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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Seriously, in the midst of what looked to be a Water Week, suddenly Fairies! And of course we've got to have one of the most adorably fluffy ones around, Whimsicott! Just OMG it's SO CUTE AND FLUFFY, WHY CAN'T WE HUG IT, GAMEFREAK, WHY CAN'T WE HUG IT?!?!  ...*er-hem* So Whimsicott here is the first Fairy print of the card, with the others all being Grass-types printed before the XY sets came out, so now it's the only Whimsicott available in Standard. At first, she doesn't really look like much - a 70 HP Stage 1 Pokemon with a vanilla attack at 2-for-30? Sorry, no card gets played for something like Rolling Tackle unless they've got some other attack or Ability that's far more interesting to play with.  And that's where Windy Mischief comes into play.  Windy Mischief doesn't work like any attack I know of. Sure, there are attacks like it, and even some Abilities have emulated it, but no single attack I can think of has anything like Windy Mischief. What does it do exactly? Well, it doesn't really do any damage, but for 1 Fairy Energy, you get to move all the damage counters off of one of your Benched Pokemon to your opponent's Active Pokemon.  Again, that doesn't sound like it does much, but can you imagine having one of your big beefy Pokemon-EX getting battered and bruised by your opponent's attacks, and then all of a sudden you send out Whimsicott, heal your Pokemon-EX to full, and even damage your opponent's Pokemon by the same amount?! FOR ONE ENERGY?! It's like a Max Potion that damages the opponent for the same amount! Or like a reverse Pain Split...sorta!  As amazing as that is, though, it still comes out as an attack, and that means Whimsicott becomes horribly vulnerable on your opponent's turn for them to get instant retribution on. It's not easy to deliver up to as much as 240 HP worth of damage (using, say, Wailord-EX) and NOT get some easy feedback from something that can pop off 70 with ease! That's easily a Regice Resistance Blizzard OHKO, and the worst part is that you wouldn't be able to slam down on it with Gardevoir-EX cause of the effect! And that's just ONE example of why this wouldn't work out so well unless you're guaranteeing a KO somehow. Perhaps using this with Ariados to poison the opponent's Active, switch to Whimsicott, and then Windy Mischief all but 10 of their HP to get the KO by Poison would work, but that's EXTREMELY situational at that point.  Whimsicott gives us something extremely unique, but unfortunately she can't make full use of it. If this were an on-Evolution Ability, she'd probably see more play, and even then she's taking away deck space from other cards. Still, the tech on that arguably works better than just something like Theta Max.  Yes, Primal Kyogre-EX, I'm still mad at you.  Rating  Standard: 2/5 (a situationally useful attack does not a great Pokemon make, but MAN I can just imagine the ragequit after a person loses a game to Windy Mischief or even just their best Pokemon - it could totally happen with the right cards!)  Expanded: 2/5 (but that's mainly the problem with Whimsicott here - you're relying on your opponent to be just nice enough to let you play Whimsicott and nail them with this maneuver - and seeing as this is the only playable one in Standard, that's easy to spot the moment you put Cottonee down; in Expanded, maybe less so if you run Grass-type Cottonee with Forest of Broken Plants) Limited: 3/5 (here, damage output is lower, the HP scores are lower, and Windy Mischief's potential is...well, relatively lower, again due to lack of surprise, but hey! it could work to get a nice prize!)  Arora Notealus: IT'S SO FLUFFY I'M GONNA DIE  Next Time: Back to the water!...or rather, I should say, the ICE!!
