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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	You know normally Magnezone would be the Pokemon I'm making fun of for his EX form, but that's really old news at this point, and now he's somewhat redeeming himself with the aid of his latest card from this set! You might say he's gotten a bit more buff now...but you might also say this looks awfully familiar.  Of course he starts off as a Stage 2, since he's not working on the EX angle anymore, which already means he's a lot slower than most cards. Still, he's going to work faster than, say, Florges BREAK, who will require 4 cards to Magnezone's or any other regular Stage 2's 3 cards. Slow, but not terribly so, and on top of that, he's got an Ability that, again, will probably look familiar: Magnetic Circuit. No, it's not because Magnezone's had this before - in fact, it's really a first for him - but you've definitely seen this Ability on cards like Blastoise and Emboar. Yep, Magnetic Circuit is the Rain Dance or the Inferno Fandango of the Electric deck, letting you play as many Electric Energies from your hand as you dare. We all know this can be a big break in different decks, giving much faster access to stronger attacks at a faster pace than just regular Energy attachment - it effectively leads into an instantaneous power-up! So it's already a worthwhile card in that right.  Granted, Thunder Blast isn't an exceptional attack, though it does work well with Magnezone's Ability - it's a 3-for-100 shockwave that discards an Electric Energy attached to Magnezone, so you can see why it would work well. But there are a few other Electric-types that Magnetic Circuit can work well with. One idea might be to BREAK Evolve Raichu into his new Raichu BREAK form, since Grand Bolt does a whopping 170 damage for the same amount as Magnezone's Thunder Blast. But why stop there? You've got Ampharos-EX to charge up your guys even faster and even M Ampharos-EX will benefit from a quick acceleration needing 4 Energy to power up his Exa Volt attack! Or you could combine this with M Manectric-EX.....who really is just a one-man power vacuum, but maybe there's an application to getting that 2-Energy Turbo Bolt off without pause.  Magnezone will definitely get some mileage in Electric decks, making a few of the slower ones more viable while potentially speeding up the faster ones (if they care to make room for him), so expect a few more powerful Electric builds at your next locals!  Rating  Standard: 3.5/5 (nothing terribly out there, but a definite boost to a Type that's needed it for a while)  Expanded: 3.5/5 (though here, the presence of Eels may make it less likely to play with, but I won't fault anyone working to improve their older Electric decks with this guy)  Limited: 4/5 (a fairly hefty aid to any Electric-types you recruit, which would combo well with Raichu BREAK again, though that's asking a lot, but it can work well with a couple of other cards too)  Arora Notealus: It's kinda nice to see the "throw your hand of Energy down on the field" kind of effect again, even if it's not for Water-types this time around. Then again, Electric would definitely be the next best Type for this sort of thing, and Fire made some sense too. Now if only there was a way of fueling up those Dragons even faster...  Next Time: The imperial majesty of the seas rises again!
Otaku	Time for our eighth place pick, Magnezone (XY: BREAKthrough 54/162).  Shocking right?  …  I’ll be good and stick to reviewing now.  The Lightning Weakness is widespread, but only common to certain Colorless-Types, namely those that represent the video game Flying-Type.  Most of the other instances are just dual-typed Pokémon that are part Flying-Type but their TCG Type is based on the other video game Type.  A good chunk of older Water-Types (plus a few seemingly random ones now) - why do you make this complicated, Magikarp (XY: Ancient Origins 19/98)? - but should you find yourself attacking with this card, it will probably be out of desperation or because you’re scoring double damage against something you need to take down ASAP like a Yveltal-EX.  Lightning Resistance can be annoying but not only is -20 more “tricky” than “bad”, it also seems limited to older, BW-era Fighting-Types.  There only anti-Lightning-Type effect I can find is the Ancient Trait “Δ Wild” on M Rayquaza-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 61/108), which reduces the damage done to said M Rayquaza-EX by certain Types (among them Lightning) by 20.  Yay.  Lightning-Type support that specifically only works for the Type itself isn’t too common, though there are some handy but not mindblowing examples like Flash Energy to neutralize your Weakness or Rough Seas to heal your Pokémon.  