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This is a cool Book!

Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Machamp - Hidden Legends


Date Reviewed: 7.21.04

Ratings & Reviews below

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst.  3 ... average.  
5 is the highest rating.


William
Hung
Machamp (HL)

Unlimited 2/5 - It's not good enough. Stage 2 in Unlimited better win the game outright.
(Blastoise)

Modified - 3/5 It's quite good. The effectiveness of the deck depends on the metagame though, and Gardy is very powerful right now.

Draft 2.5/5 - It's okay, but getting a Stage 2 that doesn't absolutely win the game in draft isn't a good investment.
 
Thundachu Machamp

Overview: The pokebody overzealous(cool name) isnt really much help unless your opponent is playing Blaze ex deck or BAR(Which these days, he or she probably is, or some sort of ex deck). If he or she does have ex out, Machamp's attacks do an extra 30 damage to the defending pokemon. Then for 1 fighting 1 colorless, Brick Smash does 40 damage solid. No other affects like body/powers/resistances/etc. Then for 1 fighting 3 colorless, Cross Chop does 60, then if you flip a heads, does another 30. Plus with that PokeBody, it can do upto 120 for 4. VERY Playable. Infact, I think this is one of the most playable Machamps that have been released. 120HP, I also think it's the highest hp one, unless I am mistaken. Being weak to psychic makes Garde a problem, but with the Cross Chop, this thing could 0wn Gardevoir in 1 turn(2 if your opponent is playing Garde ex).

Unlimited: 3/5
Modified: With the increasing number of ex cards being played in Modified such as Blaze ex, Garde ex, Rayquaza ex, etc, I highly reccomend this card. 5/5
Draft: 3.5/5
 
Jermy101 I think this is the best Machamp yet.  The Pokebody is very helpful in modified.  Top notch HP for a non ex pokemon.  40 damage is already broken for the cost of FC.  Cross Chop is also good, doing 60-90 damage, and that attack is Boostable(Boost Energy usable).  Weakness to psychic hurts.

Unlimited - It is too slow here. 1/5

Modified - It is pretty good here.  The only bad thing about it is its resignation to Gardevoir ex.  Yes you have Desert Ruins and Ancient Tomb, but either one of those you play, you lose to the other thing.  Desert Ruins would let you get owned by weakness, and Ancient Tomb would let you just get psystorm owned.

Draft - If you get a couple Machops and Machokes, take it. 3/5
 

Hedge

Machamp

 

This is actually a pretty good Machamp…… 2 for 70 (usually ;x) is broken, especially when it gets around resistance and such. It can be boosted for even more too, and used with Wobuffett or Ninetales, it can pose for a very good anti-ex deck. Experiment with it.

 

~Hedge

 
Young John First I just want to say sorry that I've not been reviewing much lately, I've been really busy with tournaments and playing for a trip to worlds which I finally got. YAYS!

Machamp

Unlimited:

Probably not that great of a choice here, Gardevoir is kind of popular so it's going to have problems with that. Plus not many exes are popular so it's not going to get the added damage for it's power..

2/5 Not really worth it

Modifed:

Here it stands a nice shot, with all the exes around however once again Gardevoir can be a problem.

4/5 Will see tournament play may even win some tournaments and make a bit of top cuts.

Limited: Being a stage two makes it harder to get out, however it's attacks and HP make it a monster in this format so if you can get it take it.

4/5 Being a stage two hurts but it's attacks and power once it gets out makes it almost game.
 
Johnny Blaze Machamp # 9 - I saw this thing in action at Origins in the 10 and under where a deck built around anti-EX theme with Machamp and Desert Ruins went 5-0 to earn 1st place in the Top 8. It didn’t win the whole thing but it did surprise a lot of people.

Unlimited - 2/5 I guess with Pokemon Breeder you could use him in Unlimited due to his Low energy costed attack on Brick Smash, a nice way to get through Scyther’s resistance. The bad part is that it doesn’t apply weakness to get that ko on Clefable.

Modified – 3/5 With all the Ex’s in Modified definitely not a bad card to play. Also play Desert Ruins to increase the damage done to Ex’s. Plus with a few Dark Shiftry decks out there the double damage (due to weakness) is always a plus. His Cross Chop attack can do a possible 120 for only 2 energies on Turn 2. Here is how that would work attach a Fighting to Machop Turn 1. Turn 2 Rare Candy into Machamp attach a Boost Energy and if your opponent has an EX in play and you flip heads that is 120 damage. Otherwise it would do 90 on Tails. Definitely something to look at.

Limited – 2/5 Hard to draft a Stage 2 in Limted. If you can pull it off a good choice with 120 Hp.
 

Otaku

Name: Machamp

Set: Hidden Legends

Card#: 9/101

Type: Fighting

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Machoke)

HP: 120

Weakness: Psychic

Resistance: None

Retreat: CC

Poké-Body: Overzealous

If your opponent has a Pokémon-ex in play, each of Machamp’s attacks do 30 more damage to the Defending Pokémon.