Otaku	Though not my intent, it’s a whimsical Wednesday with Whimsicott (XY: Ancient Origins 56/98)!  For the first time, Whimsicott is a Fairy-Type.  That means it enjoys some solid support with cards like Fairy Garden, Aromatisse (huh, still only one version), Wonder Energy and Xerneas (XY 96/146, XY: Black Star Promos XY05) but no surprise this still pales to the support seen by some of the other Types, especially the Fighting-Type with its Fighting Stadium, Korrina and Strong Energy plus a slew of great attackers, all before we get to the stuff that is only “kind of” good like even more attackers and tricks such as Focus Sash.  It still isn’t bad, but as the various Types have become more fleshed out: I can still remember when the Darkness-Type was the only one with any worthwhile Type support, but now almost everything has its own Special Energy, strong attackers, Supporter and Stadium.  Still better here than not and while it won’t help this card now, looks like some more Fairy-Type support is on the way.  Whimsicott is a Stage 1; being an Evolution is not slow, but it isn’t the fastest in the format and unfortunately the designers are obsessed with speed which means the players kind of have to choose between also being obsessed with speed or else losing even among the casual decks.  Fortunately being a Stage 1 is the fastest and least resource intensive of the non-Basic Stages, requiring just a single extra card and a single extra turn, or alternatively two extra cards and your Supporter if you want to use Wally to get a Stage 1 into play in a single turn.  Peeking ahead, we see that in Expanded, this could Evolve from a Grass-Type Cottonee, so it could tap some Grass-Type support as well, namely Forest of Giant Growth to also shave off the turn of waiting to Evolve.  We’ll cover whether that is worthwhile a bit later.  Moving onto the HP, Whimsicott just has 70 so it is a very probable OHKO; not a guaranteed or so bad that it’s getting easily taken out by spread or bonus sniping damage, but if it is up front very few decks will fail to OHKO it rapidly, reliably and repeatedly, especially if their set-up is at least mostly complete.  It is a legal Level Ball target though, which might be important.  Whimsicott has Metal Weakness, which mostly just means it is even more fragile against Metal-Types.  Against primary attackers using their big attacks it won’t matter because it should already be a OHKO.  It will help their secondary attacks keeping it from being totally “safe”.  Whimsicott gets Darkness Resistance which won’t do much with its HP but is still appreciated; at the very least a minimal Evil Ball from Yveltal-EX will fall short of the OHKO and will in fact need two extra Energy between the two of them or one plus a buff like a Muscle Band.  This is pretty specific but at least it is a plausible encounter in competitive play.  Whimsicott has a Retreat Cost of [C]; this is both easy to pay and to recover from paying but unless it would break it, I’d think something this small would have qualified for a free Retreat Cost.  Whimsicott has two attacks but no Ability or Ancient Trait.  The first attack is “Windy Mischief”, which allows you to move all damage counters from one of your Benched Pokémon to your opponent’s Active, at a cost of [Y] Energy.  For a single Energy card (even if it is a specific Type) that looks like an attack with some potential.  For better or worse the second attack is Rolling Tackle for [CC], hitting for 20 damage.  The damage return is poor for the Energy invested, but if you really need to finish something off, this could be an option.  As mentioned earlier, Whimsicott is an Evolution so we must consider from what it Evolves and that is Cottonee, which has the following versions available: BW: Emerging Powers 9/98, BW: Emerging Powers 10/98, BW: Boundaries Crossed 14/149 and the only Standard legal option, XY: Ancient Origins 55/98.  All are all BasicPokémon with a Retreat Cost of [C], no Abilities, no Ancient Traits and a single attack.  The first three are all Grass-Types with Fire Weakness and Water Resistance.  BW: Emerging Powers 9/98 has 40 HP and for [G] can use “Absorb” to hit for 10 damage while healing 10 from itself.  BW: Emerging Powers 10/98 and BW: Boundaries Crossed 14/149 both have 50 HP, with the former being able to use “Cotton Guard” for [G] to do 10 damage while reducing the damage it takes from attacks during your opponent’s by 10 points (after Weakness and REsistance) and the latter just has “Ram” for [C] to hit for 10 damage.  XY: Ancient Origins 55/98 is a Fairy-Type with 40 HP, Metal Weakness, Darkness Resistance and for [Y] can use “Cotton Bed” to do 10 damage and afflict the opponent’s Active with Sleep.  Unless you come up with a combo involving Forest of Giant Plants or have reason to worry about Latios-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 58/108, 101/108; XY: Black Star Promos XY72) - and I currently don’t expect either - then I’d just go with XY: Ancient Origins 55/98 because if you are stuck with it Active, being able to leave the opponent’s Active Asleep is your best chance for surviving.  Whimsicott also has a few other options, but only in Expanded: BW: Emerging Powers 11/98, BW: Emerging Powers 12/98, and BW: Boundaries Crossed 15/149.  All three of these are Stage 1 Grass-Type Pokémon with 80 HP, Fire Weakness, Water Resistance, no Abilities, no Ancient Traits and two attacks.  