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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Swampert

EX Emerald

 

Date Reviewed: 06.15.05

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 2.37
Modified: 2.7
Limited: 4.18

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale.
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  5 is the highest rating.


Johnny Blaze
Swampert - Ok do you see a pattern here?  After 2005 Worlds, there is heavy speculation that some sets will rotate out of Modified and Ruby & Sapphire being the one that introduced the Blaziken, Swampert, and Sceptile lines will be gone.  Therefore we find different versions of some of our favorite evolved starters.  Oh another coincidence is that the ex-versions of Blaziken, Swampert, and Sceptile can all be found in the Team Aqua vs. Team Magma expansion set.
  
While nowhere near the power of those R+S versions, I must say that I have seen this version of Swampert played more often than the new Blaze and Sceptile.  This Water Cyclone Swampert goes hand in hand with the Water Call Swampert, Blastoise-ex, and Swampert-ex. (Not all recommended in the same deck but I have seen it done). 
 
Its attacks are very decent and Spinning Tail can always be combined with ATM Rock.  Aqua Sonic 3 for 60 damage is nice and the nicer part is that it doesn't apply resistance but can still be applied for weakness.
 
Unlimited: 2/5 - Jungle Scyther can ohko it after a Swords Dance so it is not looking to good here.  If Aqua Sonic was 1 W and 2C I would consider running it with DCE but alas it is not which makes that attack to Energy Intensive.  But Spinning Tail gets an extra point due to the fact that in 3 turns it can ko all of your opponents babies that are sitting on the bench.
 
Modified:  2.5/5 - I've seen it splashed in Swampert decks and it goes with the basic theme of the deck.  The attacks are decent and not being weak to Lightning is a good thing in todays environment.
 
Limited:  4/5 - Use it if you draft the pre-evolutions duh!  Its attacks are all good and with the 110 HP it will be very annoying to take down and then when it does just Water Cyclone the energy to the bench.  
 
Bullados Swampert EM

Attributes: Lots of HP. 110 used to be impossible, but is now getting more and more popular. Still looks wierd, tho... Grass weakness is a problem, considering that Vileplume ex and Liability decks are getting popular. 2 retreat isn't devastating, but I'd still use a Switch for that.

Poke-POWER: "Water Cyclone"
Water now has the ability to move Energy around. Too bad it's only from Active to bench, otherwise this would be broken with Water Call around. Still, it's nice to see that Water is getting in on the energy moving action finally.

Attack #1: [C] "Spinning Tail"
Here we have the cheapest, and by default, weakest Spinning Tail attack on any card so far. Normally, it's been either 3 or 4 for 20 to all, but this one cheapens that up a bit by giving 10 to all for only 1. Good attack with the Blaziken reviewed the other day, actually.

Attack #2: "Aqua Sonic"
An energy efficient attack, if I do say so myself. 60 damage that can't be reduced by Resistance is always nice, and leaves the possibility open for some additional damage from Weakness. All this for only 3 energy is very underpriced.

Ratings:

Unlimited: Spread damage never really does well here, VenuCenter is already available, and 3 for 60 is somewhat expensive here, especially since it can't be powered by DCE. Overall, not too great.
1.5/5

Modified: Right now, his WAter Call cousin is much better. After the format shift, however, he could become a pretty decent card to run with. 60 damage is nothing to sneeze at, especially since it can be covered with a single Scramble. Water Cyclone will have its useses even when played with Water Call, so it's not all bad.
3/5

Limited: Like I said the other day, it's a holo that really has a rarity of closer to an Uncommon than anything else. Also, with the evolution searching and manipulation in this set, it would be fairly easy to get this guy set up for some big damage.
4/5
 
Jaeger Todays Card of the Day is Swampert 11/106 from Emerald

I'll be honest the first time I saw this card I didn't like it to much, I did not really seen a ton of point to it and why anyone would run this verson over the RS verson just puzzled me, I mean that one let you play extra energy right, compared to this one who just lets you move it around and it has to be from your active to your bench. Then I started thinking and I was amazed with how many different combos I came up with.
Heres a short list.

1. Mr. Briney's Compassion: Move all the energy back to a benched Pokemon, hopefully something with a free retreat cost and then play back down the basic and either Rare Candy it back or wait and evolve it back or it was just a basic and move the energy back.

2. Emerald Swampert+RS Swampert: Play the energy on the active then either keep it there or move it back to one of the benched.

