Pick Up Our New 20th Anniversary Pokemon Book for your Collection!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles

Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play

Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel

GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual

Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar

Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List

Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
- Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us

Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	KIAWWWWWWWWWWWWE  I bet it just feels great saying his name out loud like that. Anywho, Kiawe, aside from being the Trial Captain with a fiery passion, comes to us in the form of a Supporter! He's actually dangerously powerful, but he also requires pretty good timing. He's got a simple effect - you play him, you search up to 4 Fire Energy from your deck, and attach them all to one Pokemon you control.  INSTANT POWER-UP!!  But then your turn ends.  ...instant sadness.  All things considered, this is an extremely beneficial move. Fire Pokemon now have a means of accessing their most powerful attacks within a single turn, which is probably insane in terms of acceleration. In fact, that's almost as powerful as Turtonator-GX's GX Attack all on its own, and it doesn't cost any Energy itself! But there is that slight drawback of ending your turn early. I imagine early game, this can help dominate a match for Fire Pokemon, but in the late game it could be a pain to draw into.  Fortunately, that's where something like Tapu Lele-GX could come in handy to make this a powerful early game tech card. If you get Tapu Lele-GX, you've got instant access to Kiawe even if he's only a one-of in your deck! Course I don't know about chancing him out to Prizes, but most of the time, running only one copy and Tapu Lele-GX ought to work out in the end. I'd say you should consider running him at more copies in Fire decks though, because:  1) he's amazing in the early game, granting access to such powerful attacks that skipping an attack for one turn isn't crippling 2) he's pretty good mid- to late-game for when you want to set-up a back-up attacker and can afford to skip an attack in favor of applying immediate pressure on your next turn to your opponent 3) he's good enough to use if you're in the lead or dominating that you can afford to skip a turn to power up a back-up attacker in case your opponent KOs the one out front, allowing you to keep momentum  Kiawe has more potential early on, of course, but his uses aren't strictly limited there. Sure, he's not going to save you if you draw him out late game and your opponent's got 1-2 Prizes left and is about to KO your Active Pokemon, but barring that, you should be able to make use of him in most scenarios. Just keep in mind the timing of it so you're not caught off-guard when your opponent draws his next card after you've attached all this Energy.  Rating  Standard: 4/5 (a great accelerator for any Fire-based deck)  Expanded: 4/5 (sacrificing a turn is almost nothing compared to getting access to your strongest moves early)  Limited: 4.5/5 (it's almost undeniable)  Arora Notealus: Kiawe involves skillful timing to be used correctly, but when he's played right, you can explode on your opponent in ways most decks can't! Combined with the right attackers, Fire decks could easily be a dominant deck in the early game and could even be a challenge to the likes of Garbodor decks!  Weekend Thought: Do you agree with our picks so far? Think there's something higher up to look forward to? Maybe there's something you'd like to see on the list that isn't there? Or do you think there's a card that didn't make the cut that should be on here instead? Only 5 more cards to go!  Next Time: Well Monday's a day off, but that's just a tag-team Twofer for Tuesday! Shadow Tuesday~
21times	Kiawe (Burning Shadows, 144/147) blazes his way into the meta through the Burning Shadows expansion set.  This Supporter card allows for energy acceleration like never seen before.  By playing this card, you can attach UP TO four FIRE energy cards (you don’t have to take four, you can take less) to one of your Pokemon; however, your turn ends after playing Kiawe and you can only attach these Fire energy cards to a single Pokemon. So let me give you some advice, mostly because I’ve done this at least three times already to my opponents: don’t Kiawe your active Pokemon.  Many cards (Gardevoir GX (Burning Shadows, 93/147), Tapu Lele GX (Guardians Rising, 60/145), and Oranguru (Sun & Moon, 113/149) just to name a few common ones) do additional damage based on the number of energy you have attached to your active Pokemon.  Gardevoir GX will actually OHKO Ho-Oh GX very easily if Ho-Oh GX has four energy attached to it.  When you play Kiawe, put the energy on a benched Pokemon.  