BW: Emerging Powers 11/98 has a free Retreat Cost and for [C] can use “Helping Hand” to search your deck for a Basic Energy and attach it to one of your Benched Pokémon or for [G] can use “Cotton Guard” to do 30 damage while reducing the damage it takes from attacks during your opponent’s next turn (after) Weakness and Resistance.  It was reviewed here while I didn’t submit a review and the specifics are out of date, the end conclusion is correct (if a little generous).  BW: Emerging Powers 12/98 has a single Energy Retreat Cost with the attack “Encore” for [C], hitting for 20 damage and allowing you to select one of the attacks on the opponent’s Active, leaving that as the only attack that Pokémon may use next turn while for [GG] it can use “U-turn” to hit for 40 damage and send itself to your Bench.  You can read its old review here and again, the specifics are out of date but the conclusion seems sound, with the scores being perhaps a bit generous.  BW: Boundaries Crossed 15/149 also has a single Energy Retreat Cost with its first attack requiring [C]; “Fluffy Tag” allows you to switch Whimsicott with one of your Benched Pokémon and the formerly Benched Pokémon does 40 more points of damage with its attacks on your next turn.  Otherwise for [G] it can use “Stun Spore” to hit for 20 damage and flip a coin, with “heads” Paralyzing the opponent’s Active and “tails” just doing the damage.  We even has a review for this one (here) and yet again, the details are outdated but the only area where I disagree is that perhaps the scores are too high.  All of these suffer because of easily reset attack effects that still wouldn’t be that good even if they were set in stone; they won’t be helping out today’s version and definitely won’t be competition for it.  So here is where I would love to give you some super-special-awesome combo or better still, deck using today’s card but I’ve got nothing specific.  The best suggestion I’ve heard (not seen) is to consider it in a deck with durable, high HP Pokémon unlikely to be OHKOed and consider including a small line of this Whimsicott; the idea is that when something like Wailord-EX or Primal Groudon-EX that survived via a Focus Sash, you promote Whimsicott and then use Windy Mischief to simultaneously heal said Pokémon while scoring a OHKO against something almost as massive and/or strategic on your opponent’s side of the field.  If your opponent goes after Cottonee or Whimsicott to take an easy Prize, hypothetically that is supposed to be better than taking a swing at whatever your heavy is, and in the case of something like Wailord-EX in a stall deck it might be the primary form of offense.  I really like this concept but I can’t say it sounds overly reliable; a OHKO or a 2HKO that uses a very weak first attack means the trick just won’t work.  You might get quite elaborate using effects that damage your own Pokémon and/or damage counter moving effects but frankly there aren’t any reliable enough for these purposes to make that more appealing than the first idea.  In the end, this sounds like a fun, semi-plausible use for the card in Standard and Expanded play, with the latter being neither better nor worse for the additional options available.  For Limited play this can be a very nasty trick, though the fragility of Cottonee and Whimsicott, needing Fairy Energy and difficulty of getting the timing correct keep it from being something you absolutely have to use in every deck, but it is probably worth trying.  Ratings  Standard: 2.5/5  Expanded: 2.5/5  Limited: 4/5  Summary: My inner-Johnny is mad at me for scoring that just begs for clever combos so low while my inner-Timmy loves the idea of something so soft and fluffy delivering massive damage, but my not-so-inner-Spike is overriding them: enjoy this card.  Test with it, but do so more for when someone else takes it to a tournament because they aren’t too worried about winning or figured out some genius “secret rogue” deck that will likely stop working as soon as it becomes widely known… in addition to it hopefully being fun.
Emma Starr	Whimsicott, one of the best Substitute-Leech Seed users in the video games! Can she hold up while using different moves in the TCG? Well, I think we both know that the 2-for-30 Rolling Tackle isn’t going to accomplish much, so I’ll just skip that part so we can discuss whatever juicy strategies may come with her first attack instead, Windy Mischief!             Windy Mischief lets you move ALL of the damage counters from one of your benched Pokemon to your opponent’s…active Pokemon. So, no bench-sniping then. But if it did allow you to choose any Pokemon on your opponent’s bench, this card might become pretty broken. As it is, it’s still a fun little card to play, and has a very gimmicky set-up, just like a lot of Fairy cards do. With only 70 HP, chances are Whimsicott will only be staying in for one turn, as you’ll ideally want to switch to her after your EX took a brutal hit. You’ll only lose one prize instead of two, and if you’re lucky, you may even get out of the situation by getting two Prizes yourself. It’s a fun card to use in Fairy decks, but due to the unpopularity of Fairy decks in general, I feel most people will just take a quick glance at Whimsicott’s potential.              Standard: 2.5/5 (Druddigon (FlF 70) also makes a nice revenge-killer, but Whimsicott still definitely should have her place in Fairy decks)             Expanded: 2.5/5             Limited: 1.5/5 (You only have the Whimsicott and Gardevoir evolution lines as the only Fairy types available here…good luck making a good deck from just them…you could make a dual-type deck, but that Gardevoir is pretty bad.)