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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	And now for the devious MALAM-wait...I mixed up the schedules...SONUVA-  Well, guess I'll just review Sableye instead.  Sableye is...well, very small. And very weak. And very...uhm...dark. I dunno what else to say, SO TO THE ATTACKS AWAY!!  Furtive Drop is 2 Energy for 30 damage, essentially. It's...pretty bad. Like...why would you use this? If it were more of a spread attack, then I could imagine using it in conjunction with M Tyranitar-EX to sweep...but...as is...no.  Well, I guess that's all the interesting things about SableeeeeeEEEEEEYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY, LOOK AT THIS!! Bewitching Eyes, now THERE'S an interesting attack! Sableye once again plays to his playful nature and utilizes stuff from the discard pile! Kinda like the Dark Explorers version, only instead of getting Items from your discard pile, he uses a Supporter from your opponent's discard pile! That's pretty crazy!  ...well, more accurately, he copies its effect, but hey, that's still pretty cool! You could have a fifth Sycamore in your deck cause of your opponent, or a Lysandre to mess with your opponent's formation! Buuuuuuut these are usually Supporters used with the purpose of setting up...and no Supporter really does damage...sooooooo...this is kinda "meh" at best.  Maybe if you really needed a means for more support, but do you really need Sableye for that?  Rating  Standard: 2/5 (...I mean, maybe there's something more to Bewitching Eyes?) Expanded: 1.5/5 (I've really got no idea)  Limited: 3/5 (well, there is Hex Maniac to shut off Abilities during your opponent's turn, Ace Trainer to benefit off of draw, and the Lysandre reprint here, so maybe there is something to all of this...)  Arora Notealus: SABLEYE IS COOL, DARN YOU MALAMAR!!  Weekend Thought: I mean, not that Malamar's that great or anything, 2.5/5 imo, but there ya go! What did you think of this week's cards? Also what are you dressing up as for Halloween if you're celebrating? Or maybe you're just passing out candy? Me, I'm dressing up as a movie theater usher...cause I work in the movie theater now. Goooooood times!
Otaku	Our final card this week is Sableye (XY: Ancient Origins 44/98).  Why?  Seemed appropriate to review a Ghost-Type the day before Halloween, and in the video games Sableye is indeed a Dark/Ghost dual-Typed Pokémon.  In the TCG though this version is straight up a Darkness-Type.  No major revelations since I began this set of reviews; the Darkness-Type is home to some very strong cards including perhaps the overall best attacker in the current card pool, Yveltal-EX.  As a Type though, it is merely “good” (perhaps something less in Standard), riding on the lingering potency of some of the older bits of support like Darkrai-EX and Dark Patch, in addition to the muscle of Yveltal-EX.  Only Ghost-Type flavored TCG Psychic-Types are Darkness Weak while all Fairy-Types are Darkness Resistant.  There are even some anti-Darkness-Type cards though good for Darkness-Types but bad for them, they aren’t very good at all.  This is still a solid package deal (especially in Expanded) but it certainly doesn’t approach my usual example for a top Type, Fighting.  Sableye can lay claim to being the best Stage because it is a Basic: no waiting to Evolve or running additional cards to get into play and many typical card effects just work better because instead of needing to work with multiple targets (like an Evolution line) Basics are one and done.  There are even Basic support cards like Prism Energy in Expanded; I haven’t cited it the rest of the week but I’ll cover my bases by mentioning Revive.  I didn’t miss it, I just was thinking of it more along the lines of “cards that work better for Basics” as getting the Basic Stage of an Evolution back could help the line but… yeah, really more like Basic support.  Sableye has 70 HP; it will only rarely survive a hit, either because the opponent had an incomplete set-up or is running something attacking for its effect and not damage like Seismitoad-EX and its “Quaking Punch” (though some Seismitoad-EX decks will have enough buffs to still score an effective OHKO).  Inverting the usual situation, we have the best Weakness and worst Resistance and they are the same: none!  With its low HP neither would have made much of a difference, but I still appreciate the lack of Weakness (lack of Resistance is typical, so it is what it is).  The Retreat Cost of [C] is not unusual for a small Basic and is easy both to pay and recover from having paid; it will only rarely be a problem.  Sableye has two attacks: for [D] you can use “Bewitching Eyes” to choose an Supporter in your opponent’s discard pile and the attack will copy its effect.  It should be noted that to copy something like Ace Trainer or Archie’s Ace in the Hole you have to meet all their usual requirements for playing them from hand, save not worrying about how many Supporters you have played that turn.  This attack can be great for letting you fake a second Supporter for the turn but it does have the snag of being at the mercy of whatever your opponent has used prior.  For [DC] you may use “Furtive Drop” to place three damage counters on the opponent’s Active Pokémon.  Pretty badly overpriced for the amount of damage counters and inability to select a specific target, but it still might be useful under rare but not improbable circumstances.  