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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Gyarados G. Lv. 46

Platinum

Date Reviewed: 01.28.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.80
Limited: 3.50

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

Back to the main COTD Page

Arbok14
Alright, I am back after a little break. With prereleases coming up, I am definitely excited about the new set of cards. Today we are reviewing Cyrus's Gyarados G!

Name: Gyarados G Lv. 46
Set: Platinum
Rarity: Rare

HP: (110) - Seriously, on a basic? This is great!

Weakness/Resistance: (Lightning x2/none) - Double weakness to anything is never good, and Raichu may pose some problems.

Retreat Cost: (3) - Not great on a basic. Use some switches and warp points, you aren't going to want to pay this retreat cost.

Attack #1: (WCC - Wriggle) - Flippy. This is like a slightly cheaper and therefore weaker version of Dragonite's move. This could wreak some havoc, but it is nothing to depend on.

Attack #2: (WWCC - Dwindling Wave) - I never really like attacks that get weaker when the pokemon has more damage on it. This is no exception. The reason why is because this attack requires, not 1, not 2, not even 3, but 4 Energies!! It will be tough to get this thing out with four energies and no damage.

Final Analysis: This card is decent, but will probably see most of its play in limited tournaments. However, you could possibly make a successful deck which focuses with this as an attacker. Attach a Devolutor and have something on the bench to wreak havoc. Once it is energized, use Wriggle a lot. If you get this out quickly and constantly Devolutor and then Wriggle, it could be decent. Dwindling Wave only if you are lucky enough to avoid damage. However, your opponent would be silly not to focus damage onto it.

Modified: This could see some play, but I can't see a lot of play happening. Decent, but not great. (2.5/5)

Limited: Wriggle would be great here. High HP on a basic, and easy to set up... Pretty good. (3.5/5)
Jigglypuff13 1/28 Gyarados G Lv.46 (PT)

Ah, Wednesday, and if only I had a bit more time to write reviews. Still, I keep up reviewing, even if it means my first G card with be Gyarados G. This basic has a, quite frankly, massive 110 HP. I know, it's a G Pokémon and all, but this has more HP than Dialga G, which is quite nice little thing for it to brag about (if card can brag, that is). x2 Lightning Weakness might be slightly bad, with the new Ampharos and Manectric (go find spoilers/wait for scans yourself) probably being popular. No Resistance, well, I shall gloss over that. 3 Retreat Cost is slightly hefty, so make sure you play a nice amount of Warp Points or Switches or even Mantine (MT), just to make sure you can get it back to the safety of the bench.

Abilities now, and first, Wriggle. Ha ha, Wriggle, what a stupid attack name. *Clear throat* Anyway, Wriggle, and for those of you who remember what Dragonite (LA) does (and if you don't, it's very easy to find out), this is a bit like a cheaper, weaker Draco Meteor. Basically, for the WCC cost, you flip a coin for each of your opponents Pokémon. If you get a heads, you do 30 damage to that Pokémon. Tails, nothing happens to that Pokémon, obviously. It's very luck reliant, and dealing, considering an average amount of Pokémon in play (4 probably, to stop it them being Dark Palmed), you'd end up with an average 60 damage. It's all right, I suppose, but even with that and the Team Galactic's Inventions and trickery and such, it's still not quite good enough for me. It's not too bad, but not that great either. Dwindling Wave is like every other Dwindling Wave attack. High damage for high energy cost, which gets weaker as Gyarados G gets attacked. I would prefer to use Wriggle, unless I somehow manage to get one powered up without any damage on it.

Combos, and just use with the Team Galactic cards, like the Inventions and such. Being able to do and average of 60 for WC (look for the energy cost reducing one) from Wriggle isn't that bad actually. If you want to try for a Dwindling Wave strategy, just pack as many healing cards as you can, to keep the damage output up, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Ratings:

Modified: It's not a bad card, but it isn't particularly great either. Dwindling Wave may seem nice, but with the high energy cost and reducing damage output, it's not really that good. Wriggle isn't that great either, but it can spread, and can deal a nice amount of damage for a small energy cost with the tool that reduces a G's energy cost. Wriggle enough, and it will cause a fair bit of disruption. Other than WC Wriggles, I can't really see much use for this card. 2.75/5

Limited: High energy costs and lack of certainty in getting the energy cost reducing tool (look, I can't remember what it's called, so that's why I'm calling it the energy cost reducing tool) makes even the otherwise promising Wriggle seem slightly bad. It's still quite nice though, often weakening everything to the state where your other Pokémon can KO there's. 110 HP is certainly very nice, though, for making sure Gyarados G can stay alive long enough to keep Wriggling. However, don't bother with Dwindling Wave, it's just not worth the time or effort.

Heh heh, Wriggle.

Meganium45
You got it! Finally a Gyrados that does NOT need a Magikarp.

