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Pokemon HGSS Prime Card Reviews Part 2

By Jack Snell

HGSS on Pokemon Prime Reviews continued:

Donphan Prime: A veritable behemoth of a Pokemon. Donphan hits like an absolute truck and has sturdy defenses to match. 120 HP is impressive for a stage 1, even more so when you read its PokeBody Exoskeleton. It reduces all damage done to Donphan by 20. Thats like a permanently inbuilt Defender and gives you effectively 140 HP if they can one shot you and effectively more if they cant. On that subject the only things that are realistically one shotting a Donphan in our format are Samurott, Magnezone, Badboar, Rayquaza Deoxys Legend and Swanna, excluding damage modifiers: Pluspower, Black Belt etc.

Donphan has great typing of fighting, allowing it to strike Zekrom, Magnezone Prime, Cincinno, Zoroark and many other common competitive pokemon for weakness. Weakness to water only hurts against Samurott and Beartic of note, and the -20 resistance to lightning makes it the ultimate Zekrom and Magnezone counter.

The 4 retreat cost is admittedly massive, but you can run Switch to remedy this, and under trainer lock you can just fight to the death with Donphan

Donphans first attack Earthquake for a single Fighting energy, deals 60 damage and 10 to each of your own benched Pokemon. This is both efficient and powerful. The disadvantage is quite large too but as you might expect from competitive Pokemon TCG players, they have found ways to convert it into an advantage. Thes include damaging Reshirams and Zekroms to power up their Outrage attack, manipulating the damage around with Reuniclus and running a swarm of DOnphan so the self damage from Earthquake is negated by Exoskeleton.

Heavy Impact for FFF is significantly less broken dealing a straight 90 damage. At first sight this looks mediocre but with Donphans bulk its easier to charge than it first looks.

Combos with: Pokemon Catcher, Yanmega Prime Overall I give Donphan a 9/10 for competitive play

Ampharos Prime: This card actually saw some hype when the HGSS on format was announced and everyone and their brother thought Magneboar was the BDIF, including myself. Ampharos’ primary function is as hate for energy acceleration. Its Poke-Body Conductivity places 1 damage counter on your opponents Pokemon for each energy they attach to it. This counters Emboars Inferno Fandango, Rain Dance, and to a lesser extent Pachirisu. Crucially its stackable meaning if you have 3 Ampharos Prime in play they take 3 damage counters for every energy they attach. However there are two issues with this, Mareep is an easily donkable 40 HP basic, and you need to get the Ampharos’ out before they have a board established with energy otherwise the effect is worthless

Ampharos weighs in at a slightly above average 140 HP so its not a liability. The weakness to fighting definitely hurts with the popularity of Donphan Prime, and the resistance to steel is irrelevant now with Reshiram, Typhlosion and Emboar keeping steel types off the competitive scene. The retreat cost of two is expensive. Finally the attack for LCC deals 40 damage with 80 on the flip of heads and 40 with paralysis on the flip of tails.Its not terrible in that it hits Yanmega, Kingdra, Blastoise etc. for weakness but its sub par. After the release of the next set you can combine it with fliptini to manipulate the result to what you want.

Ive seen a few concept lists combining it with Pidgeot TM, but for now sadly it combos with the binder

Combos with: The binder Overall rating: 4/10
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Pokemon Typhlosion, Meganium And Feraligatr Review

By Jack Snell

Hey everyone, hope youre all well, Jack Snell here , and today I bring you part 1 of a review of every Pokemon Prime card in the HGSS-on modified format. Lets get right to it:

HGSS;

Typhlosion Prime: One of the two best Pokemon Prime in the set, Typhlosion rocks in at a respectable 140 HP. The water weakness is negligible right now with only Beartic, Samurott and Suicune Entei Legend seeing competitive play, after Ross Cawthon popularised it at Worlds. The two retreat cost is a little heavy but respectable, given its PokePower Afterburner.

