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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Minun (Unleashed)   Today we take a look at Minun, the cute little Pikachu lookalike that nearly always works best with its partner, Plusle, on the Field.   Minun is an unevolving (is that really a word?) Basic with a low 60 HP. It is double Weak to Fighting, but that is almost irrelevant as the most commonly played Fighting Pokémon (Machamp and Donphan Prime) would one-shot it anyway.  Metal Resistance is better than nothing, but I don’t see it as being of much practical use. The Retreat cost of one is acceptable. It needs an Energy to use its attacks anyway.   But what are those attacks? Well, [C] gets you Call for Family, a pretty common attack with several variations. In this case it grabs any two Basics from the deck and puts them on to your Bench. Obviously, this helps a lot with set up, but unfortunately for Minun, there are other cards around which you would want to use instead. Call Energy gives ANY Pokémon exactly the same ability AND provides Energy for an attack you may want to use later. If you really wanted a starter Pokémon with a Call for Family, we still have Pachirisu GE until the rotation. That gets you three Pokémon and has a situationally useful attack.   Minun’s second attack on the other hand isn’t nearly as good as Pachi GE’s. Tag Team Boost may only cost one Lightning Energy, but then it only does 10 damage. True, if you also have Plusle on the Field it will do 30, but I don’t think a two card combo involving very weak Basics is worth it for 30 damage, do you?   In Limited it’s a different story. The Call for Family attack is excellent, and the Plusle in the set has a useful ‘draw two’ attack, so I can see these two Pokémon being a good set up combination in this format.   As for modified? Don’t expect to see either of them.   Rating   Modified: 1.75 (CFF is never a bad thing) Limited: 4 (probably the best starter in the set)   Combos with . . .   Plusle (obviously)
virusyosh	Happy Friday, Pojo readers! We end our CoTD week this week by reviewing Minun from the HS Unleashed set. Minun is a Basic Lightning Pokemon. Lightning is a decent type to be right now: There aren't many Fighting types (Lightning's main weakness) in the format right now, and many people fear Luxray GL Lv. X. 60 HP for a non- evolving Basic is pretty low, so Minun probably won't last very long in our fast-paced metagame. Fighting Weakness isn't too bad as stated earlier, but you should still look out for Donphan and Machamp (even though they would probably OHKO you anyway). Metal Resistance is very welcome, and a Retreat Cost of 1 is decent, though I think Minun could have gotten away with free retreat. Minun has two attacks. The first, Call for Family, allows you to search your deck for 2 Basic Pokemon and put them onto your Bench for a single Colorless Energy. As far as this type of attack goes, Minun's version is quite good. However, searching for Basics with an attack is sadly too slow in our Modified format, where this could be done with Supporters like Roseanne's Research and Pokemon Collector. The second attack, Tag Team Boost, costs a single Lightning Energy and does 10 damage on its own, but adds 20 more if Plusle is on your Bench. Playing both Plusle and Minun together is unlikely in a Modified deck, but it could probably work in Limited if you draft well with Lightning cards. Modified: 1.5/5 Call for Family isn't bad, there are just many things in the format that do the job either better or faster. The damaging attack won't amount to much here, either. Limited: 2.5/5 Minun actually works quite excellently as a support and setup Pokemon in Limited. Call for Family does a great job as a setup move in the slower Limited, and Tag Team Boost may actually get its damaging-adding condition here, as Plusle is playable if you draft a lot of Lightning. Combos with: Plusle UL
Otaku	We end the week with Minun.  This version has 60 HP (okay since it doesn’t Evolve); double Fighting Weakness which may not be as bad as it sounds.  Yes, it doubles the damage from Fighting Pokémon, but so many Fighting Pokémon hit so hard so fast, only a few are going to fall into the “OHKO instead of 2HKO” category.  The weakest will still just barely miss the KO and the rest just end up with overkill.  The Metal Resistance -20 is a welcome sight: it won’t be a huge help but its something.  The Retreat Cost is merely one Energy; easy enough to pay if you have to.   Call for Family has long been a useful attack.  This version lets you snag 2 Basic Pokémon and Bench them for a single Energy.  In the current format, I don’t know if it’s worth risking when you could just use Call Energy.  At least Tag Team Boost is a decent use for the Plusle/Minun combination: with Plusle on the Bench you get a solid 30 damage for a single Lightning Energy.   I’ve been wrong about opening Pokémon before, but this just strikes me as a throwback to an earlier format.  It’s of a solid design that should serve you quite well in Limited, but that is not conducive to the current format’s nature.   Ratings   Modified: 2/5   Limited: 5/5   Combos with: Plusle, of course.   I’d also like to add I’ll be selling quite a bit of my soon-to-be-former possessions on eBay.  You can take a look here at my first auction if you’re interested in some SNES games.  Just a reminder, Pojo is in no way responsible for this and was merely kind enough to let me mention the auction here. ;)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Minun (HS Unleashed)   This is another variation on the Cheerleader twins (I'm surprised they didn't appear on Cheerleader's Cheer instead of Roselia) and fits in pretty much the same mould as the rest of them.   60 HP, Fighting weaness, Metal Resistance and a retreat cost of 1. Low survivability even with the resistance (and Metal isn't very common) so the attacks need to be something special.   Call for Family brings 2 Basic Pokemon from your deck onto your Bench. For the cost of C, this is pretty much the same as using Call energy, which is what you should use instead until it gets rotated out. Still, it s decent for the cost, and can boost your setup nicely. This attack seems common to a lot of non-evolving Basics in the set, along with a lot of other setup attacks.   Tag Team Boost is a nice-sounding attack that deals 10 damage for L, or 30 damage for the same cost if you have Plusle on the Bench.You'll probably just stick to using Call for Family, but if you like the twins then the attack is a bonus.   While the attacks are decent, the low survivability means that you aren't quite getting your money's worth when you compare Minun to other tournament-level starters who have similar stats but better attacks (Spiritomb and Sableye come to mind). Even Stantler form the same set offers the same attacks with more health, so Minun is only for theme decks and younger players.   Modified: 2.5 (Not bad, but better options exist) Limited: 3 (with Lanturn Prime it can be a good starter, but otherwise there are still plenty more options)