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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Absol, you disaster predictor, why are you here NOW?!  Could it be that...another major set is going to drop? Perhaps an evil team is going to show up? Or maybe even the leader of said team?! IS IT POSSIBLE?! Well I have no idea, but hey, Absol's back in the game once again to give us a couple of attacks that will make you say, "Why the heck did they put these on a card?" Future Sight is a simple 1-Energy move that does nothing but lets you look at the top 4 cards of either player's deck and rearrange them in any order. That's...well, I mean, that's not bad, exactly. Sure you can always eternally deny your opponent that one draw card or that one Energy they need, or you can manipulate your own deck to get you something you need quicker, but outside of all of that? It's not really that big of a deal. And since it's doing no damage, I don't think your opponent's gonna worry about it that much either.  The attack they WILL worry about is Doom News. For 2 Energy, you bounce off all the Energy off of Absol to your hand...what, did your opponent think there was more? Nah, don't worry about it, go ahead and take your turn, opponent, and then YOUR POKEMON'S GONE!! Yes, at the end of your opponent's turn, regardless of anything they may do to Absol, the Defending Pokemon will get Knocked Out. No damage, no Status, just a straight-up KO!!  ...now, granted, that gives your opponent time to prepare. And the best way to avoid this is to Switch around it. Assuming this works the way I think it does and just like other moves of a similar nature it doesn't just indiscriminately KO Pokemon whatever the case may be, Doom News can be avoided by the opponent if they are prepared, and Absol won't be able to do much about it because neither of his attacks do damage and take at least one turn to charge. Future Sight won't help save a 100 HP when your opponent slams down on him after Doom News failed.  It's hard to recommend building a deck with Absol, let alone around Absol, but if you think you're able to threaten a Switch on your opponent so that they can hope to avoid Doom News, that'd be his most useful application. On the plus side, you can also reattach those Energy from your hand in case your opponent does end up KOing Absol in the first place, whether it's over the course of one or two turns! So perhaps that's something to consider.  Rating  Standard: 1.5/5 (I think right now though, the pace of the game and the amount of damage being put out make Absol a bit...well, obsolete)  Expanded: 1.5/5 (he has a very niche purpose in either case for his attacks)  Limited: 2.5/5 (so it's hard to see what he'd do in the long run)  Arora Notealus: Absol once again comes into the game with a couple of attacks that seem alright but that aren't up to snuff with the current pace of the game. It's weird, you'd think the doomsayer of all things would actually be warning more about what's to come with his traits rather than screaming, "The end is coming!" as everyone's wandering around in the apocalyptic landscape. Just saying.  Weekend Thought: What cards from this week do you think will make their way into your decks? Are you optimistic about some of them? Or are some of the others more your speed? Or do you think that none of these cards are that great in the first place?
21times	Absol (Guardians Rising, 81/145) got a new incarnation in the Guardians Rising expansion set.   This Dark type, 100 HP Pokemon has two attacks.  For a single Dark energy, Future Sight allows you to look at the top four cards in either you or your opponent’s deck AND then rearrange them in any order you’d like.  Absol’s other attack, Doom News, for a Dark and a Colorless energy, will KO the opponent’s active Pokemon at the end of your opponent’s next turn.  Doom News also requires you to put all energy attached to Absol back into your hand after playing this attack. Future Sight has the potential to effectively stall your opponent.  When paired with Red Card (Generations, 71/83) and Delinquent (Breakpoint, 98/122), Future Sight could potentially prevent your opponent from doing much of anything for several turns.  Moreover, when paired with Doom News, if your opponent doesn’t have any draw support or way to switch out the active Pokemon, this virtually guarantees that the active Pokemon will be KO’d. At least that’s the way it works in theoreymon.  In realitymon, it doesn’t quite happen that way.  In a couple of matches when I’ve tried Future Sight, each of my opponent’s top four cards were helpful to him, it really didn’t matter what order I put them in.  Another time I managed to rearrange the top four cards adequately and even Delinquented my opponent down to one card… which unfortunately was Shaymin EX (Roaring Skies, 106/108).  And even though I’ve played Doom News several times, I think I’ve only actually KO’d the active once or maybe twice. I have paired Absol with several different Pokemon: Decidueye GX (Sun & Moon, 12/149), Sableye (Guardians Rising, 80/145), Drampa GX (Guardians Rising, 142/145).  All told, I’m a combined one and six (one win, six losses) with these decks.  The single win I had came when I paired Absol with Sableye, and I honestly think that my opponent just conceded because he basically got annoyed by my deck.  Overall, I just haven’t been able to find the right combination for Absol to have success. Rating Standard: 2 out of 5 Conclusion I do believe that Absol can find success at some point in the future.  There might be a combination out there right now that I simply didn’t see that would allow Absol to break out and surprise us all.  I can’t see it yet, though.  Right now, all I could say is that you could maybe tech in Absol as a one of surprise mid to late game card that could stall and disrupt your opponent and catch him off balance.
