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	Training Centre  We all know how dominant Basics have been in recent years, and evolution decks took another hit with the recent rotation, when they lost Level Ball and Tropical Beach. Training Centre is an attempt to give evolutions some much needed support, but will it be enough?  Well, there’s no denying that it does give a boost to evolutions, specifically to their HP. When this Stadium is on the Field, Stage 1 and 2 Pokémon get an extra 30 HP: that turns Tyrantrum FFI and Dragonite PLF into 180 HP beasts, while even things Like Empoleon PLF and Kingdra BCR can have EX levels of HP at 170. Of course, evolved support Pokémon like Blastoise BCR, Garbodor LTR and Dusknoir BCR can benefit too if an opponent decides to KO them with snipe/spread damage or drag them active.  The big question though, is whether this will be enough. Quite honestly, I doubt it. Seeing as most decks are built to deal with the widespread use of EX Pokémon, getting non-EXs to that HP level won’t have as much impact as people imagine (it’s still a two-hit KO with Genesect’s Megalo Cannon, for example). Furthermore, use of Training Centre is easily disrupted as most decks play their own Stadium (Virbank City Gym, Fighting Stadium). There’s nothing more soul-destroying than surviving an attack through Training Centre, and then watching your opponent get a KO just by playing a counter Stadium, giving them a free shot at whatever you promote.  I suppose Training Centre is a decent attempt to support evolutions, but in the end it’s just a drop in a very unfriendly ocean.  Rating Modified: 2.75 (would be good if we had better evos) Expanded: 3.25 (evos are more viable here, thanks to Beach and Level Ball) Limited: 4 (if you have any evos, you’ll use it)
aroramage	Hey guys, welcome back to another Card of the Day! This time we're taking a look at yet another Stadium card, Training Center! As with any Stadium, it's a simple card with a simple effect, but could that effect affect the competitive scene? Let's find out!   So Training Center is built more for evolutions like Tyrantrum, Empoleon, Pyroar, and even Garbodor and Blastoise, giving them a hefty boost of +30 HP. That's enough to put most Stage 1s up to enough HP to rival Stage 2s, and in turn helps most Stage 2s gain enough HP to rival Pokemon-EX! Not too shabby!   Still, it's got a lot of competition for that Stadium slot, coming from stuff like Virbank City Gym and the new Fighting Stadium, and if Giant Cape (DEX) was any indication, cards that just add HP aren't usually worth running. Think of it this way: would you rather Hypnotoxic/Virbank for 30 damage between turns, or have 30 extra HP? Would you want to hit for 20 damage more against a rivaling Pokemon-EX, or be able to survive something with those 30 extra HP?   Of course, Training Center also suffers from a vulnerability to these Stadium cards, and while having an extra 30 HP would be great normally, losing it in an instant to your opponent playing a Stadium could be detrimental - especially if they've spread their damage around to your Pokemon and took away the 30 HP that was keeping them around!   Training Center is a niche defensive card in a heavily offensive format, but I'm sure some decks will want to run it to keep their Pokemon around a little longer despite the drawbacks. If push comes to shove, though, Training Center probably won't be that prevalent in comparison.   Rating   Standard: 2.5/5 (a decent card, but just not that great in an offensive environment)   Expanded: 1.5/5 (it's not even going to make an impact in a format with Rayquaza swimming in it)   Limited: 4/5 (there are a few evolution cards around, and keeping them in play for longer can't hurt in a format like this)   Arora Notealus: I like how this keeps in with the whole "boxing/fighting" theme in a way, even without supporting the Fighting-types. Just imagine a Pokemon coming in and punching some of those bags!   Next Time: COULD YOU TURN THAT DOWN, I CAN'T HEAR ANYTHING
	Training Center (XY: Furious Fists 102/111) is a new Stadium that gives all Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokémon in play +30 to their HP.  Note that Mega Evolutions are not Stage 1 Pokémon, and of course this applies to both players.  This is a simple piece of Evolution support that isn’t bad, and while it is good it definitely isn’t great.  You can boost the bigger Stage 1 and Stage 2 Pokémon to Pokémon-EX levels, the moderately sized ones to the level of the bigger ones pre-boost, the small ones to the durability of the pre-boost moderately sized ones, etc.; exactly how useful this can be will vary depending on the exact match-up; if a Pokémon  goes from being a OHKO to a 2HKO, 2HKO to a 3HKO etc. or has some specific benefit from its HP being higher (perhaps another effect references it) it can be quite handy…  ...but some Pokémon won’t be significantly affected because the Pokémon was already being “over” KOed.  The other glaring Achilles’ Heel with this strategy is that your opponent can play a different Stadium at any time to either  Prevent any benefit as the HP scores of your Pokémon revert before it ever actually affected the game. KO injured Pokémon already in play at a later date.  If you don’t combine this with healing, that last bit can be a bit of a trap as your opponent is less bothered by cards like N until they conveniently KO something (or several “somethings”) in play simply by discarding Training Center.  You could even have an opponent take six Prizes all at once with this simple act.  Despite my concerns, this is a solid card; just accept that it is going to get discarded at times and don’t make that HP bonus a major part of your strategy.  It might just be me, but I am finding I need to run two different Stadiums anymore, because the metagame is such that running just one spikes the odds that it will backfire.  Space tight Evolution decks may find this their new default; while it might help your opponent more it requires their HP scores shift to the next best “tier” while yours does not and it doesn’t require making space for more “accessories”, such as Virbank City Gym usually wanting to include at least two Hypnotoxic Laser.  Ratings  Standard: 3.25/5 - Obviously only if you’ve got an Evolution worth boosting, but if you do its at least a “happy side of ‘average’” card.  Expanded: 2.75/5 - As per usual, I have very little data on this format.  If it turns out in any of the ways I expect, this will perform similar but a bit lower as most Evolution decks will really want Tropical Beach for a Stadium, and I suspect here most can’t afford room for more than one Stadium.  Limited: 5/5 - Take it in case one of the other Stadiums hurts you more, and if you’ve got your own Evolutions good.  Summary: Training Center is not a bad card, it just is very vulnerable while giving a good effect, and if we had say Tropical Beach back its prospects wouldn’t be so good.  Boosting HP is great, but less so when your opponent can so easily undo said “boost”.