Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	#3 Blastoise (Boundaries Crossed) So, today we move into the top 3 of our countdown of the best cards from Boundaries Crossed and . . . wait . . . what’s this? A Stage 2! Surely some mistake? Well, at least you now know that this card will do something pretty amazing, unless all the reviewers have gone insane. (I don’t think I have – the others will have to answer for themselves). Like I said, Blastoise is a Stage 2 Pokémon. It’s a Water Type with the now-standard 140 HP, a very heavy Retreat cost of four, and a nice obscure Weakness. We seriously lack good Grass Type attackers right now (ummmm . . . Shaymin-EX?) and this is one of the major advantages that Blastoise has going for it: it’s almost impossible to tech something to OHKO this thing once it evolves. But durability isn’t much use unless Blastoise can justify its stay on your side of the Field. Luckily, the Shellfish Pokémon (huh? How is that a fish?) comes with a very nice Ability. Deluge is basically Rain Dance under a new name (y’know, the thing we saw on Base Set Blastoise and more recently Feraligatr Prime). It states that as often as you like during your turn, you can attach a Water Energy from your hand to one of your Pokémon. As we all know, Energy acceleration basically rules this format. Eelektrik NVI and Dark Patch have been fuelling the most powerful decks for a year now. Blastoise offers potentially massive acceleration, but I know what some people may be thinking: isn’t this just a Water version of Inferno Fandango Emboar, a card that isn’t really used anymore? Well, yes. Yes it is. But it isn’t the Ability itself that’s important, it’s what you can do with it. Blastoise is very fortunate to have a terrific partner in the shape of Keldeo-EX which does more and more damage for each Water Energy attached to it. What’s more, it doesn’t have to keep discarding Energy in order to attack, so providing you can keep your Pokémon on the Field, you don’t have to constantly be retrieving Energy from your deck or discard pile (which is basically the main issue with Emboar/Reshiram). Blastoise isn’t limited to just working with Keldeo though: any of the Energy-intensive Water Pokémon can benefit from Deluge (Kyurem NVI, Kyurem-EX, Kyogre-EX), as well as Pokémon who aren’t fussy about Energy Types (basically, Mewtwo-EX). You could even attack with Blastoise itself if you had to, even though Hydro Pump is a grossly inferior version of Keldeo-EX’s Secret Sword. As a nice bonus, Blastoise evolves from a pretty good Basic: Squirtle has an Ability which prevents it from being damaged on the Bench, giving it protection from the sniping attacks of Darkrai-EX and Landorus-EX. This means you have a reasonable chance of being able to set up Blastoise. The really key thing though, is the fact that we now have a Pokémon to really exploit the tremendous acceleration potential of Deluge (which is more than poor old Feraligatr Prime could say). It’s not perfect by any means: Stage 2 support is still vulnerable against fast decks running Pokémon Catcher, and it’s not easy to recover if your opponent plays N and then KO’s a Keldeo with six or seven Energy on it. Nevertheless, Blastoise is the engine of a powerful new archetype, and you are going to have to get used to seeing it a lot in upcoming tournaments. Rating Modified: 3.75 (Ability is great, but it will only ever be as good as the Pokémon it has to work with) Limited: 2 (Not really suited to this format . . . unless you pull a Keldeo or two)
Jebulous Maryland Player	Blastoise   Blastoise is a Stage 2 Water Pokemon with 140 HP.  It is weak to Water and has a retreat of 4.  It is searchable by Heavy Ball.   'Deluge' is an ability that allows you to attach as many Water energy from your hand per turn.  It is pretty much 'Rain Dance'.  This ability is what is going to make Blastoise see play.   'Hydropump' costs 4 colorless energy and does 60 damage.  For each Water attached to Blastoise, it does 40 more.  So in most cases it will do 100.  The cost is a little steep (Keldeo EX has a similar, but stronger, attack that costs less).  Just paying the cost in Water is enough to OHKO anything with weakness.  Anything else is a 2HKO.   So this is the main component of the Blastoise/Keldeo deck.  The goal is to use Blastoise's ability to get Water energy on Keldeo EX and have it hit hard and fast.  