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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Arbok14	05/20/09 Name: Darkrai G Lv. 58 Set: Rising Rivals Rarity: Rare Holo HP: (90) - Not bad for an SP pokemon. Weakness/Resistance: (Fighting x2/Psychic-20) - The fighting weakness is pretty bad, even though the Machamp can OHKO it anyway. Sooo... And the psychic resistance isn't that good. Retreat Cost: (2) - Not good, especially on a basic Pokemon. Poke-BODY: (Eerie Aura) - This is a pretty decent Body, especially if you combo it with other stuff, like Darkrai Lv. X. Attack #1: (DCC - Darkness Sleep) - Combo this with Crobat G, and you have a 60 damage attack with auto sleep and possibly more between turns. Final Thoughts: With its weakness to fighting and 2 retreat cost, it is hindered from the start. The attack is kind of average, and the body is really the only good part of it. I can't see this being played very much, but maybe as tech in a deck utilizing sleep. Modified: Not great at all, I can't see it being played a lot. (1.5/5) Limited: It would be pretty decent in this set because the Forretress can easily put damage on everything, and then bring this in to clean up. (3/5)
Steel_Winger	Welcome back to the Pokemon COTD! Today's card is Darkrai G, owned by none other than Cyrus himself. Let's get to the basics of this Legendary Basic: first off, it has 90 HP, which seems to be about average among the legendaries. However, its x2 weakness to Fighting-type Pokemon can cause problems, and Machamp can simply Take Out for KO. It has a redeeming quality in its -20 Resistance to Psychic-type Pokemon. That means the likes of Gengar, Gallade 4, and any other Psychic-types may need a little help with their attacks to damage Darkrai G like they want to. Lastly, Darkrai G has a Retreat Cost of 2. Personally, I don't think Darkrai G should HAVE a retreat cost... oh, wait, there's Moonlight Stadium. OK. Now we come upon Darkrai G's Poke-Body: Eerie Aura. Any of your opponent's Pokemon that remains Asleep between turns takes 10 damage. I'm assuming that this means they flip tails on the coin flip because otherwise that Pokemon would wake up that turn. So the opponent would have to be unlucky (and most of us are most of the time) to have a Pokemon not wake up between turns. If only the text read, "Put one damage counter on each of your opponent's Pokemon that is asleep between turns." There's a difference between being asleep and waking up and being asleep, period, I think. Still, it's good to just sit on the bench if you have other Sleep inducers (those that use Water Pulse, for example). One of the new Snorlaxes has an attack that can put both it and the opponent to sleep, but Darkrai G will only go after the opponent. Darkrai G's single attack, Darkness Sleep, does an about-average 50 damage for a Dark Energy plus two other energies of choice and and puts the opponent to sleep if the opponent isn't in full health. Energy Gain helps out, lowering the attack's cost by 1, and Crobat G definitely helps if you're facing a completely healthy opponent. This attack is clearly meant to activate Eerie Aura. And it's nice to have an opponent sleep, even with a 50/50 chance of waking up. Opponents can use Switch, Warp Point, or Warp Energy among some Poke-Powers to put the Sleeping Pokemon on the bench. Ratings: Modified: 3/5 With all the snipers available, Darkrai G should be able to put quite a few Pokemon to sleep with its attack. Just be sure not to start off with it if you don't have an Energy Gain. Limited: 2.5/5 A slightly lower rating here: Darkrai may take a while to charge up, and when it does get to use its attack, you have to rely on the opponent staying asleep to rack up damage, which doesn't always happen. This is Steel_Winger, until next time!
Jigglypuff13	5/20 Darkrai G Lv.58 (RR) Hello, and welcome to Wednesday and the continuation of our Rising Rivals week with a card that people weren't sure if it was going to be in the set or not due to the fact that it was a promo in Japan, yes, it's Darkrai G! Because of this, no one has hyped it, but once people had seen it, they knew they wanted to use it (I know I do at least). Onto the card itself and the basics of it. 90 HP on an SP Pokémon seems about average really, so it should survive at least 1 hit. On a strange note, it's actually higher HP than any of the normal Darkrai's released so far (non Lv.X ones, obviously). I suppose there are some Pokémon that make it less strange (Turtwig GL (RR), for example), but maybe it's just me, but I thought an SP Darkrai would have the same HP as a normal one, like there are normal Dialga and Palkia's with the same HP as Dialga G and Palkia G (both PL). Anyway, I digress, so back to the card. x2 Fighting Weakness is expected, and annoying thanks to Machamp (SF) and Rampados (PL), though Machamp is already OHKOing without Weakness thanks to Take Out. -20 Psychic Resistance is to be expected, and is quite nice really, with, as always, a fair few popular Pokémon being Psychic typed. 2 Retreat Cost, well, for a Legendary, I suppose I can't really complain about it, and Moonlight Stadium can reduce it to 0, but I'd still like to see one knocked off it. It's abilities now, and this is where the card becomes really interesting. I'll start with Eerie Aura, the Poké-Body, and the reason to play this card. It's a very simple effect, but one damage counter between turns on each of your opponents Pokémon that remain Asleep. Simple enough, yet very brutal. Sleep is quite a common Special Condition to inflict, and thus even with the 50% chance of waking up inbetween turns, it's likely that your Pokémon will remain Asleep between turns at least once, meaning you will take at least 1 extra damage counter of damage thanks to Eerie Aura. It doesn't sound like a lot, but if you remain Asleep a lot during the course of a game, then it soon builds up, causing massive amounts of damage. And I haven't even mentioned about it stacks yet. Yep, have multiple Darkrai G's on the bench, and Asleep Pokémon will remain permanently Asleep quite quickly if you aren't careful. It's