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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

		Dodrio #11/90 HS Undaunted Date Reviewed: August 30, 2010 Ratings & Reviews Summary Modified: 2.33 Limited: 3.75 Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale. 1 being the worst.  3 ... average.   5 is the highest rating. Back to the main COTD Page
Combos With:

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Dodrio (Unleashed)   Hello, and welcome to a new week of Pojo’s CotD. This week, we are looking at some more Undaunted rares.   First up is Dodrio . . . a card that can do infinite damage and take out the tankiest (not a real word) of Pokémon in a single hit! Yeah, you bet there’s a catch, but we’ll come to that later.   For now, let’s look at Dodrio’s stats. It has 80 hp, which is not impressive for a Stage 1, a Weakness to Lightning, which is close to catastrophic in this Luxray-dominated format, a handy Resistance to Fighting, and a Retreat cost of one which is a bit excessive for a fast Bird Pokémon in my opinion.   The main reason to take a look at this card is the PokeBody, Retreat Aid.  As long as Dodrio is on the Bench it reduces the Retreat cost for your active Pokémon by [C][C]. Obviously, this can be very useful, effectively turning most playable Pokémon into free retreaters and helping you to keep your Energy in play while still being able to switch attackers and return dragged out Pokémon to the Bench. What’s more, the Body stacks, so if you have two Dodrio in play, you reduce the Retreat cost by four! In theory, this would make something like Heatran LV X more playable as you are no longer relying on Level Max or switching Trainers to get it back to the Bench after levelling up. In practice, though, we are looking at more set up than is currently viable in the format.   I can see Dodrio actually being tried with certain cards. Trainer lock decks featuring Spiritomb AR and Vileplume UD look like they will be popular and Dodrio would be useful for those times where you can’t play Switch or Warp Point on your high Retreat Pokemon. It may even be a good play with Vileplume itself as a counter to strategies which look to drag Vileplume active and snipe the Bench. It can also combo with Smeargle UD, allowing you to use its Portrait Power and then Retreat for an attacker without wasting an Energy.   Oh yeah, there’s also that attack. Incessant Peck costs [C][C] and does 20 damage. Then you flip a coin until you get tails and do another 20 for each heads. With some ridiculous luck, you could pull off a stunning KO for the cost of a single Double Colourless Energy! It’s not an attack you should ever be relying on (obviously), but if you’re desperate . . .   Rating   Modified: 2.5 (some tech potential, but the Weakness hurts and Dialga G LV X shuts it down completely) Limited: 3.5 (keep retreating to deny your opponents Prizes! It’s a great strategy in Limited)   Combos with . . .   Smeargle UD Any high Retreat Pokémon that you don’t want active
virusyosh	Welcome back, Pojo readers! Today's Card of the Day is a Colorless Pokemon from Undaunted that may be some play as a bench-sitting support Pokemon. Today's Card of the Day is Dodrio. Dodrio is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. This is good for it because this means it can fit into many different types of decks, regardless of energy requirements. 80 HP is decent for a Stage 1, but it could have afforded to be a bit higher. Weakness to Lightning is terrible with the prevalence of Luxray, Resistance to Fighting is nice for Donphan and Machamp, and a Retreat Cost of 1 is decent, even though it could have probably just been free. Dodrio has a very useful Poke-Body and a single attack. The Body, Retreat Aid, decreases your Active Pokemon's Retreat Cost by 2 as long as Dodrio is sitting on the Bench. This is super useful in any deck that has many Pokemon with high retreat costs, or in decks that switch around often. Dodrio will end up being especially useful in Gengar variants that use Shadow Skip and Spiritomb, as Dodrio will allow them to continue where Moonlight Stadium left off when it rotates out. The attack, Incessant Peck, has you flip a coin until you get tails and does 20 damage plus 20 more damage for each heads for [CC]. Has high damage potential, but most of the time the attack will be unreliable, so it won't be worth using. However, it is nice to note that the attack does 20 damage to begin with, so even if you are unlucky with flipping, it will still at least do something. Modified: 2.75/5 Not for every deck, but most decks will greatly benefit from having reduced Retreat Costs if they have the bench space, even if your Retreat Costs aren't very high to begin with. Definitely a support Pokemon to try out. Limited: 3/5 Colorless energy requirements, good body, and decent attack make Dodrio quite useful here. Just look out for Raichu Prime and Jolteon. Combos with: Gengar AR (Shadow Skip)
