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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Pikachu Lv.17

Arceus

Date Reviewed: 09.22.09

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.75
Limited: 1.75

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

Jigglypuff13 9/22 Pikachu Lv.17 (AR)

Hello, and welcome to the continuation of our mini-Arceus preview thing (I hope yo get what I mean there, because I don't), and we continue with Pikachu. Why on Earth did Nintendo decide to release a Pikachu as a preview card? It may be popular, but really, who actually cares? No one. Anyway, onto the card itself and the Basics of it. 60 HP is almost the best for a Pikachu, and in general, fairly good for an evolving Basic. +10 Fighting Weakness hopefully won't actually be to bad since it shouldn't ever be used outside the first couple turns against a Machop (DP or SF, which ever) that's used in a Machamp (SF) deck. -20 Metal Resistance is nice against Dialga G (PL), but again, you shouldn't be using it too much on this Pokémon that often since you should evolve it quickly. 1 Retreat Cost is nice, if you need to use it at any point, but again, hopefully you won't need to.

Abilities now, and we start with Pika Ball, which for L does 10 damage. Outside of the first couple of turns, if you ever use this attack, you deserve to leave the game and never return since it's pointless. There are plenty of attacks that do 10 damage for C instead, which is better. If it needed C, then it'd be better in a deck using more than 1 type. If it did 20 damage, that wouldn't be too bad either since at least then it can actually do enough damage early on to threaten other Basics.
Mega Shot is slightly pointless as well. For LCC, you have to discard all Lightning energies attached to Pikachu to deal 40 damage to one of your opponents Pokémon. Again, I feel this attack is pointless. Chances are you will be playing a mono-Lightning deck and then have to discard all of your energies for a 40 snipe. If you aren't playing a mono-Lightning deck, then it works better, but you'd probably be discarding 2 energies at least anyway since most Raichus use attacks that cost at least 2 Lightning energies, so you'll want to be attaching at least 2 Lightning energies to your choice of Pikachu, and here, it won't really help.

So, combos, and really, you can only really use it with Raichu, and even that isn't a good enough idea since your energy arrangement will mean you won't be able to attack early game, or have to discard loads of energies if you use Mega Shot at any point (which you hopefully won't have to).

Counters, and really, the main is when you realise how bad this Pikachu is. Really, most others are better. The SF one is nice for 70 HP, thus able to survive a Dragon Pump from Kingdra (LA), and the MT one is great for Electro Recycle getting energies back.

Ratings:

Modified: First of all, I must mention that I hate rating non-fully evolved Pokémon. That over with, this Pikachu is really bad. You really can't justify the use of this card for a couple of reasons. First, your energy line must be absolutely perfect to get the most out of this card - to allow it to attack first turn with Pika Ball, and then not discard too many energies with Mega Shot. I don't see it being enough if you can though, since the SF and MT ones are both miles ahead for one main key feature each, either the HP, or the Poké-Power. 1.5/5

Limited: I can't really justify it here either. If Pika Ball was a Colorless attack, then I could, but without it, needing specific energies hurt it in a format where you can't search for energies that easily, and probably won't be playing many Lightning energies anyway, thus meaning you'll find it hard to draw into them. Mega Shot is nice, but the cost is a little on the high side, but if you can do it, why not really. 1.75/5

Meganium45
OK, yay, another 60 HP weak to fighting Pikachu with 1 retreat cost, and resistance to metal.

Attacks are 1 for 10, which believe it or not is overcosted, with a lightning energy requirement (should be 1 colorless or 0 energy cost)

Attach 2 is 3 for 40 to anything, discard all lightning energy. Can use with only one lightning on him, but still an overcosted attack.

There are many better Pikachus to use than this one, but OK, the picture is nice. Pikachu looks happy and it appears to be fall. YAY.

Ratings…

Modified 1.5/5 Better ones out there.

Limited 2.5/5 Not a horrible basic, can be splashed in, and the bench hitting for 40 is much more valuable here. I would probably take this card in a 4-5 slot if passed to me. (I will do an article on this later, 4-5 slot means the 4th or 5th card you take from a pack in pass-draft)

See you this weekend at the Battle Road in Mid Rivers Mall at Neutral Zone (located on the 2nd floor, up the central escalators, of the mall) on Saturday the 26th – Registration begins at 10 am and ends at 11 am

Sunday we will be at Fantasy Books in Belleville, registration at noon, and registration ends at 1pm

Thanks!

Vince
Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats
Pikachu (Platinum-Arceus)

Another new set, another new Pikachu. Did you know that there are currently TEN legal Pikachus in Modified format (including Flying and Surfing versions)?

And yet, when was the last time you saw one in a competitive deck? Will the 11th Pikachu make a difference? Let’s see . . .

This Pikachu’s 60 HP makes it one of the sturdier ones. The Fighting Weakness doesn’t matter much as the most common Fighting-type attacker, Machamp SF will just use Take Out. Metal Resistance is better than nothing, but I don’t see it making much of a difference. The Retreat cost of one is predictable and neither good nor bad.

Pikachu’s first attack, Pika Ball does a vanilla 10 damage for one Lightning Energy. Nice to have a single Energy attack (though a Colourless one would be better), but this is unlikely to strike fear into the hearts of opponents. The second attack, Mega Shot, can do 40 damage to any Pokémon for [L][C][C] and the discard of all [L] Energy attached to Pikachu. While sniping the bench is very nice, do you really want to put THREE Energy on a 60 HP Basic to do it (and lose at least one of them)? Of course you don’t. You would much rather just use Honchkrow G and Crobat G, wouldn’t you?

Inevitably, Pikachu’s only use is as a stepping stone to Raichu. For that purpose, this Pikachu is not much worse than any other. It’s just a shame that all the legal Raichus, with their low HP and Energy-intensive attacks are just not tournament viable at the moment.

Rating

Modified: 1.25 (Poor attacks, no decent Raichus in Modified)
Limited: 1.5 (the Raichu in the set isn’t too bad for Limited)


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