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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

		Watchdog #79 Emerging Powers Date Reviewed: August 30, 2011 Ratings & Reviews Summary Modified: 2.25 Limited: 3.50 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	Watchog 79/98 (Emerging Powers) No Pokémon generation is complete without its rat/ferret type thing that you encounter far too much at the start of the video games. This is the role played by Watchog in Generation V. They are rarely much good in either the game or the TCG (though Furret SW was awesome for a while). At least this Watchog is . . . interesting. It needs to be as well. A Stage 1 with 90 HP and a Fighting Weakness would have to have some spectacular Ability or attack (like Cinccino BW’s Do the Wave) to be worthy of consideration. What you actually get with this card are two attacks. The first, Watcheck only costs a single Energy and lets you look at, and re-arrange, the top five cards of your opponent’s deck. Is this useful? Well, it could be if you are using some kind of hand disruption strategy and looking for a way of preventing your opponent from top decking their way out of trouble. Is it worth an attack though? Emphatically not. Not when you have Slowking HGSS/CL, which can do the same thing to the top three cards with a PokePower, and also gives the option of using it to fix your own top deck. Watchog’s second attack, Quick Tail Smash, costs two Colourless Energy and does a pathetic 20 damage . . . but . . . you can choose to flip a coin. Get heads and you will do 80, hit tails and the attack does nothing. Obviously, if you play Watchog you will likely want to take the risk, but should you even be playing Watchog in the first place? Nah. There’s no reason to in Modified. If you want a Colourless attacker use Cinccino. If you want deck manipulation, choose Slowking. This card really shouldn’t see any competitive play. Rating Modified: 1.75 (slightly more interesting than most of the rat/ferret things, but still not good) Limited: 3.5 (yeah, both attacks work extremely well here, and being Colourless is a real plus)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Watchog (Emerging Powers)   It's another beautiful day here on the Internet! The sun is shining, the connection is strong and we have another much awaited review for you!   Okay, so Watchog hasn't gotten anyone excited and probably never will but I must say that this version is miles ahead of the last release (having two Tails-fails attacks and mediocre damage is absolutely unforgivable).   Watchog is a Colourless type non-evolving Stage 1 with 90 HP, Fighting weakness, a retreat cost of 1 and two attacks.   As far as survivability goes the HP is enough to survive a cheap hit but heavy hitters and Fighting types will bulldoze through and start looking around for the real opposition. The retreat cost is cheap enough but I doubt it will matter much except in Limited (Poke'mon Ctahcer is performing as advertised). Overall, for a timid meerkat-like Poke'mon the stats fit the theme even if they are nothing to celebrate.   Being a Colourless type, Watchog can use any energy type you can run support for and also benefits from Double Colourless Energy, so with the bonus of being a Stage 1 (a smaller sacrifice of deck space) you can expect to tech in Watchog pretty easily if it has any attacks worth using.   Sadly, Watchog is going to be trapped in the binder for a long time to come. The first attack is Watcheck, which costs [c] and allows you to reorganise the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck. While this could be extremely useful if you are locking/destroying your opponent's hand (via cards like Judge, Vileplume UD and Weavile UD) and forcing them to rely on lucky top draws, the existing competition makes Watchog obsolete. Slowking HGSS has slightly weaker stats and only affects the top 3 cards of your opponent's deck, but that effect is achieved with a Poke-power so your attack is free to create greater mayhem.   If new hand control cards are released in the B&W Block then Watchog may have a place after HS Undaunted is rotated out (that set has pretty much defined modern hand disruption). Until then this attack rocks in Limited (only Cheren, Bianca or Great Ball will allow your opponent to get through the crud you put on top of their deck) but will fall comPletely flat in Modified.   The second attack is Quick Tail Smash and is much better than most attacks with 'Tail' in the name, although it is nowhere near tournament level. Assuming you are playing Watchog and you Have done enough damage to your opponent's deck, you can drop another energy to pay the [c][c] cost and flip a coin. On Heads, you deal 80 damage which is absolutely brilliant (fair for the cost and effective enough for a 1HKO on certain targets and a 2HKO on everything else) but on Tails you do nothing at all. You can ignore the coin flip to deal a guaranteed 20 damage, but unless you are facing a Poke'mon that is very close to collapsing then you will want to gamble on the much higher damage.   