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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	After finishing off two weeks of Dragon cards, it's nice to get a little bit of a change of pace. And what better thing to move onto than what every Dragon is Weak to these days: Fairies! Today we get to take a look at another Pokemon treated to the duality of with a Trait and without a Trait: Togekiss!  This Togekiss is...surprising. Alright, so it lacks a Trait, and it's only got two attacks - the more expensive of which deals 70 damage to the Active Pokemon and 20 to a Bench-sitter at the cost of 3, which combined with Muscle Band will OHKO any Dragon aside from M Rayquaza-EX and M Latios-EX. Yeah, Aura Sphere is just that powerful, but you know what's scarier? That first attack, Powerful Slap.  Alright, so it's a 1-Energy hit that flips coins based on your Energy amount - the more Energy, the more coin flips, but the bigger of a target you make yourself for stuff like Mewtwo-EX and Yveltal-EX. But while most of these attacks will deal 20-30 damage per heads or tack on an extra amount with a usually small number, this attack straight up does 50 damage for each head - 50 DAMAGE!! On average, yeah, you should be hitting 50 damage for every 2 Energy attached, but that's still really strong even for a 1-cost attack! And then you think of things like Muscle Band tacking on more damage, and pretty soon the attack becomes...*shudder.* Needless to say, it's a risky gambit with a surprisingly remarkable chance to deal a LOT of damage - especially to Dragons.  And given the recent Evolution support, Togekiss might not be a terrible option in your back pocket.  Rating  Standard: 2.5/5 (still, you would be relying on coin flips, which aren't as stable as the Aura Sphere but should be doing about the same amount of damage on average for the same amount of Energy)  Expanded: 2.5/5 (about the same here)  Limited: 3.5/5 (the coin flip, while just as risky, also has a higher chance of just smoking out other Pokemon - take your gambits where you can)  Arora Notealus: Isn't this Togekiss just utterly joyful? Look at that, he's even got a little rainbow in the background! So adorable~  Next Time: The Ancient Trait on Togekiss is...
Otaku	You saw it coming a mile away… welcome to Fairy-Type Type Week (XY: Roaring Skies flavored)!  Up first is Togekiss (XY: Roaring Skies 45/108).  The Fairy-Type does have some established support, though most of it isn’t literal Type support since it doesn’t give a rip about the Pokémon’s Type but rather works with [Y] Energy (Fairy Garden, Aromatisse) and so can function off-Type so long as whatever is involved can work with Fairy Energy and/or a Special Energy that provides Fairy Energy (not Wonder Energy, but Prism Energy and Rainbow Energy work just fine).  So far the Type has seen some success in the form of Fairy Transfer decks and… that is pretty much it unless we include things that happen to run a Fairy-Type for its Ability, like Slurpuff (XY: Phantom Forces 69/113) for draw.  That is has the support and success it does but hasn’t done better is why I consider it a middle-of-the-road Type.  Being a Stage 2 means Togekiss will either require a lot of space and effort to run, or it has to be something so useful and yet not vital so that something unusual like a 1-0-1, 2-1-2 or similar minimalistic line actually makes sense.  It isn’t impossible: players have even gotten used to not relying on Rare Candy or Evosoda to help the lines (as Item lock stops them and is still a fairly regular encounter).  Still it can be an issue when the best draw card throws away your hand and the next best ones shuffle it away - getting the needed cards and the proper time can be problematic.  This also helps to put the rest of the card into perspective - you’re looking at a minimum of a three card investment.  So its 140 HP is good but not great; enough to be more likely than not to survive a hit… but that includes match-ups where your opponent isn’t trying for a OHKO and those times when they are but their set-up hit a snag.  Metal Weakness is typical of Fairy-Types and this is a concern; Metal-Type decks had a far larger presence as U.S. Nationals than I initially realized.  