Pojo's Pokemon news, tips, strategies and more!

Pokemon Home

Pokedex

Price Guide Set List

Message Board

Pokemon GO Tips

Pokemon News

Featured Articles


Trading Card Game
- Price Guide
- Price Guide
- Card of the Day
- Professional Grading
- Killer Deck Reports
- Deck Garage
- William Hung
- Jason Klaczynski
- Jeremy's Deck Garage
- Johnny Blaze's Banter
- TCG Strategies
- Rulings Help
- Apprentice & Patch
- Apprentice League
- Spoilers & Translations
- Official Rules
- Featured Event Reports
- Top of the World
- An X-Act Science
- Error Cards
- Printable Checklist
- Places to Play


Nintendo Tips
- Red/Blue
- Yellow
- Gold & Silver
- Crystal
- Ruby & Sapphire
- Fire Red & Leaf Green
- Emerald
- SNAP
- Pinball
- TCG cart
- Stadium
- PuPuzzle League
- Pinball: Ruby/Sapphire
- Pokemon Coliseum
- Pokemon Box
- Pokemon Channel


GameBoy Help
- ClownMasters Fixes
- Groudon's Den
- Pokemon of the Week

E-Card Reader FAQ's
- Expedition
- Aquapolis
- Skyridge
- Construction Action Function
- EON Ticket Manual


Deck Garage
- Pokemaster's Pit Stop
- Kyle's Garage
- Ghostly Gengar


Cartoon/Anime
- Episode Listing
- Character Bios
- Movies & Videos
- What's a Pokemon?
- Video List
- DVD List


Featured Articles

Pojo's Toy Box

Books & Videos

Downloads

Advertise With Us
- Sponsors
-
Links

Chat

About Us
Contact Us


Magic
Yu-Gi-Oh!
DBZ
Pokemon
Yu Yu Hakusho
NeoPets
HeroClix
Harry Potter
Anime
Vs. System
Megaman



Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Shiftry EX

Power Keepers

 

Date Reviewed: 03.13.07

Ratings & Reviews Summary
Unlimited: 2.25
Modified: 3.45
Limited: 1.50

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


Steve Silvestro

2001 WCSTS Champ

2006 Top 8 @ Nats

2006 10th at Worlds

Shiftry EX:

Unlimited 1/5: A stage 2 with no spectacular attack and weakness to Scyther and Hitmonchan? Sorry , no chance of this card ever working.

Modified 2/5: This card's top attack is extremely over rated. If you ever play against this deck you will realize how easy it is to keep the Pokemon with big attacks out of your hand. Wanna copy my attacks? Play Mew EX LM.

Limited 1/5: Grats you pulled an EX that is IMPOSSIBLE to use because you can't get Dark Energy.

Otaku

Review too long?  Skip straight to the scores and summary.

 

Name: Shiftry ex

Set: EX Power Keepers

Card#: 97/108

Rarity: Pokémon-ex

Pokémon-ex Rule: When Pokémon-ex has been Knocked Out, your opponent takes 2 Prize cards.

Type: Darkness

Stage: 2 (Evolves from Nuzleaf)

HP: 140

Weakness: Grass, Fighting

Resistance: Psychic

Retreat: (C)

Attack#1: (D) Skill Hack

Look at your opponent’s hand and choose a Basic Pokémon or Evolution card you find there.  Choose 1 of that Pokémon’s attacks.  Skill Hack copies that attack except for its Energy cost.  (You must still do anything else required for that attack.)  (No matter what type that Pokémon is, Shiftry ex’s type is still (D).)  Shiftry ex performs that attack.

Attack#2: (DCC) Dirge [60]

Does 60 damage to each of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon that has the same name as the Defending Pokémon.  (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon).

Name: Nuzleaf

Set: EX Power Keepers

Card#: 36/108

Rarity: Uncommon

Type: Darkness

Stage: 1 (Evolves from Seedot)

HP: 70

Weakness: Fighting

Resistance: Psychic

Retreat: (C)

Attack#1: (C) Fake Out [10]

Flip a coin.  If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.