If the Type matters it will probably be due to indirect reasons; cards that simply become better when used alongside other Lightning-Types and/or basic Lightning Energy cards.  Being a Stage 2 is not good; you’ll need at least two other cards besides Magnezone to get itself into play and the best options are slowly Evolving manually, which requires Magnemite survive a turn to Evolve into Magneton which needs to survive another turn to become Magnezone or skipping Magneton and going from a Magnemite directly to a Magnezone with only a turn of waiting via Rare Candy.  The 140 HP is reasonably good; 160 is the max printed on a Stage 2 but 140 is still enough to to avoid being too easy of a KO, except of course against Fighting-Types.  Fighting Weakness means most Fighting-Types will take you down hard and fast… or perhaps I should say easily and fast, because something like Lucario-EX just needs a Strong Energy and a Muscle Band for a single Energy OHKO.  Magnezone sports Metal Resistance; it isn’t much but an extra -20 means when you encounter all but the hardest hitting Metal-Type attackers, Magnezone should survive.  The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is chunky and not something you’ll often want to pay or be able to easily recover from having paid, but should there be enough similarly costed Pokémon in your deck, Heavy Ball may be an option.  Magnezone has no Ancient Trait but does have an Ability called “Magnetic Circuit” that allows you to attach a [L] Energy card from your hand to one of your Pokémon as often as you want during your turn.  Note that Flash Energy (and so far, any and all other Special Energy cards capable of providing [L]) do not do so while in your hand; you’ll only be raining down basic Lightning Energy cards.  Slight play on words there as this is a familiar Ability except for the Type; Blastoise (BW: Boundaries Crossed 31/149; BW: Plasma Storm 137/135; BW: Plasma Blast 16/101) does the same thing, just for [W] Energy.  We’ll discuss the similarities a bit more later, for now we’ll check the attack: “Thunder Blast” requires [LLC] to hit for 100 damage, then makes you discard an [L] Energy from Magnezone itself.  This is a bit pricey for the damage, but seems to be a decent fallback attack that thanks to Weakness could OHKO Yveltal-EX even without a Muscle Band; after factoring in the Ability it becomes fast and easy.  As an added bonus (for me), there are multiple Transformers named Thunderblast (close enough).  There are four Magnemite to pick from: BW: Plasma Storm 42/135; BW: Plasma Storm 43/135; XY: BREAKThrough 51/162 and XY: BREAKThrough 52/162.  All four are Lightning-Type Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, Fighting Weakness, Retreat Cost [C] and no Ancient Traits.  BW: Plasma Storm 42/135 has no Resistance, no Ability and two attacks: “Metal Sound” costs [C] and has you flip a coin with “tails” doing nothing and “heads” Confusing the opponent’s Active while Electro Ball needs [LC] to hit for a flat 20.   BW: Plasma Storm 43/135 also has no Resistance or Ability but only has a single attack - “Electro Ball” again - this time requiring [L] to hit for 10.  XY: BREAKThrough 51/162 has Metal Resistance, an Ability and an Attack; the Ability is “Sparking Induction” which lowers its Retreat Cost by [C] each Magnemite on your Bench while for [CC] it can use “Lightning Ball” to attack for 20 damage.  XY: BREAKThrough 52/162 is also Metal Resistant but goes back to having two attacks: “Shock Generator” requires [L] and gives you a coin flip to Paralyze the opponent’s Active (nothing else) while “Lighting Ball” shows up again and does the same 20 damage for the same cost of [CC].  Go with XY: BREAKThrough 51/162 and enjoy the free Retreat it will often (but not always) possess.  There are three Magneton to pick -  BW: Plasma Storm 44/135; BW: Plasma Storm 45/135 and XY: BREAKThrough 53/162 - from, though if you count Rare Candy we again have four options.  They are again a fairly homogeneous lot; all are Stage 1 Lightning-Type Pokémon with Fighting Weakness, no Ancient Traits and no Abilities.  BW: Plasma Storm 44/135 has no Resistance, a Retreat Cost of [CC] and two familiar attacks: this time Metal Sound automatically Confuses the opponent’s Active but still only requires [C] to use, while Electro Ball still requires [LC] but hits for 30 damage.  BW: Plasma Storm 45/135 also has no Resistance and a Retreat Cost of [CC] but only has a single attack - Knock Away - which requires [LC] to hit for 20 damage and flip a coin; if “heads” the attack does 20+20 (so 40) while “tails” just means the base 20 damage.  XY: BREAKThrough 53/162 shakes things up a little by having Metal Resistance, a Retreat Cost of [C] and goes back to having two attacks: “Static Shock” for [L] allows you to flip a coin to try and Paralyze the opponent’s Active while Electro Ball returns yet again, only this time it costs [LCC] to hit for 70 as well as making you discard an Energy attach to itself afterwards.  