By Jack Snell
Hey everyone Jack Snell here, welcome to my review of one of the most hyped cards from Emerging Powers, Gothitelle:
At first glance we have a Stage 2, Psychic type Pokemon with a mediocre 130HP, a single Ability and a lone attack. Now these stats sound quite average at first, but with Battle Roads already underway the card is involved in a very powerful and hyped deck.
Let’s start with the Ability called ‘Magic Room’. This Ability states that while Gothitelle is in your active spot, your opponent cannot play any Trainer cards from his or her hand, which means that this is the second Pokemon to be able to provide Trainer-lock in the form of an Ability/Poke Body. What separates this Pokemon from the likes of Vileplume is that it blocks the opponent from playing trainers, but you are free to play as many trainers as you like including all the big ones right now like Rare Candy, Pokemon Communication and Pokemon Catcher. This means that you are able evolve weak basics on the bench without the fear of them being Catchered up and KOd before they evolve.
This kind of lock is obviously going to hurt the opponent a ton while you can freely play your game as normal, which is a definite upside from Vileplume, but the difference is that Vileplume can happily sit there on the bench whilst Gothitelle must be active. This means we need Gothitelle to have a respectable attack to be playable and to stay alive as long as possible which is where Reuniclus comes in.
The basic idea of the deck is that Gothitelle stays active, sits there locking the opponent and since it has the magic HP of 130, not much is going to be able to OHKO it effectively under the lock, only Mew Prime, Magnezone Prime, Badboar, RDL come to mind. That means that Reuniclus can assist by moving the damage the opponent is trying to pile onto Gothitelle and remove it from play by using cards such as Max Potion, Seeker and even through Blissey Prime’s Blissful Nurse. This deck is a very effective lock deck in this format, but it does have its weak points, namely its sluggish setup, matchups against Vileplume decks and against anything that can KO Gothitelle in one hit.
Back to the card and we have an attack to look at called ‘Madkinesis’. This attack costs 3 Colourless energy, which is usefully compatible with Double Colourless, and does 30 base damage. The effect text tells us that for each Psychic energy attached to Gothitelle, the attack does an extra 20 damage to the opponent. Its not a very efficient attack in itself, until you consider that its under trainer lock, and you have access to Pokemon Catcher to get easy KOs. Also if your opponent cant kill Gothitelle you can gradually power it up manually, one psychic per turn adding 20 extra damage, until it hits like a ten tonne truck.
Gothitelles ride on the hype train has shifted gears recently with the translation of Gardevoir from our upcoming set Psycho Drive. Gardevoirs Ability Psy Mirage converts every P energy attached to your psychic Pokemon into 2 P energy. This turns Gothitelles attack from mediocre into absolutely brutal dealing 150 for PPP rather than 90. The discussion forums have gone into meltdown over the potential of this deck, perhaps with a Jirachi-Shaymin/Mismagius engine for energy acceleration.
So overall, this card looks pretty average when alone, but when paired with other cards in the format, you can generate quite an intricate strategy. I’m going to give it a very impressive 9/10. A solid card that will be a big part of the Autumn Battle Roads tournaments starting this week. Combos with: Reuniclus, Max Potion, Seeker, Jirachi, Ferrothorn, Mismagius, Gardevoir, Dodrio
Tags: Card Collecting, Gothitelle