Any Power/Body/Ability that breaks a fundamental rule of the game, energy attachments in this case, is going to be powerful. Afterburner allows you to take a fire energy from the discard pile once during your turn and attach it to one of your Pokemon at the cost of one damage counter. This Power is synergetic with Reshiram, in particular, because the 130 HP beast which is easily searchable via Collector/Comm/Dual Ball, has an attack Outrage dealing 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on it for CC. Afterburner adds damage to increase the power of this attack. Also Blue Flare costing RRC deals 120 damage and instructs you to discard 2 Fire Energy attached to Reshiram. Afterburner allows you to use this attack on consecutive turns, making Reshiphlosion a very popular metagame deck.

Typhlosion also has a very underrated attack of its own, Flare Destroy. For RRC it deals a sub par 70 damage but has the effect of discarding an energy on Typhlosion and also discarding one on the defending Pokemon. For you this is irrelevant because you can just attach another the following turn, or use Afterburner to get it back, but you can discard an opponents Double Colorless Energy that was providing a large amount of their attack cost or a Rescue Energy to prevent their Pokemon returning to their hand when its KOd.

Finally Typhlosion combos with the draw engine Ninetales, whose PokePower allows you to discard a fire energy from your hand and draw three cards. This provides you energy in the discard to Afterburner with Typhlosion.

Overall I give Typhlosion a 9/10 for competitive play Combos with: Ninetales, Reshiram, Lost Remover

Meganium Prime: Atrocious, terrible, dire, pathetic, disappointing, I cannot think of enough adjectives to describe this card. Lets start with the positives, of which there are few. 150 HP makes Meganium Prime a real tank, until you see the dreaded fire weakness, the most popular type in our format right now. The water resistance is a minor bonus but realistically you should never have Meganium Prime active. The two retreat cost is acceptable but the atrocious attack Solarbeam isnt. GGCC for a meagre pathetic 80 damage with no effect is beyond words terrible. To put it in context, Yanmega Prime, a stage 1 deals 70 damage for no energy if you can match hand size with your opponent.The only attraction of Meganium Prime is the PokePower Leaf Trans which allows you to move as many grass energy around your Pokemon as often as you like, look familiar? Yes its base set Venusaur. However when there is an easily searchable, more diverse and splashable energy transferrer, Shaymin UL in the format, Meganium Prime is put to shame. Shaymin has a one time use PokePower Celebration Wind which when you play it from your hand allows you to move ANY type of energy around your Pokemon as you wish. Its a basic Pokemon, so searchable with Collector,Comm, Dual Ball and fits easily into any deck. To run Meganium Prime as a tech youre looking at a minimum of 2-1-2 with 3 Rare Candy and suddenly 8 spaces of your deck are lost to a tech.

Overall I give Meganium Prime a 2/10 and thats being generous Combos with: The binder
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Battle Roads Deck Review

By Jack Snell

Hey y’all how’s it going, Jack Snell here, Ive been a competitive Pokemon TCG player for 12 years now, and I want to share with you some of my advice and knowledge about the game. Since Autumn Battle Roads are fast approaching, below I have completed a review of all the decks I expect to be popular and successful.

Hope you enjoy it and finally just to dispell a common myth, the Pokemon TCG isnt immature and “sad”, its a highly tactical game, you meet some great people playing it, and build wonderful memories. If youre sceptical about getting involved because youre worried what people think, be strong minded, people who mock the TCG are just judgmental and nasty, you dont mock their hobbies, so why should someone ruin your fun. Onto the article:

Kingdra/Yanmega

I decided to talk about Kingrdra Yanmega first because it is the most under-used deck in the format. It is a fast disruptive deck that can stand up against almost any deck in the format. It relies on getting a lot of quick Kingdra’s and sniping out basics with Yanmega, or attacking with “Sonic Boom” after a lot of “Spray Splashes” weaken them. Jirachi is also used to get multiple knockouts via devoution. Although I think it is a great deck I don’t think it will get a lot of play

Positives– Very disruptive and versatile. Pokemon Catcher does aid this deck by promoting heavy retreaters and sniping around them.

