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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	...oh...right...you're in this set? Huh...I completely forgot about you. >_> In any case, welcome back guys, today we're taking a look at...well...Pelipper! Well, Pelipper's...well, he's a thing. And he's a card! Honestly, he's memorable for being the Pidgey of Surf routes, and...well that's about it. So what are the attacks on this wonderful word? Cause Pelipper is the bird, and I want everybody say about the bird-B-B-B-  His first attack is Swallow. Odd, I know, considering Swallow is a move in the games that works with Stockpile, the other move being Spit Up. Usually, you'd rack up some "Stockpile counters" and store them up, which boosts your defensive capabilities. Then you either use Spit Up to deal massive damage or Swallow to heal a bunch. This Swallow mimics that aspect of the game's version, allowing to recover 30 damage. How do we know it's 30? Cause the designers also had it mimic Spit Up's damage-dealing aspect!  ...now I have this strange image of Pelipper just swallowing Pokemon whole. Weird. And nonsensical in a number of cases!  Then there's Water Pulse, which is a hefty 4-Energy attack dealing only 70 damage and putting the opponent's Pokemon to Sleep. Not that I'd like to compare it to every Water Pokemon ever, but just looking back at the last two Articunos, Pelipper just takes elements from them and combines into a...somewhat less efficient attack. It keeps Freezing Wind's 4-Energy cost with 30 less damage, but it also takes Chilling Sigh's Sleep power. Does that balance out? Not really, no.  I guess it's no surprise then that I didn't really remember Pelipper's card in this set - it's not particularly memorable or good...well, except for that mental image of Pelipper Swallowing Pokemon whole.  Rating  Standard: 1.5/5 (not that great, not that strong, just the right amount of mediocre)  Expanded: 1.5/5 (NOPE)  Limited: 3/5 (with the lower damage output, Pelipper could Swallow up a bit more, and the reliance on having Switch to get out of Sleep makes Water Pulse a bit better)  Arora Notealus: Pelipper's a fun Pokemon, and a fun concept! Based off the most extreme form of what a pelican in the Pokemon world would be like! There's a lotta mouth to deal with on this guy! That's...prolly a good time to shut my big mouth. HAHA!!  Weekend Thought: So nothing terribly exciting. What do you think of this week's cards? Will you try and build a deck around Articuno with the Delta Plus? Use the other Articuno for your own Primal Kyogre-EX build? Or maybe you just wanna mess with this week's Kyogre. Do what you will!
Otaku	We close this week with me playing catch-up and... with Pelipper (XY: Roaring Skies 19/108).  I got behind yet again on my CotDs; anything in the last two weeks for which you don’t remember a review from me should have one now, unless Pojo hasn’t had a chance to post what I have submitted.  For things I missed more than two weeks ago, you still could check as sadly I’ve had to play “catch-up” it seems like every few weeks.  So… now for Pelipper, which hasn’t a TCG card since the Platinum: Arceus expansion (a set name confusing enough to remind us of why I like to underline such things while I italicize actual card names).  That set released November 4, 2009 in the U.S.A. and rotated out of Standard play when we went to the 2011-2012 rotation(HGSS-On Modified). Pelipper is a Water-Type and as I’ve said so many times this week it a solid Type; some key cards like Landorus-EX and Donphan (BW: Plasma Storm 72/135) take double damage but the only Type whose Weakness it has a near monopoly over is Fire (only some Fighting-Types are Water Weak) and they just haven’t been a major presence in the metagame.  There are some Water-Type specific (or shared but still not general) support cards that can give them some good tricks and Water Resistance, formerly found on Grass-Types, seems to have been phased out of the XY-era sets, so we only still have it while we have those last few BW-era sets.  Being a Stage 1 is adequate; being a Basic is best and while being a Stage 2 makes a card quite challenging to successfully use in competitive play, being a Stage 1 is more reasonable (though again, still not as good as being a Basic).  100 HP doesn’t last long; in fact, this is now pretty likely to be a OHKO.  Lightning Weakness doesn’t help either; there aren’t a lot of awesome Lightning-Type decks out there in Standard and the ones in Standard usually feature Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories 40/101) and a non-Lightning-Type attacker, but there are Lightning-Type attackers that see significant play in mult-Type decks: Raichu (XY 43/146), Thundurus-EX (BW: Plasma Freeze 38/116, 110/116), Manectric-EX and Manectric-EX are often in support roles but with Weakness will have little chance of not scoring a OHKO.  