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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

21times	Tapu Koko (SM30 and SM31) enters the meta through a Sun & Moon promo set.  A 110 HP Basic Pokemon, it has two attacks.  Its primary attack, Flying Flip, for two Colorless energy does twenty damage to each of your opponent’s Pokemon.  Koko’s other attack, Electric Ball, costs three energy (two Lightning and a Colorless energy), does one hundred damage to the active Pokemon, and pretty much only gets used in Lightning decks that run baby Koko. I have said it before: I love spread attackers.  I was so hoping that I could get this to work with Aegislash (Breakpoint, 62/122) and its Painful Sword attack that doubles the number of damage counters on your opponent’s Pokemon.  Occasionally, I can get this to work and spectacularly take something like seven, eight, or nine prize cards to end the game, but more often than not, it just takes too many Flying Flips for this to work. The partner I have had the most success with is actually Meowstic (Generations, RC15).  For a single Psychic energy, Ear Influence allows you to rearrange your opponent’s damage counters in any way you please.  That means a couple of Flying Flips on a full board will put 240 damage on your opponent’s Pokemon, enough to KO just about everything in the game.  There’s a Tapu Lele coming out (not sure when, I don’t think it’s in Burning Shadows) that also allows you to move damage counters around your opponent’s Pokemon in any way you want as well, but it costs a Psychic and a Colorless energy, so I think Meowstic will remain the better option.  I actually played a Koko Honchkrow (Guardians Rising, 79/145) deck at NAIC and absolutely destroyed it – I don’t think Honchkrow is a good partner with promo Koko. You don’t have to use Tapu Koko exclusively in spread decks, though.  Flying Flip works with a Double Colorless Energy (Sun & Moon, 136/149) and can help soften up opponents.  Many times that twenty or forty extra damage from an early Flying Flip or two can help turn what would have been a two shot KO into an OHKO.  Tapu Koko also has one other feature that will make it at least a one of in every deck in the new format: it has free retreat. Free retreat gives the card it is bestowed upon a major advantage, but free retreat will become more valuable than ever before post-rotation.  Guzma (Burning Shadows, 115/147) enters the meta in the next expansion early in August, and it will quickly supplant Lysandre (Ancient Origins, 78/98).  Guzma allows you to switch your opponent’s active Pokemon with one on the bench (your choice, just like Lysandre), but it also requires you to switch your active Pokemon as well.  This may seem like a negative if you already have a fully powered attacker in the active, but if you have a Tapu Koko on the bench, you can move the baby Koko into the active and simply retreat it and put the Pokemon you want back up top.  I have already been using Koko in this capacity in Solgaleo (Guardians Rising, 87/145) decks, and it has worked exceptionally well.  Having a basic with 110 HP and free retreat is very rare and extremely valuable – Koko can start in the active and usually tank an early hit, allowing you a little more time to get your benched Pokemon set up. Rating Standard: 4 out of 5 Conclusion Tapu Koko is a really good card – ironically, it’s better than its GX version.  And there are a TON of spread attackers that are coming out in Burning Shadows that it might be a good partner with.  I think there are going to be a LOT of different combinations that baby Koko will pair with to make for some very effective spread decks.  I would highly recommend going and getting at least one promo Koko, and I have been very happy with my playset for the month plus that I’ve had all four.
Otaku	Tapu Koko (SM: Black Star Promos SM30, SM31) is a promo I almost forgot was already out.  This is our third Lightning-Type this week - sensing a pattern - and I still haven’t been convinced the Type is especially good or bad.  There are some nice members of it, exploiting Weakness is fairly favorable, Resistance exists but isn’t common, and anti-Lightning-Type effects are rare and lacking,  but the Lightning-Type just doesn’t seem to have a strong, current deck (repeated pun intended), though I’m out of touch with the Expanded Format.  The pieces are almost there, but something is lacking or we don’t know how to properly combine them.  Being a Basic is great, 110 HP is fairly good for one (difference of resources invested).  Fighting Weakness is bad but that Type is also are struggling to field a good deck contemporary deck and/or are likely to score a OHKO without Weakness.  Metal Resistance is welcome though it isn’t likely to make much of a difference as the current go-to Metal-Type attacker is Metagross-GX and after Resistance, it still scores a OHKO.  The perfect free Retreat Cost is significant, more so due to the Stage; Tapu Koko is a pivot Pokémon that need not rely on another card effect to get out of the way.  “Flying Flip” is the first attack, and costs [CC] to do 20 damage to all of your opponent’s Pokémon (don’t apply Weakness/Resistance for the Benched ones).  As long as your deck can do something with it, that’s a good return.  “Electric Ball” does 100 damage for [LLC], which is notably less generous but still adequate.  The main gripe isn’t the damage but that it costs [LLC] instead of [LCC], undermining Energy acceleration (like Double Colorless Energy) for the first attack.  All in all, this seems like a universally solid Basic Pokémon.  In fact, that is the only thing going against Tapu Koko, but it could be enough to keep it from seeing a lot of play; a decently-sized Basic Pokémon with a free Retreat and general spread attack is good but it might not be good enough to find its way into most decks because there just isn’t the room in the first place.  Hopefully, we’ll see at least a little more of this card in Standard and/or Expanded play, especially if a good damage spread deck evolves, but I don’t know of one myself.  It would be brilliant in the Limited Format except - as a promo - it isn’t an option there.  Ratings  Standard: 3.25/5  Expanded: 3.15/5  Limited: N/A (4/5 if legal)  Conclusion  Tapu Koko is at least a good measure of power creep; this would have been brilliant until the last two or three years and could be brilliant now except I’m missing the deck for it.  Rotation may help; it will depend upon what slots are freed up by cards leaving as well as how deck structures change in general.  A good spread deck should also make a difference if one emerges.
Vince	Today I'm going to look at Tapu Koko, a Pokemon which, I think, will see some play because of what this card can do. But let's run through this card. It has 110 HP, weak to fighting (still dangerous due to buff specialization such as Strong Energy, Fighting Fury Machamp, and Regi Power Regirock-EX), resist metal Pokémon, and has a free retreat cost (which is appropriate since it is just as fast such as Jolteon, Crobat, and Mewtwo).   Tapu Koko has two attacks. Flying Flip costs CC and does 20 damage to each of your opponent's Pokémon. Electric Ball costs LLC and does 100 damage. Electric Ball is not terrible filler as it does enough to OHKO lightning weak Pokémon such as Yveltal-EX (before fighting fury belt) and Shaymin-EX. When boosted by Choice Band, Electric Ball can reach probable 2HKOs. Flying Flip is DCE compatible and/or splashable due to its Colorless costs. This is great for decks that set up for multiple KOs. However, Daunting Pose Machoke, Bench Barrier Mr. Mime, and Mountain Ring can limit the effectiveness of spread attacks.   I like this card because it can be a splashable pivot Pokémon, dealing spread damage while retreating for free if you don't want the guardian on the active spot or when it has done its job. However, 110 HP isn't hard to OHKO these days where the threshold of achieving 2HKOs are dealing at least 130 damage against most GXs (150 if Wailord-EX with fighting fury belt). Despite that, I will be willing to have a playset of this guardian if I could, which might be a few months later.  This is a promo card, which you won’t be able to use in the Limited format.   Ratings:   Modified: 3.5/5 (Machoke can block bench damage)   Expanded: 3.6/5 (In addition, Bench Barrier and Mountain Ring exists, even if it's not being played as much)   Limited: N/A (promo)   Coming Up: I don’t recall Team Rocket having this Pokemon!