a subtle way of dealing damage, and one that I rather like. Best of all, because it's an SP Pokémon with all the usual benefits from the TGI's and what not, it won't be shut down by the ever present Dialga G Lv.X (PL). So, it's got a brilliant Poké-Body, meaning it deserves at least a bench sitter space, but what about being an attacker? Well, I could work, but I don't see it working well. With Energy Gain, it's doing a not bad 50 for DC, not including Special Dark boost either (or for DCC without Energy Gain, obviously), so the damage front isn't too bad. The effect can be good. If the Defending Pokémon has any damage counters on them, then they are Asleep. Well, with Eerie Aura, you'd hope this card would be able to put your opponent's active to Sleep. I suppose the reliance on having any damage counters on there before using Darkness Sleep is quite annoying, but it's easier to put even one damage counter on there than you may think, will I'll cover in the combos section. Overall, not a bad attack to go with that great Poké-Body. So, what are the best combos with this card then, you may be asking. Well, first things first, it deserves to go with other Sleep cards, for obvious reasons, I assume. Out of the lot (and there are a large number as well), Darkrai Lv.X (GE) is probably the best of the lot. The reason is that it will force your opponent to flip 2 coins for their Sleep check rather than 1, giving them a meagre 25% chance of waking up instead of 50%, thus you have a higher chance of Eerie Aura coming into play. They also have a 25% chance of being KOed thanks to the effect of Darkrai Lv.X's attack. So, things really aren't looking good for your opponents active there, but what if you don't want to rely on that Lv.X's expensive attack, and would prefer to use Darkrai G to attack instead? Well, aside from Energy Gain, which is mandatory with many SP's, I'd have to say, use Crobat G (PL). Flash Bite, it's ridiculously brilliant Poké-Power, puts one damage counter on one of your opponents Pokémon. Flash Bite their active, and Darkness Sleep will send them to Sleep, which is what you want, really. If that wasn't enough, how about making them take even more damage inbetween turns using Skuntank G (PL) and Poison Structure without effecting yourself in anyway. Great stuff, and really nasty with even a couple of Darkrai G's out. I suppose my only worry about be bench space since you would like to swarm Darkrai G's, use Crobat G and Skuntank G and set up with Uxie. Poké Turn helps, but it'll still be a bit of trouble. Counters, and there is one big one that goes by the name of Machamp (SF). Take Out and it's Fighting typing destroy Darkrai G. To stop Take Out, you'd need Unown G (GE) attached, which stops the use of Energy Gain. Fair enough, but then you have to rely on your opponent getting less than 2 heads when they use Hurricane Punch, otherwise Darkrai G gets OHKOed anyway. Bubble Coat would be an option if it didn't mean you couldn't have Unown G attached as well. However, you aren't allowed both, so Darkrai G falls down to Machamp, unless you can put it too sleep early enough. Rampados (PL) gives the same problem, to a lesser extent since Unown G wouldn't be needed, but even with Bubble Coat, there's still a high chance of being OHKOed if your opponent uses Crobat G (PL) or Plus Power or Buck's Training. Ratings: Modified: I love this card. Eerie Aura just makes the idea of a Sleep deck quite viable, and it's not too bad of an attacker either, so you could make an SP Sleep deck (or maybe that should be SleeP deck). However, it's way too Machamp weak to work in this format, and so long as Machamp remains popular, this card will be un-used competitively. However, it could make a good rouge, maybe for BR's? Until Machamp dies down (which it most probably won't), not great, but I'm still going to give it a go. 3.5/5 Limited: There's less in the way of good Sleepers here. There are a couple, but none that can compare to ones we have in Modified, so Eerie Aura becomes less effective. Also, you'll probably only get one Darkrai G if you are lucky, so you won't be able to swarm them, so would be less effective. One damage counter extra inbetween turns is nice, but without the certain that you get with Poison, it just doesn't cut it. The attack is alright I suppose. DCC for 50 is nice, but the likely hood of the Defending Pokémon having a damage counter on it before you use Darkness Sleep without KOing it is low. 2.75/5
Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Darkrai G Possibly the most interesting card in Rising Rivals, Dialga G is just begging to be used in all kinds of nasty combos. Like all SP Pokémon, Darkrai G benefits from near-broken support. Being Dark means it can use Special Darkness Energy, and can retreat for free with Moonlight Stadium. The PokeBody, Eerie Aura, puts 1 damage counter on Pokémon that stay asleep between turns. Now that might not sound like much, but bear in mind that the Body stacks, so 3 Darkrai G on the Bench means a very useful 30 damage between turns for your opponent. This gets even better when you think how easy it is to achieve a sleep condition. Darkrai MD with Super Scoop Up is a good choice, inflicting sleep whenever it is played on to the Bench. Wigglytuff GE’s Good Night Melody is another option. It does put your active Pokémon to sleep too, but if you want, that can be taken care of with Xatu SW. Of course, Darkrai MD and Darkrai GE also have attacks which can inflict Sleep, and Darkrai LV X has the best sleep condition of all, requiring the Sleeping Pokémon to flip 2 heads to wake up, and knocking them out automatically should they get 2 tails. Is it time for Darkrai to stop being used just as a very rare tech in Dark decks, and finally shine in a deck of its own? It just might be. It would certainly give Gengar decks a hard time, with Psychic Resistance, attacks that hit for Weakness, and an easy way to avoid triggering Fainting Spell by getting the KO between turns. Rating Modified: 3.5 (has a lot of potential) Limited: 2 (needs to be played with the right Pokémon to be really effective)