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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Numel (Unleashed)   Hello and welcome to a brand new week of Pojo’s CotD. This week, we delve further towards the bottom of the Unleashed barrel as we wait for the next set to appear.   The first card up for review is Numel. The most interesting thing to say about it is that it is a Basic Pokémon whose Evolution doesn’t appear in the set . . . which is kind of weird. Neither of the two modified legal Camerupt have ever seen competitive play, so don’t expect to see this card any time soon at a tournament.   As an evolving Basic, Numel isn’t the worst out there. 60 HP is decent and the retreat cost is reasonable. It even has an attack which draws cards, so if you ever started with it, at least it could do something. Unfortunately, Flare Bonus costs [C] and draws three when you discard a Fire Energy from your hand. That means that you are going to need two Energy in hand to use it, one of which you lose to the discard pile. The second attack, Combustion, is worse though: [R][R][C] for a vanilla 40 damage? No thanks.   If it’s card drawing you want, there are so many better options that it’s not even funny. If it’s Energy discard you need, you have better choices here too (Ninetales HGSS will even do both!). If it is something to evolve into Camerupt that you require, then you would almost certainly prefer to play Numel SV for its higher HP and Energy acceleration attack.   Basically, I have no idea what Numel is doing in this set. Perhaps TPCI simply forgot to print a playable Camerupt (again).   Rating   Modified: 1.5 (there are worse Basics out there, but the evolutions are pretty terrible) Limited: 2.5 (draw is nice, and discarding Energy isn’t usually a problem)
virusyosh	Happy Monday, Pojo readers! While the Undaunted Prereleases are coming up soon, we still have some cards to finish reviewing from Unleashed. Today's Card of the Day is Numel. Numel is a Basic Fire Pokemon. Fire Pokemon aren't seen too often in the metagame nowadays, outside of the random Charizard/Typhlosion build or Blaziken deck. Numel has 60 HP is pretty good for a Basic, meaning it won't be donked easily at the beginning of a game. Double Water Weakness isn't great, as Gyarados, Kingdra, and other Water Pokemon will have fun taking out the fire camel. No Resistance is unfortunate, and a Retreat Cost of 1 is decent. Numel has two attacks. The first, Flare Bonus, costs [C] and allows you to discard a Fire Energy from your hand to draw 3 cards. While normally drawing cards as an attack isn't generally great (Trainers, Supporters, and Poke- Powers do this better), this attack is especially noteworthy in that it does the same exact thing as Ninetales HGSS's Roast Reveal. Ninetales is already a great support Pokemon in Fire decks and can get the same effect as a Power, not having to waste an attack where you could be potentially taking out an opponent. Numel's second attack, Combustion, costs [RRC] and does a vanilla 40 damage. This attack is way overcosted, so don't use it. Modified: 1/5 There are only two Camerupts in Modified right now, and neither are particularly worth using. Additionally, the attacks are subpar. If you really need a Fire Pokemon to discard an Energy to draw three cards, use Ninetales instead. Limited: 1.5/5 Might be worth using if you draft ridiculous amounts of Fire, but generally you'll be better off using other things. Supporter draw is common in this set making the first attack somewhat unnecessary, and there isn't a Camerupt in Unleashed.
