Greetings to all Pojo readers, who by now have found that POJO is THEE
place to find out just about everything there is to know about Pokemon.

I have been playing the Pokemon trading card game for quite some time
now and the newly translated Neo set is going to have the biggest effect

on the game BY FAR since perhaps Jungle arrived on the scene WAAAAY back

when.

I personally have not bought one single pack of Neo as of yet, but am
going to do so very shortly.  My opinion solely is based from the
reading and analisis of POJO's "Spoiler's and translations" section.

FIRST OFF:

It appears that Water will be making a HUGE return with the cards it can

implement from Neo!   M-A-S-S-I-V-E!   Let me point out my favourite
cards of this set and it should become quite apparent.

Feraligatr -  Especially the one with "Riptide".  This is an easy to
spot card.  Some Pokemon players have been eagerly awaiting this card as

it will no doubt spawn it's own deck!

The other Feraligatr might go well with a Water-Psychic deck... can you
say Damage swap-chomp!  With max damage capability of 140!  The energy
requirement is intensive.  Another good reason to have Alakazam around!

Clefairy -  When I read this card, the first thing that popped into my
head was dozens of Clefairies dancing  to the song "Under the Sea" from
the Little Mermaid movie!

Is the spoiler correct?  Squaredance and I quote"Flip a number of coins
equal to the total number of  Pokemon in play.  For each heads, you may
search your deck for a basic Energy card, show it to your opponent,  and

put it into your hand.  Shuffle your deck afterward."

Three words... OMG!!!  I believe the rule book states that Benched
pokemon are "in play"  so that means that the total could be 12?!  With
an average chance of half!  Until you pull out that two headed
coin...lol!  Next round either rain dance or downpour, then rip tide?
Totally abusive!  Less of a deck drain than Oak or Misty's Wrath.

Quagsire and Whooper - water pokemon with a lightning resistance?  How
sweet is that!  Yeah they are weak to Grass (Scyther and company) but
those Squitle's now have a weapon in the early game against those
dreaded Electabuzz's.  Awesome attack too... better than the
Swinub-Piloswine line.  Surf!  2 water energies for 30 damage...
Sweeeeeet!

NOW THE REST:

There are many other cards to this set that are worth mentioning!  Most
notably are the Baby Pokemon!

ALL Baby pokemon..when active have their Baby power which makes the
attacking Pokemon to flip a coin.  If tails, the attack does nothing.
It's like having a bunch of little Fossil haunter's running around when
they are the active.  ALL of their attacks are REALLY good in certain
situations!

Cleffa -  It's like having an auto Professor Elm!

Magby - Like having an auto Goop-Gas!

Pichu - Nice attack...see ya later Erika's Dratini and Mime!

Elekid -  Good if out of energy and your Active can't attack, or your
active has to deal with resistance.  Great combo with Chansey!


NEXT

We also see some of the most proven Pokemon get another look.

Electabuzz -  Although I still believe that the origional Electabuzz is
better, this Electabuzz comes the closest to competing with him.  70 HP,
1 retreat (instead of two) and two decent attacks.  20 for DCE  and for
3 Electric, Swift!  This Swift attack is what the doctor ordered vs...
Mr. Mime, Haunter, Erika's Dratini and the Electric resistant pokemon.
But it sucks vs Pokemon weak to Electricity like Blastoise!  Still it
would be worthwhile to use 1 of these in place of a Base set Electabuzz.

Magmar -  why don't we just call him Magmarchan!  He looks almost
identical to Hitmonchan in most respects.  70 HP, 2 retreat, first
attack 20 damage (but for DCE) and 2nd attack for 40, 2 fire 1
colourless (same as chan).  Fossil Magmar is wicked, but you have GOT to
give this one a try.


AND YOU THOUGHT CLEFABLE WAS YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!

Togepi -  Behind it's cute picture lies a little menace!  Although it's
40 HP isn't real great, Topepi has no weakness, a resistance to Psychic
and an attack for DCE that does 10 damage and AUTO poisons.  VERY nasty
indeed.

Togetic-  OMG!  This is TOO SWEEEEET!  60 HP (well okay it isn't 70) no
weakness, no retreat cost...resistance to Fighting!  (assuming the
spoiler is correct) first attack super metronome (pretty much same thing
as metronome) and an interesting 2nd attack for 3 colourless which
yeilds a 50% chance of agility!  THIS pokemon line will literally
replace the Clefairy-Clefable one!