Otaku	We close this week with our 23rd place finisher from a Top 15 list… which sounds kind of depressing, but this set had a lot of great cards, so let us take a look at what Absol (SM: Guardians Rising 81/145) actually is and can do.  To begin with, it is… a regular Pokémon.  Given that our other two cards this week were Pokémon-GX, I wanted to stress that Absol is only worth one Prize when KO’d, doesn’t belong to any special groups, etc.  It is a Darkness-Type, which isn’t much for exploiting Weakness (only against certain Psychic-Type Pokémon), does sort-of has to worry about Resistance (all Fairy-Types), anti-Darkness-Type cards (which haven’t proven competitive), the main thing that carries the Type is its support, be it strong Darkness-Type Pokémon (whether for their Abilities, attacks, sometimes even both), or effects based on the Pokémon and/or Energy Type, they still have some very nice tricks.  They aren’t as great as they once were, though, and it can be easy to forget.  Absol is a Basic Pokémon, which is the best: minimal deck space, time to hit the field, capable of being your opening Active, and possessing a natural synergy with various card effects/mechanics.  There are some nice bits of Basic Stage support, but also Basic Stage counters, but the entire package is definitely in this Stage’s favor.  Absol has 100 HP, too much for Level Ball but not enough to be particularly durable; it isn’t a guaranteed OHKO but odds are against Absol surviving a hit if your opponent has even a half decent setup.  Fighting-Types will savage Absol thanks to its Weakness, with Psychic Resistance mostly just annoying Psychic-Types.  The Retreat Cost of [C] is fairly good; easy to pay but initially and in the long run.  Absol has two attacks, the first of which is “Future Sight” for [D].  This attack allows you to look at the top four cards of either player’s deck and arrange them as you wish.  For [DC] Absol can use “Doom News”, which returns all Energy attached to it to your hand while placing an effect on the opponent’s Active that will KO said Active at the end of your opponent’s next turn.  Future Sight might have some potential if you build a control deck; you can try to keep an opponent who is already in a bad way from drawing anything useful.  If they already have a draw card, however, they can try to just power through.  For that matter, certain search or recycling cards will provide a similar out.  Comboing it with your own effects unlikely to work; even if you have a brilliant combo worth the time and resource investment, your opponent need only force you to shuffle your deck (such as with N) or change the field enough to invalidate your setup.  Doom News is an effect-based OHKO.  This sounds pretty great for two Energy but you’ve got to remember two things.  First up is that attack effects can be reset by Benching a Pokémon, bouncing a Pokémon, Evolving a Pokémon, or using Pokémon Ranger.  Only Evolving won’t help here.  Second, even if you get the KO, your opponent still gets an entire turn to use the card.  This could be useful if your opponent panics or just has nothing “safe” to promote as you head into your next turn, but mostly it means your opponent has this time to shed the attack effect and/or still cash in on whatever they can from the doomed card. I don’t have any ideas for this card, I am afraid.  We have three other Absol from which to pick: BW: Plasma Freeze 67/116, XY: Roaring Skies 40/108, and XY: Black Star Promos XY178.  All are also Basic, Darkness-Type Pokémon with 100 HP, Fighting Weakness, Psychic Resistance, and Retreat Cost [C].  Absol (BW: Plasma Freeze 67/116) is a Team Plasma Pokémon, so we can call it Absol [Plasma] and combo it with Team Plasma support, but it has to deal with anti-Team Plasma effects.  