Otaku	Name: Dodrio Set/#/Rarity: HS – Undaunted 11/90 Rare Type: Colorless Stage: 1 (Evolves from Doduo) HP: 80 Weakness: Lightning x 2 Resistance: Fighting -20 Retreat Cost: (C) Poké-Body: Retreat Aid As long as Dodrio is on your Bench, your Active Pokémon’s Retreat Cost is (CC) less. Attack: (CC) Incessant Peck [20+] Flip a coin until you get tails.  This attack does 20 damage plus 20 more damage for each heads. ---------------------------------------------------------   So the new Dodrio is of course a Colorless Pokémon Stage 1 Pokémon.  With just 80 HP, Lightning Weakness, and a Retreat Cost of one, it is in trouble: the Fighting Resistance is nice but won’t offset such poor stats on a Pokémon that can’t further Evolve.  The Poké-Body is a flashback to the original Dodrio but with modern wording/terminology.  While it can technically help in any deck where the Pokémon lack a free Retreat Cost, it won’t be much help unless the lowered (preferably eliminated) Retreat Cost feeds into some sort of combo.  It is also important to note that it will not work on itself!  It is worded so Dodrio only lowers the Retreat Cost of Pokémon while it is on the Bench!   The attack is alright since you can drop a Double Colorless Energy to power it up in a single turn.  You always have the chance to KO whatever you attack.  Realistically, you’ll do a mere 20 points of damage half the time.  On the flip side (pardon the pun) you’ll also do at least 40 damage half the time, with no upper limit (just diminishing odds).  You don’t want to rely on this attack, but   I can’t see much of a use for it in Modified, but I get the feeling I am just missing its dance partners.  Simply put, anything that has an attack that shifts it to the Bench or that has a Poké-Power that can be abused by Retreating (and it doesn’t already have a zero energy Retreat Cost) can make use of this card.   In Limited play, it becomes a good pick.  Obviously it can work into any deck, and retreating to deny Prizes is a sound tactic.  Plus, the weaker attacks and slower pace will give Incessant Peck a chance to “hit it big”.   Ratings   Modified: 2/5  Limited: 4/5  Combos With: I got nothing.   I am still selling quite a bit of my stuff on eBay.  I’ve had a lot of hobbies over the years, so at various times I’ll have comic books, manga, action figures, and video games on the auction block.  You can take a look at what’s up for bids here.  I usually add new stuff on Wednesdays and Saturdays.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for this and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auctions here. ;)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Dodrio (HS Undaunted)   This is close to being a reprint of the Jungle version. It probably won't see as much play though.   Dodrio is colourless with 80 HP (Garchomp says "HEADSHOT"), lightning weakness (Luxray says "Ninja!"), fighting resistance and a retreat cost of 1. The HP is too low for a non-evolving Stage 1, and the retreat cost is counter-productive when you consider the power, which I will now discuss.   The attack is Incessant Peck, and is really quite nice for a tech. The cost of CC will get you 20 base damage while letting you flip-until-tails, dealing 20 bonus damage for each heads. Ghosts will annoy you when you can't hurt them, but otherwise it is good to know that if you get into the kind of trouble where your tech has to do the fighting, there is a slight chance you may actually save yourself with a lucky KO (provided you keep a DCE in reserve).   Now the pokebody. Retreat Aid does the exact same thing as the original, lowering the retreat cost of your active Pokemon by 2 provided Dodrio is on your Bench. Sadly, this is nowhere near as useful as it used to be, thanks to Luxray GL and Dialga G shutting down the power and the heavy snipers we know and love in the current metagame (Blastoise, Gengar, Garchomp, K&G Legend, you get the picture). Also, we have a much better option available in Flygon RR, since it gives free retreat with better stats, useful attacks and a decent Lv X upgrade option for the really lucky *************** who manage to get one out of a booster.   The saving grace of Dodrio is that it will lower the retreat costs of other colourless Pokemon, the one thing Flygon doesn't do. A slight technicality means that Dordrio is also better as a counter to your opponent if they use attacks that raise the retreat cost of your Pokemon. Flygon would give free retreat, then you add on the extra cost caused by the opponent, while Dodrio would simply cancel the effect out. Admittedly, neither of these little boosts will save Dodrio, because there are very few colourless Pokemon in use that don't already have free retreat (or some way of easily switching out like Poketurn) and noone at tournamnet level settles for increasing the retreat cost, preferring to KO you outright, drag the offending Pokemon back to the active slot or just snipe away.   Dodrio might be a better choice when Flygon gets rotated out or if a ridiculously powerful colourless attacker gets printed, but until then the 3-headed chicken stays in the binder with its Jungle cousin.   Modified: 2 (too easily shut down, and heavily overshadowed by Flygon) Limited: 4 (gives you lots of room to mess around, and the above problems aren't present in Limited) Combos with: nostalgia, or a time machine to go back to Jungle set where this card would have been completely broken