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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Alright, so the last couple of Klefki I've looked at haven't been, shall we say, exceptional or anything. I'd like to say that this Klefki adds something more to the table, but unfortunately it seems this one falls a bit short as well. At least with Play Rough, which does an underwhelming 2-for-20 strike with only a mere coin flip for an extra 20.  Welp, pack your bags guys, that's the end of the review...or is it?  Here's the thing about Klefki: Look for Keys is an odd attack. We've seen attacks bring Energy back from the discard pile and Abilities that get you to search through your deck's top X cards for stuff, but Klefki is a bit more resourceful. Here, he reveals cards until you pick up an Item, which gets added to your hand. The rest of the cards are shuffled back into the deck.  In a Seismitoad-EX-centric world, I'd have said, "NO!! DON'T PLAY THIS GUY!!" However, the meta is changing, and while Seismitoad-EX is still a prominent player, he's nowhere near as overpowering as he was back in the days of Lysandre's Banned Card. This gives little Klefki here some much needed breathing room - which means you might actually get to play him!  And with so many Items in the deck, adding one to your hand guaranteed is a pretty effective win-win! Just keep in mind you've no idea which Item you'll get, and that Klefki's probably getting KO'd next turn. He's only got 60 HP after all. Rating  Standard: 2/5 (the Item search is a nice touch, and probably makes Klefki worth playing)  Expanded: 1.5/5 (we've got a ton of better Item searchers and deck thinners here)  Limited: 3.5/5 (getting that Item is important here! Get it easily with Klefki!) Arora Notealus: Definitely the most playable Klefki to date, and I'm glad to see it's got so much playability. Had he come in sooner though, he would have been 1s across Standard and Expanded, simply because of the Toad.  Next Time: Now for a spectacular promotional extravaganza!
Otaku	Our Thursday subject is Klefki (XY: Roaring Skies 48/108).  So if you skipped the rest of the week, the Fairy-Type has some good support but it isn’t as good as it gets; some stuff they lack (no Fairy-Type Supporter), some stuff they have but it is underwhelming (Wonder Energy as compared to say Strong Energy) and other support is more about Fairy Energy than Pokémon, which means it can be used off-Type without too much hassle.  It hits only XY-era Dragon-Types for Weakness and so far nothing is Resistant.  All in all, not the best Type to be but I wouldn’t call it the worst (that might change in a set or two if the support for the other Types continues to be fleshed out).  Being a Basic is the best though; fastest Stage to get into play with the less hassle.  60 HP is small - expect to be OHKOed - and while normally that would make the Weakness less of an issue (doubling damage rarely matters when it’s already a OHKO) but this notably allows Cobalion-EX to score a OHKO with Righteous Edge.  Darkness Resistance can come in handy but with 60 HP it is going to be easily overwhelmed, so less of a bonus than usual.  The single Energy Retreat Cost is easy to pay and to recover from paying but also is expected on a Basic this size.  No Ability, no Ancient Trait: Klefki has two attacks instead.  The first has a fun name clearly based on Klefki being the Key Ring Pokémon: Look for Keys.  It requires [Y] and the effect is that you reveal cards from your deck until you hit an Item, at which point the Item is added to your hand.  The rest goes back into your deck.  The second attack is “Play Rough” for [YC], hitting for 20 damage with a coin flip good for another 20 on “heads”.  Look for Keys is a bit different but has the usual problem of attacks that add cards to hand; your opponent has a good chance of changing out your hand with N (a card in most decks).  Even if you hit an Item right away, your opponent gains some information about your deck ahead of schedule (even if it is only “Oh, you have another copy of _____”.  You don’t control what you get and Item lock is still a popular strategy.  This could have been an amazing Ability but as an attack, it just doesn’t work.  Play Rough is simply an underpowered attack, though far better than nothing.  There are two other Klefki to consider.  