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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Sceptile LV 57 The Arceus set brought us two Sceptiles. This is the good one. In fact it should remind you of a card that saw a lot of play a couple of years ago. That’s right, it’s basically a Stage 2 Grass version of Magmortar SW! Sceptile has low-ish HP for a Stage 2 at 120, but that can always be increased by Shaymin LV X, and it does have a PokeBody that heals 20 damage whenever you attach a Grass Energy to it. This should make it a bit more difficult to KO than it seems to be. Fire Weakness is problematic though, with Blaziken FB still popular, Infernape 4still being played, and Charizard AR probably seeing an increase in play. Water Resistance is lovely though. This card will give Kingdra and Palkia G fits, and even Gyarados might have a hard time against it. The Retreat cost of 2 isn’t great, and would make Warp Point or Switch a good inclusion. The first attack, Leaf Blast, is where this card could shine. It does 20 damage times the amount of Grass Energy attached to Sceptile. Although doing, say 60 for three Energy doesn’t sound anything special (and it isn’t) this Sceptile has the perfect supporting partner in the shape of Sceptile GE whose Wild Growth PokeBody makes each Grass Energy count double. In other words, with Sceptile GE on your Bench, three Energy now means that Leaf Blast will do a very nice 120 damage for three Energy while Healing itself with every attachment. You could even throw in Dawn Stadium for more Healing fun! The second attack, Poison Claws, is vastly inferior. Needing four Energy for 60 damage and Poison. Unless you are trying to use Poison as a means of avoiding Fainting Spell, you are always going to prefer to use Leaf Blast for 160 damage (with Wild Growth). Is Leaf Blast and all the Grass-related support enough to make Sceptile playable? Well, there are a couple of thing that count against it. As well as the Fire Weakness, there is the fact that Dialga G LV X simply shuts the whole deck down by negating all of the PokeBodies that this deck needs to function. If Dialga sees any play in your area, then Sceptile is best left in the binder for now. If not, then it has the potential to be effective, especially if Water Pokémon become more popular in future. Rating Modified: 3 (borderline competitive, but Dialga G kills it) Limited: 3.25 (getting Stage 2s out is hard, but if you can do it, this will win games on its own)
virusyosh	Hello, Pojo readers! I hope all of your weeks went well. Today we end our COTD week with Sceptile Lv. 57 from Arceus. There are currently four Sceptiles available for play in Modified right now. The most common of these, Sceptile GE, has a Poke-Body that lets all Grass Energy provide two energy, speeding up many Grass-type decks. Sceptile SF has the Energy Trans Poke-Power originally on Base Set Venusaur, and the other Sceptile from Arceus has two attacks and no Pokemon Powers. How does this Sceptile match up to the others? This particular Sceptile has 120 HP, which is just about standard for a Stage 2. Sceptile is also a Grass-type, and while there are a few Grass decks played here or there using Leafeon Lv. X and Shaymin, they are generally rare due to the rampant use of Fire-types like Blaziken FB or Infernape 4. The aforementioned Weakness to Fire isn't very good, however Water Resistance is very nice in a format with Kingdra LA and Gyarados SF. A Retreat Cost of two is slightly expensive, so be sure to have your Switches and Warp Points handy. Sceptile's Poke-Body, Green Breath, allows you to remove two damage counters from Sceptile whenever you attach a Grass Energy to Sceptile from your hand. A free Potion whenever you attach an Energy can be nice because many Grass decks have a lot of Energy acceleration and similar effects (Leafeon RR and Dawn Stadium come to mind). Thus, with a decent amount of Energy in hand and a Dawn Stadium in play, Sceptile should be removing quite a few damage counters for each Energy drop. Keeping Sceptile healthy and at full health should be quite important, as Blaziken FB Lv. X will one-hit KO Sceptile if it has any previous damage on it. In addition to its Poke-Body, Sceptile has two attacks. The first, Leaf Blast, deals 20 damage times the number of Grass Energy attached to Sceptile for [G]. This attack obviously has synergy with Sceptile's Poke-Body, but also works surprisingly well with Sceptile GE and Sceptile SF. Using Sceptile GE's Wild Growth to double the amount of Energy and Sceptile SF's Energy Trans ability to move Grass Energies, this Sceptile has the potential to do crazy amounts of damage. However, having three different Sceptiles in play is very difficult to do in this metagame, and running three different types of Sceptile in this manner will probably end up being inconsistent. Such a deck may work when HeartGold/SoulSilver comes out, however, as Meganium Prime can take over energy transferring duties from Sceptile SF with its own Leaf Trans, allowing more space for this and Sceptile GE. Sceptile's second attack, Poison Claws, does 60 damage and poisons for [GCCC]. This attack is seriously underpowered for its price, so you should probably stick to Leaf Blast whenever possible, unless you're in Limited. Modified: 3.5/5 I'm probably rating this a bit high, but Leaf Blast has the potential to be very powerful. While a deck using this as its main attacker may be slower than the SP decks dominating the format, Leaf Blade's attacking power can be monstrous with proper Energy acceleration. Limited: 2/5 Green Breath is great here for stalling, especially if you can get a Cherrim or two out along with it. However, it is a Stage 2, and thus will be pretty hard to get out. Leaf Blade is also slightly less useful due to the lack of Energy movement and acceleration, and Poison Claws is still overpriced. Fire weakness is also rather unhelpful, as there are quite a few Fire Pokemon in this set. Have a good weekend!
BoDragon	Sceptile LV.57 Platinum--Arceus, #30   Does anyone recall Magmortar from Diamond & Pearl--Secret Wonders (#31) with the Flame Body Poké-Body and Flame Blast attack?  Meet the Grass-type version, Sceptile!   Sceptile's Green Breath Poké-Body removes two damage counters from itself when you attach a {G} Energy card to it.  (This is similar to Magmortar removing two damage counters from itself when attaching a {R} Energy with its Flame Body Poké-Body.)  This is an excellent Poké-Body that removes damage when attaching basic {G} Energy.   Its first attack, Leaf Blast, costing {G}, deals damage times the number of {G} Energy attached to Sceptile. (This attack is similar to Magmortar's Flame Blast attack that deals 20 damage times the number of {R} Energy attached to it.)  You want to use a lot of {G} Energy to maximize the attack cost.  Use Togekiss's (Diamond & Pearl--Great Encounters, #11) Serene Grace Poké-Power to add {G} Energy into play or Tangrowth LV.X's (Platinum--Arceus, #99) Big Growth attack to recover discarded {G] Energy cards to attach to Sceptile.   Its second attack, Poison Claws, costs {G}{C}{C}{C} to deal 60 damage.  If you have three or more {G} Energy to Sceptile, you are better doing equal damage or more with Leaf Blast.  If you using ofther Energy while building up for Leaf Blast, this attack is okay, but the attack cost is one Energy more than I like.   Its stats, +30 weakness against {R}, -20 resistance against {W}, 2 Energy retreat cost, and 120 HP, are typical for a good attacking and healing Pokémon.   If you enjoy playing Magmortar, consider Sceptile as a Grass type alternative.  It may be a step slower with Sceptile's Stage 2 Evolution, but it still packs a puch.   Ratings: Modified:  5/5 Limited:  5/5   BoDragon, proud member of Team Sceptile