<

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Jigglypuff13

8/11 Rhyperior Lv.X (LA)   Hello, and welcome to a new week of LA preview cards. Well, the three we haven't reviewed yet anyway. Today, we have the first Lv.X revealed from the set, Rhyperior Lv.X. Now, the card didn't receive much hype, but a lot of people are impressed by it. Before I start talking about why they are impressed, the basic's. First, it has a massive 170HP, making it the Pokémon with the second largest HP in the game at the moment (Wailord (GE) has 200HP, though all in all, it will still have second highest in Unlimited, with tied highest from Wailord and the EX in SS). Because of this, it is a massive tank, and chances are, it will survive a lot of hits. The bottom stats are quite so good. x2 Water Weakness in a format where Kingdra (LA), Empoleon (MD) and Glaceon Lv.X (MD) will be powerful forces at the beginning of the format at least, and thus will considerably reduce Rhyperior Lv.X's tanking ability. -20 Lightning Resistance isn't so great either, with the only Lightning type that will be played a lot being Electivire (SW), and even then it won't be attacking much in the Magnezone Lv.X (LA) decks it will be appearing in. There there's the massive 4 Retreat Cost. Warp Point and Switch can cure this once each, but really, you will have to deal with the massive Retreat Cost eventually.   Ok, those are the basics of the card, and apart from one thing, they aren't terribly spectacular. However, the attacks are what make the card so impressive. First, Hard Crush, an energyless attack, and a double edged sword as well. You have to Discard the top 5 cards of your deck, but for every energy card discarded in this way, you do 50 damage to the defending Pokémon, making a maximum of 250 damage, KOing everything in the game in one hit. However, you need a lot of luck to be able to do so, and thus the average is going to be between 50 and 100 damage, since most decks will not run more than 18 energies, and most Rhyperior decks run a lot fewer. However, to specifically make a deck based around Rhyperior Lv.X deal a lot of damage from Hard Crush, the deck will need a lot more energies than normal. However, that would only be needed early game, as late game, Upthrow comes into play to make you whole virtually Fighting Energy Cards with it's effect, and will also do 60 damage. This 2 little attacks provide a nice little combo between themselves. However, it will take a long time for the combo to come to fruition (though, since you are discarding 5 cards per turn...), but will end up with a great reward. Despite this, there is the risk of actually decking yourself by using Hard Crush too many times before realising you have no cards left. However, you have to incompetent to allow that to happen. Also, another problem is because you are discarding so many energies, you won't have a lot left to allow you power up a replacement, which is the main problem I see with the deck, what do you do if your first (and maybe only) Rhyperior Lv.X gets OHKOed?   Combos, well, we have Porgyon Z Lv.X (MD), which can put 2 chosen cards on the top of your deck, which will allow you to get 100+ damage from Hard Crush very easily. Well, it would be easy if it wasn't for needing to set up 2 Lv.X's to make the deck work. Porygon2 (GE) can be used as an engine, and is in the same evolution line as Porygon Z Lv.X, or you can use Claydol (GE). Both have up and down sides here. While Claydol would normally be the no brainer, it's still another evolution line. Unfortunately, the only normal Rhyperior we have at the moment doesn't combo very well with the Lv.X at all. It discards your opponent's deck instead of your own with it's Poké-Power, which is quite nice with the Lv.X's tanking ability, but the attack is rubbish, doing 80 for 3, but not being able to attack next turn. If you need a certain 80 damage one turn without it mattering the next, then I suppose it could be quite useful, but most of the time, you won't want to be using it.   Survivability, and it's obviously going to be quite good here. Kingdra only 2HKO's Rhyperior Lv.X at best with it's second attack, though the first attack, with 9 Water energies in the discard pile, will get a OHKO whilst Rhyperior Lv.X doesn't have a Bubble Coat attached to it (it's a new tool, gets rid of weakness for a turn). Empoleon (MD) gets a OHKO with a 4 or more bench Surf Together, again without Bubble Coat, though Dual Splash could be used as a weakener to make a smaller Bench do the work for Surf Together. Glaceon Lv.X (MD) cannot get a OHKO without the help of 3 Plus Powers/Buck's Training played in one turn, though the spreading from it's attack could cause this to happen without the need of Plus Powers/Buck's Training. Skittles would need all the different types of Basic Energy attached (8 in total) to a single Ho-Oh (SW) and a Plus Power/Buck's Training to get a OHKO, though it's more likely the Skittles player will go for a 2HKO using Ho-Oh and hoping for a flip of a Heads with it's Poké-Power for if it gets KOed by Hard Crush. Leafeon Lv.X (MD) will happily get 14 energies into play, probably with the help of Sceptile (GE) to make it even quicker to get the OHKO. AMU will probably use Mespirit Lv.X (LA) and Supreme Blast to get a OHKO, though Uxie (MT) could be disruptive with it's attack, or use the Lv.X's to deal damage, and hope for a 2 to 4HKO in that way. In any other deck you can think of, chances are you will only get a 2HKO at best. However, Milotic (GE) is another good counter, stopping Rhyperior Lv.X from attacking it, going for a stall until you can get something set up to get a KO. Also, with Milotic's attack, with good flips, will get a 2HKO anyway with 100 damage per attack.   Ratings:   Modified: For next format, if you get lucky, Rhyperior Lv.X becomes an incredibly efficient power house that can recycle it's power whenever needed. However, get unlucky, and it becomes a waste of a turn that's just trying to deck yourself. It has a couple of annoying problems, such as setting a second one up when you are trying to discard energies, and needing so many energies that you will never be able to fit anything else in, plus the fact that you could end up discarding valuable cards. Those down sides, no matter how powerful the card may be, are just too much for me, making me think that it's actually getting a bit too much hype. If you get a good list for it, that can discard plenty of energies per turn whilst having enough important stuff in it that you can draw before the discard, then it will become good, but I don't see that happening. 1.75/5 For the rest of this format, it's the same really, only it's speed, which isn't very good anyway, gets worse thanks to people using DRE and Scramble. However, it gains flexibility, with Delcatty Ex (CG) allowing you to shuffle all energies back into your deck, and being able to do more damage with more than 6 Energy cards in the discard pile, all for only 1 energy as well. Still not great to me. 1.5/5   Limited: No normal Rhyperior here. 1/5

