparce or whatever would be most helpful. Its a tough choice with using suicune to counter BAR specifically. I would love to rate this guy once Blastoise ex is out. rating--- 3.5 Draft- The first attack can manipulate lock your opponent if they have an active pokemon with a retreat of CC or more and no energy. His second attack is a cleaner move. 100HP is great for draft, although manectrics will use him as a chew toy. rating--- 3.875
Hedge	I see this card in two places, and two GOOD places at that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Place #1. OBV. Unlimited, in Blastoise decks. Can you say 80-100 a turn, EVERY turn, from turn #2? I sure can, might even be quicker than Sneasel. And with a little backup from some trusty fossil Artciunos, and some hefty draw power, this might be the new top deck in unlimited. (Now I get trashed by 50,000 Sneasel Slowking players ;x ) Place #2. Metal defense for Walrein decks. The ability to switch around energies from your opponent’s benched Pokemon is nice, especially against metal decks; Put all the metals on a crummy non-metal basic, and then one of Walrein’s Weaknesses is pretty much eliminated. The second attack also fits in with Walrein’s general attack routine. Modified: 3.5/5 – Play it with Walrein, say, just one copy, to fight off some random player who is nuts enough to play Metal with Blaze around. Unlimited: 5/5 – Dude…. Blastoise called for it’s apprentice over the ages, and here we see it. 5/5 all the way. Draft: 4.9/5 – Obv. Take ANYTHING ex or strong here (unless it’s a stage 2 you don’t have the evo line for) It will win you games.
Jermy101	A pretty good pokemon in all formats. His attack is ER and SER immune in unlimited since the energy returns to your hand. And in all formats, you don't have to worry about losing all that energy when Suicune dies since it will have returned to your hand. Energy Flip is soooo fun. When they try to attach energy to something, you can just move them to a Dunsparce, and now their energy is useless just sitting there. That attack is especially good against Dark/Metal decks, since you can move their dark/metal energy to another pokemon and now it's useless for them. That attack is basically like an ER + 10 damage. Reverse Stream is nice. It comboes with a lot of pokemon, mostly the ones that break the 1 energy per turn rule, so that you can attack every turn and still not lose energy when Suicune dies. Unlimited - Possibly the best card in unlimited! Yes I am serious! This comboed with Blastoise's rain dance gives you an infinite damage machine that is ER and SER immune and can KO anything in its path and it ABUSES Pokemon Center(Return the energy to hand, next turn use center)! Rocket's Zapdos? I guess I'll just take 40(from Plasma) and KO YOU! Electabuzz you say? I'll take 80 and use pokemon center and then KO you! The only card I see stopping that deck would be a turn 2 Muk. 5/5 Modified - Not as good as in unlimited, although Swampert's Water Call is sorta like Rain Dance. Get 2 Swamperts in play and you can still pull the combo off, and use pokemon nurse when damaged. 3/5 Draft - If you draft this TAKE IT!! The first attack is like an energy removal so it can stall for you, and it's all around good. Basically all EX pokemon are good in draft so ya. 5/5
Bullados	Suicune ex Attributes: Solid HP. 100 is very difficult to contend with, unless you happen to be running Gardy or Rayquaza. Still, it's slightly subpar for a Pokemon-ex Legendary Pokemon. I would expect this guy to have somewhere around 110-130 HP, because of the ex-type and the Legendary status. Weakness is Lightning, a minor problem, because, while Amphy is slightly popular, it's not all that powerful and won't be as big of a problem as BAR and Gardy. Retreat of 2 is decent, but I wouldn't pay it, especially with the attack. Use a Switch or WP in order to get out, but pay this if necessary. Attack #1: "Energy Flip" Not bad. Bench damage and minor disruption for [W]. The ability to move energy around is not bad, but not a great disruption tool, unless your opponent has a Dunsparce on their bench or something that doesn't need a whole ton of energy to attack. Always use common sense when using this attack, don't move a Fire energy to a Rayquaza ex or a Psychic to a Gardy or Gex. Move the energy to a smal Pokemon that doesn't need that much energy, make them waste their energy on that. Attack #2: "Reverse Stream" Personally, this is pretty good, and will get even better when Blastoise ex comes into the format. However, it does have one very major weakness, the fact that all of the energy that you return to your hand MUST come from Suicune ex. A better version of this attack is on Aqua's Walrein, who can move energy from ANY Pokemon back to your hand. This particular strategy was discussed yesterday in somebody else's COTD. Ratings: Unlimited: Meh, not all that great, even though it has Blastoise Raindance in the format. It's extremely energy dependant, even with the return to the hand, and it's weak to Electabuzz and Rocket's Zapdos. Clefable can also take full advantage of Reverse Stream, seeing as its attack only costs [C]. It could be pretty decent, in the right deck, but I really don't see it as a gamebreaking force. 2.25/5 MOdified: Right now, it's decent at best. When Blastoise ex comes out, it will be much better, simply because it will have that Raindance power to work with. Right now, there's really nothing that's really dependable enough to combo this guy with. Swampert is too slow, and there's really nothing else that you can use to throw [W] onto Suicune. Right now, it's 2.5/5, but when Blastoise ex comes out it will be 3.5/5 Draft: Surprisingly, not all that great. The bulk of its power comes from combining its attack with another Pokemon's Pokemon Power, and there are no Pokemon in this set that can really get that kind of power. With that in mind, 50 straight damage is dang good, and the 80 cleaner damage is enough to win you several games. It's not a first pick, but it also depends on what you get in your packs. 3.5/5
