One Hit KO

Hey all members of Omar-Nation.  This is Pikkdogs here.  Over the weekend our freinds at pokebeach.com posted scans of the cards from the new Black and White Collection set in Japan.  There was a theme in this release and the cards will be very impactful on next years format, so I thought I would post some of my reviews of the cards here.                                                                          

But of course since these are Japanese cards, I have to issue a disclaimer.  I do not read Japanese and am not sure that the person who translated these cards can read it properly either.  So there are possibily translation errors, and it is likely that wording on cards will change as they reach America, so don’t take this wording as the final wording.  Also, it is a personal rule of mine to not believe that a single Pokemon card that was released in Japan will be released in the U.S. until I actually pull it from the pack.  Japan does get a lot of different cards that we don’t, so there is a chance that we will not get some of these cards.

So with that out of the way we will look at some of the imactful cards that are coming out of the Japanese Black and White Set, these are listed in no particular order.

1. Enbuoh– This Pokemon is a Stage 2 Fire Pokemon.  He has 150 HP and a 4 retreat cost.  His Poke-Power, Fervant Dance, allows you to attach a Fire Energy from your hand to any Pokemon, you can do this as many times as you like during your turn.  His attack, Heat Stamp, does 80 damage for RRCC.  Well this Pokemon is a bit of a tank, 150 HP is great and the ability to do 80 isn’t bad, but its his Poke-Power that really brings him playability.  With Fervant Dance you can attach as many fire energies as you want, this makes a lot of cards playable.  Enbuoh seems to be the new version of the old Rain-Dance Blastoise.

2.  Ranculus– This Pokemon is also a stage 2 Pokemon.  He was 90HP and a 2 retreat cost.  His Poke-Power, Damage Swap, lets you move one damage counter from one Pokemon to another, you can do this as many times as you like during your turn.  His attack is not as impressive, it does 30 damage for PPP and an extra 10 for each energy your opponent has attached to the active.  Well, the attack is terrible, but the power is game changing.  The ability to move damage counters is great, and can be used in a lot of decks.  Ranculus seems to be like the Base Set Alakazam.

3.  Gothruzelle– This Pokemon is a stage 2 Pokemon with 130 HP and a 2 retreat cost.  It has a Poke-Body, Magic Room, that does not allow your opponent to play any trainer cards,  Its attack does 30 damage plus 20 for every psychic energy you have attached to Gothruzelle.    Its attack may not be stellar, but the ability to put a trainer lock on your opponent wihtout putting it on yourself is amazing.  This card is like Vileplume EX.

4.  Max Restore.  Max Restore is a trainer card that allows you to heal all damage counters off of a Pokemon and then discard all energy attached to that Pokemon.  I think this could be an impactful card.  The ability to heal damage counters is very nice, and there are some decks that can work around the discard the energy part.  It is similar to Blissey Prime’s Poke-Power. 

There are also some trainer reprints

1. Crash Hammer is a reprinted Energy Removal 2.  It lets you discard your opponents energy with a coin flip.
2. Pokemon Communicator is basically Pokemon Communication.
3. Professor Araragi is a reprinted Professoar Oak from the Base Set.
4. Revive is a reprinted Pokemon Rescue, but it only works on Basic Pokemon
5. Pokemon Catcher is a reprinted Gust of Wind.

As you can see it seems like Pokemon is taking a big turn in the future.  The new cards that are being printed are more like the older cards we had.  It seems like the innovation is over, no more Pokemon SP or Level X, its back to the evolution lines and trainers.  The reprint of Gust of Wind is going to be very impactful, it is a very good effect.  Most of the other cards that I did not list in this article, are also kind of similar to the base-set days.  The HPs are similar to modern Pokemon, but the damage output they deliver is just not on par with cards from the Diamond and Pearl and HGSS sets.  The damage output is bigger then that in Base Set days, but not many of them reach past 70 or 80. 

So what do you guys think?  Do you like the return to some old principals?  Or did you like how things were going before? 

Personally I think Pokemon needed to change something.  The SP Pokemon are just way to powerful now, and Pokemon needs to do something to shake up the format. 

This is Pikkdogs signing off and saying So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!

Category: Card Discussion | Tags: Black and White