OTHER NICE POKEMON

Girafarig - Psychic's best pokemon in the deck IMO.  60HP, no weakness,
no retreat cost.  Two great attacks!  For DCE, a 10 damage Agility
attack and for PP, Psybeam for 20 and flip for confusion!  I expect to
see him cropping up in a fair number of pychic decks... after all..he's
the only Basic Psychic pokemon aside from Gastly that isn't weak to
Psychic.

Gligar -  An interesting pokemon indeed.  A fighting pokemon that
resist's fighting but is weak to grass.  No retreat and 60 HP.  Can you
say cannon fodder for Scyther?  Well maybe so, but this pokemon would be
IDEAL for a Fire-Fighting deck.  Use the Fire pokemon to ward off the
Grass, then Gligar isn't so weak.  I can't think of a Basic Fighting
pokemon with no retreat (well Diglett ok) and Gligar has two nice and
cheap attacks.  For one Fighting energy Gligar does 10 damage and 50%
chance of poison.  For DCE it can lay a slash for 20 damage.  Nice combo
with Fossil magmar and Togepi.

I still can't believe that Gligar and Girafarig are COMMONS.... sure
better than most of Gym hero's rare's...  Misty's Goldeen...PU-LEASE.

Donphan -  Fighting get's yet another cool line.  Although it's a stage
1, 70HP, resistant to Electricity.  On the down side, Donphan is weak to
grass and has a hideous 3 retreat cost.  Once again, this line would go
well in conjunction with Fire.  The attacks are quite nice too.  One
fighting for Flail.... 10 damage plus 10 more damage for every damage
counter on Donphan.  The second attack is quite nice indeed.  Three
Fighting for Rapid Spin.. does 50 Damage and then acts like a double
gust of wind.  Your opponent goes first in choosing so you can hopefully
pick the pokemon to counter his choice AND you get to retreat Donphan
for free!  Overall, not too shabby!

IMO!  THE BEST CARD IN THE SET

Noctowl -  7 words...... you have GOT to be kidding me!  Just look at
that pokemon power.  Glaring gaze.... translates to a 50% chance Team
Rocket Sneak Attack PER TURN!  although it's a Stage 1 and only 60 HP...
WHO CARES!  Noctowl can just sit on the bench totally getting FAT from
inactivity while he gazes every turn and makes your opponent pull his
friggin hair out!  What dissappoints me most is that Electric is going
to be played even MORE heavily than it is already since Noctowl is weak
to lightning and you'll want to kill this bird in one shot.  Also looks
like trapper might make a bit of a comeback with this card.  Having two
of these on your bench...is simply just plain SICK!  If that's not good
enough right there...Noctowl has no retreat..(so you gotta kill him in
one shot) a resistance to fighting and a decent wing attack for 3
colourless for 30 damage.  Lastly, he is an uncommon card... YES that's
right... infact most of the mentioned cards aren't even rare!

TRAINER'S

There are a fair amount of trainer's that are really cool in this set
and some MUST be mentioned.

Sprout Tower - ALOT of people have been widely awaiting this awesome
Stadium card.  Colourless pokemon's attack are reduced by thirty!
Wiggly Tuff, Clefable, Ditto and Togetic just took MAJOR setbacks not to
mention nullifying Erika's Dratini.  If you play with any of these
pokemon... you are going to NEED to play with alternate Stadium trainers
to get rid of this Stadium card!

Focus Band -  OMG  this is simply put "Awesome".  A tool that if your
pokemon is to be knocked out from an attack..flip a coin..if heads then
that pokemon is not knocked out and has damage counters put onto it
until it only has 10 HP remaining.  Ok.. just imagine this on Fossil
Haunter?  If the pokemon power doesn't work then the back-up might!  Or
how about it on a Baby Pokemon?  or even worse, Noctowl on the bench?
The down side is poison... I believe the card states that if you are
knocked out from "An attack" not an effect like poison so beware.  i.e.
Mr. Mime has focus band on him and 1 damage counter and is attacked by
Fossil magmar's smog attack and poison is successful,  the smog attack
does 20 damage thus bringing the total on Mime to thirty (from the 10
previous) then the poison does the final 10 and kills Mime outright and
focus band is useless.

Professor Elm -  Awesome.... can you say... by by Gambler?  Well there
are some people that would disagree with me there..so be it but this
card will be widely used.  Especially nice if not looking for a trainer
card to use and a handful of useless pokemon at that given time (3
Gengars and you don't even have 1 Gastly out).