Negatives – The common weakness of Kingdra and Yanmega to Lightning, meaning they will probably be run through by attackers like Zekrom and Magnezone. Also if KOs arent taken before basics evolve, the low damage output will make KOs on tanks like Tyranitar Prime, Reshiram etc. very difficult

Magneboar

What is it? The hardest hitting deck in the format. It relies on Magnezone Prime to Lost Burn and Emboars Inferno Fandango to power up the attacks. Reshiram is usually included as a secondary attacker and Rayquaza Deoxys Legend also fits perfectly, usually in a 1-1 line, to conclude the game by taking two prizes at once, because it uses electric and fire energy and can be charged in a single turn. It was hyped as the BDIF coming into worlds and had a huge number of people who championed the deck.

Positives– Can utilise the Twins option because it is likely to fall behind early against anything but trainer lock, the two cards frequently obtained with Twins, would be the stage 2 of a basic on the field and a Rare Candy . It can OHKO any Pokemon in the format fairly easily. It is also fairly easy to play for beginners and has built in draw Power in magnezone.

Negatives– Pokemon Catcher really hurts the 3 retreat Magnezone and 4 retreat Emboar.
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Pokemon 2012 Season Overview

By Kohrok

Greetings everyone! I hope that you followed Worlds as eagerly as I did, and are ready for the 2011-2012 tournament season just like me! We’ll go through the new Battle Roads Promo, the structure of events, and conclude today’s article with some thoughts on possible deck ideas for this coming year. Without a pause, let’s go!

We were fortunate enough to get our first scans of the new promo – “Victory Cup” today. It is available in 3 versions – a “Bronze” version with Victini, “Silver” with Victini and Snivy, and a “Gold” with Victini and the three starters. Like previous “Victory Medal” cards, it is stamped with the tournament season and year. Unfortunately, the promo is not a unique effect like Victory Medal, instead coming as what amount to a “Poke Ball” reprint. The card, although thrice as available as the old promo, now has almost no competitive value in a deck, although, admittedly, it looks incredible and would be fun to pull out in a league deck.

The next topic of discussion revolves around the tournament schedule for this year. Although not yet set in stone, our Battle Roads will run from Mid-September until Mid-October, with Regionals taking place in November. Wait, Regionals in November? Yes, for the first time, Pokemon will have 2 separate “seasons” of Regional tournaments. The first set will be followed by the post-Thanksgiving City Championships, the tentative March State championships, and, if the schedule follows last year’s, July Nationals. The season will, of course, culminate in the World Championships in August. We’ll also have Prerelease events sporadically placed throughout the season, with our first, Emerging Powers, already having come and gone, we look to our third Black and White set, which should be released in November, and according to my information, AFTER the first Regionals events. We also have the return of the Gym cycle, this time looking at Unova’s 10 Gym Leaders. The 8 seasons will each feature a different Energy Type, with promo cards including basic energy and Pokemon of the corresponding type. Unfortunately, there will be no Collector print as a promo, at this time.

However, that all is for the future, as even the first official week of league does not start until September 26th. September 17th brings the first Battle Roads – Fall, and with it, the deck ideas can commence. Any follower of the current HGSS-EP metagame will recognize key contenders for this fall, including Typhlosion Prime/Reshiram, Magnezone/Emboar, the Worlds-winning deck, Yanmega/Donphan/Zoroark, and with the release of Emerging Powers, the use of Vileplume or Gothitelle to block the infamous Gust Of Win(d)/Pokemon Catcher. Just as Power Spray was key in stopping Luxray GL Lv. X’s “Bright Look” Pokemon Power when it was in play, these two Stage 2’s offer a solution to Pokemon Catcher.
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Pokemon Championships In Hawaii

By Pokemon Professor A

Who wouldn’t want to play Pokemon in paradise?