Otaku	Name: Suicune ex Set/Card#: Type: Water Stage: Basic HP: 100 Weakness: Electric Resistance: None Retreat: CC Attack#1: (W) Energy Flip Chose 1 of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. This attack does 10 damage to that Pokémon. You may move an Energy card attached to the Pokémon to another of your opponents Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon.) Attack#2: (WWC) Reverse Stream [50] You may return all basic Energy cards attached to Suicune ex to your hand. If you do, this attack does 50 damage plus 10 more damage for each basic Energy card you returned. Attributes: This is the only Suicune ex, but there are some plain versions of Suicune we can compare to. All are Basic, Water Pokémon. This is reasonably good-Water weakness common for Modified, and Resistance is somewhat sparse for both major Formats. This despite being introduced seven sets ago. Of course, being a Basic is best: you can drop it into play without any preparation. Now, this is a Pokémon-ex, and in itself, this should be neither good nor bad. The reason is, when properly made, a Pokémon ex should receive benefits to compensate the rule that it gives up two prizes when KO’d and the various counter Pokémon-ex measures available. It’s supposed to be power at a price. However, this attribute should not be ignored, as subsequent attributes should be rated appropriately based on its status as a Pokémon-ex. So, now we look at HP. For a Basic, 100 HP is normally third best. For a Basic Pokémon ex, this is also true. Since it gives up two prizes-as stated above-this is not as good a score. It is still third best, but the advantage of being third best is less when you give up more prizes. A good measure is “Has the Pokémon’s HP increased approximately 50-60% over what is usually has as a non-Pokémon-ex?” Suicune has. It has almost 50% HP more than the versions of a plain Suicune with the highest HP score (70), and has more than 60% more HP than the versions with the lowest score in this area (60). Moving onto the bottom stats, Weakness to Electric-types exists on all of them, and while this is not the best Weakness, neither is it the worst. Sadly, it does have the worst Resistance: none. Moving on, we come to retreat. A score of two will either help you nor really hinder you to bad, so I consider that average. Abilities: Energy Flip is interesting. It is not going to help a lot in Unlimited, but in Modified, this can wreak havoc on a set-up, moving the Energy cards to Pokémon that can’t make use of them. For a single Water Energy, this is at least fair, if not “good”. Note that while it also does 10 damage, it can only hit the Bench. The second Attack, Reverse Stream, is not too bad either. In terms of its base attack, it is priced for 40 but does 50. Good, but not really enough for a Pokémon ex. The effect also seems mixed-for returning all Basic Energy attached to Suicune, you can increase your damage by 10 per. Again, good on a normal Basic, and probably fair for a Pokémon ex. Uses/Combinations: Here’s is what turns this from being an “average to good” card, into being a possible future Staple, at least for certain decks. In Unlimited (yes, Unlimited!) it looks to be strong partner for a Raindance deck. Raindance will let you constantly reload Suicune ex, allowing you to constantly return Energy back to your hand to let him do massive damage. With just three basic Water Energy cards, this combination allows you to do the same damage as Neo Genesis Sneasel averages using Beat-Up with a full bench and two Darkness Energy. Suicune ex also has a high enough HP score that Sneasel will need its Focus Band more than Suicune ex will. And yes, Suicune ex runs with Focus Band-healing damage will be done with Pokémon Center and/or Nurse-after all, Suicune ex will have no Energy on it when the turn begins. If your opponent runs Electric Pokémon, retreat for either a Neo Discovery Tyrogue or the stand-bye, Fossil Articuno. For Modified, it will see use in most Water decks to help counter the Firestarter Blaziken variants. Like most Pokémon used for attacking, a Crystal Shard will let it easily OHKO a Rayquaza ex. Unlike most other Pokémon used for attacking, this can also OHKO any Fire Pokémon if it is powered with at least 3 basic Energy cards. Sadly, this means it will not automatically be the water splashing (sorry for the pun) choice-Aquapolis Suicune looks to be easier to run, and Sandstorm Wailmer easier to use. The difference is a declining power curve. Anyway, for the decks that run a decent amount of basic Water Energy cards or have a way to get a lot of other basic Water Energy on for a big shot (Energy Trans Sceptile), this is something they should run. And then there is a deck that specifically makes good use of Suicune ex in Modified-Water Call Swampert! While no where near as potent as Raindance with Blastoise, this is still strong enough to be a serious contender for Modified. It will not hit as hard as BAR decks, but it is close-3 Swampert on the bench let it average 80 a turn. BAR (and other Fire Starter Blaziken variants) does more, but also requires more for set-up, and there is a lot of type matching between the two-Water beats fire, Electric beats Water, but Fighting (hello Swampert ex) nails Electric. Crystal Shard, for now, lets anything beat Colorless, but once its gone, Ray resists just about everything in the deck… but then again, Water Call would let you drop two Zangoose and go to town in one turn, so maybe that would work. Head to head, I cannot say I know which one will come out on top. Against other decks, Swampert ex/Suicune ex/Swampert looks to stand strong-Gex (Gardevoir/Gardevoir ex) will have to focus on its own Energy, since Suicune ex will often be void of it after attacking. Ratings Unlimited: 3.75/5-This really could revive Raindance as a contender. Modified/2-on-2/TMP: 4/5-This score might be a touch high. It all depends on how it stacks up to the Firestarter Blaziken variants. Limited: 3.5/5-Looks solid, but will give up half your prizes when it goes. It might be able to get you the win before it goes down though. Summary This looks to be a well thought out card that could be just what the game needs… or could be more of the same. As a note, I did consider Blaziken ex (or Blex as I call it XD) against this-if they try to take out a Swampert on the bench, they get KO’d for their trouble. Most decks will probably run one or two non-basic Energy cards since 70 straight a turn is still pretty good. And of course, if they go for Suicune ex themselves, then another one gets dropped to replace it, and the prize counts even out again.

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.