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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Electabuzz (Triumphant)   Hello and welcome to a new week of reviews on Pojo’s CotD. We are now fully recovered from doing the top 10, so we can bring you a full week of cards!   We kick off with Electabuzz from Triumphant. I don’t know about you, but I always feel a bit sorry for those unevolving Basics that have been given Stage 1s (see also Lickitung, Chansey, and Magmar). The original forms used to be the main event, but now they are reduced to the supporting role of being there to get out the evolved version.   Not that there’s much reason to want to get out an Electivire TM: it’s easily KO’d, has obscene Energy costs, and its big attack is very easy to play around. Just supposing you did, at some point, find yourself wanting to use one though, what could the Basic contribute?   Well, it has a decent 70 HP, so will possibly survive an early turn if it has to (unless it runs into a Fighting Pokémon). Unfortunately, it also has a horrible Retreat Cost, so it will have to either survive or be knocked out . . . no-one is going to waste a switching Trainer or (especially) two Energy to get it back to the Bench.   Electabuzz has a one Energy attack, which is desirable on a Basic, but unfortunately it only does 10 damage . . . making it unlikely to have any impact on the game. Its second effort costs an absurd [L][L][C] (yeah, like you will get time to stack three Energy on a 70 HP Basic), does a poor value 60 damage, AND make you discard all Lightning Energy attached on a coin flip! Seriously, the attack would be terrible even without the potential discard: with it, it’s just sad.   Honestly, I’d rather use the PL reprint of ye olde Base Set Electabuzz which at least has a coin flip for Paralysis. Until we get a decent evolution though, there is absolutely no need to play either.   Rating   Modified: 1.25 (bad Basic, apart from the HP) Limited: 1.5 (still doesn’t do very much)
virusyosh	Welcome back once again, Pojo viewers! Today we will begin another COTD week by reviewing more cards from the HS Triumphant expansion. Today's Card of the Day is Electabuzz. Electabuzz is a Basic Lightning Pokemon. Lightning Pokemon that are commonly played these days in Modified include Luxray GL Lv. X and the occasional Magnezone deck, although Electabuzz (and Electivire by extension) probably won't fit into a deck with either one of those. 70 HP is decent for an evolving Basic, as it probably won't be donked. It is, unfortunately, still under the 80 mark that Garchomp C Lv. X can hit with Dragon Rush. Fighting Weakness will make Donphan Prime and Machamp Prime hurt you quite a bit. Metal Resistance is fairly nice, as Dialga G will do less damage to you, as will the random Steelix Prime. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 2 is average, but I still probably wouldn't recommend paying it. Use Warp Point, Warp Energy, or Switch instead. Electabuzz has two attacks, neither of which are that notable. Light Punch deals 10 damage for a single Colorless Energy, which is perfectly average for its price. The second attack, Shock Bolt, deals 60 damage for 2 Lightning Energy and a Colorless, with Electabuzz discarding all Lightning Energy attached if you flip tails. Again, this attack does perfectly average damage, but the discard is fairly bad. Modified: 1/5 Electabuzz does everything in a fairly average manner, so it is probably better to use the reprint of Base Set Electabuzz if you decide to run Electivire in a deck. Limited: 2/5 Electabuzz is a high HP Basic with a decent Resistance and a Colorless attack. However, Shock Bolt's discard is rather unsustainable in Limited, so you may just want to throw this into your deck if you need a few more Pokemon or if you pull an Electivire.
conical	1/24/11: Electabuzz(Triumphant)   Call of Legends prereleases start next weekend, but for now, we have more Triumphant uncommons. Let's roll.   As I mentioned in an earlier review of an evolving basic(I think it was Magmar), the best attacks any evolving basic can have are attacks that somehow speed up the overall strategy of the evolutionary line, like a Call for Family attack, or if nothing else, something that can buy a turn or two until you can evolve it, such as most status-inducing attacks. Electabuzz has neither quality to its attacks, however. Light Punch is a vanilla 10 damage for any energy, and Shock Bolt deals 60 damage for its 3-energy attack, which I guess is decent damage for an evolving basic, but it has the downside of discarding all energy attached to Electabuzz on a coin flip. I suppose it could combo well with Electivire TRI's Plasma attack, but there's far better ways to get energy into the discard that Shock Bolt isn't worth using except in very rare scenarios. Still, it at least has one attack for a single energy, which makes it better than the Makuhita UDs of the world.   The only other Electabuzz in the format is Electabuzz PL. Long-time players might recognize that Electabuzz PL is a reprint of the original Base Set Electabuzz, and while its days as a Haymaker force are long over, it's clearly the superior choice of basic over this Electabuzz. The chance of paralysis on Thundershock makes Electabuzz's chances of living an extra turn somewhat better, while Thunderpunch at the very least is reasonably costed, though with some downsides. The only advantage today's Electabuzz has over the original is that it has Metal resistance, which doesn't do much for it. Still, I said that it was better than Makuhita, and it is, so I'll give a slightly higher score.   Modified: 1.5/5(Makuhita had a 1.25) Limited: 2.25/5