Arbok14

Hi everyone, this week we are coming to you with three new Legends Awakened cards. Let me tell you, all three have potential to be great cards! I am really excited about this new set, I think it will break the metagame wide open with so many new possibilities. Enjoy this one, because I believe Rhyperior can really dominate when used correctly!   Name:   Rhyperior Lv. X Set:   Legends Awakened Rarity:   Super Rare Holo   Type: (Fighting) - OK, well there is nothing wrong to having Fighting types right now. Could definitely have interesting partners.   HP: (170) - :O Simply the most HP ever on a Pokemon card, excluding Wailord.   Weakness/Resistance: (WaterX2/Lightning-20) - Well, this begins the terrible bottom stats of Rhyperior. Double weakness to water is as bad as it gets, especially with Empoleon's recent domination and the new strong water-types coming out. Resistance to lightning doesn't do a lot.   Retreat Cost: (4) - :O This isn't a good :O. Play many many Switches.   Attack #1: (0 - Hard Crush) - Rhyperior's attacks go together nicely to create a potentially devastating last-game combo. This is the damage dealer. FOR FREE!   Attack #2: (FFC - Upthrow) - The attack is beastly, no so much for the damage, but for the effect. Put all of your fighting energy back in your deck! That is just great. Considering how this combos with the first attack, this is a great late game attack to not only counter decking yourself, but to also provide ammunition for Hard Crush.   Final Card Analysis: Could this be the next Infernape? Quite possibly! Unfortunately, it has water weakness. This is the same as Infernape, but this guy has double weakness and water is already a dominant type out there right now. 170 HP is great! 4 Retreat Cost is not! Honestly, I would combo this with something else that can attack early and save Rhyperior for the end of the game. Maybe 2-3 150 to 200 damage attacks? YES please! Rhyperior's base form is also awesome because of the Poke-POWER which discards 3 cards from your opponent's deck! I could see this becoming a dominant deck, you just need to find the right supporting cast.   Modified: Has potential. A lot of it! (4.5/5)   Limited: You...just can't use it here. (1/5)