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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Crobat (Plasma Storm)  Today we look at another Stage 2 Pokémon that has received a little hype recently. One of the complaints that some players have about the current format is that Evolutions are not really playable as main attackers (except maybe Empoleon DEX). This means that when one comes along that might just possibly maybe be quite good, they tend to pounce on it and begin theorising potential decks. Crobat is one card that has got this treatment, but were players just wasting their time?  Being a Stage 2 is certainly a big drawback to overcome. It takes a couple of turns to fully evolve now, even with Rare Candy, and most evolving Basics are low HP sitting ducks in a format where every deck runs four copies of Pokémon Catcher. Then there is the problem of keeping the Stage 2 in play for more than a turn. Crobat does have a decent Weakness right now (Lightning Type attackers are fairly rare), and a handy Resistance to Fighting, but that 130 HP makes it an easy one-shot KO for most commonly played EX Pokémon now that we have Hypnotic Laser and Virbank City Gym to help out Tornadus-EX and Darkrai with Dark Claw attached. Still, the free Retreat is nice, I suppose.  Crobat has a useful Ability too, with Night Sight allowing you to draw a card once per turn. Any extra draw is obviously great and helps with deck consistency, so I’ll never have anything bad to say about that. You wouldn’t run Crobat for Night Sight alone, but it’s sure nice to have it there as a bonus.  The attack, Ultra-Toxic Fang, costs one Psychic and two Colourless Energy. Luckily you can speed things up a bit by using Double Colourless or the Colress Machine/Plasma Energy combo, seeing as Crobat is one of Team Plasma’s Pokémon. For that you get a very mediocre 40 points of damage, but you also Poison the Defending Pokémon and get to put four damage counters on it between turns. In effect then, you get an attack that does 80 for three Energy or, with Virbank City Gym in play, 100 for three. Yes, the Defending Pokémon is Poisoned and will take more damage if they stay active but . . . that won’t be happening very often. Hypnotoxic Laser has made it mandatory for any deck to be able to retreat or heal when Poisoned, so expect to see Crobat’s attempts to pile on the Poison damage thwarted by Keldeo-EX or Switch on a regular basis. The upshot of all this is that Crobat is yet another Stage 2 that can two-hit KO an EX at best. This would be fine if a) it could trade two-shots by not getting OHKO’d itself and b) it was easy to keep streaming Crobats when they are KO’d. Neither of those things apply though. Your opponent will retreat out of Poison and one shot your Crobat while you frantically search for the Rare Candy/DCE/Colress Machine you need to replace it. Remember when people thought that Crobat Prime would be competitive? Well it wasn’t, and this incredibly similar Crobat will suffer the same fate.  Rating  Modified: 2.25 (this is not the Stage 2 you were looking for) Limited: 3.25 (if you can get it set up, it will be very effective)
virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Today we're reviewing the prerelease promo from Plasma Storm, which also shows up in the main set. Today's Card of the Day is Crobat. Crobat is a Stage 2 Psychic Team Plasma Pokemon. Psychic Pokemon aren't widely seen outside of Mewtwo-EX these days, but Crobat may be able to find its way into Plasma decks as an interesting tech. As a Team Plasma Pokemon, Crobat gets Team Plasma support like Colress Machine, and as a Stage 2, it will likely require some resources to get out (like Rare Candy). 130 HP is once again slightly below average for a Stage 2, but will still likely be able to take at least one major hit before going down. Lightning Weakness is not so bad right now in Modified, as the popularity of Lightning-types has really plummeted. Fighting Resistance is great against the likes of Terrakion and Landorus-EX, both of whom are still fairly common threats. Finally, a free Retreat Cost is great, and will be useful no matter where you find yourself playing Crobat. Crobat has an Ability and an attack. Night Sight allows you to draw a card once per turn, much like Noctowl from HGSS. Card advantage is always a good thing, even in a search-heavy game like the Pokemon TCG, but Crobat should be able to do something else to warrant the bench space, too. Ultra-Toxic Fang is Crobat's form of offense, dealing 40 damage for a Psychic and two Colorless Energy, while also inflicting the Defending Pokemon with a Poison status that places FOUR damage counters in between turns! When combined with Virbank City Gym, your opponent will be taking 60 damage between turns, and Ultra-Toxic Fang will effectively be dealing 100 damage! Of course, much like Infernape yesterday, attacking with Stage 2s is difficult in a format in which they can easily be KOed (therefore wasting resources) with a slower setup time than their Basic counterparts. Even still, Crobat is likely to find its way into rogue builds for both its card-drawing and Poison-inflicting abilities. Modified: 2.5/5 Crobat is a fairly interesting card, that much like many other Stage 2s, is held back by the nature of the format. Night Sight's card draw is useful everywhere (though probably not useful enough to warrant building around), and Ultra-Toxic Fang is nice, but faster builds will still be using Hypnotoxic Laser anyway. Overall, Crobat is currently a rogue card at best, though I wouldn't be surprised to see it turn up at your local upcoming State Championships. Limited: 5/5: Crobat draws you cards and inflicts your opponent with crippling status conditions that are made even better by Virbank City Gym, another card in the set. If you manage to get Zubats and Golbats, playing Crobat is definitely a great idea, even if Ultra-Toxic Fang is a bit expensive. Combos With: Virbank City Gym
Jebulous Maryland Player	Crobat   Crobat is a Stage 2 Psychic Pokemon with 130 HP.  It is weak to Lightning and resistant to Fighting.  It has free retreat.   'Night Sight' is an ability that lets you draw a card.  Not great, not horrible, at least it's some kind of draw.  Empoleon requires a discard, but you get two new cards.  This just gets you one new card (though both net your hand a card).  An extra doesn't hurt when you are trying to stream Stage 2 attackers.   'Ultra-Toxic Fang' costs 1 Psychic and 2 Colorless energy.  It does 40 damage and does quadruple poison.  That effect is so tempting to abuse, but there isn't really much of a way to abuse it.  So right after you attack, they have 80 damage on them.  You then need a way to keep them active, but there is nothing out that can combo with Crobat being active (Hypnotoxic does combo, but you need to flip heads for sleep).  Even then, people should have counters to status effects i. e. Switch and Keldeo.   So you could do some sort of Poison deck, with Crobat, Hypnotoxic, and Virbank.  Have the gym out would make Crobat's attack do 40 + 60 in Poison.  The biggest problem with Crobat is the fact that you do all that work to attack, and at best you put 100 on the Defending Pokemon.  It's so much easier to build up an EX and do more damage.  That's probably why Crobat won't see competitive play.   Modified: 3/5 Limited: 4/5 Combos With:  Virbank City Gym   Questions, comments, concerns: jebulousthemighty@yahoo.com