3. Quagsire: Okay I will admit I saw someone else playing this but its pretty obivous, play an energy on Quagsire and then leave it or move it back to the bench you get a free Potion and Full Heal each turn.

I know there a dozen more but I won't list them because you get the idea.

Summary: What this card is a Pokemon with a decent PokePower and okay attacks, theres know need to run three or four of him in a deck but I do suggest working in one if your running Swampert he combos great with RS Swampert and Scramble Energy.
Hopefully with the addition of this new Swampert it will bring back Swampert which seems to be rarely played anymore.

Unlimited: 1/5

Modified: 2.5/5

Limited: 4/5
 

Hinkbert
Swampert

So let’s take a look at the new Swampert. He has 110 Hp, which seems to be the max for a Swampert that isn’t an ex. He has grass weakness (along with the Mudkip and Marshtomp from the Emerald set), it’s nice to have his weakness changed from electric, especially in an environment where electric is relatively powerful. He has no resistance which isn’t a surprise, and he retreats for 2, which seems pretty typical again for our swamp loving friend, this can also be reduced by High Pressure System which is neat. Now for the power and attacks, but before I do that I want to mention that the artwork is pretty good on this card. His power, Water Cyclone, is exactly the same as the old Kingdra and allows you to move as many water energies from the active to bench Pokemon before attacking. Not the most potent power ever, but it has its purposes and combos. His first attack does 10 damage to all of your opponents Pokemon for a colorless energy, and the second attack does 60 damage for 3 energy, 2 have to be water, and this attack ignores resistance, so it’s good against Rayquaza, and a lot of those grass Pokemon that would otherwise be incredibly strong against Swampert.

There are a couple intrinsic combos for this card, but unfortunately none of them are powerful enough to propel Swampy to the top of the metagame, but they can still make for some interesting decks, and who knows what will happen in a couple months after the format change. Anyway this Swampert works well with his brethren. With the “Water Call” Swampert you essentially gain a free extra energy attachment since you have to attach the extra water energy to your active Poke, but the new Swampert allows it to be moved to the bench. The non-holo Swampert from Ruby/Sapphire can be healed (remove a damage counter) by the energy and then it can be moved to the bench to prepare the next attacker. Finally Swampert ex could either be the benched Poke being built up, or you could move the large amount of energies on it from doing Hydro Pump, when it is about to die so they aren’t wasted. But you could still do some damage with Hydro Pump or Crushing Wave depending on how many energies you can stand to lose. Blastoise ex or the Sandstorm Azumarill could also work to get a bunch of energies on the field fast, then let Swampert move them to the bench to power some things up. Mr. Briney’s Compassion would also be a good combination, by allowing you to still keep the energies but fully heal the Pokemon you Briney. ATM Rock also has the potential to be used since Swampert has a spinning tail attack.

Unlimited 2/5 Could work with Blastoise with Raindance, but it seems kind of cumbersome and unnecessary in a format with so many choices, plus weakness to Scyther could be a potential problem

Modified 2.5/5 Right now as I already mentioned there’s very little reason to use this in big tournaments, but it can be used in casual/league decks with success, and it gives Swampert lovers something new to work with.

Limited 4.5/5 It has to ability to damage the bench and keep those energies alive, both of which can be nasty in limited, and rare candy makes it easier to get out. It’s also relatively safe from being OHKOed as the only Pokemon in this format with the ability to do that are Cacturne ex and Breloom. Plus Sceptile and those guys can’t hide behind their resistance.
 
Scyther 21 Its been a long time (about a week) since I've done a review. Sorry about it had to finish up on my last final (Latin). But anyway I will be free this summer so i plan to give these reviews continually but enough with the talk and lets review SWAMPERT.

Swampert has 110 HP. Which is about right for a second stage evolution. Having this amount of HP will keep him alive roughly for two turns (without trainer assistance and accounting damage done to the earlier stages). Making this card's HP good in my opinion.

Next comes his Poke' Power, Water Cyclone. Cyclone allows for you to move a water energy from your active pokemon to one of your benched pokemon as many times as you want (of course this stops working when Swampert is affected by a special condition. This poke power is okay. Not the power to make a deck around but poke powers hardly ever hurt the user so why not play if Swapert is good.

