One Hit KO

A Big Hello to all you OHKOers out there.  This is Pikkdogs with a classic Pikk Three article for you.  This is an article where yours truly reviews three cards.  One cards is usually a well played card, one is a card I feel that is under-rated, and the final is from a new or yet to be released set.  Before we get things started, I would like to take this time to bring back a fixture of this website, my sidekick, Pedro.  Hey Pedro.

Ummm. Hey Pikkdogs.

Are you mad Pedro, just because I left my extra-dimensionary sidekick for like 2-3 weeks, doesn’t give you an excuse to get angry.

I’m not mad because of that.

Good.

I’m mad because when you reprogrammed my inter-dimensionary porthole, you set it to the universe in which that new Rob Schneider Sitcom happens in. 

Three  weeks with Rob Schneider, that must have been hell.

It was.  I think that’s one of Dante’s Stages of Hell.  

Ya gotta love a Dante Alighieri reference.   

So what has been going on here since I left?

Not much, I’ve been releasing more terribly boring articles with a lot of grammar mistakes.  Released one article with a lot of Noozle pictures for no reason.

That sounds right.  You need me here to say something interesting.

Well, that would be nice, but we are not here to listen to your Italicized chatter, let’s get onto the article and I’ll let you wrap the article up.

Okay.  Let’s run a Sub-Title

Card #1-The Staple- Celebi Prime

Description– Celebi Prime is a 60 HP basic Grass Pokemon with a 1 retreat cost and a fire weakness.  It has the “Forrest Breath” Poke-Power” which allows you to attach a Grass Energy to anyone in play as long as Celebi Prime is active.  It also has the “Time Circle” attack that does 30 damage for GPC.  The attack also has the effect of not letting  an evolved Pokemon attack Celebi during the next turn.

Analysis– This card was once considered junk, now it is one of the better cards in the format.  Nobody paid much attention to it when it came out.  I think I might have written a stupid deck Idea with it and Tangrowth Lv. X, but only a small rogue play followed.  Then, the deck caught a break when it was released in a promotional box.  Even the extra printings of the card didn’t spike any interest in using the Pokemon Prime card with the lowest HP.  Around Battle Roads this year I heard a little rumblings of people using it for its walling attack, but it never really caught on.  But, things changed when Mewtwo EX and Skyarrow Bridge hit the market.

Skyarrow Bridge gave Celebi Prime a free retreat cost, and Mewtwo EX gave Celebi something to attach the energies to.  The idea is to get a lot of grass energies on Mewtwo with Celebi, and then retreat to attack with Mewtwo EX.  It proved a great combination winning the European Challenge Cup.  It should also be a good combo for States and Regionals.  Mewtwo EX and Celebi Prime should be the deck to be beat going into States, so make sure to look out for these two.

However, there are some bad things about Celebi Prime.  Celebi only has 60 HP, so that is an easy Pokemon Catcher prize for your opponent.  Also, it can be hard to decide when you want to attack and when you want to use Celebi’s Poke-Power.  The use of Celebi is also predicated on you having a Skyarrow Bridge active, if you don’t have that active than the energy you attached to Mewtwo is canceled out by the one you used to retreat.

Final Rating– 8/10– Not an amazing card but it does have a good spot in the format right now.  Expect to see this card around for a long time.

Card #2-The Underdog- Exp. Share

Description– Exp.Share is a Pokemon Tool Card that kind of slipped under the radar since its release in the Next Destinies set.  So much of the hype that surrounded the set concentrated on Mewtwo EX, that a lot of the other decent cards didn’t get any hype.  Most trainer cards didn’t get hyped, the balls got a little hype.

Balls

Yes, Balls.  Cheren got a teensy bit of hype, but there was no love for Exp. Share.  But, let’s get down to the brass tacks.

Exp. Share is a Pokemon Tool Card. You attach it to your Pokemon and it stays there until the Pokemon is knocked out, unless it is discarded by an effect of an attack.  This tool let’s you move an energy card to the Pokemon it is attached to if your active Pokemon is knocked out by damage from an opponent’s attack.

Analysis-  As I said, there was never much hype for this card, and I don’t think I ever heard about anyone playing or testing this card.  But, there is a reason why this card didn’t get much hype.  The reason is, because it doesn’t really do anything new or exciting.  Giving you an extra energy is exciting, but there are other things that can do that.  Another reason why this isn’t hyped is because deck space is so much coveted.  A lot of people like to fill their decklists with tech cards, not consistency cards.  A final reason is that people like to seek out low energy attackers.  Since you cannot rely on Exp. Share, it is hard to recommend someone else to run a high energy attacker and hope Exp. Share does its job.

But, I do like the card.  It is something that your opponent will probably not be looking for, so it will come out of nowhere and surprise him/her.  It is also nice to keep energies on the field, most Pokemon need them to attack, so it is always nice to conserve them.  It is always nice to have good recovery in case of a knockout, there are not a lot of great recovery cards, so this one is great to have if the situation arises.

What I don’t like about this card is that it only works on basic energies.  It would be nice to be able to conserve Double Colorless Energies, since it is so hard to get those back.  Basic energies are nice, but special energies are all the rage now, a lot of people may not run that many basics.  If it worked on all types of energies it would be great, but it is only good because it just works on basics.

I also do not like it because you can only run 1 Tool card on one Pokemon at one time.  That means if you have Eviolite on your Mewtwo EX, you cannot put an Exp. Share there.  That could clog things up and screw you up later in the game.