It's great against Landorus EX, which has weakness to Water.  Not really sure how it'll do against everything else.  Both of the main guys in the deck are weak to Grass, which is great because the only Grass seeing any real play is Shaymin EX.   Like all decks that rely on Stage 2's, this deck suffers the same weakness.  You have to get set up AND keep energy streaming to your hand.  Skyla and Computer Search are here now, so they will help set things up faster.  I want to see it against Garbodor, since this deck heavily relies on abilities.   Well, with Cities coming up this weekend, we will see if Blastoise/Keldeo will be seeing play.   Modified: 4/5 Limited: 4/5 Combos With:  ...   Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com
virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing one of the most hyped non-Pokemon-EX in the new Boundaries Crossed expansion, and through testing I've done with others, I'd have to say that I think this card definitely lives up to all of the hype. This card also happens to be #3 on our Top 10 countdown! Without further ado, today's Card of the Day is Blastoise from Boundaries Crossed.   Blastoise is a Stage 2 Water Pokemon. Water-types are basically right now defined as Blastoise and Keldeo, as that deck has been hyped (for very good reason), but Blastoise works very well with other Pokemon, too. 140 HP is standard for a Stage 2, and allows Blastoise to usually take one major hit before going down, if not more. Grass Weakness is once again great, as there are very few Grass-type threats in Modified right now (Accelgor and Virizion are the only two that come to mind), and even then, they aren't played very often. Sadly, Blastoise has no Resistance, and it also has a large Retreat Cost of 4, so be sure to have a Switch (or a Keldeo ready to Rush In) to get Blastoise back onto the Bench.   The first-gen Water starter has an Ability and one attack. Deluge is Blastoise's newest form of Rain Dance variant, allowing you to attach a Water Energy from your hand to one of your Pokemon as many times as you like during your turn. Unlike previous Rain Dance iterations, Deluge can attach Water Energy to non-Water-type Pokemon, which can be significant in some cases (such as with Dragons that use Water Energy, for example). Rain Dance and its brethren have always been key players in many formats they have existed in, as powerful Energy acceleration is often difficult for most decks to stop. In this case, Boundaries Crossed gave us the powerful Keldeo-EX to go along with Blastoise, and the two are natural partners. That being said, Blastoise works incredibly well with most other Water-types, especially if they have scaling damage attacks dependent on Energy (like Keldeo and Wailord).   Hydro Pump is your standard scaling damage attack, starting off at 60 damage for a huge four Colorless Energy, but doing 10 more for each Water Energy attached to Blastoise. While Keldeo's attack does more damage, Blastoise can be ferocious in its own right, as 100 damage for four Energy is still very good. Be sure to look out for Blastoise and Keldeo at Cities, as it will likely be a hot deck.   Modified: 4/5 Blastoise is an excellent support card that brings Water back into contention, especially with Keldeo. As previously said, Blastoise and Keldeo are great partners, but if you can't get a hold of the fairly expensive EX, you can always use something like Wailord or other damage-scalers along with Blastoise instead. With Grass Weakness and a powerful attack on its own, Water Weak Pokemon (such as Landorus-EX) should be very careful. Believe the hype.   Limited: 4/5 Blastoise works very well in dedicated Water decks in Limited. Deluge makes a slow format that much faster for you, which will give your opponents fits. Hydro Pump is also very solid, especially if you are running mostly Water Energy and can power it up quickly, as 100 damage every turn will put tons of pressure on your opponents. Of course, Blastoise also has a Grass Weakness and huge Retreat Cost and is fairly slow outside of Deluge's acceleration, so be sure to be able to power it up quickly if you can get it out. If you do, you won't be disappointed.   Combos With: Keldeo-EX, Wailord, any Water-type with a slow attack dependent on Energy
Otaku	Had this at #4