Hello

Well, time for another TCG Startegy! This time I'll explain to you the power of inflicting status effects. First of all, I want to say that many status effect Pokemon have low HP and also need high amounts of energy to do their thang'. An example is Ivysaur. Hey! Look! This guy does twenty damage AND automatically poisons! Oh, but he take three grass energy and comes with a short time span of 60 HP to build him up...Well, there are also a good many Pokemon that DO have good ratios. Gloom, for example, gives us the opyions of confusion and poison in 1-2 energy. TR Oddish is up to the task, giving you poison and sleep for 1 energy each. The harder ones to find are paralysis and confusion. Lickitung, a solid basic with 90 HP, delivers ten damage AND a chance at paralysis for only one colorless energy. TR Gloom can give a 50/50 chance of confusion, but at the rick of confusing your own monster. A simple solution? Of course. Snorlax finally has a use. With his power, you could flip a tails any day and it won't affect him. He also carries a heavy 90 HP to stay while you try to flip that heads.

Now that I've given you some choices, you ask what good they are without knowing what to do with the status effects? Well, it's simple. Bring on the monsters while your oppnent builds up a fresh Pokemon, and then after destroying themselves with poison and confusion, put the heavy artillery up to finish 'em off. Poison and confusion hurt your opponent, whil paralysis and drowsiness allows you to build up your own heavy hitters. Just in case your opponents feels like getting rid of the effect by benching, utilize some Dark Dugtrios or a Dark Muk, whos first in line for inflicting and holding status effects.

So, with all this in mind, what happens when your opponent pulls out Full Heals and Full Heal Energies? Well, you could put in some Lass to rid them of those nasty surprises, or you could simply make your opponent feel as if they wasted space by re-inflicting the effect again next turn.

So, all in all, status effects CAN be pretty devastating, and since not many are used yet, no one will expect these things until they start to get big on the tourney scene. If you don't know how to weild status effects though, decks built around them can be downright horrid.