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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Heliolisk is pretty basic all things considered.   His first move, Quick Attack, is basic, 1-for-20 with a coin flip for an extra 20 damage.    Raging Thunder's pretty interesting, being a 3-for-120 move. It does provide 2HKO fodder for most anything short of a Stage 2 GX, and even then a Choice Band is all that it would take to beat it out. The only drawback is the 30 damage to a Benched Pokemon, but that can actually be a strength with Drampa-GX! It might be an aid to your opponent, as it's 30 less damage they need to deal each time, but Drampa-GX can take advantage of having a damaged Bench sitter more than anything.   Still, I would you wouldn't rely on Raging Thunder to deal damage too much. Ideally you want to use it once and have Drampa-GX ready to go right after, but that takes time to power both of these guys up to 3 Energy apiece. So take this strategy with a grain of salt...and hopefully some Max Elixir to get it going out faster on Drampa-GX at least.   Rating   Standard: 2/5 (he's alright)   Expanded: 2/5 (at least to me)   Limited: 3/5 (not that terrific, but he'll do)   Arora Notealus: Heliolisk: because AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Jurassic Park.   Next Time: MORE LEGENDARY TAPU
21times	Heliolisk (Guardians Rising, 44/145) returns to the meta in the Guardians Rising expansion set.  A 100 Stage 1 Lightning Type Pokemon, it has two attacks.  For a single, Colorless energy, Quick Attack does a base twenty damage plus an additional twenty damage if you flip heads.  For a Lightning energy and two Colorless energy, Raging Thunder does 120 damage (but also thirty damage to one of your benched Pokemon). The thirty damage to one of your benched Pokemon is easily fixed with Rough Seas (Primal Clash, 137/160), although that will rotate out in a little more than a month from now.  I also paired Heliolisk with the Eeveelutions (Ancient Origins, Flareon 13 and Vaporeon 22).  I so hoped that I had found a little diamond in the rough and that Heliolisk’s Raging Thunder would smack Metal, Grass, Fire, and various other Pokemon around with the power of two times weakness, if only for the brief moments it has left in the standard format. Unfortunately, I had only a little more success than I had with Alolan Golem (Guardians Rising, 42/145) yesterday.  I won only one out of seven matches.  It did seem easier to power up and evolve Heliolisks, but at 100 HP they are extremely frail – virtually every deck in the meta today can easily do well over one hundred damage.  When I did my damage analysis a couple months ago, the median was eighty (almost ninety).  I’m sure it’s significantly higher than that today. I will say that I probably would have done better as well had I played more decks that have weakness to the Eeveelutions.  I actually only faced one deck where the Eeveelutions proved useful (Lurantis GX (Sun & Moon, 15/149)).  I went up against a couple of Garbodor (Guardians Rising, 51/145) Drampa GX (Guardians Rising, 115/145), a Sylveon GX (Guardians Rising, 92/145), Lycanroc GX (SM14), Greninja Break (Breakpoint, 41/122), and Lapras GX (Sun & Moon, 35/149). Rating Standard: 1.5 out of 5 Conclusion I had very little success with Heliolisk, and the cards I paired it with (Rough Seas and the Eeveelutions) will not be available to it in a short period of time.  That means that Heliolisk will go back to the binder for now.  Hopefully, something in the future will give it another shot at competitiveness.
Otaku	Today we’ll cover Heliolisk (SM: Guardians Rising 44/145).  This is a Lightning-Type Stage 1 Pokémon with 100 HP, Fighting Weakness, Metal Resistance, Retreat Cost [C] and two attacks.  For [C], “Quick Attack” does 20 damage and then has you flip a coin: “heads” means +20 damage (40 total) while “tails” means you still just do 20 damage.  For [LCC] Heliolisk can use “Raging Thunder” to do 120 damage to the opponent’s Active but the attack also does 30 damage to one of your own Benched Pokémon.  A lot of the general stuff will sound like yesterday’s Alolan Golem review.  The Lightning-Type has decent support, hits a decent amount of Weakness (including against some key cards), barely has to worry about Resistance and anti-Lightning-Type effects but doesn’t have any strong, current successes in the current Standard Format, with only a few older success stories still shining in Expanded.  Vikavolt is trying, though.  Being a Stage 1 is solid; Basics are better, BREAK Evolutions of Basics are on par, and the rest is worse.  100 HP is not good, but we’ve seen worse succeed; don’t expect Heliolisk to survive while being Active.  Especially against Fighting-Types, since the Weakness all but assures a OHKO.  Metal Resistance means Heliolisk might get lucky in that match-up, but an (effective) 120 HP still gets OHKO’d by something like Metagross-GX and its “Giga Hammer”.  The Retreat Cost of [C] is fairly good, so long as you don’t have to pay it more than once or twice in a game.  Quick Attack is adequate filler while Raging Thunder is almost worth it.  Combos can heal, prevent, or even utilize that 30 points of Bench damage and cost aren’t too bad to meet; the problem is it just doesn’t hit hard enough without massive combos better used elsewhere.  