Attack#2: (DCC) Gentle Slap [40]

Name: Seedot

Set: EX Power Keepers

Card#: 60/108

Rarity: Common

Type: Grass

Stage: Basic

HP: 40

Weakness: Fire

Resistance: None

Retreat: C

Attack#1: (C) Nap

Remove 2 damage counters from Seedot.

Attack#2: (GC) Double Spin [20x]

Flip two coins.  This attack does 20 damage times the number of heads.

 

Attributes: Given that we had a Stage 2 Pokémon-ex yesterday, you probably know the drill: Shiftry ex will need to be pretty potent to compensate the increased difficulty of running a Stage 2 Pokémon over a Stage 1 or Basic, and to compensate for the double Prize taken when it is KO’d, an inability to “use” many Trainers and Special Energy, and vulnerability to certain “anti-Pokémon-ex” cards.  With that in mind, let’s start looking at its attributes.

 

First, let’s look at “where it comes from”.  The new Nuzleaf is a pretty solid Stage 1: 70 HP is as low as you want to risk, even if you’re only playing a Stage 1 to Evolve into its Stage 2 counterpart.  Fighting Weakness isn’t a surprise, but Psychic Resistance is, and a most welcome one at that.  The attacks are also middle of the road for a Stage 1 (that is, they have a slight price break), so I’d say it’s a solid Pokémon.  However, I can’t recommend it over the other Modified Legal Nuzleaf as all are more or less just as good.  As for Seedot, Nap won’t keep a 40 HP Basic alive very long, and Double Spin is slightly overpriced (you pay for 25 points of damage, but average only 20), so I’d go with the EX Deoxys version solely because if it is my Active I am probably desperate and using Collect to draw a card would be a good idea.

 

Now that we have what to build Shiftry ex up from, let’s look at what it is.  As a Darkness Type Pokémon, it enjoys the damage bonus Darkness Energy provides.  Doing more damage is good, because with only 140 HP, it’s like your opponent is getting a damage bonus.  Although only slightly on the low side for a Stage 2 Pokémon-ex, it does mean that an attack average 70 damage can 2-hit KO Shiftry ex, and one wants to live long enough with a Pokémon-ex to take at least two Prizes (breaking even in terms of Prize count).  I don’t know how bad Fighting Weakness is, but it usually isn’t good.  I don’t know how the metagame will shape up exactly, but even if, theoretically, no Fighting Type Pokémon were currently popular I’d worry that someone would take the recently reprinted Overzealous Machamp to a tournament just hoping to find enough Pokémon-ex to take them to the top.  And that’s not the only Weakness: Grass is here too, so just due to there being a double Weakness, Shiftry ex has to compensate a lot.  Psychic Resistance is a good start, though: this will really hamper Psychic decks, and from what I have seen that is one thing I can safely predict: Psychic Pokémon will see play this format.  Finally we see a Retreat Cost of one, which is nice and low and easy to pay.  Good thing too, since you are apt to use a lot of Special Energy you wouldn’t want to have to discard on Shiftry ex.

 

Abilities: Skill Hack is an interesting derivation on the Metronome style attacks.  Instead of selecting a Pokémon in play, you get the bonus of seeing your opponent’s hand and selecting a Pokémon from there.  If they have nothing, your attack does nothing more.  If they do have something, you can choose it, then an attack printed on it, and Skill Hack duplicates the effect(s).  Energy cost is ignored but nothing else, so if you select something that discards two Energy cards, you’ll have to have two Energy cards to discard or it won’t do anything.  It is a bit of a risk, but the speed and fact you can usually benefit from a slight damage bonus is nice.

 

The second attack is Dirge.  For (DCC), you score 60 points of damage.  Ignoring potential bonuses from Darkness Energy use, that’s a bonus of 25 points.  Not horrid for a Pokémon-ex or a Stage 2 Pokémon, but for both it’s a bit weak.  Thankfully, the attack also hits all Pokémon with the same name as the one you attacked for 60 as well.