I was aware of things like  Bronzong (XY: Phantom Forces 61/113)/M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 76/108, 105/108) but wasn’t expecting Seismitoad-EX to try a similar approach, nor for someone to take Klinklang (BW: Plasma Storm 90/135) and Bronzong backed Metal-Type deck to the Top 8.  The silver lining is that most of these decks already had OHKO capacity against Togekiss; they are just saving a little bit of effort or have more options..  Darkness Resistance is good, one of the better forms of Resistance to have, though it is still just a small bonus and not a major aspect of the card.  The Retreat Cost of [CC] is functionally average; high enough you’ll want to avoid paying it if possible but low enough that when you have to you’ll be able to and recover.  Fairy Garden (unless another Stadium proves more important) will often make the Retreat Cost unimportant.  Togekiss has no Ability or Ancient Trait: instead it has two attacks.  The first (Powerful Slap) requires just [C] and has you flip a coin for each Energy attached to Togekiss itself: for each “heads” 50 damage is done.  Averaging 25 points of damage per Energy isn’t good but it might barely be “functional”: the threat of a tiny bit of luck pushing the damage into the “above average” range may offset the fact that the average and below average yields are problematic… plus it scales: 50 for [CC] isn’t good but it isn’t bad, with 0 for [CC] being terrible and 100 for [CC] being great.  Your opponent will have to be careful since that last one may be less likely than the other two but still far too common (one in four possible outcomes) to be “safe” from it happening.  The second attack (Aura Sphere) requires [YYC] and hits for 70, plus 20 to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon.  This is a bit like the first attack; instead of being flippy it’s just weak but with a potentially strategic Bench hit, plus if you can get a Muscle Band or Silver Bangle attached you can get into 2HKO range of most pre-Mega Evolution calibre Pokémon.  So what about the rest of the line (plus other versions of Togekiss)?  Togepi has three options (all legal for both Expanded and Standard play): BW: Boundaries Crossed 110/149, BW: Plasma Storm 102/135 and XY: Roaring Skies 43/108.  The Fairy-Type didn’t exist until the XY-era in either the TCG or the video games (it used to be a Normal Type!), so unsurprisingly  BW: Boundaries Crossed 110/149 and BW: Plasma Storm 102/135 are both Colorless Pokémon (and Fighting Weak with no Resistance), while XY: Roaring Skies 43/108 is a Fairy-Type (and Metal Weak with Darkness Resistance).  All three are Basic Pokémon with 40 HP, a Retreat Cost of [C], no Ability, no Ancient Trait and just a single attack: each one even has the same attack cost of [C]!  BW: Boundaries Crossed 110/149 has “Attract Smack”; it is a creative name for your typical “10 damage, plus a coin flip to Paralyze the opponent’s Active” attack.  BW: Plasma Storm 102/135 can Yawn to put the Defending Pokémon to Sleep (that is all the attack does).  XY: Roaring Skies 43/108 has Sweet Kiss to do 10 damage and your opponent draws a card.  Your opponent draws a card, not you.  Unless the rest of your deck requires you run a Fairy-Type Togepi, stick with one of the older versions: as Sleep can go away between turns with a “heads” on the Sleep check, its no more likely to detain the opponent’s Active than Paralysis: that makes BW: Boundaries Crossed 110/149 the clear “winner”.  Togetic is the Stage 1 form, though you may attempt to skip it completely with Rare Candy (usually a blend of the two is best).  Just two options here: BW: Plasma Storm 103/135 and XY: Roaring Skies 44/108.  Both are Stage 1 Pokémon with 80 HP, a Retreat Cost of [C]. no Ability and no Ancient Trait.  BW: Plasma Storm 103/135 is a Colorless-Type (couldn’t have been anything else when it was printed), and since in the video games this is the point where the line where it gains a Flying as a secondary Type the Weakness is actually to Lightning and it gains Resistance to Fighting.  For [C] it can use its lone attack (Sweet Kiss) to hit for 30 while again, your opponent draws a card, not you.  