Final Rating–6/10-  I think that some people should play this card.  Slower decks with stage 2 Pokemon and higher energy requirements would love this deck.  It is not for every deck, but I think people should at least be talking about it.  It is a good Rogue Choice that you can use to surprise your opponent.

Card #3- The Young Gun- First Ticket

Description– There is no doubt that the most exciting card to come out of the Japanese Dragon Selection Mini-Set was First Ticket.  The card reminds me a lot of Sableye SF.  Although this is a an Item card not a Pokemon, the difference isn’t that much.  This is an item that you can only play before the game starts.  You have to play it after you put down your prizes, but before you either start or flip over your actives (the card doesn’t state exactly when it should be played).  The card does state that if you play this card before the game, and your opponent does not play the card, you go first.  Where the card get’s really cool is if you both can play the card, then you don’t flip a coin, instead you play Rock Paper Scissors.

Analysis– There is a lot to say about this card, and I can’t wait to start.

First, this card is really cool because it let’s you go first.  Going first is a huge advantage in this game, isn’t it Pedro?

By “going” do you mean emptying your bladder? 

Maybe.

Then, I would say no. 

Okay, well starting the game first could be a huge advantage.  You are the first to evolve Pokemon, to use trainers, and to attach energy.  Games can even be won on the first turn.  With this card you can even build a donk deck because you now have a better chance of starting first than your opponent does, assuming you run more First Tickets than they do.  Even if you don’t want to win on the first turn, starting first will give you a big advantage for winning the game even if the game lasts for a long time.  It is just  a really good thing to start the game first.

Now is it good enough for you to run 4 copies of First Ticket?  I do not know, it is great to start first, but if you don’t you will have 4 dead cards in your deck for the whole game.  I think that this card is not something that you can just splash in any deck, but it does have a place in the format.  I think that if you are running a fast deck or a deck that needs  a good start, running 4 copies of First Ticket isn’t a bad thing.  Since you need to start first to win, putting in those 4 extra cards will be good for you, and will help you in the end.

Next, you have the fact that when both players play this card, you skip the coin toss and play Rock, Paper, Scissors.  This may seem weird, but this is not the first time that Pokemon has told us to play RPS, Team Galactic’s Wager also forced us to play the game.  You may think that playing RPS is the same as flipping a coin since both of these games are pretty random, but I couldn’t disagree more.  We know that everyone who plays RPS always throws Rock, so you should win by throwing Paper.

Unless your opponent knows that you know that everyone plays rock, so they throw scissors, so you should always throw Rock.

Good point Pedro, but everybody knows that everybody knows that everybody throws Rock, and they will be anticipating the Rock, so they will always throw paper.  So you should always win with scissors.

I think I got a headache.

Okay, maybe that was a little exaggeration, but there is a science to RPS.  I used to always tear it up in the days of Team Galactics Wager, I had about a 75% success rate.

It was too bad that you could win RPS, but not the game itself. 

It was a shame.  Anyway, I think there is a science to RPS and that I would have a greater advantage playing that game then I do with the dice roll.  If this is true, some may say that it would be bad for the game if some people had the advantage.  I do have some responses to that argument.  My first is, it is pretty unlikely that this will happen often, so you don’t need to worry.  It is very hard for both people to start with one card in their hand, no matter how many copies of it they play.  My second is that playing RPS is a skill that involves reading your opponent, which is inherent in any card game.  You need to read your opponent in Pokemon to be successful.  The best players in the format last year could read their opponent like a book and no exactly when Power-Spray was coming, so this is no different.  You will find that reading your opponent is huge in Poker, and since Pokemon is also a card game, it shouldn’t be that much of a foreign concept.  I really like that RPS is coming back in the game, and think it is a breathe of fresh air for the format.

So that are some of the first thoughts that came out of my head when I saw this card.  I think it is nothing but a really really really interesting card.  I think that it will see play, but it will not be a staple.  It is a very cool card that I love, and it does take away some of the luck that is involved in the dreaded first coin flip of the match.

Final Rating– 7.75/10– I know that some people will hate this card and say that it is too close to the Sableye card that almost ruined the game itself.  But, this card does not provide the donking attack that Sableye did, so it may not ruin the format.  I think it will actually make it more interesting, I hate that the coin flip decides everything, so it is nice to see this card coming in and giving us a chance to crown the first person to start the game based on deck choice, and not just luck.  It is  a good card, but not a staple that belongs in every deck.

Well I’m all done, how are you gonna wrap up the article today Pedro?

Well, this week is the week of Ash Wednesday, meaning that the day before that was Fat Tuesday.  They named it Fat Tuesday because it honors you right Pikkdogs?

Not Exactly.  Its traditionally when Christians eat all of the food that they cannot eat during the Lenten season, since people eat more unhealthy foods, they call it Fat Tuesday.

Of Course, do you have any Fat Tuesday traditions”

Well, it is traditional to eat a kind of Donut that has a lot more fat then regular donuts, it is called a Paczki (pronounced Poonch-key). It is a Polish thing.

That sounds like something you need, something even worse than a donut.  What about the Mardi Gras?  Have you been to the Mardi Gras?

Nope never been to New Orleans for that.

The tradition is kind of like Fat Tuesday, where people want to get all of their sin out of the way before the Lenten season. 

That sounds like I could be oppurtunistic and take advantage of that.

It does sound like a good oppurtunity for single gentlemen like yourself.  Well that’s all the talk we have about Fat Tuesday. Have a good night everybody. 

Category: Pikks Three | Tags: Celebi Prime, Exp. Share, First Ticket