The Fighting Resistance gives Pelipper a bit better odds against Fighting-Types and since its HP is kind of borderline, could prove quite significant… unless it’s a Fighting-Type deck with a full set-up then odds are it already hits for well over the effective 120 damage needed for a OHKO.  Still one of the better forms of Resistance to have (perhaps even the best) and certainly better than having none at all.  The Retreat Cost of two is roughly “average”, not in terms of distribution (no clue on that) but in terms of functionality since it is annoying but often not crippling to pay, though it does seem a bit much for a 100 HP Stage 1 in the modern era.  Fortunately most decks have ample reason to run Retreat Cost lowering cards or even effects to completely bypass manually retreating, making it even less of a concern.  Pelipper has two attacks.  The first is Swallow for [WC] and it hits for 30 damage while healing as much damage from Pelipper as what you did to the opponent’s Active… so 30 if nothing alters the base damage, 60 if you hit something Weak and there were no other modifiers, etc.  For [WCCC] Pelipper steps things up to 70 damage with Water Pulse while also putting your opponent’s Active to Sleep.  These are pretty overpriced or underpowered attacks; Pelipper needs Energy acceleration or a sacrifice your opponent can’t ignore to get even its first attack up and online in time and its low HP makes healing pretty seldom useful.  Likewise Water Pulse should be hitting for at least 30 more damage, preferably 50 more and that still might only make it “decent” and not good because raw damage and sleep isn’t too big right now.  The Energy costs are such that you are unlikely to easily, effectively “step up” the attacks; there will be a lull between Swallow and Water Pulse.  What about Wingull?  The only option is XY: Roaring Skies 18/108 and it is a Basic Water-Type with 60 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, no Ability, no Ancient Trait and a single attack - Water Gun - for [W] that hits for just 10 damage.  Painfully vanilla and only useful for getting to Pelipper.  If you want Fighting Resistance from a Water-Type, we already looked at two options this week, Articuno (XY: Roaring Skies 16/108) and Articuno ((XY: Roaring Skies 17/108), with generally all around better effects and stats.  The only place you can enjoy this card is in Limited play, where everything about it is more useful because of the nature of this format, making it a pretty solid pick for being a Water-Type that just needs one [W] for even its big attack, as well as being able to heal and inflict Sleep (both much more useful here).  Ratings  Standard: 1.1/5  Expanded: 1.05/5  Limited: 3.5/5  Summary: Sadly we get back Pelipper and it seems like a relic from a bygone era of slower decks.  It can be handy for Limited play but don’t waste your time on it for Standard or Expanded.
Emma Starr	Ah, Pelipper. The Pokémon that could be responsible for giving Pokémon their eggs, since no one has actually seen how eggs get in the daycare fields! But if that’s the case, wouldn’t someone have seen a Pelipper fly down into a daycare field by now? Well, whatever the case, today’s card is Pelipper (like that wasn’t obvious yet).                 The first attack, Swallow, does 2-for-30, along with healing itself for 30 as well. However, there are two main problems with this. First, it only has 100 HP (which is pretty pathetic for being a Stage 1), so it’s not going to be surviving too long anyway. Secondly, you’re attaching 2 energies just to do 30 damage. That’s crazy, if you think about how many cards do 1-for-30 at least these days.                 It’s second attack, Water Pulse, does 4-for-70, and makes the opponent fall asleep. This Pelipper seems to be trying to be the opposite of the Articuno we reviewed yesterday, as it’s adding in effects to replace the damage output. But this seems to be on the extreme end of that statement. Adding in Sleep is nice, but the other Pokémon still has a 50% chance of waking up next turn, and you’re still only doing 70 damage. There are many better alternatives to this card that are Basic even, such as either Articuno or the Kyogre that we’ve reviewed this week. If there’s anything this bird proves, it’s that sacrificing damage for effects just dosen’t come equally to every Pokémon, in terms of usability.                 Standard: 1.2/5                 Expanded:1.2/5                 Limited: 2/5