Otaku	Electabuzz from HS-Triumphant is a Basic Lightning-Type Pokémon that can further Evolve into Electivire, and sometimes (via special effects) be played as a Stage 1 on top of Elekid.  This makes it potentially more versatile than a normal Basic, and even when being run as a “Stage 1” it enjoys a few of the advantages of being a Basic, like being easy to search out.  Right now no Elekid with text enabling Electabuzz to be played as an Evolution are Modified Legal anyway.  It has a solid 70 HP, which is okay since it can Evolve.  Outside of the first or second turn, it won’t survive a hit from a serious attacker.  The Fighting Weakness x2 makes sure almost any Fighting-Type can take it out in one hit, and while the Metal Resistance -20 won’t be useful all the time, it will come in handy for a few matches quite frankly any Resistance is a relief with how often it is skipped.  Two Energy to retreat is technically average in that it is high enough you really don’t want to have to pay it, but if you find you must you usually can.   Light Punch is poor, doing just 10 points of damage for a single Energy: for such a small amount we are used to the attack being free.  At least it is there so you can do something with a single Energy and that matters because the second attack, Shock Bolt, requires you flip a coin when you use it and if it comes up tails, you must discard all Lighting-Type Energy attached to Electabuzz.  You’re investing (LLC) into the attack and quite frankly even without that drawback 60 points of damage is a bit low.  Factoring in you’ll average losing one Energy every turn and stockpiling is a bad idea since in reality it’s all Lighting-Type Energy every turn, it really should be hitting for almost 80.   Electabuzz needs to be a fast attacker and/or a self-builder (for its own sake or for Electivire).  I’d much rather use the Platinum version, which looks to be a reprint of the Base Set version.  It lacks any form of Resistance, but for a single Lightning-Type Energy it can hit for 10 and Paralyze on a successful coin toss, and for another Energy of any type you can hit for at least 30 points of damage.  You have to flip a coin and if it comes up tails you might do 10 points of damage to yourself, but if it comes up as heads you hit for an extra 10 to the Defending Pokémon.  This isn’t brilliant but it certainly is better.  In either case you’d just want to play it as a stepping stone for Electivire in Modified, and it has a single Energy attack well worth using (though its main attack is iffy).   In Limited play, its solid stats and decent damage will make it a solid pick as long as you can afford to run a Lightning Energy heavy deck.  If you can’t, then not only will it be hard to power up Shock Blast but if you get tails, you’ll have to settle for a single good hit.  Since it isn’t a guaranteed OHKO (or even close), that is not good enough.   Ratings   Modified: 1.75/5  Limited: 2/5  Click here for a listing of my current eBay auctions!
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Electabuzz (HS Triumphant)   There isn’t a lot to say about this yellow critter since it was last playable when the Haymaker deck ruled the game in the days of Base Set. That being said, this guy looks like a hangover made solid, so props to TOKIYA [sic] for giving us something thought-provoking to look at. Despite the flaws in the design of this card, Electabuzz as a Pokémon is halfway between intimidating and awesome, and the artwork stays faithful to that look.   The stats: this is a non-evolving Basic of the Lightning element with 70 HP, Fighting weakness, Metal resistance, a retreat cost of 2 and a pair of pretty useless attacks. Electabuzz won’t be easy to donk but it isn’t going to take a serious hit either, and it is in the easy-snipe range. Evolve quickly.   Now the attacks. I know I said they were crap, but they aren’t completely useless when put into the context of reversing power creep and the lack of better options.   Light Punch does pretty much what it says on the tin. For a single energy of any kind you get 10 vanilla damage. Since free attacks have been removed in the HGSS block, except for on Baby Pokémon, this is about as good as we can expect, though a flip for a Special Condition like Paralysis at no extra cost would be both balanced and in keeping with the spirit of previous Electabuzz cards. More damage or effects would be nice, but damage is damage and anything is better than nothing when recovering from a bad start (which would be the only reason you would have Electabuzz Active and attacking in the first place).   Shock Bolt is more of the same. For [l][l][c] you get 60 damage and a flip to discard all Lightning energy attached to Electabuzz if you get a Tails result. The cost means you will only ever use this attack if both you and your opponent have had bad starts because Electabuzz will be KOed if your opponent gets set up, while you would be using a better attacker if you have managed to recover. In this unlikely scenario, having the option for a second heavier attack would give you the advantage if you have a hand choked full of energy (and nothing else of use). Still, the possible discard means you won’t usually get more than one shot at this attack.   Simply, put, this guy is only worth playing if you run Electivire TM since it isn’t an attacker or tech in its own right. No-one plays that Electivire at the moment so Electabuzz is destined for the binder. Even if a playable Electivire becomes available in a new set, most players with a large collection will prefer the reprint from Platinum (the same Electabuzz that was popular in Haymaker, by the way) because it does have a flip for Paralysis with its single-energy first attack.   Modified: 2 (it has some things going for it, but it is still below average) Limited: 2.5 (it could deal some decent damage, and will actually be useful if you pull a lot of Lightning Pokémon, as well as the fact that Electivire is the promo for the set release, but the discard is still a killer)   Combos with: nothing that I can see