Bewitching Eyes is the reason to consider running this card, though.  There are four other Sableye: BW: Dark Explorers 62/108, BW: Plasma Freeze 49/116, BW:Legendary Treasures 61/113 and XY 68/146.  All are Basic Pokémon with no Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], no Ancient Trait and no Ability, but a few have unique characteristics (for Sableye) beyond the actual attacks: one (other than today’s) being Standard legal (XY 68/146), having 70 HP (XY 68/146 again), being a Team Plasma affiliated card (BW: Plasma Freeze 49/116) and lacking a second attack (BW:Legendary Treasures 61/113).  BW: Dark Explorers 62/108 is a Darkness-Type with “Confuse Ray” for [C] which does 10 damage and with “heads” on a coin flip inflicts Confusion, as well as “Junk Hunt” for [D] which allows you to add two Item cards from your discard pile to your hand.  Sableye [Plasma] (BW: Plasma Freeze 49/116) is a Psychic-Type that has “Scratch” for [C] which does 10 damage and “Shadow Cage” for [PC] which does 20 damage as well as preventing the Defending Pokémon from retreating during your opponent’s next turn.  BW:Legendary Treasures 61/113 is another Psychic-Type and only has “Tight Jaws” for [PC], doing 30 damage and (if you get “heads” on the coin flip) Paralyzing the opponent’s Active.  XY 68/146 is another Darkness-Type and for [C] can use “Filch” to draw a card or “Rip Claw” for [DC] which does 30 and (if you get “heads” on the coin flip” discards an Energy from the opponent’s Active.  Out of these, BW: Dark Explorers 62/108 has been reviewed three different times: once regularly, once as the #6 pick of 2012 and once as #5 pick for the cards lost to rotation.  Only Sableye [Plasma] has even a single review among the others.  Unsurprisingly, BW: Dark Explorers 62/108 is any real competition then for today’s card… and in fact is quite the competition.  While its attack doesn’t allow you to effectively play an additional Supporter, it is like a double Junk Arm sans any discards.  Ending your turn prevents you using the Items immediately but if your opponent doesn’t shuffle away your hand, you’ll have two Items you managed to make use of once before back again.  This proved so strong there actually have been successful, competitive decks built around it.  As you can gain use the effect to reuse Items initially used for set-up, it also means this Sableye rivals today’s as an opening attacker.  As such, if Sableye (XY: Ancient Origins 44/98) has a calling it is probably in Standard play.  It is great when your opponent has a Supporter in the discard you wish to use, but early game options may be scant.  In Limited you may be able to copy Ace Trainer, Hex Maniac or Steven; all fairly specialized but still nice options to have, but not so useful that I’d work Darkness Energy into my deck just for Sableye.  Ratings  Standard: 2.75/5  Expanded: 2.5/5  Limited: 3/5  Summary: Sableye has a useful trick in Bewitching Eyes but not so good as to earn a place in most decks.  It comes close to having a place in competitive decks, but ultimately that still means it falls a bit short.  Not sure if this counts as a trick or a treat, as at a glance I thought better of it.
Emma Starr	Today we look at Sableye, the troublemaker with no eyes (well, normal eyes at least). With 70 HP, he probably won’t be around very long, but what’s this? A Pokemon with no weakness?!! It’s like Nintendo is trying to apologize for the fact that he has a weakness now, due to the addition of Fairy types, and wanted him to remember how it felt to be in the two-Pokemon no-Weakness club, along with his cohort, Spiritomb! …Or they just knew he couldn’t afford a Weakness if he was ever going to be viable in the TCG. So…is he viable? Let’s see, shall we?             For one Dark Energy, he can use Bewitching Eyes (I guess he can use those ‘eyes’ of his!) to use the effect of any Supporter in your opponent’s discard pile! Although dependent on what your opponent plays, with this magical attack, you could legitimately use two Supporters in one turn! Heck, there’s only maybe one other card that lets you do anything like that, and that’s Magnezone (PLS 46), which isn’t even legal in Standard anymore! I’m actually pretty surprised that Magnezone was overlooked as much as it was back then, but of course, back then, we didn’t have access to cards like Lysandre, Teammates, or Korrina. So, is this effect still useful? Totally! Did you need to Syciper out your hand, and finally get that crucial Wally you needed? Well, too bad, because you only can use one Supporter per turn. But wait, your opponent played Wally earlier! Well, just use this attack, and get your Pyroar all readied up, to avoid that terrifying EX! Although situational, I think it can definitely find some use…in Dark decks, at least. It also has an attack called Furtive Drop, which places three damage counters on your opponent’s active Pokemon, but let’s face it…Sableye ain’t no Crobat (PHF 33).  Standard: 2/5 (The Dark requirement and lack of damage output hurt it, but it’s still a very unique and sneaky Pokemon…) Expanded: 3.5/5 (Dark type support AND Skyla?! Sign me up!) Limited: 2.5/5 (Could work with Tyranitar EX in even a partial Dark deck…copying a Lysnadre is always useful, and Hex Maniac shuts down Giratina EX and the Eeveelutions. And Steven works too, I guess.)