Misty’s Cerulean City Gym – Hidden Fates Pokemon Review

Vince

Another supplement to a related card, Misty’s Cerulean City Gym is designed to help a certain Pokémon, and it does a good job. It makes Starmie-GX deal 40 more damage to the opponent’s Active Pokemon and……there’s only one Starmie-GX in the TCG. Also, as a Stadium card, it can replace other Stadiums that were in play prior to this Stadium being played and replacing a Stadium with another Stadium would mean that Prism Star stadiums are out of luck. Anyways, the only Starmie-GX has three attacks. Star Stream becomes 80 instead of 40; Spinning Attack becomes 140 damage instead of 100; and Hydro Pump becomes 80+ instead of 40+. So far, I don’t think there are other stadiums that Starmie-GX would enjoy more than her Gym.

• Standard: 3/5
• Expanded: 3/5
• Limited: N/A

There’s not much to rate besides a 3/5, the average score. These are one of those cards that can be useful at a very specific field and becomes useless to almost all of them (no better than replacing Stadium cards).

Otaku

Misty’s Cerulean City Gym (Hidden Fates 61/68) is our bonus CotD, not officially part of our countdown of the top four(ish) cards of Hidden Fates. The runner-up for that countdown is Starmie-GX, and you can see its review here. So why are we looking at this additional card? The effect of Misty’s Cerulean City Gym is the attacks of Starmie-GX do an extra 40 damage before Weakness and Resistance to the opponent’s Active Pokémon. This Stadium applies equally to both players, but I’m not expecting Starmie-GX to become the new Best Deck In Format (BDIF) anytime soon. I do think Starmie-GX has some chops, and part of that is because of this Stadium.

Doing an extra 40 damage, even when it only applies to attacks from a particular Pokémon, is huge. It also shows the powers-that-be have forgotten their lesson; in the Pokémon TCG

Offense > Defense

At least, that is how it usually works. Soaking 40 damage, such as with Brock’s Pewter City Gym should be useful, but not as useful as being able to do an extra 40. When you can hit hard and fast, you can take out threats before they can hit you (or hit you more). You may even just win the game faster, technically offering the ultimate protection to your Pokémon: victory.

Which is by no means a bad thing for Misty’s Cerulean City Gym or Starmie-GX. This makes an average card noticeably above average, though it is not the only Stadium a hypothetical Starmie-GX deck is likely to run. If Starmie-GX is the deck’s main attacker, then Misty’s Cerulean City Gym should be that deck’s main Stadium, but you’ll still want others, perhaps Power Plant so that Starmie-GX can damage Keldeo-GX through its “Pure Heart” Ability? Viridian Forest to fetch a basic Water Energy from your deck while dropping one into your discard pile to attach elsewhere thanks to Starmie-GX’s “Star Stream” attack? Expanded adds even more Stadium competition, but again if Starmie-GX is your go-to attacker, Misty’s Cerulean City Gym should be your go-to Stadium.

Ratings

Standard: 3.5/5

Expanded: 3/5

Limited: N/A