For almost a decade, Pokemon had a habit of making decent Gyrados cards that were playable, in spite of a GLARING weakness.

Magikarp. Some people rearrange the last letters to form a different word. Use your imagination.

Yes! You are right Dav and Mike! The answer is PARK! DING DING DING!!!

As for the rest of you…SHAME…

On to the basics….

110 HP on a basic is GOOD.

2 x Weakness to Lightning is not great, but not completely crippling (Unless a lot of Amphy (new) or Raichu are being played in your gym)

Resistance to nothing is exactly that. NOTHING.

3 Retreat cost should NEVER be paid. Other, better ways of getting him out.

Now for the attacks. Overcosted ALL.

First, wriggle. For 3 energy you flip a coin for each of their Pokemon, if heads you do 30 to that Poke! Great! Damage spreading right? Wrong.

Give me a good Prinplup any day of the week. Flips are just that. Never good when you need them. Look back. Has any Worlds winning deck EVER won based around flips since Nintendo took over? NO. (Note I am leaving out the whole focus banded old school babies). Reason? Flips never hit when you REALLY need them.

Second…Dwindling Wave…100 minus 10 for each damage counter of Gyrados…What is this Wailord EX? Base Machoke? Blech. Sure, may be situational, but, really…4 energy to power this up? 4 for 100, there is a good cost. 4 for whatever? I’m playing Empoleon over this.

OK, now you and I both know there MAY be a trainer that reduces your attack cost by a colorless for SP Pokemon…

Even with that, these are all overcosted attacks, and although the numbers may look good, and this may look like a good Poke…it isn’t.

Am I going to try to cram it in a deck to make it work? Heck yes. I am fully convinced Worlds 2009 will be won by a SP deck. Pretty convinced Nationals will too.

Will this be able to play some part? Maybe? Maybe. That is why I am not going to crucify it on the ratings.

OK. Modified. 3/5 Good HP, I have seen WORSE attacks.

Limited 3.5/5…This set may be full of Big Basic Pokemon, but getting one of these, and energizing it for the “Wave” may be game changing. Or not.

See you all at my Prereleases this Saturday at GameNite in South County Mall in St. Louis.

If not, then on Sunday at Fantasy Books in Belleville. Or Monday and Wednesday at B&B, or Tuesday at Neutral Zone, of Friday in Evansville, Indiana, or Saturday the 7th at the Gathering Ground in Valley Park, MO. It is a 7 day holiday of Pokemon Prerelease fun.

Oh, and to reward my loyal POJO readers, look forward to a POJO BONUS coming up at Missouri States in March, and the Mississippi Valley Regional in April!!! Cool stuff coming!!!

Vince
Octillery49 Gyrados G isn't too great of a card accept with Kyogre. It's attacks are good except for the energy cost. If it's used with Kyogre and Dawn stadium though, you can heal it so it's dwindling wave does more damage and you also take care of the problem of the high energy cost. 3.5/5

Alex
Gyarados G - Platinum

Aww man. I was really looking forward to this card being playable. Unfortunately, it isn't. I don't know about you guys, but it seems like every Gyarados PUI makes seems to just fall short of being good. Case in point, Gyarados SF. That card seemed to have a lot of potential but it just fell flat on its face because of horrible damage output and the flippy attack. Nonetheless, this Gyarados (while less playable) seems to be more of the same. On to the review!

HP: 110 - This is pretty good for a Stage 1. It survives a Giga Blaster from "the Gigas" and an aggro Torterra LvX attack. 110 definitely seems to be the "sweet" number of the format, considering a lot of today's decks seem to do exactly 100 (somewhere Scizor SF is crying).

Attacks: Wriggle, Dwindling Wave: Wriggle is just a bad attack right now. This format has about 10000 better spreaders that don't even need to flip a coin to be able to do damage. Just look at Abomasnow - 20 to EVERYONE for 2 colorless. There's also Dusky, Glalie, TTar, Spiritbomb, etc Dwindling Wave, on the other hand, is an OK attack. The energy cost is relatively high for the damage and don't forget that it does 10- for each damage counter on you. Realistically, you'll probably be doing about 30 damage with this. Just not worth it IMO.

Weakness/Resistance: L x2/nothing - Ugh. x2 weakness is never good for a non Lv.X. Luckily Lightning is not played all that much so it'spossible to get around this, but x2 weakness just KILLS in a format with +20 and +30 weaknesses. I'm actually surprised this card has no resisistance considering he's flying. Guess there's a lot of Gyarados haters out there.

Retreat: CCC - Horrible. You'll never be retreating this.

Overall, this card is pretty bad. I definitely wouldn't play it or even suggest to someone to play it. Just keep this one in the binder folks. On the flip side, the artwork is pretty neat ;/

Ratings:
Modified - 2/5
Limited - 3/5 (Decent here, but still not that good)


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