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Jonathan Ng's - Card of the Week (CoTW)

CARD OF THE WEEK - #22

Gastly L8/Gastly L17/Haunter L22/Haunter L17/Gengar

Name: Gastly
Type: Basic Pokemon
Card #: card 50 of 102
Rarity: Common
Color: Psychic
HP: 30 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30
Retreat: none
Species: Gas
Level: 8
Pokemon #: 92

Attack: [P] Sleeping Gas ()
Flip coin. If heads, defender is now Asleep.

Attack: [1P] Destiny Bond ()
Discard P to use. If a Pokemon KO’s Gastly on opponent’s next turn, KO that Pokemon.

Name: Gastly
Type: Basic Pokemon
Card #: card 33 of 62
Rarity: Uncommon
Color: Psychic
HP: 50 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30
Retreat: 0
Pokemon #: 92
Species: Gas
Level: 17

Attack: [P] Lick (10)
Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokemon is now Paralyzed.

Attack: [PP] Energy Conversion
Put up to 2 Energy cards from your discard pile into your hand. Gastly does 10 damage to itself.

Name: Haunter
Type: Stage 1 -- from Gastly
Card #: card 29 of 102
Rarity: Uncommon
Color: Psychic
HP: 60 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30
Retreat: 1
Species: Gas
Level: 22
Pokemon #: 93

Attack: [P] Hypnosis ()
Defender is now Asleep.

Attack: [PP] Dream Eater (50)
Can’t use unless defender is Asleep.

Name: Haunter
Type: Stage 1 -- from Gastly
Rarity: Rare
Color: Psychic
HP: 50 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30
Retreat: 0
Pokemon #: 93
Species: Gas
Level: 17

Power: "Transparency"
Whenever an attack does anything to Haunter, flip a coin. If heads, prevent all effects of that attack, including damage, done to Haunter. This power stops working while Haunter is Asleep, Confused or Paralyzed.

Attack: [1P] Nightmare (10)
The Defending Pokemon is now Asleep.

Name: Gengar
Type: Stage 2 -- from Haunter
Card #: card 20 of 62
Rarity: Rare
Color: Psychic
HP: 80 HP
Weakness: none
Resistance: F -30
Retreat: 1
Pokemon #: 94
Species: Shadow
Level: 38

Power: "Curse"
Once during your turn (before your attack), you may move 1 damage counter from 1 of your opponent’s Pokemon to another (even if it would Knock Out the other Pokemon). This power can’t be used if Gengar is Asleep, Confused, or Paralyzed.

Attack: [PPP] Dark Mind (30)
If your opponent has any Benched Pokemon, choose 1 of them and this attack does 10 damage to it. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokemon.)

History:

A Gastly lives on Maiden’s Peak, and a trio of Gastly, Haunter, and Gengar lives in the Pokemon Tower in Lavender. Haunter left to Tower to entertain Sabrina, which snapped her out of her trance.

Gastly and Haunter exist in the Pokemon Tower in the Red, Blue, and Yellow Games as well. (As for Gold and Silver, there’s only one thing I’m going to tell you... think Pokemon Tower, and think Ghosts.)

Strategy:

Gastly L8 and Haunter L22 are really weak. Half-Sleep is very very weak, and even Full Sleep is weak. Of course, having to depend on an attack that’s based on Sleep is well... okay, but there are better (Scyther’s Slash, in contrast, deals 60 over two turns.)

Gastly L17 and Haunter L17 are okay, though. Gastly has much better HP, can Paralyze, and can retrieve Energy (use SlowbroPotion when doing this for extra points!) Haunter L17 is a decent wall (nothing can affect it half the time!) and can Sleep the opponent, but this time for damage (100% Sleep too!)!

Gengar is really cool. Besides dealing 30 and 10 (and the 10 can affect Psy-resistant Pokemon!) it moves around counters so things are KO’d more easily :-) You’ll have fun with Gengar, guaranteed.

Oh, and the cheap retreat cost is cool too.

It’s also easy to fit into decks. Being of the 4-3-2 evolution type of guy (isn’t everyone?) I can stick Fossil Gastly, Haunter and Gengar into a deck and they’ll be alright. Or replace the Haunters with Breeders if I decide to be ambitious. They also work nice with Slowbro, Mr. Mime, and sometimes Mewtwo (both versions). I have so much space that if I did decide to add another colour, I can do it!

Strengths:

Haunter L17 is a nasty wall - you’ll find yourself very frustrated if you try to attack it.
Cheap Retreat - Only Haunter L22 and Gengar require more than 0 Energy, and even Haunter L22 and Gengar only require 1
No Weakness! And a Resistance to Fighting!

Weaknesses:

Stupid Pokemon can only deal 10 damage until you get to the Gengar/Haunter L22 stage
Psy-Resistant Pokemon can trip you up really badly

Combos:

Gastly L17 + Super Energy Removal - Neat! No (net) loss in Energy!
Gengar + Mr. Mime - More damage with Mr. Mime!
Gengar + Bench Attacker (Raichu, Gengar itself :-) - Can shuffle bench damage around!

Ratings:

Gastly L8 - 0.5 - not a threat at all!
Gastly L17 - 7.0 - not a bad card at all!
Haunter L17 - 6.0 - very protected, but lack of more than 10 damage attacks will hurt it
Haunter L22 - 4.5 - almost impossible to keep Sleep over two turns to deal the 50 damage.
Gengar - 8.0 - Damage Counter Control, plus 30+10 damage pushes it over the top. Too bad it’s a 2^nd Stage.

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