First up is XY: Furious Fists 73/111 (reviewed in full here) which basically is the same as today’s card except it has one Ability and one (different) attack.  The Ability (Secret Key) jumps the Resistance on your Fairy-Types to -40, while the attack (Fairy Lock) requires [YC] to do 30 damage and block the Defending Pokémon from retreating.  XY: Phantom Forces 66/119 (reviewed here) is still a Basic Pokémon with a single Energy Retreat Cost, but is a 70 HP Metal-Type with Fire Weakness and Psychic Resistance.  It has two attacks, the oft seen “Call for Family” that allows you to search your deck for up to two Basic Pokémon and then play them to your Bench, this time at a cost of [M], with “Dull Light” being the second attack which costs [MC] and does 20 damage and inflicts Confusion on the opponent’s Active.  Neither of these are brilliant, but they have a niche - bumping up Resistance into something pretty impressive (but remember it is still mono-Type Resistance) is adequate but in a format where “good” cards are crowded out by “great” cards, that doesn’t get you too far.  Similarly the pacing is wrong for most “set-up” attacks so Call for Family is underwhelming but not without its uses.  Fairy Lock and Dull Light are not without their own uses either, but far from justification to run either Klefki.  In the end, you shouldn’t bother with any of them though XY: Furious Fists 73/111 might possibly qualify for a place in your deck if somehow the Darkness-Type matchup becomes abnormally important (and isn’t already enough in your favor).  Today’s version can’t really compete with that.  Of course it doesn’t have to in Limited, where it is a good pull.  Not great, but good; if you can afford some basic Fairy Energy and pull a few Items worth running.  It also lucks out that there is enough of a Dragon-Type presence that you have added incentive to work it in even as a surprise attacker!  Ratings  Standard: 1.25/5  Expanded: 1.3/5  Limited: 3.25/5  Summary: This is a card I identify with; it tries to do something useful but it doesn’t do it well enough and in falling short it is more trouble than it is worth.  Enough about my personal issues though; Klefki is something to consider in Limited but nowhere else.  I did give it a slight bump in Expanded for the usual reason; Level Ball.
Emma Starr	Following the footsteps (or…tip of bottom of rock/crystal/whatever Carbink is), we have another Fairy that was a promo in Japan. Was it any better than Carbink? Well, let’s see.             With 60 HP and the same Steel weakness, this is already looking like Carbink, which is never a good thing. It has one less Retreat Cost for a total of one, which makes sense, since Carbink is a rock, and can’t move around as quickly as a floating bunch of keys. But if Klefki is a floating bunch of keys, couldn’t it just easily float away from battle, and have no Retreat Cost? Meh, I think I’m just over-analyzing this keychain too much now. Let’s see how good it can defend itself.             For one Fairy energy, it can Look for Keys (because apparently it’s so weak, it needs an Energy to do this, and can’t just have it as an ability), which lets you search from the top of your deck until you find an Item card, lets it be put into your hand, and shuffles your deck. I guess it’s a nice little effect, but it does absolutely no damage. This is the sort of thing that’s usually delegated to Supporter cards, not really weak attacks. I mean, Korrina (FuF 95) does this, and lets you search for a Fighting type Pokémon as well, if you have one. Let’s hope Klefki’s second attack is actually useful…             For one Fairy and one Colorless energy, Klefki can use Play Rough, which does 20, and lets you flip a coin to do 20 more damage, for a whopping grand total of a brutal 40 damage!! Woah guys, better retreat your EXs for this one, because that’s pretty scary. Scarily bad. This almost makes me want to give Carbink 0.1 more in every rating from yesterday, just because it did 20 more damage than Klefki. But Klefki is on a whole new level of terrible, especially being a Basic. Once again, I think the Japanese translation of this attack, Frolic, is a much more appropriate title for this attack. Klefki was just Frolicking on the battlefield, and accidentally bumped into your opponent’s Pokémon. Whoops.                     Standard: 1/5             Expanded: 1/5             Limited: 1/5