Go with XY: BREAKThrough 53/162 due to its Resistance, better Retreat Cost, potential to Paralyze and almost decent attack… basically it is better all around and as an added bonus, someone like me is reminded of the Static Shock cartoon from early 2000s.  There are also two other Magnezone to consider: BW: Plasma Storm 46/135 and BW: Plasma Storm 47/135.  Both are Stage 2 Lightning-Types with 140 HP, Fighting Weakness, no Resistance and no Ancient Trait (of course, the mechanic didn’t exist when these were released).  BW: Plasma Storm 46/135 is a Team Plasma Pokémon, able to tap into their support (or be affected by their counters), and a familiar chunky Retreat Cost of [CCC].  It has the Ability “Dual Brains” which allows the you to use two Supporters during your turn.  It is a strong Ability but not much has ever come of it because you need enough Supporters in the deck to use two per turn but should the Ability get counters (as is somewhat common) you may end up with a lot of deck cards in hand.  For [LLC] it can attack with “Gyro Ball” to hit for 80 damage, then switches itself with one of your Benched Pokémon before forcing the opponent to also change out his or her Active (the player chooses for his/her own Pokémon).  It is a decent way to get back to the Bench.  It was reviewed here about two and a half years ago.  You might be able to combine this with today’s version in Expanded; it simply will be a matter of finding room in the deck as you likely won’t need a full four count of today’s card.  Both Abilities fail to stack, so if you need a fleshed out lower line, you’ll likely have spares.  BW: Plasma Storm 47/135 has a Retreat Cost of [CC] and two attacks: for [L] it can use “Double Assist” to hit for 30 damage while attaching two basic Energy cards from the discard pile to one of your Pokémon while for [LCC] it can use “Tumbling Attack” to hit for 70 damage plus (on a “heads”) another 20, meaning 90 total (in the case of “tails”, the base 70 still happens).  Not pure vanilla but close, and while it might be tempting to have something in case your Abilities get taken down, you’re not going to get all that far ahead unless you Bench it and already attached a “spare” source of [L] to it earlier.  If you have to build and power it up, it takes too much time and you are only ahead a single Energy attachment from what could very well be a OHKO.  If you insist you could do this, but I’d just save the space for either of the other two Magnezone and make sure I had a few low Energy attachers as my actual fallback plan.  This one also received a review here.  So what is the plan with running today’s Magnezone?  “Deluge Revisited”; take the basic strategy we used to see in Blastoise decks and appropriate it for a Lightning Energy centric deck.  Blastoise made its relatively recent comeback due to Archie’s Ace in the Hole, so you’ll need to leverage whatever you can out of having a different Energy Type.  This set gives us Raikou (XY: BREAKthrough 55/162), a Lightning-Type Basic Pokémon with 120 HP, the typical Fighting Weakness and Metal Resistance, a solid Retreat Cost of only [C], a useful Ability (Shining Body) that soaks 20 damage done by attacks so long as Raikou has any [L] Energy attached and for [CCC] its attack (Thunder Lance) does 50 damage plus another 20 per [L] Energy it has attached.  A basic drop of [LLL] means it hits for 110 damage, scoring a 2HKO against quite a bit and being decently resilient for a non-Pokémon-EX Basic; if you have a means of reclaiming the Energy after it hits the discard, it is a bit safer to load up than say Keldeo-EX simply because it is only worth a single Prize and thus can still trade favorably against the various attacks that do more damage based on what is attached to the opponent’s Active.  Less impressive but still with potential is Stunfisk (XY: BREAKthrough 56/162).  Same Stage, Weakness and Resistance as Raikou but a Retreat Cost of [CCC] and no Ability, but it has two solid attacks.  The better of the two is the first - Revenge - which requires [LC] to hit for 20 damage but has the familiar clause of doing more damage if your opponent KOed one of your Pokémon via damage from an attack on the previous turn and in this latest version, the damage bonus is now +80.  100 for two is nothing to scoff at.  Neither is the second attack, though it is far less impressive; the same Thunder Blast seen on today’s Magnezone, only the damage output is just 80 instead of 100 (the cost is still [LLC] and the discard is still one Energy).  As a fallback attack when Revenge isn’t getting a bonus, it isn’t good but neither is it bad.  If you want something real impressive, sadly you are on your own.  