At least make your opponent find Guzma (Burning Shadows, 115/147) in order to KO or get a big first hit in on you. Pokemon that I have seen or would think that would benefit from Kiawe: ·         Ho-Oh GX ·         M Mewtwo EX (Breakthrough, 64/162) ·         Snorlax GX (SM Promo 05) ·         Turtonator GX (Guardians Rising, 18/145) ·         M Blaziken EX (XY Promo 86) ·         M Charizard EX (Generations, 12/83) ·         M Charizard EX (Evolutions, 101/108) ·         Charizard GX (Burning Shadows, 20/147) ·         Delphox (Fates Collide, 13/124) ·         Flareon EX (Generations, RC6) ·         Volcanion EX (Steam Siege, 26/114) ·         Kangaskhan (Sun & Moon, 99/149) ·         Drampa GX (Guardians Rising, 115/145) And there are certainly others, this is just the list I came up with the time I have available. Rating Standard: 3.5 out of 5 Conclusion Kiawe can help fuel your attack very quickly.  Ending the turn kind of halves the damage (similar to attacks that can’t be used in the following turn – meaning if you do 150 on one turn but can’t attack in the next, you’re only really doing 75 damage per turn), but the acceleration of four energy on to a single card mitigates the lost turn.  I had this as my number five card, but I would probably downgrade it a little knowing what I now know about some other cards, but I’m pretty sure I would still keep it in the top ten.  Kiawe will definitely help you win games and accelerate your attacking strategy.  I’m sure we’ll see it played at worlds at some point this weekend, I’m very interested in seeing what kind of decks it shows up in!
Otaku	Note: I’ve been running late this week; by the time you read this (or shortly after), each day should have a review by me.  Our sixth place finisher is Kiawe (SM: Burning Shadows 116/147, 144/147), a Trainer-Supporter that allows you to search your deck for up to four [R] Energy cards and attach them to one of your Pokémon; you have to shuffle your deck afterward and then your turn ends.  There is a surprising amount to unpack with this.  Unless you still have a deck that can risk Trainers’ Mail, being a Trainer (in general) is no big deal, while being a Supporter means fierce competition for deck space and fantastic combos thanks to cards like Tapu Lele-GX and VS Seeker.  Accelerating four Energy is amazing as few attacks would need more than that, at least ignoring Type specifics.  Speaking of Type specifics, note that Kiawe does not care about Pokémon Type!  While the recipient has to be able to utilize [R] Energy, it can be any Type; besides some Dragon-Types that have [R] Energy requirements, this means almost any Colorless-Type with hefty Energy costs can also consider Kiawe for a massive influx of power.  While I keep saying [R] Energy, let us also be clear that no Energy counts as [R] while in the deck except basic Fire Energy; yes, once again Burning Energy is the one getting burned as it manages to be incompatible with yet another piece of [R] Energy support.  Snagging Energy from the deck tends to be great early game, as you don’t have to expend other resources getting it into position but late (possibly even mid) game there’s a risk you might run low, unlike Energy acceleration from the discard pile which often can utilize the same Energy cards over and over again.  If you do run low, cards like Super Rod and Energy Recycler form simple combos.  The real thing we are worried about is that final sentence of the effect:  “Your turn ends.”  In fact, it makes some of what I just said a lot less important; this card went from being a broken power play to something best reserved for an opening gambit.  You can still use it later, but if it isn’t the first turn - preferably T1 - you’re probably giving up a valuable attack opportunity.  A less obvious drawback is you just slapped four Energy onto a single target; this is begging for Guzma or Lysandre or whatever your opponent has available to for the Pokémon which received the Energy Active to swing for a big hit, if not a OHKO.  Pulling off Kiawe first turn is aided by Tapu Lele-GX, but so is Guzma, which can then promote the freshly Benched Tapu Lele-GX, and if your opponent has a Double Colorless Energy ready, that’s a 120 point swing.  With Choice Band, it can reach 150 damage, which is safer than getting slammed by something that attacks for Weakness or has an even better damage return, but we’re talking about what you probably intended as your big hitter already about half (or more) KO’d.  Of course, this means both players have not used a Supporter for something else first turn, so as bad as I may have made it sound, it isn’t the guaranteed scenario.  Still, at the risk of sounding greedy, Kiawe would be much stronger if you could attach the Fire Energy to your Pokémon (plural) as you wished.  For the current Standard Format pre-rotation, while it definitely carries an element of risk, this is likely to become the first turn play of many Fire-Type decks.  