Get those trading card game decks tested and built. Or, if you prefer, train your Pokemon party in Black or White until they’re ready to take on the world. According to an article printed in the L.A. Times, the Pokemon World Championships will be held from August 10-12, 2012 in Kona, Hawaii. It could be more fun than watching Surfing Pikachu catch some waves.

Kona is a district on Hawaii’s Big Island. If you’re staying on Kona for your entire trip, the easiest flight option is to come in and out of Kona International Airport (KOA). It is a smart idea to keep your Nintendo DS or 3DS handy at the airport. Other players may be arriving around the same time and should be easy to spot wearing everything from Pikachu shirts to Oshawott hats. It’s a great opportunity to meet fellow Pokefans and exchange friend codes before the pressures of the competition set in.

Due to the large number of people flying in for World Championships, and with the generally high number of families that travel to Hawaii during the summer months, it can be hard to find last minute flight and hotel packages. If you want to attend the championships in Hawaii, you’ll need to plan well in advance to get the best deal. It’s generally not a good idea to wait and see if you’ve qualified for an invitation to Worlds. If you wait, Nationals typically takes place in July, and then you’ll only have a few weeks to prepare for the trip. If you’re committed to compete at Worlds, try your best to qualify for the trading card game or video game competition, but be prepared to attend the Last Chance Qualifier if you do not receive an invitation. When making your flight and hotel reservations in advance, make sure your reservation can be changed or cancelled within a reasonable time, typically a few days or weeks prior to your anticipated arrival date.

A trip to Hawaii doesn’t just have to please the Pokemon fans in your family. In the fall of 2011, Disney opened a new resort and spa facility named Aulani. Fun and famous Disney characters like Mickey, Minnie, Chip and Dale have made their way to the Hawaiian islands, too. As of this writing, the characters are mostly found at character dining opportunities, but this may change in the future. In addition to photos and autographs with the character celebrities, Aulani truly is a Hawaiian resort at heart. The amenities include a private snorkeling area, fireside puppet shows, adventure trails and nightly sunset ceremonies. With all of the magic of Disney and the rich nature and culture of Hawaii, a trip to Aulani can be the perfect complementary experience to Pokemon Worlds.
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Double Dragon

By JC

Hey guys! Today I’ll be doing a review over the Zekrom (47) and Reshiram (26) cards from the Pokemon Black and White Set. I’ve been pulling a lot of them from my Victini Gift Box Set, a couple of blister packs, and from the Zekrom and Reshiram tins that also come with Promo versions. I have 4 Zekrom cards (1 secret rare, 1 promo, 1 holo, and 1 reverse holo) and 4 Reshiram cards (1 secret rare, 1 promo, 2 holo). I wish I had been this lucky with getting Charizard from the Base Set.

Before I get to the specifics, I’d like to discuss the artwork. Both look great and have a nice background. The holographic adds a nice touch, but I would prefer any other previous holographic style than the streaks used in B&W. Let me say that the secret rare full art versions of Zekrom and Reshiram are just gorgeous. Pictures don’t do them justice; you’ve got to see them in person. I’ve pulled a secret rare Reshiram, but purchased the Zekrom. It turns out there are now 2 different types for each secret rare full art. The older print of the Zekrom has a black background whilst the newer print has more of a grey background. The older print of the Reshiram supposedly looks “lighter” than the newer print. They are also supposed to feel and reflect light differently, but as I only have 1 of each, I cannot compare.

Zekrom is a legendary dragon and lightning Pokemon. It is portrayed as a lightning Pokemon in this set. It is a Basic Pokemon with 130 hit points, 2 attacks, a x2 weakness to fighting, no resistances, and a 2 energy card retreat cost. Outrage costs 2 colorless energies and does 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on Zekrom. With a hefty 130 hit points, Zekrom can potentially do 140 damage with Outrage. Bolt Strike costs 3 energies (2 lightning, 1 colorless) and does 120 damage at the cost of 40 recoil damage. Bolt Strike is an excellent complement to Outrage.