Those aren’t as commonly used now because the card pool size plus power creep have diluted the influence of Team Plasma Pokémon (and decks), but Absol was often used off-Type, so it might still have some chops.  Its first attack is “Mind Jack” for [DC], which does 20 damage plus 20 per Pokémon on your opponent’s Benched.  For [DCC] it can use “Fearsome Shadow” instead to do 60 damage and force your opponent to reveal his or her hand.  This was our eighth place pick when we counted down the top 10 best cards of its expansion because Darkness-Types decks were needing a single-Prize attacker and Mind Jack was pretty great.  We have other options now, especially as this card is only Expanded legal, but Absol [Plasma] is still a solid Basic attacker.  Absol (XY: Roaring Skies 40/108) is still Standard legal and has the Ability “Cursed Eyes”, which you may Active when you Bench it from your hand.  Cursed Eyes allows you to move three damage counters from one of your opponent’s Pokémon (singular) to another of your opponent’s Pokémon (still singular).  For general usage, this can turn any damage left on the board into a weapon you may use elsewhere, either to set up the opponent’s Active for pseudo-OHKO or finish off something with only 30 HP left hiding on the Bench or behind various protective effects.  Its attack is “Mach Claw” which costs [DC] to do 30 that ignores Resistance; better than nothing, but you’re paying about twice the Energy it is worth, or else it does half the damage it really ought to do.  We looked at it here, and I had… well, they weren’t high hopes, but they were elevated above what it delivered.  It proved useful in a few decks, for a time, but I don’t recall seeing it lately.  Absol (XY: Black Star Promos XY178) is also Standard legal with one Ability and one attack.  The Ability is “Lamentation”, which triggers when it is your Active and damaged by an opponent’s attack (even if it gets KO’d in the process).  When that happens, your opponent has to discard a random card from his or her hand.  The attack is “Shadow Cage” for [DCC].  Shadow Cage does 60 damage while preventing the opponent’s Active from retreating during your opponent’s next turn.  While the effect can be handy, it and the damage aren’t enough to justify the Energy cost, especially as said effect is easy to circumvent.  Lamentation has some merit, but not enough for something likely to be OHKO’d and/or without a really good attack to use as well.  I may not have had too many great things to say about these past three Absol, but I think they are more useful than today’s for their respective formats.  The one place Absol (SM: Guardians Rising 81/145) could shine is in Limited.  The card’s stats are comparatively better here.  Foresight is a potent tool for building your side of the field or stifling your opponent’s development, as there are fewer draw/search cards in a player’s deck.  Doom News is harder to shake as well.  Ratings  Standard: 1.65/5  Expanded: 1.5/5  Limited: 3.5/5  Conclusion  Absol (SM: Guardians Rising 81/145) does a few interesting things, but its attack effects aren’t useful enough to justify running it, only to avoid minimum scores.  Other than in Limited play, where, as is usually the case, a competent card can shine.  Absol fell one point shy of Vikavolt-GX and one point ahead of our next two runners-up (which tied with each other).  That’s right, we aren’t done with these yet.  On my own list, Absol ranked 104th.  As you may recall, that far down I never got around to properly ordering the cards, so that could be misleading; 69th place through 127th place all received the same preliminary score of “1.75” because I didn’t allow myself to speculate lower than that.  I won’t be mad if one of the others has a brilliant use for Absol, however, and most of my picks that ranked this low have also failed to bear fruit yet.