We’ve got four options for Helioptile: XY: Flashfire 36/106, XY: Phantom Forces 28/119, XY: Phantom Forces 29/119, and SM: Guardians Rising 43/145.  For other Heliolisk, we’ve got XY: Flashfire 37/106, XY: Phantom Forces 30/119, XY: Black Star Promos XY47.  All are Lightning-Type Pokémon with Fighting Weakness, Metal Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C], which carry the same meaning as above, give or take areas where something specific (like having even lower HP) tweaks things.  All Helioptile are Basic Pokémon (a good thing) and all Heliolisk are Stage 1 (as above), with only Helioptile (XY: Phantom Forces 29/119) lacking 60 HP (it has a barely worse 50 HP) and all other Heliolisk only have 90 HP; a little nice for Level Ball but it mostly just makes them all varying degrees of more fragile.  Helioptile (XY: Flashfire 36/106) can use “Pound” for [L] to do 10 damage or “Destructive Beam” for [LC] to flip a coin and (on “heads”) discard an Energy attached to the opponent’s Active (“tails” does nothing).  Helioptile (XY: Phantom Forces 28/119) only knows “Tail Rap”, which costs [LC] and does 10 damage with two coin flips each good for +20 damage per “heads”.  Helioptile (XY: Phantom Forces 29/119) also has Quick Attack, still priced as [C] but doing just 10 damage plus 10 on “heads” or plus nothing on “tails”, with “Static Shock” for [LCC] doing 30 damage.  Helioptile (SM: Guardians Rising 43/145) has “Thunder Shock” for [L], doing 10 damage and providing a coin flip to afflict the opponent’s Active with Paralysis, and is the only other Standard legal option.  If you insist on playing this in Expanded, still go with Helioptile (SM: Guardians Rising 43/145), as it seems like it has the best chance of surviving.  Heliolisk (XY: Flashfire 37/106) has two attacks. For [C] it can use “Parabolic Charge” to snag two Energy cards (basic or Special) from your deck and add them to your hand.  For [LCC] it can use another version of Quick Attack to do 60 damage, with a successful coin flip adding 30 damage.  Attacks like Parabolic Charge only work if they are on something huge and hard to OHKO and that has a strategy to make good use of said Energy, while Quick Attack is clearly sub par as we really want to be doing 90 damage (maybe with a bonus) for that Energy cost, not 90 on “heads” and 60 on “tails”.  We officially reviewed it here, and I think we were pretty much spot on then, which means now it’s a little worse (due to power creep).  Heliolisk (XY: Phantom Forces 30/119) knows a version of Pound that still costs [L] but does 30 damage and “Parabolic Spark” for [LC] which allows you to discard as many [L] Energy attached to (and all) of your Pokémon as you like for 30 damage per.  This wasn’t very good back then and so it still isn’t good enough now.  Heliolisk (XY: Black Star Promos XY47) is the only card here with an Ability, and that Ability is “Dry Skin” which reduces the damage it takes from Water-Type Pokémon by 30 after Weakness and Resistance are applied (which usually doesn’t matter since its Fighting Weak/Metal Resistant).  While there have been some Water-Types that won’t like this Ability, but even when said attackers were a major metagame force, it isn’t broad enough coverage to matter most of the time.  For [LCC] it can use “Hyper Beam” to do 60 damage and flip a coin; “tails” means you just do that 60, “heads” means you also discard an Energy attached to the opponent’s Active.  Definitely overpriced/underpowered, and we thought that back when it was new, though I was too generous.  Only Heliolisk (XY: Black Star Promos XY47) is also Standard-legal, but it rotated out come September 1st.  Given that nothing is particularly impressive about the other Heliolisk and today’s looks to be more of the same, most of that won’t matter.  Enjoy this in Limited play, where being easy to mix with other Pokémon-Types - really, most of the card - is going to prove worthwhile.  Ratings  Standard: 1.5/5  Expanded: 1.25/5  Limited: 3.5/5  Conclusion  Another Heliolisk that is filler, at least it remains the kind that takes a second glance to confirm as being too fragile for the attacks it bears.
Vince	Today, we’re looking at Heliolisk from the Guardians Rising Set and I think this Pokemon is straightforward when it comes to attacks.  100 HP and Metal resistance is helpful, but the Fighting weakness is still dangerous as Fighting Pokemon does good damage for one energy.  Quick Attack does 20 damage plus 20 more if you flipped heads.  Raging Thunder is an attack seen on Zapdos (XY Roaring Skies), and that Pokemon is about to leave rotation, so I guess Heliolisk is taking responsibility as a heavy hitter.  120 damage that is compatible with Double Colorless Energy and a lightning energy makes it easier to fuel up attacks despite taking two manual attachments.  Like Zapdos, one of your Benched Pokemon has to take damage, in this case, 30 damage.  If Golisopod is directed to take 30 damage, Armor ability will nullify that 30 damage, making it take nothing.  I don’t think Heliolisk sees a lot of play, unfortunately.   Ratings:   Standard: 2/5   Expanded: 2.25/5 (being a Stage 1 means being supported by Eeveelutions in Ancient Origins set, plus Rough Seas for recovery)   Limited: 3/5 (good damage for the cost, and it could 2HKO everything in the Guardians Rising set)   Coming Up: A guardian is watching over you in Melemele Island!