The first attack is spinning tail for one colorless. This attack deals 10 points of damage to each of your opponents pokemon. This is okay. There are better choices that could have been selected personally I feel a good ol' water arrow would be better but thats just me. However this attack has it's uses (just a few days ago my brother had the idea of making a deck targeting all of your opponents including swapert, steelix (spinning tail), and t-tar (sand damage) and then using ATM Rock to bounce---- I was defeated turn five with all six of my pokes knocked out at once argh.)

The next attack is Aqua Sonic. This cost two water energies and one colorless energy. It deals 60 points of damage and is not affected by restitance. This attack is defiently the appealing aspect to swampert. Keeping the weakness as normal but not risking the resistance like swift.

With a weakness of grass it can easily fit into a mono-water deck that does not give in to the lightning weakness. No resistance does not truly make it less appealing but if it had one it would give it a boost (it would be cool to have a restitance to lighting). And two star retreat is not bad at all.

Overall, its a decent card.

Unlimited: 3.99 put into your deck without hestitation if you are running water
Modified: 2.8 really there are better water cards out there but it should not be overlooked
Limited: 4.2 defiently put this into your water deck since few waters are excellent and a 2-1-1 ratio for this card is great for this event

Scyther 21 out

 

Otaku

Skip straight to the scores and summary for a concise overview.

 

Name: Swampert

Set: EX Emerald

Card#: 11/106

Type: Water

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Marshtomp

HP: 110

Weakness: Grass

Resistance: None

Retreat: CC

Poké-Power: Water Cyclone

As often as you like during your turn (before your attack), you may move a (W) Energy attached to 1 of your Active Pokémon to 1 of your Benched Pokémon.  This power can’t be used if Swampert is affected by a Special Condition.

Attack#1: (C) Spinning Tail

Does 10 damage to each of your opponent’s Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon).

Attack#2: (WWC) Aqua Sonic [60]

This attack’s damage isn’t affected by Resistance.

Name: Marshtomp

Set: EX Emerald

Card#: 36/106

Type: Water

Stage: 1 (Evolves from Mudkip)

HP: 70

Weakness: Grass

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (C) Super Hypno Wave [10]

The Defending Pokémon is now Asleep.

Attack#2: (WWC) Surf [50]

Name: Mudkip

Set: EX Emerald

Card#: 56/106

Type: Water

Stage: Basic

HP: 50

Weakness: Grass

Resistance: None

Retreat: (C)

Attack: (W) Tail Strike [10+]

Flip a coin.  If heads, this attack does 10 damage plus 10 more damage.

 

Attributes: Swampert is a Stage 2 Pokémon, so it is allowed to have attributes and abilities beyond mere Basics… well, Basics that have the option to Evolve.  It is a Water Pokémon, which is solid: Weakness exists, but even after so many sets, isn’t too common, and nearly every Fire Pokémon ever made is Weak to Water, plus some Fighting Pokémon.  110 HP is very nice.  It could be a little better, clocking in at the maximum 120, but 110 is nothing to Sneasel at. ;) Only the strongest, most aggressive decks have a shot at OHKOing you outside of Weakness.  Speaking of Weakness, Grass isn’t too bad.  It is nasty when it shows up: Grass Pokémon attacks usually have good effects coupled with decent damage, and the Weakness basically means good effects with good damage.  However, it is less commonly played than other Weakness a past Swampert has sported: Lightning (Electric).  As Swampert is half Ground-Type in the video games and thus totally immune to damage from Electric attacks there, it doesn’t make any sense to give that Weakness to a Swampert.  Moving on, we see that they sadly didn’t give it a logical Resistance to Lightning (Electric) Pokémon.  Again, I feel this is somewhat lazy.  Finally, we have a solid retreat cost of two.  This is low enough you can afford to pay it if you need to, but high enough you’ll want to avoid it and use assistance when you can.  High Pressure System can help this immensely.

 

Before moving on, let me address the two lower stages of Swampert in this set.  The Marshtomp has the same attributes except one less retreat and 40 less HP.  Its first attack is an okay stalling move: you pay for 10 damage and get that plus automatic Sleep.  The second attack does 10 more damage than it should.  The attacks don’t have any special synergy, but neither do they conflict.  The Mudkip has the same attributes as the Marshtomp, only with 20 less HP.  For (W) it will hit for 10 points of damage with a 50% chance at 20, which is fair for a Basic like this.  Either version are fine for a deck, though given the threat of Ancient Technical Machine [Rock] I would be more inclined for the 80 HP version of Marshtomp available in another set, and given the fact that you have to be pretty desperate to be attacking with a Mudkip, I would lean towards the version from another set that can do 10 with a chance of Paralysis, even though that one has a less desirable Weakness to Lightning (Electric) Pokémon.

