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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All About Pokemon: Tepig, Pignite, And Emboar

By Emily

Its cuteness is hard to deny, not to mention its impressive stats for being a base level Pokemon. But as Tepig evolves, its strength increases at the cost of its original cuteness. Such power and versatility makes Emboar a force to be recon with, and its pre-evolved form Tepig is conveniently enough one of the possible starter Pokemon you can choose.

Being both Fire and Fighting type, Emboar is weak to many different types of Pokemon. But all of its attacks, when used wisely, can defeat almost any Pokemon it comes up against. Hammer Arm and Gyro Ball make a perfect combo, with the Steel-type Gyro Ball increasing in strength every time Hammer Arm is used. Grass Knot and Scald may not seem like attacks a Fire type should be able to learn, but they come in very handy and can help to overcome some of this character’s weaknesses. For those who like daring attacks, Emboar can also learn Wild Charge and Stone Edge. These two moves deal a good amount of damage but are both a little risky to use. Stone Edge has reduced accuracy, which may be a liability for a Pokemon with such low defenses, but Flying types hardly stand a chance against it. Water types can easily be taken down by Wild Charge, but the recoil from a Super Effective attack may pose a risk to Emboar.

Tepig can learn a wide array of egg moves, some of which can be extremely useful. Curse may not appear useful as it takes away from the user’s Speed stat, but increasing an already high Attack stat may very well make the attack worthwhile. Thrash and Magnitude have some usefulness, though Thrash’s typing and Magnitude’s risk of dealing low damage may make these along the lines of novelty attacks.
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Picking Your Emboar Line

By Keny Wisdom

With the release of Pokemon Black & White, many new decks and deck ideas have popped into competitive player’s minds. Not the least of which are those involving Emboar. Emboar/Reshiram, Emboar/Reshiram/Ninetales, and Emboar/Magnezone to name a few. With this article I’m going to help you to pick the correct Tepig and Pignite lines to go with your Emboar deck. Although this may seem like an inconsequential decision, it actually bares a good deal of importance, as there’s absolutely no reason to be running a subpar version of a card, particularly when they are all just about the same rarity. Without futher ado, let’s jump into it!

Tepig:

There are actually 4 different varities of Tepig. There were two printed in the Black and White set, and 2 additional promos. One of the promos is available in a tin with 4 HS-block packs and a Black and White preview pack, and the other is packaged into a blister pack w/ a booster of Black and White (or three boosters or Black & White, depending on which version you buy). We’ll be going through them one by one here.
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Pokemon Fifth Generation Tomy Figures

By Emily

Tomy figures are almost synonymous with Pokemon – they’re one of the longest running series of Pokemon merchandise. Ever since the days of Red, Blue, and Green we’ve had these small plastic figures, and almost every character has one. People from the first era of Pokemon can usually recall the somewhat white-washed figures that usually came with the little Gameboy laucher or clear plastic Masterball. But now, over fifteen years since the original debut of the series, Takara Tomy has introduced many variants to these toys, and continues to do so with the fifth generation.

Only Zorua and Zoroark have currently been made as movie-exclusive clear figures. These figures are somewhat rare and only available at movie theaters while the movie was being aired. With the newest movies coming to theaters soon, Victini along with many other Pokemon will likely have a clear version of their normal figure made.
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Unova Starters And Evolutions: The Tepig Line

By Jo

It’s small, masked, and sneezes hot embers. Tepig is beyond adorable and has an ambitious attitude that could make any trainer fall in love with it. Tepig is the Unova region’s fire-type starter – and the only ever fire-type starter where it or any of its evolutions’ names do not start with the letter ‘C’. It also has the lowest base stats of any fire-type starter.

Tepig’s name comes from the words “tepid” (meaning lukewarm) and “pig”, though many fans have remarked that its name seems like a play on “the pig”. Others just simply like to joke about Tepig being a fire-type pig Pokemon – Bacon, anyone? – and that it seems to be a bit ironic. Tepig has a very high health stat and its attack stat follows close behind, though it falls flat in every other area.
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The Top 5 Cards of Black and White: Playability

By Kenny Wisdom

Hey folks, Kenny Wisdom here again, this time I’ll be talking about the top 5 most playable cards in the new English Black and White set. Note that I’m talking purely about their viability in tournaments, and not how the card art looks or how much I like the Pokemon, or anything of that sort. Next week I’ll be bringing a similar article focusing on the top 5 cards with the best art in the set, but for now I’m purely looking at power level.

It’s also important to note that I’m not counting re-prints in my estimation. Pokemon Communication is certainly a fantastic card, but it’s not new to this set, and therefore not eligible to be included on this list. Without further ado, let’s begin.
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Pokemon Serperior Samurott Emboar Pokedoll Plushies

By Brian Grabow

The Pokemon Centers in Japan have just released 3 new Pokedolls today. They are Serperior, Samurott and Emboar. These Pokedolls are larger than normal size. It is about twice the size of a normal Pokedoll and of course about twice the cost. It is one of the large size Pokedolls, similar to Reshiram and Zekrom that were released last month.

Check out my video of the 3 new Pokedolls on youtube if you want to see them up close and the size compared to a normal size Pokedoll.
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