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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Jigglypuff13	5/19 Bastiodon GL Lv.41 (RR) Hello, and the week of Rising Rivals cards continues this week with the new Bastiodon GL! Now, I will say this. If you don't like very reviews that are straight up and very harsh, I suggest you look away now. Now we only have people who like harsh, very critical reviews reading this, I'll continue. I'll start with the basics of this card, and 90 HP on an SP Pokémon seems to be quite good really, so should be able to survive a hit or two. x2 Fire Weakness probably won't be that important, with very few good Fire Pokémon around (Arcanine (RR), reviewed yesterday, maybe, otherwise, I can't see any many being played). -20 Psychic Resistance is nice though, with a lot of good and well played Pokémon being Psychic. 3 Retreat Cost is a bit steep. I know it's a Metal Pokémon, and they all have high Retreat Costs, but it's still too much. Also, it's an SP Pokémon, in case you haven't already guessed, so you get all of the nice SP support. However, the attacks are where this card really fall down. I'll start with Bounce Back. MCC (or MC with Energy Gain attached) for 30 is a really bad start. To make it even slightly worth it in this day and age, you'd need to be doing at least 40 damage for that cost. However, it does have an effect. It forces your opponent to switch their active with a benched Pokémon. OK, that's mildly disruptive, but if they have even at least 1 good Pokémon to put active in this situation (another main attacker, a free retreater or even Palkia Lv.X (GE)), then it's not going to effect them at all, and maybe even help them. Really, it's not going to do enough damage or disruptive your opponent enough to even consider. Smack Attack isn't much better (and neither are the attack names). MCCC (or MCC with Energy Gain attached) for 60 isn't too bad I suppose, and I could live with it if it has a good effect. Unfortunately, I can't say that it does. For all those energies and that low damage output, all you get to do is remove 1 damage counter from Bastiodon GL. 2 damage counters, and you may have had enough to make a half decent stall deck. 1, though, makes it kind of useless. The attack does so little, that it really isn't worth the energy used for it. Combos, well, I suppose you could make some sort of stall deck with it, using this (obviously), Special Metals and healing cards. Energy Gain is an option, but I'd prefer to use Unown G (GE) instead, so I don't get donked (or OHKOed) by Machamp (SF) every turn. However, 4 energies for the attack and only 90 HP really don't work for a stall deck. There are other options for this sort of deck, and almost all of them are better. However, stall decks aren't really that viable at the moment, so they all kind of fail, so this one fails even more. Counters, and so long as you can withstand it's "massive" 60 damage attack and slight annoyance from Bounce Back, then you are set. It might take a little time to KO due to Special Metals and it's slight healing, but it won't cause many decks much trouble. Or any. Ratings: Modified: Yeah, it's not good. The attacks cost too much, the damage output is too low, and the effects of them are all rubbish. If it cost less energy to attack, or had more powerful effects or did more damage, any one of them, it would get something more than a 1. However, it doesn't. It's useless, and if you get this card in a pack, you'll have the brief joy of pulling a holo, followed by the massive disapointment of seeing how bad the card is. Don't play it, and sorry if you get it in a pack. 1/5 Limited: Slightly better here, I suppose, but still not worth it. It still requires too many energies to attack, and the effects and damage are still to weak. However, 90 HP and possible Special Metals do make it a slight tank, especially if you also get Bertha's Warmth and are actually able to use Smack attack. However, most other cards you pull are going to be better, and more worth the deck space. 1.5/5
Pokmeman	Bastiodon GL This is a pretty weak card. Even with Energy Gain, it still needs two energy for it's first attack, and three for it's second. The attacks aren't significant and this card does nothing to enhance already powerful G decks. There are simply far better cards available. 1/5 Modified I truly believe that this card will not see play. 1.5/5 Limited This card is only marginally better here. Still, there are much better options.
Steel_Winger	Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD! Today we look at Bastiodon GL, Byron's signature Pokemon from the games. On to the basics: 90 HP on a basic is about average on a basic SP Pokemon. It's Metal-typing gives it a x2 Weakness to Fire-type Pokemon, which aren't widespread a the moment, but that could change. A -20 Psychic Resistance is common to most Metal-types, and it really helps against popular ones like Gallade 4. It has a hefty retreat cost of 3, if you want to retreat, you should use Switch/Warp Point/Warp Energy. Bastiodon GL has no Poke-Powers of Poke-Bodies, but it comes with 2 somewhat overpriced attacks. Bounce Back, for a Metal Energy and 2 other energies of choice, does a measly 30 damage and forces the opponent to switch his/her active for another Pokemon. Good thing Energy Gain can reduce this attack's cost by 1. Opponents can bounce back (no pun on the attack, I promise) from this effect by using Switch and Warp Point. Unless they decide to switch in another main attacker... in which case, they'll promptly proceed to beat face. The second attack, Smash Attack needs one Metal Energy and 3 other energies of choice for 60 damage. WAY too overpriced, even for the minor 10 damage healing on Bastiodon GL. Sure Energy Gain can reduce the cost from 4 to 3, but to take so long powering up mediocre attacks... consider yourself really lucky if you actually get to excecute this attack. If I were to play this card (and I have no idea why it's a rare-holo), this would not be the first Pokemon I play Active. Machamp could wreck it to pieces before it gets even halfway charged up. Bastiodon has horrible speed in the games, and its TCG counterpart is no different. Ratings: Modified: 1.5/5 Overpriced attacks + mediocre damage + not-so-good effects = something that's destined to shine... in the trade binder. Not many Pokemon are even weak to Metal-type Pokemon, the only one of note being Weavile (SW). Limited: 2.5/5 It could be a bit better here. Most people are going to try to attach a lot of energy to their Pokemon when they attack, and Bastiodon can probably cause a little trouble. Just mind the few Fire-types you come across in Rising Rivals-- like yesterday's card. This... is... SPARTAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! (Sorry, couldn't resist something different... This is Steel_Winger, until next time!)
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Bastiodon GL Well, the good news is that, as a Metal type SP Pokémon, Bastiodon benefits from all the SP Pokémon Support, and can reduce damage with Special Metal Energy. The bad news is that no-one would want to use any of it on Bastiodon. 90 HP is ok, but nothing special for an SP Basic. Resistance to Psychic is nice, but Fire Weakness is becoming a problem again with the release of Infernape 4, Houndoom G, and Arcanine. A Retreat cost of 3 is bad, but you could always waste a Poke Turn on it. It is Bastiodon’s poor attacks that really let it down, though. [M][C][C] for 30 is extremely expensive. Yes, you force a switch (of your opponent’s choice), but there are other cards which do a better job at much less cost (Zangoose PT, Froslass GL). Bastiodon’s second attack is, if anything, worse. For an extra Energy, you can do 60 damage and remove . . . wait for it . . . one whole damage counter from Bastiodon! 60 for 4 just doesn’t cut it these days, even with Energy Gains, I’m afraid. Rating Modified: 1 (if you want a Metal tank, please use Dialga G) Limited: 1 (with all the Fire Pokémon in the set, it won’t survive long enough to use its sub par attacks)