 

Abilities: Let’s go in order of least important to most.  The second attack on the card, Aqua Sonic is there mainly so you can deal a finishing blow and also to abuse Scramble Energy (a single one would completely power Swampert).  It is a good attack though: you pay for 40 points of damage, so another 20 and ignoring Resistance is a suitable bonus for the third ability of a Stage 2.  The first attack is Spinning Tail.  This attack has been seen on both Sandstorm Steelix and the pure Darkness-Type Dark Tyranitar.  It cost more Energy on those two, but did more damage as well.  So for (C), 10 points of damage to all opposing Pokémon is quite nice.  The first ability on the card is the most important: the Poké-Power Water Cyclone.  At first glance, it doesn’t seem very good.  In fact, it has been seen before, on Aquapolis Kingdra, and only saw a limited amount of play.  The main reason is that here, it is supported by overall better attributes and abilities, as well as a very important Trainer I’ll touch upon later.  For now though, the obvious trick is to use it to rip away Energy from a doomed Pokémon and move it to something more useful, as well as to make it easier to retreat and still attack: if something has a retreat of one or two and four Energy, move the extra Energy to what will be your new attacker, retreat, then power up said new attacker with your Energy attachment for the turn.  Notice that the Poké-Power doesn’t reference Basic Energy cards, just Water Energy, so anything acting as a Water Energy can also be moved.

 

All in all, these abilities work well together: an Active Swampert can soften an opponent up with repeated, early Spinning Tail attacks, and risk powering up for some Aqua Sonics, since if it looks bad, you can send the Energy to something on the bench, including another Swampert.

 

Uses and

Combinations: I use this in a deck I refer to as “Water Cycle”.  My version uses the EX Team Rocket Returns Quagsire, but anything that is a Stage 1 or a Basic with at least 80 HP and is not a Pokémon-ex should work.  The reason you don’t want a Pokémon-ex is that that Water Cyclone combos most wonderfully with Mr. Briney’s Compassion.  Simply attack, and so long as you survive the next turn, send the Energy back to a waiting back-up attacker and Briney your active.  If you find you set up quickly enough, something with 70 HP might also work, but I find even 80 HP is often pushing it.  I use the aforementioned Quagsire because it can heal itself by Water Energy attachments (remove up to 2 damage counters and all Special Conditions) and it does 20 damage for each Water Energy attached, up to 80 total.  With that much damage, even though 80 HP isn’t a lot, my opponent has to have a fairly good set-up to be able to OHKO me back.  Even then, Quagsire set up pretty quickly.

 

Although I have not yet done significant testing with it, I am strongly inclined to use Water Call Swampert with the new Water Cyclone version, at least until the next set rotation.  If you get a Water Call version out with a Water Cyclone version, you should be able to power up rather quickly, further enhancing the deck, as well as recover from unfortunate OHKOs better.

 

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 2.5/5-Most of this score comes from Spinning Tail wreaking havoc on a bench full of small, 30-60 HP Basics.  As usual, this assumes the “Slowking and friends” approach to supporting a Stage 2 line here.  The rest comes from Scoop Up: this less friendly, non-Supporter version of Mr. Briney’s Compassion (actually its predecessor) leads to a sweet, sweet combo with big Water Basics like Fossil Articuno.  Keep in mind; it is clearly inferior to Base Set Blastoise, who basically does the same thing but better, via Rain Dance.

 

Modified: 3.5/5-On its own, it is solid.  With the right support, the actual deck could become quite, quite potent.

 

Limited: 4.25/5-If you can actually pull a decent line, this is rather nasty.  It hits the bench and doesn’t have to worry about Resistance for its big attack.  The lower stages are also solid.  Its Poké-Power becomes much more useful in this format, where those saved Energy are more critical.  Just watch out for all the good Grass Pokémon in this set.

 

Summary

The new Swampert is not as good as the old one, but given how much of a headache all the “extra Energy attachment” cards have given us this go-round of Modified, we don’t really need it to be as potent.  Interestingly enough, like the Emerald Blaziken and Gardevoir, this card appears to have been meant to combo with its Ruby/Sapphire counterpart.

 


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