Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Simisage
2/98 (Emerging Powers)
Hello and welcome
to another week of
Pojo’s CotD.
We have some interesting cards for you
this week. Ok, maybe not today . . . but
later. I promise.
We kick off with
the new Simisage
from Emerging Powers, and straight away
I’m going to tell you that this is one
of those cards I find really annoying.
Why? Because it wrecks its own synergy
with itself, that’s why. You’ll see
what I mean when we get on to discussing
the attacks. Meanwhile, what you need to
know is that it is a Stage 1 with a poor
90 HP, Fire Weakness (possibly the worst
Weakness in the format right now), Water
Resistance (not the most popular type to
Resist, but better than nothing), and
what seems like an unnecessarily hefty
retreat cost of two. I thought a monkey
Pokémon would be more agile than that,
and this card really didn’t need
another reason not to like it.
Simisage’s
first attack, Fire’s Power
apparently has a cost of two Energy
of any Colour, which would be ok because
you could use Double Colourless to power
it up. Except that you can’t because if
you want to trigger that attack’s effect
(auto Burn) you have to attach a Fire
Energy. Given that the base damage for
Fire’s Power is a mere 30, you would at
minimum need that effect to make it even
half way decent, but is it really worth
two attachments, one of them off-Colour,
to use that attack? No way.
Things get even
worse with Seed Bomb. The attack cost is
[G][C][C] for
a vanilla 60. This would be poor even if
you did use DCE, but if you already
attached a Fire
Energy, that would mean having to
spend another two Energy drops (one of
which needs to be Grass) just to use it.
Not that you would want to: however you
slice it, 60 for three just isn’t
acceptable these days.
These off-Type
Energy requirements ruin any synergy
Simisage has
with between its own two attacks and
with Double Colourless. Obviously, it’s
meant to be part of some gimmicky fun
deck with the rest of the Monkey Trio. I
don’t know about you but my idea of fun
certainly isn’t losing because the
Pokémon in my deck all have weak attacks
which are a complete
pain to power up. Yeah, you could
use Rainbow Energy, but that’s
restricted to four copies, and
Simisage
really doesn’t need its HP lowered any
further.
This Pokémon
doesn’t help itself or its Monkey
friends. Avoid.
Rating
Modified: 1.25
(both bad and annoying)
Limited: 2 (I
suppose you could tech it if you ran
Fire, if only to diversify Weakness)
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virusyosh |
Hello again, everyone! Welcome back to another week
of Pokemon COTDs here on Pojo. Fall Battle Roads are
quickly coming up, so you should check out our older
COTDs to see what we think is going to be playable and
what isn't. We're going to be reviewing more cards from
Emerging Powers this week, and we'll kick things off by
reviewing one of the new prints of the elemental monkey
trio. Today's Card of the Day is Simisage.
Simisage is a Stage 1 Grass Pokemon. As a Stage 1
Grass-type, Simisage has competition with Yanmega Prime
in Modified, and things like Lilligant in Limited. Grass
isn't that common in Modified aside from the
aforementioned Yanmega, meaning that Simisage is going
to have to do something really special in order for it
to see any Modified play. Grass is quite a common type
in Emerging Powers Limited, so Simisage will likely have
a home here. 90 HP is decent, albeit average, for a
finally-evolved Stage 1, but this low value means that
Simisage will sadly fall short against heavy hitters
like Reshiram, Zekrom, Magnezone, and many others in
Modified, but should be able to survive a few assaults
in Limited, given your opponent doesn't have something
like Virizion, Cobalion, or Terrakion. Fire Weakness is
very bad for Modified, as Reshiram, and Typhlosion will
make quick work of the monkey. In Limited, however, Fire
is a rather uncommon type, so this shouldn't be a huge
problem there. Water Resistance is nice against the
likes of Beartic in both Modified and Limited, although
Sheer Cold will still cause many problems. Finally a
Retreat Cost of 2 is a bit expensive, so you'll probably
want to use something like Switch instead of retreating.
The grass monkey has two attacks, Fire's Power and Seed
Bomb. Fire's Power costs two Colorless Energy, and deals
30 damage. Additionally, if Simisage has any Fire Energy
attached to it, the Defending Pokemon is now Burned. 30
damage and auto-Burn is decent for the cost, but it
probably won't see play in Modified due to the extra
Energy requirements and the fact that Special Conditions
aren't very strong in Modified. In Limited, you'll
probably be running a second type anyway, so throwing a
few Fire Energy into your deck to make this attack Burn
probably won't hurt your consistency too badly, so it
can be a decent attack there. Seed Bomb deals a vanilla
60 damage for a Grass and two Colorless, which isn't
very interesting or exciting. It's a decent enough
amount of damage for Limited, but in Modified, you're
better off using something like Yanmega.
Modified: 1/5 This particular cycle of the monkey trio
was made so that you play them together, as each gets a
bonus if you have an Energy of a different type
attached. However, none of them have the stats to make
it worthwhile in Modified, and Simisage is no exception.
Simisage's attacks don't do enough to work here, it has
a terrible Weakness, and is generally outclassed by
Yanmega Prime.
Limited: 3.5/5 Simisage isn't terrible here. All of the
Basic monkeys have Colorless attacks, and their
Evolutions have many Colorless requirements as well,
making them easily splashable in any deck. 30 damage
plus Burn is quite nice for the cost in Limited,
although it does basically require a Fire Energy to get
that. Additionally, Seed Bomb's vanilla damage is often
quite good here if you can get it powered up.
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