Even with the added risk, Kiawe maybe a strong play mid or late game but it requires a bit of a paradox to be a sensible play; being in such a strong position you can risk giving up an attack without hammering away at your opponent making more sense or being in a weak position while still being able to keep the Pokémon receiving the Energy safe.  Well, I suppose if you can’t it could just be a desperation play.  Post rotation the Standard Format will lack Shaymin-EX (XY: Roaring Skies 77/108, 106/108), often an important part of first turn combos sans Supporter usage for draw or search; yes, I already said you can fetch Kiawe with Tapu Lele-GX but you still have to get it into hand (or an Ultra Ball with discard fodder).  Yet, this also denies your opponent the same opportunity, making it less likely they can do that whole Guzma trick (or prep and promote an even stronger attacker).  In the end, I think Kiawe (and the decks seeking to utilize it) will be in a slightly stronger state, if only due to a net drop in competition.  In the Expanded Format, Kiawe must compete with Blacksmith…  or it would except you can probably spare room for both.  I’m a bit more fond of Blacksmith, though; while you can’t make quite as monstrous early game plays, Blacksmith just seems to get better and better as the game proceeds.  This doesn’t count if you’re using Kiawe with a non-Fire-Type, of course.  All in all, the larger card pool strikes me as more agreeable to Kiawe, not less, as you’ve got Battle Compressor, Tapu Lele-GX, VS Seeker, and probably several additional attackers to try and create combos and even decks around.  At first, I thought this would be a near must-run for the Limited Format, but reviewing the set, there aren’t as many cards with three (or higher) [R] and/or [C] Energy requirements to fill, especially at the lower rarities.  Wonderful if you do pull such cards, though… which means the score below is an aggregate of the two. Ratings  Standard: Pre-Rotation - 3.5/5, Post Rotation - 3.75/5  Expanded; 3.65/5  Limited: 3.5/5  Conclusion  Kiawe is the new trick for Fire-Type Pokémon, and maybe even some Pokémon of other Types.  Best when used first turn, so you’re not giving up some awesome attack and your opponent is hopefully less likely to wreck the Pokémon to which you just invested so heavily.  I’m guessing a single copy will be a staple for such decks, probably two (lessening the risk of both being Prized).  Not something to worry about outside of its own deck(s), though.  Breakdown  Kiawe snagged sixth place with 21 voting points, while also appearing on all five lists.  Wait, so did yesterday’s seventh place pick, Golisopod-GX: how did I break the tie?  I decided that instead of rolling one six-sided die, I’d roll 3d6… three six-sided dice, for those who aren’t familiar with that notation.  It is what my preferred pen & paper RPG system (GURPS) uses, and I like the variety in the results.  Kiawe got a “13” while Golisopod-GX only rolled an “11”.  As for my personal top 10, Kiawe took fifth place.  I’m comfortable with this, as the cards I had above and below it are of comparable quality.
Vince	Today’s 6th place pick is Kiawe! He's the trial captain in Wela Volcano and one of Ash's companions in the SM anime and now he's on the TCG. Being a supporter makes it face competition from other supporters because you can only use one per turn. The effect is to search your deck for four fire energies and attach it to one of your Pokemon. Your turn then ends. That's some serious energy acceleration while thinning out your deck! Ending your turn, however, is actually pretty bad, as not only you won't be able to attack, your opponent can punish your Pokémon for having too many energies on one Pokémon (X Ball variants) and possibly KO said Pokémon, losing board position. That said, Kiawe's superior energy acceleration is unrivaled compared to other supporters. Blacksmith comes second, as it attaches 2 fire energy from the discard to one of your fire Pokémon; And Blacksmith doesn't end your turn, which would be the safer option. However, Blacksmith is only legal in the Expanded format. The ideal use of Kiawe would be using him during the first turn of the game where you can't attack first turn, thus making the "ending your turn" clause inconsequential, or if you weren’t able to attack anyways (not having enough energies, being paralyzed, being asleep, or not being able to attack due to an effect). Overall, Kiawe is a good card for Standard and Expanded, and definitely great for Limited, since losing a turn to attack is offset by the sheer acceleration to fuel up any Pokémon with attacks that cost four energy and can meet with fire energy costs as well as thinning out your deck so that you don't draw into unwanted cards. Standard (pre-rotation): 3/5 Standard (post-rotation): 3/5 Expanded: 3/5 Limited: 5/5 Summary: I had Kiawe at 10th place pick. This is actually a very risky card to use, since losing an attack can slow down your momentum. You have to be sure that the Pokemon whose energies are being assigned to via Kiawe is safe during your opponent’s turn.