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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Salamence Lv. 68

Arceus

Date Reviewed: 12.01.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 2.25
Limited: 1.87

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

Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats

Salamence  Lv 68

 

Salamence is a Pokémon that most players of the TCG and the video game seem to love. Probably because it’s a dragon, and it does look pretty cool.

 

Unfortunately, all that huge scary dragon-ness, while it seems to be massively powerful on the DS, doesn’t translate well to the card game. Although this Pokémon is normally given high damage attacks, it also tends to be burdened with high Energy costs and usually needs both Fire and Water Energy to use its attacks. That makes it slow and clunky and in desperate need of Energy acceleration. Finally, we get a Salamence with that very ability, but is it the answer to a Salamence fan’s prayer? Let’s take a look.

 

As you would expect, Salamence is very bulky, even for a Stage 2, with a big 140 HP and comes with a +30 Weakness to its own Colourless type. Salamence does get a nice Fighting Resistance, though I would rather have had a cheaper Retreat cost instead.

 

When it comes to attacks, this Salamence certainly doesn’t shine. Shoot Through does a mere 50 damage, plus 20 to a benched Pokémon for the ridiculous cost of [F][W][C]. Its second attack, Dragon Claw is, if anything, even more embarrassingly expensive. I mean . . . four Colourless Energy to do a vanilla 70 damage? What is this, Base Set?

 

But wait . . . remember that Energy accelerating Power I mentioned? Maybe Salamence could use that to power up a Salamence SW or SF, both of which hit much harder for similarly insane Energy requirements?

 

Well . . . yes it could. In theory. In practice, that Power needs so much support that it barely increases the deck’s speed at all. Top Accelerator lets you reveal the top card of your deck. If it is a Basic Energy, attach it to a Pokémon; if it isn’t, discard it. Now the only way of getting that Power to work consistently and repeatedly is to have a method of discarding the required Energy (easy enough with Felicity’s Drawing, Lunatone, Regice etc), and then using Delcatty PL ‘s Power Circulation to put it on the top of your deck. So now, as well as setting up multiple Salamence (an attacker and an accelerator), you also need a Stage 1 on the Bench . . . a Stage 1 that is vulnerable to Gengar SF’s Shadow Room and Luxray GL LV X’s Bright Look.

 

When they made Salamence AR, it seems like they were aware that the other Salamence, including the LV X would be near-broken with Energy acceleration. As a result, they sought to balance the card by requiring an awful lot of set up to make it function. Unfortunately, it seems they went too far. In this extremely fast format, the set up is simply much too slow and clunky. If you want to run Salamence, then I suggest you look for different answers to the speed issue, rather than one which actually slows the deck down even more.

 

Rating

 

Modified: 1.5 (clunky Power, terrible attacks)

Limited: 1.75 (Stage 2’s are tough to get out here . . . you want them to be more rewarding than

Guy

Salamence:

This Salamence is quite an interesting card. The poke-power: Top Accelerator is really what makes it good. The power states that once per turn you may look at the top card of your deck. If it is an energy you can attatch it to any pokemon you want, and if it is not an energy you have to discard the card. Obviously you do not want to randomly Accelerate without knowing that you are going to draw an energy card, but I will leave it up to you to figure out which pokemon allows you to combo with this power to guarantee an energy attachment. This card obviously should be combo'd with either the Battle Rush Salamence or the Dragon Finish Salamence (or the Lv. X). Shoot through is this Salamence's best attack, but honestly this Salamence should just sit on the bench unless you have the lv. X played on top. This deck is another one of those that have a LOT of potential, but it is going to simply take time to see how it plays out. A fast Salamence deck is definately buildable, but how will it deal with SP, Speedrill, and Flygon? We will just have to see.

Modified: 3/5 (if combo'd right in the Sal deck)
Limited: 2/5


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