Reshiram is a legendary dragon and fire Pokemon. It is portrayed as a fire Pokemon in this set. It is a Basic Pokemon with 130 hit points, 2 attacks, a x2 weakness to water, no resistances, and a 2 energy card retreat cost. Reshiram also comes with Outrage and it is the exact same move as Zekrom’s. His secondary attack is Blue Flare. It costs 3 energies (2 fire, 1 colorless) and does 120 damage, but requires Reshiram to discard 2 fire energy cards.
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The Krooky Monster

By JC

Hello Pokeman fans! I recently purchased a Victini Box Gift Set in hopes of pulling a secret rare. It came with 5 black and white booster packs, a promo Zoroark card, and a little Victini figure. Although I pulled an awesome secret rare full art Reshiram (in my first pack!), I want to talk about the Krookodile I also pulled.

At first I didn’t give it much thought. When I pulled it, I said “Oh, that’s nice,” and set it aside. Some people absolutely love Krookodile, but I thought he looked goofy, ferocious no doubt, but still a little goofy. I even chose to go with Drilbur-Excadrill instead of Sandile-Krokorok-Krookodile in the video game. However, I really started to appreciate the Intimidation Pokemon after pulling a second one from a random booster pack.

I haven’t played the trading card game in over a decade, but I’m certain this Krookodile card (65/114 B&W) is a force to be reckoned with. Krook is a ground type with a x2 weakness to water and a -20 resistance to lightning. His two attacks, Torment and Krookoroll, make a deadly combo. This is actually the first card I have seen with the attack Torment. It requires 2 colorless energy cards and does 30 damage and you can disable one of your opponent’s Pokemon’s attacks. Of the new 94 Pokemon cards introduced in the black and white set, 28 of them have only one attack. That’s over a fourth! Torment effectively disables those Pokemon, making them punching bags for our favorite crazy crocodile. Pretty much any Pokemon with an ability is also unable to dish out damage (I’m looking at you Emboar, Serperior, and Samurott!).

Of course your opponent can switch his or her Pokemon, but the retreat costs will add up while you Torment away. Krooks’ second attack Krookoroll requires 2 colorless and 2 fighting energy cards. Krookoroll does 60 damage plus 40 if the defending Pokemon already has any damage counters on it. Not many cards can withstand a Torment-Krookoroll combo dealing a whopping 130 damage. Krooks does have a 3 energy retreat cost, but his 140 hit points ensures his staying power.
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Pokemon Red Frenzy: Back to Basics

By JC

I took a stroll down memory lane and purchased a Pokemon Black and White Red Frenzy Theme Deck. The last time I bought a starter deck was the very first one that featured a holographic Machamp, so I really felt excited about opening this one. It comes with 60 cards, a deck box, a metallic coin, a checklist, damage counters, a play mat, and an online code card.

Red Frenzy
Pokemon: 30

2 Emboar
3 Pignite
4 Tepig
2 Simisear
3 Pansear
1 Darmanitan
4 Darumaka
2 Timburr
1 Stoutland
2 Herdier
3 Lillipup
1 Cincinno
2 Mincinno

Trainers and Supporters: 12
2 Energy Search
2 Switch
2 Energy Retrieval
2 Pokemon Communication
2 Professor Juniper
2 Revive

Energy: 18
12 Fire
6 Fighting

First of all, I can’t believe there are 30 Pokemon cards. You get 5 different evolution lines, 5 rares, 3 different types of Pokemon, and an awesome holographic Emboar card. Let me just get this out of the way and say that I’m relieved that Nintendo has stopped making so many rare trainers (Clefairy Doll and Devolution Spray come to mind). Energy Search looks like it could just be replaced with an energy card.

I’ve always found Switch useful, especially with the heavy Pokemon included in this deck. You’ll need them for the likes of Emboar, Stoutland, and Darmanitan.