Dig through compatible cards new and old until you find something and then make sure it isn’t better off with Blastoise or Eelektrik (BW: Noble Victories 40/101).  This should be much easier in Standard because those two are not available!  In Limited you’ll almost certainly run Magnezone if you can pull the supporting Evolution line; even without a proper deck built around it the Energy acceleration is amazing, the set has some decent attackers you can pull to run alongside Magnezone and Magnezone itself is functionally a better attacker because it is Limited; most things are smaller and don’t hit as hard.  Ratings  Standard: 3.5/5  Expanded: 3/5  Limited: 4.75/5  Summary: Magnezone should become the backbone of a new deck, I am just uncertain as to how much success it will meet with in competitive play.  The fundamental value of Energy acceleration is well established, but in Expanded there are so many other options that may even be better.  In Standard it is mostly a matter of finding the pace that in Expanded Blastoise has due to Archie’s Ace in the Hole.  Enjoy it if you pull the complete line in Limited.  Magnezone was my 9th place pick for the Top 10, and it only managed a single point above our 9th and 10th place finishers.
Emma Starr	Today, we welcome a new Pokemon to the energy-accelerator club: Magnezone, who is joining the ranks with his fellow Stage 2 Energy acceleraors who have now since retired to Expanded – Blastoise and Emboar. And really, who doesn’t love these types of Pokemon? In case you aren’t in-the-know, although Magnezone looks like your standard 140 HP Stage 2 with a bad attack, it’s the ability that shines brighter than it’s body! Magnetic Circuit lets you attach any amount of Electric Energy from your hand to any of your Pokemon! Of course, this shines brightest in the types of decks I prefer to run: ones with ~18-20 of a single Energy type, with around 3 Special Energies. Although most people seem to run shockingly (to me, at least) low amounts of Energy in their decks today, this can stand out if you’re one of the few people out there who are willing to dedicate around 1/3 of their deck to energies. And how might one get these energies into your hand effectively? Professor’s Letter, or Cilan (in Expanded) of course! Although Cilan is a supporter, and only gets you 1 more energy than Professor’s Letter, I usually end up running Cilan more often in these sorts of decks. Who are the candidates for who can make use of this ability the most? Well, the ever-annoying and deadly Mega Ampharos EX can! The potential 170 damage attack with Paralysis could in theory be ready in a very quick amount of time, although you’ll still need a way to quickly evolve a Stage 2 AND a Mega Evolution first. Another possible target could be Thundurus EX (ROS 126) for only 20 less damage, but he doesn’t have to Mega Evolve, and he costs one less energy. Another popular Mega Evolution, of course, is Mega Manectric EX, who does 110 for 2 energy, but ALSO can attach 2 basic Energies from your discard pile to another of your benched Pokemon as well, even accelerating energy to extents that even Magnezone can’t (as he can’t touch the discard pile for energies), so no need to worry about what to discard to use Ultra Ball during this crazy hodgepodge to get everyone evolved and in play (although there is a new card that lets you search much more easily without discarding, but we’ll talk about her in a later review)! So, are there any downsides to Magnezone? Well, unless you play the energy-rich kind of decks I mentioned earlier, it probably won’t be of much use to you, and Hex Maniac can be pretty disruptive. You could also get Lysandre’d and quickly knocked out by any attack that does 70+ from a Fighting type. It’s also not encouraging that it was very recently revealed that Garbodor is essentially getting a reprint, but hey, any form of energy-acceleration is awesome, and on Stage 2s, they keep the game balanced enough, along with the fact that Electric hasn’t really been played too much, aside from the cards I mentioned earlier. I don’t want to stretch it, but…I think Electric decks may just become much more viable thanks to this card. …Alright, I’ll say something about the attack too. Thunder Blast is a 3-for-100 attack, which honestly…doesn’t have the worst damage output ever. The Electric discard can be sad, unless you use the ability to power up Mega Manectric. If that’s the case, then as Sonic would say in Sonic Heroes, Blast Away (but not really, as you’re probably in a dire situation if Magnezone is active, and you actually powered this thing up enough to actually use this attack. Better work on finding a Switch…)!  Standard: 4/5 (Energy acceleration, oh how we’ve missed you…bring your wrath down on the Shaymins, Lugias, and Yveltals…) Expanded: 4/5 Limited: 4/5 (Energy acceleration = god tier here, even if you’re only running a half-Electric deck…)