 

Separately, these attacks are “alright”, but a smart player could play around them pretty easily.  Together, it becomes trickier.  Don’t want Skill Hack to hit anything?  Play it right away.  Don’t want Dirge to score big damage?  Keep multiples in your hand and stagger your Evolutions.  Both solutions feed the other attack.

 

Uses and

Combinations: I think this card has a lot of potential, even with the double Weakness.  True, in many decks the “big Evolutions” won’t stay in the hand long, as they’ll be searched out from the deck only when Evolution is imminent.  Still, that may be enough.  Like nearly every deck, you want to power up as fast as you can.  I haven’t had a chance to test this card, but if you can find the right partner to help it set up quickly, or else to slow your opponent down, I would think they’d be hard pressed to fight back.  It slammed me when I faced it at League because I wasn’t familiar with it, so I didn’t expect it.  It was my opponent’s third turn, I’d used a Pokémon Fan Club the turn before (since it was the only Supporter I had) and so I had two sets of 50 HP Basics.  Needless to say, one set died.  I managed to Evolve on the next turn, but it still impressed me with how powerful this can be with a quick opening set up.

 

Ratings

 

Unlimited: 1/5 – Sure, there are a lot of smaller Basics, but most of them hit harder and faster than Shiftry ex can hope to without an obscenely complex set up.

 

Modified: 3.75/5 – The double Weakness is the only reason I am scoring it this low, as I feel that its potency early game can prevent there from being a mid- or late game to worry about.

 

Limited: 1.75/5 – If you can pull it and a Darkness Energy, its worth running.  Otherwise, it isn’t.  Both attacks need something to provide (D), and its potency means even if it’s an unlikely combo it is still worth the room, but only if it is fully possible.  Pokémon-ex do not make good “meat shields”.

 

Summary

Shiftry ex is clearly meant to be run as a “speed” Pokémon, coming out early and beating down the opponent.  Whether this is accomplished by Energy acceleration or Trainer denial, I don’t know.  I just honestly believe it could not only work, but work quite well.

 

-Otaku

Alex Bramham
Top 8
UK Nationals
2006
Shiftry ex:

This card is somewhat unreviewable until a ruling is made about Skill Hack involving what is a requirement of an attack. If Skill Hack can copy Mudslide and Elemental Blast without the need for a discard, this gets 3.3/5 from me; otherwise only 2.8 The strength of the card lies in that it is splashable alongside the other Shiftry ex and it has the potential to copy some very nice attacks such as Banette ex's or any of the 150+HP exs from dragon frontiers for some first turn carnage! Of course if your opponent sees Seedot, they'll either rare candy asap. or discard it with a holon supporter turning Shiftry ex into only an average pokémon ex. I'll rate it midway between the rulings but this card should be prosponed for card of the day.

Modified: 3/5

Anthony C
AKA- The Ft. Laud. Loud Mounth
League Leader
Top 32 Grinder 2004
Shifty Ex
 
Unlimited- Imagine this- your opponent has a 60 HP or less basic active and 3 pokemon with the same name in their discard pile and 3 spaces on their bench, you play 3 Poke Flutes and bring them back to the field, you use Dirge. KO times 4= 4 prizes. Rating 4/5
 
Modified- For one energy you are copying an attack and don't need the energy to use that attack. The 2nd attack is decent also- damage to active and damage to benched pokemon with the same name. Rating 3/5
 
Limited- If you get a dark energy in your packs (which most likely wont happen) and are able to attach it to Shifty this card becomes godly, if you don't this card is useless. Rating 1/5
 
-the ft. laud. loud mouth
Koopa-Troopa Shiftry ex

Unlimited: Not too shabby, Skill hack for one dark and dirge for three might just make it playable here. 3/5

Modified: I love this card here. Play one in your Shiftry deck and you’re set, plus it’s a good reason to play field worker finally. 5/5

Limited: Only if you pull a dark energy, otherwise he’s no good. 2/5


Copyright© 1998-2007 pojo.com
This site is not sponsored, endorsed, or otherwise affiliated with any of the companies or products featured on this site. This is not an Official Site.