Energy Retrieval will help in getting those fire energy cards back from discarding energy costs and Revive is a decent card. It seems like Professor Juniper is this card generation’s Professor Oak. Almost every deck will have 4 of these—it’s that good.

Pokemon Communication is an amazing card as well. You can trade any Pokemon card in your hand for any Pokemon card in your deck (Tepig for Emboar? Yes, thank you).
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PreRelease Events In North America

By TokoyamiTheDark

I remember that I once went to a PreRelease for the Platinum:Arceus set back in Fall 2009 (I won’t tell where I was, and I won’t tell the day neither…). It was really exiting. Anyone who enters gets 2 free booster packs from the set which PreReleases occured (in this case, it was Arceus booster packs) plus a prerelease card. (Platinum :Arceus’ PreRelease card was a Raichu.

For a fee of 30$, one could enter a fun-orientated challenge where you get 6 additional booster packs and 60 protective sleeves with Arceus on the back…but this time, there was NO Arceus sleeves at all, as everyone got Garchomp sleeves instead… Apparently, PUSA didn’t made the Arceus sleeves in time, so that was why we all got Supreme Victors sleeves instead.

Anyone with a deck of 60 cards could challenge someone else. I used to build my deck mostly with cards I got from booster packs and Energies from Platinum theme decks, and my deck was a Grass and Psychic deck, featuring Shaymin lv.X as the « lead » ; I lost 3 times and won twice, but the most important part was having fun!

I USED to have a Gengar lv.X, but someone stole it (GRRRRAAAAH!) so the staff gave me a FREE Arceus lv.X as a consolation for having my Gengar lv.X stolen by someone. Seems that even card thieves takes opportunities for stealing cards in PreReleases. At the end of the battles, people could trade their prized cards with other people as well to buy Tin Decks, Theme Decks, additional Booster Packs and Card supplies. Even single cards were on sale, so I bought a lot of cards that I had difficulties to find, such as Palkia, Shining Milotic, Regirock, etc… So, at the very end of the PreRelease, 2 other Booster Packs were given to people when they leave, so let’s count the minimum number of cards someone who participated in these tournaments could have gotten :
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How To Spot Fake Pokemon Cards

By Carl00456

I recently bought over two hundred Pokemon cards from a person at a local car-boot sale. It cost me £10, which I thought was worth it for the amount and rarity of the cards. I went home happy until my brother explained to me that some of them were fake. I counted the fake cards and then the real cards and it turns out that only around fifty cards were real. Here are a few ways to tell if your Pokemon cards are fake and a few tips on how to avoid buying them. Please note that this only applies to English Pokemon cards.

Firstly, check the back of the Pokemon card. Though not that obvious, a real Pokemon card is usually a dark blue colour while a fake one would be paler in colour. To easily tell if a Pokemon card is fake look at the light blue spot next to the red bit of the pokeball. To the right of it you should see s light blue patch that is fairly detailed. On a fake card, however, there will just be a blue splat with no detail.

If you want to know if trainer cards are fake, look at the word ‘Pokemon’ on the card. If the card is real then the word ‘Pokemon’ will have an apostrophe on the letter e. If it is a fake card then there will be no apostrophe and the word will just be spelt ‘Pokemon’. You can also look is there are any spelling mistakes or if the image is at a slant or misplaced. The same rules apply here as you can check the back of the card to see if it’s fake.

For actual Pokemon cards, you can still use the same methods above, checking for spelling mistakes and so fourth. There is a way to tell if the Pokemon card is fake, by looking at the energy symbols. There are usually energy symbols after the hit points or HP, next to the attack moves and at the bottom of the card, as weaknesses or resistance. The symbols themselves are defined by their symbol and colour. Real Pokemon cards will have a small symbol so you can easily see the colour while fake Pokemon cards will have the symbol enlarged, almost touching the edge so they will look quite crowded. Fake Pokemon energy symbols will also look slightly darker.
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