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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Gastly (Stormfront) Hello and welcome to a new week of Pojo’s CotD. Still no Black and White card, but luckily one of the other reviewers came up with the best idea yet for a theme week: evolving Pokémon that are actually quite good. We kick off with one that you will have seen a lot of in tournaments: Gastly SF. Of course, the reason people use it is because it evolves into Gengar SF, Gengar Prime, and less frequently Gengar AR, but as Basics go this one has a lot more to offer than most. That is almost entirely down to Gastly’s first attack, Pitch-Dark. For no Energy, you get no damage but you do stop your opponent from playing Trainers on their next turn. This does two very good things: firstly, it slows your opponent down: no SP Radar, no Luxury Ball, no Rare Candy etc. secondly, it hopefully means that they will have a hand full of Trainers for when you get to use Gengar SF’s Poltergeist attack, which does 30 damage for each Trainer, Supporter and Stadium they are holding. Put Gastly (and the Gengar line, obviously) in a deck with Spiritomb AR and Vileplume UD and you have something that is capable of denying their opponent Trainers for an entire match, one way or the other (it’s called Vilegar and it wins its fair share of tournaments). It’s also a very effective way of making sure that Uxie Donk decks never get to go off and grab the one-turn win. If Gastly has a downside it’s that the low-ish HP makes him very donkable . . . especially if he runs into Sableye who is pretty much Gastly’s worst nightmare, thanks to its Dark Weakness. Nevertheless, in terms of what it can do for you, and the synergy it has with its Stage 2, Gastly is still one of (if not the) best evolving Basics in the format. Rating Modified: 3 (very useful Basic to start with, but at the end of the day, it’s still there to evolve)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Gastly (Stormfront)   Well, the malevolent little ball of gas has come a long way since the utter failure that was Base Set Gastly. This week we are reviewing evolving Poke'mon who offer something worth using rather than just being a stepping stone and I am happy to say that Gastly has made that very short list.   Gastly's vital statististics are being a Psychic type evolving Basic with 50 HP, +10 Dark weakness, Colourless resistance, a retreat cost of 1 and 2 attacks. Sableye SF is your worst nightmare if you have to start with Gastly, but otherwise the 50 HP should buy you the 1 turn you need to evolve. Don't expect to last any longer than that against a good setup, though.   Gastly has a good attack and a great attack, so I'm going to save the best for last. Trick Gas costs [p] and deals 10 damage, with the option of switching Gastly for one of your Benched Poke'mon. The best way I have found to use this attack is to bait and switch for Smeargle UD or Spiritomb PA (when they have an Unown Q attached) so that you can deal damage while using Portrait or Keystone Seal. Of course this doesn't do much damage (especially against Psychic resistance) and Spiritomb users will most likely stick with Darkness Grace, but it is a nice option to have. Especially if you need to get away from Chatot MD or some other card that stops you from retreating normally.   Pitch-dark is the other ttack, and it's one of those lovely free attacks that I really want to see return to the game. Free setup attacks rule, as do free disruption attacks and Pitch-dark is smack-bang in the middle of the second group. During your opponent's next turn they can't play and Trainer cards from their hand which is awesome when you look at the damage Gengar SF can do with a mass of unusable Trainer cards trapped in your opponent's hand. Even if you are running a LostGar deck that doesn't take advantage of Poltergeist, disrupting your opponent's Trainer usage gives you more time to setup and gain the advantage. Best of all, Pitch-dark gives you a better chance of a good start since it can substitute for Spiritomb PA's Keystone Seal when you don't have the little tombstone in your starting hand.   Gastly should still be evolved into Haunter and Gengar as quickly as possible but if for some reason things aren't going your way, Gastly can help you avoid getting completely demolished while you recover.   Modified: 4 (If you play a Gengar in your deck, this is the Gastly to use. And plenty of people play Gengar)Limited: 4 (Gengar is awesome here too, and there are plenty of awesome Trainer cards that were released in Stormfront so Pitch-dark is still awesome)
conical	4/4/11: Gastly(Stormfront)   Welcome to the next theme week: Evolving Basic Week! Yes, we're looking at those cards you use to get to your awesome Stage 1s and Stage 2s. A lot of these cards are commonly seen, but some of them are more obscure.   But not today's card: Gastly! And what makes this Gastly so good? Well, you just need to look at its first attack: Pitch-Dark. Given the success of Dialga G and Vileplume, it's no surprise that Gastly's Trainer-locking attack also has its uses, especially in Vileplume/Gengar lists. If you run max Gastly and Spiritomb(which you should in VileGar), you have 8 cards in your deck that can set up a Trainer lock turn 1. And while Spiritomb is the more ideal starter, because of Darkness Grace, Pitch-Dark may be the better Trainer lock, since you can't break the lock by forcing Gastly out of the active slot via Cyclone Energy/Regice LA, like with Spiritomb. Overall, Gastly is definitely one of the best evolving basics in the format, and yet another useful tool in any Gengar deck's arsenal.   Modified: 4.25/5 Limited: 3/5
virusyosh	Welcome back, Pojo viewers! We have another theme week for you all this week, and this time we're going to be looking at useful Basics (and a Stage 1) that can evolve that have been used in popular/good decks over the past few years, and can be integral pieces to those said decks on their own. Today, we are going to start this week by reviewing Gastly from Stormfront. Gastly is a Basic Psychic Pokemon. Psychic Pokemon are common in today's Modified metagame, with Gengar (where Gastly is used) and the pixies all around regularly. 50 HP is just about average for an evolving Basic, so it should be able to survive at the beginning of the game, barring a Sableye with a Darkness Energy on your opponent's end. Weakness to Darkness can be problematic if your meta has a lot of Dark techs, but since it's just +10, that's not so bad. Colorless Resistance is great against the likes of Garchomp C, although Dragon Rush will still OHKO. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 1 is decent, and easily payable. Gastly has two attacks: Pitch Dark, and Trick Gas. Pitch Dark is the main reason why Gastly sees play, as it stops your opponent from playing Trainers on their next turn for free, which is amazing in VileGar builds that are reliant on your opponent having many Trainers in hand. It has the additional benefit of keeping your opponent from setting up, especially because denying them that crucial Poke Turn, Rare Candy, or Energy Gain can really cause some problems for your opponent, while allowing you to stall for a bit to get out your Gengar and Vileplume, especially if you didn't get a Spiritomb start. Trick Gas, Gastly's other attack, does 10 damage for a single Psychic Energy, and you are able to switch Gastly with one of your Benched Pokemon after doing damage. This probably won't be that useful in most cases, but if you find a reason to switch, it could be helpful. Most of the time, however, you should probably stick with using Pitch Dark. Modified: 4/5 The rating is obviously for use in a Gengar deck. It's easily the best Gastly available in Modified right now, because it fits the synergy of the rest of the VileGar deck so perfectly. Even in LostGar builds, this is probably the Gastly of choice. Limited: 2.5/5 If you draft a Gengar line here, you should definitely use it. Even if you don't, it still could be useful to stop your opponent from using their Trainers, although low HP and a relative lack of Trainers in Limited makes that kind of a letdown.