The two attacks work together nicely (scramble the deck then gamble on a quick KO to pull ahead) but all in all I expect that this Watchog to be ignored by veteran players because of the high amount of chance involved (you are betting that your opponent won't have a decent hand or a way to shuffle the deck as well as pulling off a coin flip succesfully). I still like this card (the revers holo is quite pretty) and I now forgive the design team for what they did in making the BW version (that card was both terrible and pointless).   Newer players would do well to trial a couple of Watchog when they are first modifying their theme decks to learn the basic tactics behind deck disruption and abusing Colourless Poke'mon. After that, I never expect to see Watchog again unless someone sets up a draft event. Oh well, maybe it will become a starter in a future hand/deck destruction combo.   Modified: 3.25 (Watchog is easy to use and very powerful if luck goes your way, so it's ideal for newbies with small collections)   Limited: 4 (the competition takes a nosedive so the failings are easier to forgive and if you can get Watchog out early the ability to control your opponent's deck for most of the game will make your day. Being a Colourless Poke'mon would bump it up into the must-run category unless you have an overabundance of better Poke'mon)   Combos with: Weavile UD, Judge, Vileplume UD
virusyosh	Greetings, Pojo viewers! Today we are continuing our COTD week by reviewing a new card from Emerging Powers that was also an English-language exclusive, in that we got this card before the Japanese. Today's Card of the Day is Watchog from Emerging Powers. Watchog is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. Colorless Pokemon are generally good as they can fit into whatever deck you want due to their relaxed Energy requirements, and are thus very good for Modified, and can fill space/cover weaknesses in Limited as well. Watchog has 90 HP, which is about average for a terminally evolved Stage 1, although sadly it will still be OHKOed by the likes of the heavy hitters in Modified. In Limited, however, it should be able to take a hit or two. Fighting Weakness means that Donphan owns you in Modified, as do Throh, Sawk, and Boldore/Gigalith in Limited. No Resistance is unfortunate, but not wholly unexpected. Finally, a Retreat Cost of one is decent and payable. This Lookout Pokemon has two attacks, the oddly named Watcheck and Quick Tail Smash. Watcheck allows you to look at the top 5 cards of your opponent's deck and put them back in any order for a single Colorless Energy. This attack can be useful as a stall tactic in Limited to bide some time while you are setting up your heavy hitter, but in Modified, it's much too slow and takes up an attack, so using something like Slowking HGSS/CL would be much better for this type of role, even if Slowking can only rearrange the top 3 cards. Quick Tail Smash is Watchog's only form of offense, starting off at 20 damage for two Colorless Energy (or a Double Colorless, I suppose). However, before doing damage, you can flip a coin. If heads, the attack does 60 more damage, if tails, it does nothing. Therefore, you have the possibility of dealing 80 damage in a single attack with a "tails-fails", or you can take a conservative, consistent 20 damage. Note if you decide to flip every turn you'll average 40 damage, so it may be worth taking the risk if 20 damage won't guarantee the KO, at least in Limited. In Modified, this attack is too unreliable to be of much use, meaning that Watchog is mostly relegated to Limited. Modified: 1.75/5 Watcheck unfortunately takes up and attack (and is largely outclassed by Slowking for this reason), and Quick Tail Smash is too unreliable to be a strong force in this format. Limited: 3/5 Colorless typing, interesting control options, and the capability of dealing 80 damage for two Energy are what Watchog brings to the table in Limited. As stated before, Watcheck can bring about interesting stall options to your Limited game, especially if you're waiting for that crucial topdeck or need to power up something without your opponent drawing what they need (this is especially of help if you can figure out what your opponent needs). Quick Tail Smash also isn't horrible here, as the 40 damage for two Energy you'll be averaging is actually pretty good for Limited. Watchog isn't something I'd build a deck around, but if you'll looking for another Colorless line to fill up your deck, it isn't a bad choice.