Attack#1: (CF) Brick Smash [40]

This attack’s damage isn’t affected by Weakness, Resistance, Poké-Power, Poké-Body, or any other effects on the Defending Pokémon.

Attack#2: (FCCC) Cross Chop [60+]

Flip a coin.  If heads, this attack does 60 damage plus 30 damage.

 

Attributes: Machamp is a Stage 2 Fighting Pokémon.  This means that it’s comparatively hard to get into play.  In most cases you’ll need or want to Evolve it.  The Basic Stage of the Machamp line is of course Machop.  The Modified legal Machops (from Hidden Legends, Expedition, and Skyridge) all have the same Attributes and good abilities, so chose what works for you.  The Machokes are the same way.  Both of these are positive cases, as the Pokémon involved seem solid.  In Unlimited, you have a few more options, but of those only the Base Set Machop is worth considering, and Rare Candy should probably replace the Machokes.  Also note that there are several Machamps available, and could be mixed with this one to provide some variety.

 

Getting back to Hidden Legends Machamp, we see the perfect HP for a non-Pokémon ex, 120.  Though this is the best it can hope for, it is desperately needed as this is a Stage 2.  We see a Weakness to Psychic Pokémon.  This is expected for most plain Fighting Pokémon, but is devastating-most Psychic Pokémon of any real worth will be able to knock you out in two hits, and often one.  No Resistance is the worst Resistance.  As for the retreat, it is the average two-not going to help you, but paying for it won’t cripple you.

 

Abilities: Overzealous is a nice and almost familiar Poké-Body.  Some may remember how strong the early Dark-type Pokémon were.  Light Machamp was designed to combat them (but more or less failed miserably).  One reason Light Machamp didn’t do too well was that it had to use its more expensive second attack to get the damage bonus.

 

As for this cards attacks, we have two great ones.  Brick Smash ignores all effects on the Defending Pokémon.  Unfortunately, that includes Weakness, and other effects that would increase your damage.  Still, it means that even if your opponent has no Pokémon-ex in play, you will hit for 40 damage (unless there is an effect that prevents the attack from going through).  For just (FC), which should yield 25 damage, we get 15 extra damage and an overall beneficial effect: Weakness and Resistance cancel out, but I can think of maybe one effect that resides on the Defending Pokémon that increases damage (and thus would be ignored) versus Trainers like Defender and Buffer Piece, defensive Pokémon Powers, and of course Metal Energy that can all drop damage done to a Pokémon.

 

The last ability of this card is a big second attack, Cross Chop.  Cross Chop does base damage of 60, and gives you a coin flip to get another 30.  (FCCC), the cost of the attack, only pays for 45 damage.  So we are getting an average damage bonus of 30 (15 base but n average of 15 from the flip).  Definitely worthy of a Stage 2.

 

Overall, these abilities have good synergy with each other.  However, I wonder if it might not have been better were things reversed: the first attack being for big, quick damage, and the second for ignoring things like Resistance.  Now, this would make it less effective against a lot of things, but Pokémon that were Weak to Fighting, and just low HP Pokémon in general, would then have been easy prey.  Still, as is these attacks do compliment each other, and the Poke-Body acts as the icing on the cake.

 

Uses/Combinations: Simply put, this is designed to be the focus of an anti-ex Fighting deck.  Some like to run it with the other major anti-ex Pokémon, Sandstorm Wobbuffet and Hidden Legends Ninetales.  The Wobbuffet sounds like a good partner to me, but the Ninetales was way over hyped.  I think I’ll try it with… yes, guessed it, Sandstorm Xatu.

 

On the Trainer front, use whatever draw engine you think works.  The only real suggestions I can make here are the Stadium and a healing trick.  Since you have an attack to by-pass Resistance already, Magnetic Storm seems a waste: go with Ancient Tomb (so you can keep up with opposing Wobbuffets on damage) or Desert Ruins (the damage counter placement should make some attacks into OHKOs).  You might also consider Pokémon Nurse for healing, especially if you are not running those Xatu.  The reason is what Energies this card can abuse.  Boost Energy can allow for second turn Cross Chops, while DRE ensures that, even if you just dropped it into play (or Nursed), Brick Smash will be ready.  Yes, DRE will drop your damage and Boost will go away, but played right, this won’t matter.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1.5/5-Solid card but there are so few Pokémon ex that’s all it will be.  The one or two Pokémon ex that I do see here can OHKO you with little difficulty.  You can run it, but I don’t think it’s worth it, especially when you could run, say, the Skyridge Machamp.

 

Modified: 3.5/5-If enough people play this, we might see some semblance of balance return to the format.  No guarantees, but if it’s played, Pokémon ex give it a permanent, free, triple Plus Power!

 

Limited: 4/5-If you pull one of these, and of course the supporting lines for it (not too bad, I saw a lot of Machokes at our pre-release, and I was running two myself), then you have some serious Power.  This also works nicely against the clutch Pokémon ex that people draft.

 

Summary

Could be a game changing card, or more shoe box fodder.

 

-Otaku

 

 

 


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