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Jono Robus |
Hello, Pojo readers! This is my first card review on
the site, so I hope you like it:
Today we are reviewing Salamence, a Dragon type, Stage 2
Pokemon (surprisingly not a reprint of the Dragon Vault
one, like it's Plasma Blast pre-evolution are, minus the
nice Holo), with a high 150 HP, and with a high Retreat
Cost of 4 (although Float Stone can sort that out.) Like
all Dragon types currently, it is weak to it's own type.
It's Ability, Breakwing, lets you discard all Pokemon
Tool cards attached to each of your opponent's Pokemon,
is nice, but you would be better off putting a Tool
Scrapper (or at a push, two) in your deck instead of
messing with Bagon, Rare Candies, Salamence and possibly
the one Shelgon, giving you more deck space, which I'd
say everyone wants.
Now for it's attack, Gaia Crush. For an awkward 1 Fire,
1 Water and 2 Colorless, it does 100 damage and lets you
discard any Stadium card in play. Again, instead of all
of that effort, you could just put two Stadium cards
into your deck instead of wasting your deck space with
this card and the necessary cards you need to evolve it.
Ratings:
Modified: 1.5, play Tool Scrapper and counter with your
own Stadium cards instead.
Limited: 2.5, High HP is nice, but there are zero
Stadium cards in this set, and most Dragons in the set
will KO it before you can evolve and set it up.
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Baby Mario
2010 UK
National
Seniors
Champion |
Salamence
(Plasma Blast)
Long before Dragon Type was even a thing in the TCG,
Salamence was pioneering the
awkward, expensive, mixed Energy Type attacks that you
see on most Dragon cards today (see most of the old
versions for details).
This card is no different. It’s a Stage 2 with a nice
150 HP and decent Dragon Typing, but the attack is
horrifically costed at
Fire/Water/two Colourless for 100
damage and a Stadium discard. Sure, being able to
get rid of your opponent’s Virbank
Gym or Tropical Beach can be useful but this in no way
compensates for the fact that 100 damage is a poor
reward for setting up a Stage 2 and investing four
Energy into it. I guess Blastoise
could ease the pain a bit but . . . why on earth would
you use this over Black Kyurem
EX, hmmm?
Salamence
also has an Ability, Breakwing,
which discards all of your opponent’s Tools when
Salamence is played from the
hand to evolve. Again, this is sort
of useful, but why not just play Tool Scrapper to
nerf your opponents
Garbodors etc? In all but
the most obscure scenarios (you need to discard Silver
Mirror from an attacking
Zebstrika,
for example), the Item card is the faster, more
efficient option.
I suppose you could see this as a counter to a deck like
Tool Drop Trubbish/Sigilyph
PLB, but even there you are better off with Scrapper/Chatot
PLB and I’m not at all sure that deck deserves to have a
counter in the first place. There isn’t much of a niche
for this card and even if there was, it wouldn’t fill it
very well.
Rating
Modified: 1.5 (asks a lot, gives not very much)
Limited: 1.5 (too slow and awkward even for this format)
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