XY: Roaring Skies 44/108 can use “Go Fetch” for [Y] to shuffle three basic Energy cards from your discard pile back into your deck while for [YCC] its second attack (Fairy Wind) does a vanilla 40 damage.  This will be a metagame dependent call; you might actually have reason to run both (and Rare Candy) if you want to also run today’s Togekiss, though if you absolutely need a tiebreaker, then Go Fetch.  There are two other Togekiss to pick from: BW: Plasma Storm 104/135 (reviewed a little over a year ago) and XY: Roaring Skies 46/108 (slated for review tomorrow).  Both are Stage 2 Pokémon with Retreat Cost [C], an Ability and one attack.  BW: Plasma Storm 104/135 is a Colorless-Type with 140 HP, the Ability “Bright Veil” that blocks the effects of an opponent’s Items done to your Pokémon but only while this Togekiss is Active and the attack “Return” that requires [C] and does 30 damage plus you draw until you have six cards in hand.  Bright Veil is amazing, but it seems like Return just does too little damage to make it work; before the Lysandre’s Trump Card ban I kept meaning to trade for these and see if they could follow the spamalot formula popularized by the many other decks (like Seismitoad-EX), offsetting the low damage by neutralizing or diminishing an opponent’s Items as well as disruption to mess up what they already have in play.  I still could, but I really doubt it will be worth the effort.  This seems like something to build a deck around, so unless I absolutely needed an alternate attacker that was a flippy-but-heavy-hitter or that could deliver a decent hit while smacking the Bench, it probably isn’t going to play that nice with this Togekiss.  XY: Roaring Skies 46/108 is a Fairy-Type with 130 HP, 10 less than either other version but it does have the same Metal Weakness and Darkness Resistance.  It has the Ancient Trait “Δ Evolution“ allows you to Evolve one of your Pokémon in play into Togekiss (from hand) even if it is your first turn or its first turn in play (or both!).  Please remember that it needs to be a Pokémon that already can Evolve into Togekiss and it has already been ruled you can’t stack effects, so that means Togetic (no, you can’t even use it with Rare Candy) and it states “from hand” so you can’t access the Ancient Trait when playing Togekiss via Evosoda or Wally, though you should be able to play down this Togekiss after using Evosoda or Wally to Evolve Togepi into Togetic, thus a T1 Togekiss is possible, just unreliable and resource intensive.  This version also has an Ability - Serene Grace - that triggers when you play it from hand to Evolve one of your Pokémon (another reason not to bother with Evo Soda and Wally, at least for Togekiss itself).  This Ability allows you to look at the top seven cards of your deck, take any basic Energy cards you find there and attach them to your in play Pokémon as you wish.  Your mileage will vary according to how much Basic Energy you run in the first place and how much is left at the point you use Serene Grace, but a seven card spread can range from zero to seven and unless the situation is extreme, the two or three probable Energy you get is a decent return.  Its attack is filler though: a vanilla 60 damage via “Fairy Wind”, disappointing since it costs [YCC].  If you want to use Togekiss (XY: Roaring Skies 45/108) then you’re running at least one of XY: Roaring Skies 46/108).  The two have natural synergy as you can try to load up the former with Energy via the Ability of the latter, improving your odds with Powerful Slap (or making Aura Sphere fast enough to maybe matter).  That being said it is more likely the question will be whether or not to run a single copy of today’s version when you’re trying to use tomorrow’s version to fuel something else… and the answer is “maybe, but probably not”.  The coin flips are just a deal breaker for a back-up attacker at least for the damage output  (60+ per “heads” and I’d reconsider).  Aura Sphere is in a similar boat: an effective 90-for-three just doesn’t seem worth one less Energy accelerator or running a more fleshed out Stage 2 line.  I am not thinking of anything that helps it in Expanded that isn’t also in Standard but in general it will face more competition so that is going to chip away at its score.  