Otaku	It seems ironic that we are covering Numel now, long after the pre-Releases.  Why do I say that?  A limited is where you’re most likely going to consider running it.  The card is a solid Basic Pokémon, but only if it has something worth Evolving into.  The two Camerupt you could choose to run it with might be interesting, but don’t appear viable.  Numel itself won’t justify running it in Modified: 60 HP is solid for a Basic you plan to Evolve quickly and the bottom stats pretty standard for a Basic Fire Pokémon (Water Weakness x 2, no Resistance, and a single Energy to retreat).  Flare Bonus is a decent incidental starting attack: for one of any Energy, pitch a Fire Energy from your hand to draw three cards, but Combustion is priced using the old, pre-zero Energy attacks system that doesn’t work anymore.  As a historical note and to add some depth to this review, I’ll remind you that before zero Energy attacks a Basic that could Evolve would usually follow a pattern of Colorless Energy requirement yielding 10 points of damage and a specific Energy requirement yielding 15 points of damage.  Anything harder to get into play (Evolutions) would receive an appropriate bonus or harder to keep in play (Basics without Evolutions), and of course tweaking the Energy cost (mixed types) and other attack restrictions (coin flips, discarding Energy, etc.) would allow even more damage.  For those wondering, non-damage effects would compensate for a lower damage yield, hence the wealth of attacks that did just 10 damage for a colored Energy but often had another effect, or what happened to the “odd” 5 points of damage.  At least the history lesson did have a purpose: since Combustion is overpriced by modern standards, the designers must expect Flare Bonus to matter more.  If they release a really good Camerupt… no, wait, the previous two Numel are legal, so I’d probably use the version from Supreme Victors that only takes an extra 20 damage from Water attacks, has 70 HP, and can use its Colorless Energy-priced attack to attach two Fire Energy from the discard to itself.  Since we already know the next form of Modified, we aren’t losing enough significant openers to make Flare Up the de facto opening play for Fire decks either.  So, clearly, constructed play isn’t where you’re going to use this card.  I hinted at Limited play though. Surely there, where draw power is so scarce and yet even more valuable than constructed play, it is a must run, yes?  Numel has the misfortune of being an excellent Fire opening Pokémon is a set with few Fire Pokémon in it.  Most of you knew that from experience by now, or should have guessed by my bothering to ask the question.  If you pull enough Pokémon with Colorless/mostly Colorless attacks, this becomes a valuable addition to your decks.  If you pull mostly Fire Pokémon… you’re probably in trouble given how much Water is in this set.  Ratings   Modified: 2/5 – Don’t be fooled by the high rating as it is very weighted.  I am scoring it specifically for Fire decks, where you’ll have Fire Energy for Flare Bonus and it’s almost useful.  Limited: 2/5 – Where as this is more a general rating: if you can get a deck composition that allows plenty of Fire Energy to be run and you pull several Numel, then it can lead to strong opening plays.  Thing is, even then you risk pulling it late game, so again below average.  Combos With: Typhlosion (Great Encounters), Typhlosion Prime (HeartGold SoulSilver)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Numel (HS Unleashed)   We seem to be reviewing a few "in-between" cards lately. We continue the trend with Numel!   We get 60 HP (less than other Numel), water weakness and a retreat cost of 1 (all in all, low survivability) with 2 attacks, neither of which is brilliant but they aren't total crap either.   Flare Bonus costs C and discards a fire energy in order to draw 3 cards. Obviously, it's an attack version of Roast Reveal on Ninetales HGSS which means it has the same uses, but it is nowhere near as good because you have use your attack. Good for the first turn when you haven't got Ninetales out, but otherwise useless. Not to mention you have to have 2 energy, at least one of which is fire, in your first 8 cards to use this attack.   Combustion is worse, costing RRC to do 4 vanilla damage. Numel's lack of survivability means you will never use this attack, but if you have energy to burn and are in desperate straights, having a more powerful attack on a Basic doesn't hurt, especially since you willl only use the first attack anyway (if at all).   Now the clincher. Numel is obviously meant to evolve into Camerupt rather than stand on it's own, so the attacks and stats are really only meant to help you do that. The problem is, there aren't any good Camerupt available in Modified. If there were, you could justify using this Numel (especially if said Camerupt fits into a deck using the NinePhlosion engine) but as it stands this will sit in the binder, waiting for the evolution that may never come (read: almost guaranteed not to happen anytime soon, probably ever).   Modified: 2 (lack of a good Camerupt hurts, but you might, in a parallel universe, use this as a strater for CharPhlosion or any other deck using NinePhlosion behind it's attackers) Limited: 1.5 (no support, but draw is good especially if you pull a Camerupt to use).   Combos with: Typhlosion Prime, a playable Camerupt if it comes into existence.