Super Energy Retreival - Blastoise's newest best friend!

Ecogym -  Another anti Energy Removal Stadium card!  Get those basic
energies back.  Beware though that this card is useless in the cases of
discarded retreat energy and attacks where energy is required to be
discarded on your own accord.

IMO, BEST TRAINER IN THE SET

Gold Berry -  although the wording is a little hard to follow, the
reason for that is so you can have Base Alakazam swap damage to say a
Tauros or other raging pokemon like Promo Arcanine.  Since you're in
between turns... you opt not to dicard Gold Berry from your raging
pokemon...then attack with more lethal force..then discard  4 damage
counters and gold berry at the beginning of your opponents next turn.
NASTY and TOTALLY ABUSIVE!   Makes Team Rocket Zapdos and other self
hurting pokemon even more of a threat.  HOWEVER... useless to Mr. Mime,
Erika's Dratini and any other pokemon with 40HP or less.
Remember...there MUST be at least 4 damage counters on the pokemon.  Mr.
Mime would be knocked out before Gold Berry would take effect and you
can't discard 3 or less damage counters... I guess that's why they made
the regular berry trainer.


NOW THE BAD!!!

Like every Pokemon set there are some cards that you just scratch your
head and wonder WHY they are so pathetic!

Onix - although he does have more damaging capability... no resistance
and 60HP makes him VERY vulnerable to Scyther...one slash and that rage
attack means nothing!
If you are looking to use Steelix....use the Base Onix.

Sentret Line -  very disappointing

Chickorita -  the 40HP one.... just compare it to the 50HP version

Marrill -  This very popular pokemon is no more than more cannon fodder
to Team Rocket Zapdos!  Yeah he has an agility-like attack but I fear
there will be MANY 9 year olds and younger crying their eyes out at the
site of there precious Marrill being buried in the first turn!  His
second attack actually has a 50% chance of hurting itself and with only
40HP, it's practically suicide.

Sunflora -  The creaters must have thought that Jungle Vileplume was
going to be such a big hit!

Quilava - the 60HP one... doesn't even compare to it's twin with 70HP
and that ability to Char!  Infact I should have put the 70 Quilava in
the best pokemon section cause that attack is simply lethal!


THINGS THAT MAKE YOU GO HMMMMMM!


OK... there are some cards in here that are going to screw up your
average kid.  Here are some of the problems I personally face when
reading these cards:

Pichu vs Ditto

Pichu's attack states that it does 20 damage to all pokemon in play with
pokemon powers.  You don't apply weakness and resistance.   Enter Ditto,
a pokemon with the power, transform.  If Pichu and Ditto are both active
and pichu attacks, does it affect Ditto?  My first reaction was
yes..because Ditto has a pokemon power.  After some thought though.. one
could argue that Ditto when active has transformed into Pichu, who in
turn does not have a pokemon power...so what is the answer??  I am not
qualified to make any determination one way or the other but after some
further thought.. I thought about Muk vs Ditto and if you applied the
notion that Ditto has transformed into the alternate active pokemon with
no pokemon power, then Muk's power wouldn't work on Ditto while it is
active and has already transformed into a pokemon without any pokemon
power .  Since it does regardless..then it is my understanding that
Pichu would infact hurt Ditto and Ditto could do NOTHING back to
Pichu.... hence Pichu makes one WICKED Ditto killer.  But beware that
you probably don't want to be using pokemon with powers yourself.


Mareep -   LOL...this one really kills me.  All I gotta say is NICE
WORDING!  here let me cut and paste this one for you...

Attack:      [L]  Static Electricity
              For each Mareep in play, you may search your deck for
              a L Energy card and attach it to Mareep.  Shuffle
              your deck afterward.

Okay... so if you had lets say.. three Mareep's in play,  two on the
bench and one as active, attached an electric energy and used Static
Electricity..you then search your deck for 3 energies and then what?
attach them to which one?  LOL!  The active one?  One energy on each
mareep?  all three on the one of your choice?  Two energies on 1 mareep
and another on that one?

It should be worded better...like "attach an energy to each Mareep" or
"attach that energy to the active Mareep."

Anyways... that's about all I have to say about this new Neo set.  I
highly recommend getting a number of packs from this set.  There are so
many awesome cards in Neo 1 and many are uncommons or commons.  This set
will without a doubt leave it's mark on the trading card game for some
time to come.

Send you thoughts and comments to:

dtaylor@nas.net
--
Don Taylor