If you insist on running Togekiss (XY: Roaring Skies 45/108) you’ll probably want Trick Coin or Victini (latest printing BW: Legendary Treasures 23/113) to skew the odds for the coin flips in your favor.  In Limited, this is a fine pull if it accompanies both lower Stages - it can work with any Energy-Type (well, at least Powerful Slap can).  If you can make room for some Fairy Energy cards, then Aura Sphere is more useful here as well, as your opponent is more likely to try and “hide” something injured on his or her Bench in relative safety (in constructed formats you expect Lysandre or snipe/spread).  The additional Togekiss, besides being amazing here, improves your odds of a more fleshed out line.  As an added bonus, two of the Basic Pokémon-EX in this set are Fairy Weak Dragon-Types!  Tempering this is the difficulty in pulling a full line even at a 1-1-1 level, and the fact that even in a 40 card deck, as you’ll have little-to-no draw or search cards, getting out a fleshed out line in time to matter can be uncertain (a 1-1-1 line can be frustratingly random).  Ratings  Standard: 1.75/5  Expanded: 1.5/5  Limited: 3.75/5  Summary: Togekiss honestly is a lot closer than the scores indicate - even without its set-mate it has Energy acceleration available in the form of Xerneas (XY 96/146, XY: Black Star Promos XY05) plus Powerful Slap can use anything that itself isn’t overly specific.  If the attacks were just a bit better (either more damage and/or more reliability) or if had gotten the Ancient Trait instead of (or in addition to) the other Togekiss, it still wouldn’t have been great but it might have been adequate even with the Weakness.
Emma Starr	After looking at Pokémon that are weak to Fairies for awhile now, it’s about time that the Fairies themselves get the spotlight! So, welcome to Fairy Week! *everything turns pink and grows wings* What have I just done…?             Togekiss, the Stage 2 Jubilee Pokémon, has 140 HP, a weakness to the uncommon but effective Steel type, and a resistance to Dark types, and with the disappointing Retreat Cost of two. So far, so average. So, let’s go to her attacks.             Powerslap does 50 damage times each heads you get for each time you flip a coin for every energy on Togekiss. …There was probably a better way to phrase that. Anyway, for only one Colorless, that’s pretty generous, though of course, the 50% chance of failure keeps that in check. But since Togekiss is a Stage 2, you may have had time to put a bunch of energies on her already. This is where Trick Coin can be used to decrease that 50% failure rate to a nicer 25% failure rate! The Colorless energy requirement could almost be useful enough to warrant her as a Pokémon most decks could use…if she wasn’t Stage 2, at least. Unfortunately, I can’t see her being played in any non-Fairy decks though. Oh wait, this is the stuff I’m usually supposed to say at the end of the review, isn’t it? Whoops. Anyway, next attack!             Aura Sphere, the throwable version of the Rasengan (Well, that’s what I always thought it looked like when I first saw it. Now it just seems to be the Pokémon version of a Hadoken) costs 2 Fairy and 1 Colorless Energy, does 70 damage, and 20 damage to a benched Pokémon. Although the 20 damage sniper aspect could be helpful at times, I’m almost tempted to just recommend you use the first attack instead, especially if Togekiss is equipped with Trick Coin. Sure, it’s a very luck-based attack, but even if you only get two heads, you’re still doing 30 more damage than this attack. And let’s face it, Fairy decks need big attackers, since they don’t really have too many high-damage attackers currently, aside from Xerneas EX. Fairy decks are just supposed to be fun, strategy-based kind of decks to use typically, from what I’ve seen. Thus, I feel this attack (and maybe even this Pokémon, since it’s a Stage 2), just doesn’t cut it.            Standard: 1.3/5 (Could be fun to use (The keyword was fun. Not effective.), but don’t expect to accomplish much with Togekiss. I mean, it’s second attack does 70 damage…and this is a Stage 2 Pokémon, mind you.) Expanded: 1.2/5              Limited: 1.5/5 (If you’re lucky, the first attack could do something for you…but then again, you won’t have Trick Coin access here…)