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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Gurdurr #60/114 (Black and White) You know what’s harder than reviewing an evolving Stage 1? Reviewing an evolving Stage 1 when the Stage 2 hasn’t even been printed yet, that’s what. It makes it almost impossible to see what synergy this card can have with its evolution, though I suspect that the answer will turn out to be ‘not much’. Gurdurr has a respectable 80 HP, a slightly heavy Retreat cost of two, and a Psychic Weakness which doesn’t look like being too much of a liability right now (pending future releases of course). Gurdurr’s first attack, Bulk Up, is nice enough for what it is: a single Energy to do 20 damage and increase the damage it does next turn by a further 20. Note that the damage boost is not transferable: if Gurdurr switches out or evolves, it is lost. Pound is much less interesting: Effect-free damage of 60 at the steep cost of [F][F][C] means that it will take another two turns of Energy attachment before Bulk Up can impact upon the damage output. If Conkledurr turns out to be a good card, then at least it won’t be embarrassed by its Stage 1. If it does have to be active, at least it can do some damage and have a chance of surviving. On the other hand, Gurdurr is not really a playable card in its own right, and I don’t see any way that it could support an evolution aside from just being there to evolve. Rating Modified (HGSS-on):1 (no reason to play it without the Stage 2. If we get a decent Conkledurr, it will obviously be needed) Limited: 2.25 (Cheap damage, and Fighting counters a lot of useful Pokémon in the set)
Otaku	Machoke? Well, Gurdurr certainly feels like a Stage 1 waiting for a Stage 2. Does it Evolve in the video games? Oh, it does! As such, when its Evolved form (Conkledurr) gets a card, it will hopefully be enhanced. Even taking into account it is actually a transitory Stage1, this card doesn't feel as good as it could have been. Being a Stage 1 Fighting Pokémon that can Evolve once more, 80 HP is low. Fighting has some support, but the main thing I can think of is Machamp Prime and its Fighting Tag Poke-Power, which actually is worried about Fighting Energy more than Fighting Pokémon. Psychic Weakness is really bad right now since it allows an Uxie Lv.X to score a OHKO for just a Double Colorless Energy, a Pokémon run to aid in set-up and not as a main attacker. Next format it gets a little better, since Psychic Pokémon tend to focus on something other than damage, like damage counter placement, Special Conditions, sitting on the Bench to use a non-attack based effect, etc. No Resistance is common but disappointing, as is the two Energy Retreat Cost. The latter will actually matter more, since Resistance is usually just a nice perk but getting stuck prematurely upfront and being unable to Retreat is an easy way to give up a Prize. Gurdurr has two attacks. Bulk Up is good: for (C) you do a quick 20 points of damage, and on its next attack, Gurdurr does an extra 20 points of damage with its attacks, and its even when it matters most: before Weakness and Resistance! This means Gurdurr, with a single Energy, can hit for 20 and then 40, 40, 40... Fighting Weakness is relatively common, giving you a decent chance of hitting for 40, then 80, 80, 80, etc! Unfortunately the next attack is Pound for (FFC). It does 60 points of damage, which isn’t horrible for a Stage 1, but the Energy requirement clearly makes Double Colorless Energy a waste and more importantly, this card really just doesn’t have the HP to have even one attack that isn’t blatantly good. Gurdurr Evolves from Timburr, and we have two options, both from the Black & White set: card numbers 58/114 and 59/114. 58/114 has 60 HP and for (FF) does 30. Even though it is a Pokémon that will (eventually) be able to Evolve all the way into a Stage 2, that is still a poor attack because it is the only attack; you have to just sit there like a lump until you get two Fighting Energy on it. The only thing it has better than 59/114 is a single Energy Retreat Cost. 59/114 has 70 HP, and that 10 extra HP is already worth requiring an extra Energy (so two Energy total) to retreat. It also has two attacks, one which does 10 for (C) and the other which does 20 for (FC). The second attack is a little overpriced, but at least you have something you can do for one Energy other than "pass". The better HP and slightly better attack are more important than the Retreat Costs. Neither version is good enough to bolster Gurdurr use. In Unlimited or either Modified, we have much better Stage 1 Fighting-Type Pokémon. Unless Conkledurr is even better than the Stage 2 Fighting Pokémon we currently have, there will still be no reason to run Gurdurr in these formats. For Limited play, the HP is low but the two attacks (and great HP on the one Timburr) make it a good, solid pick as long as you can afford to run a decent amount of Fighting Energy. Plus even if they aren't the greatest, there are two versions of the Basic Stage and that is a tremendous help in Limited. Ratings Unlimited: 1/5 Modified (MD-On): 1.5/5 Modified (HGSS-On): 2/5 Limited: 3/5 Ratings It is hard when you are waiting for the final part of an Evolution line, and even harder when what you have is sub-par like Gurdurr. It was close to being interesting, but a little too Energy hungry and a little too small. Check out my auctions on eBay here. Pojo is in no way responsible for any transactions, and merely lets me link to the auction in my reviews.
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Gurdurr (Black & White)   Hello guys, here's another backdated review. This is one of the better cards I saw at the prerelease, but the jury is still out on its usefullness.   Gurdurr is a Fighting type evolving Stage 1 with 80 HP, Psychic weakness, a retreat cost of 2 and two attacks.   The HP is lower than I would like, but I'll put up with it if the Conkledurr they print is worth using. The other stats are par for the course with the exception of the retreat cost. Sure, quibbling over an extra energy when I plan to use Switch anyway is petty, but a retreat cost of 2 belongs to Poke'mon with 90 HP or more so I say it is too high.   The attacks are what keep this card from being a complete waste (at least for now). While Pound is terrible at [f][f][c] for a vanilla 60 damage (what? No DCE?), Bulk Up is much more promising. At a cost of [c] for 20 damage it is both cheap and painful, and the bonus effect is okay as well. Bulk Up adds 20 more damage to Gurdurr's next attack, which is wasted if you evolve next turn but otherwise allows you to chain attacks dealing 40 damage for [c]. This isn't enough to balance out the low HP but it is worth having.   We really can't give a proper forecast for Gurdurr's playability because we don't know how good the Conkledurr will be or if a better Gurdurr will be printed, but based on the HP you will want to use Rare Candy rather than evolve manually.   Modified: 2.5 (it offers more than most evolving Stage 1 Poke'mon due to Bulk Up, and I just love the way it looks like it is suffering from 'roid rage while it swings a steel beam around. Go Gurdurr!)   Limited: 4 (an easily teched Fighting type that hits 40 damage with a single energy is brilliant, at least up until Zekrom and Reshiram start doing their thing. At least you hit Zekrom for weakness)   Combos with: Anger management workshops and a detox program. Otherwise poor Gurdurr is headed for a heart attack.