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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Granbull HGSS   I have to say that Granbull is one of my least favourite Pokémon. It’s ugly and mean-looking but not in the cool way that something like Dialga is. Oh well, I shall try not to let my dislike of Granbull bias my review!   As I have said many times, attacking Stage 1s have a really tough time in this format as they lack the speed of SP Basics and the Power of Stage 2s (Donphan Prime and Gyarados SF being honourable exceptions). Granbull does nothing to help itself with its mediocre 90HP, double Fighting Weakness, and truly horrible Retreat cost of three. It does have one thing going for it though . . . its type.   Being a Colourless Pokémon is pretty great. It makes a Pokémon splashable into any type of deck, makes it easy to use Double Colourless Energy to power it up, and it hits a few commonly-played Pokémon for weakness (notably Garchomp C and Flygon). To take full advantage of this, a Colourless Pokémon will need some good attacks though, so let’s see if Granbull makes the grade.   The first attack, Timid Tackle (!) does a pretty good 50 damage for only two Energy, and switches Granbull back to the Bench. The downside is that it also does 20 damage to itself. But wait! That 20 damage may actually help Granbull as its second attack, Chomp, does 40 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on it! Sounds like some great synergy, until you realise that Chomp costs twice as much Energy as Timid Tackle. So . . . you hit for 50, switch out, then bring up your damaged Granbull with four Energy on it to do 60 damage . . . yeah, not so good . . . an extra 10 damage is just not worth the increased cost and effort. Sure, that 60 damage will OHKO a Garchomp C LV X, but you probably won’t even get the chance to do that before your self-damaged Pokémon is sniped off the Bench by the very Pokémon it is supposed to KO.   Too slow and too weak even to counter Pokémon that are weak to it, Granbull is crippled by attacks that seem to work together, but actually end up making the card’s problems even worse. In order to attack, it has to lower its HP to the point where it is basically a free Prize for your opponent. If Colourless-Weak Pokémon are causing you problems, you need to look elsewhere for the solution.   Rating   Modified: 1.75 (this card is its own worst enemy) Limited: 2.75 (Colourless attackers are valuable here)
virusyosh	Good day again, Pojo readers! Today's Card of the Day is Granbull from the HGSS expansion. Granbull is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. Being Colorless means that Granbull is potentially versatile, and can possibly be splashed into many decks if its attacks and powers are good enough. 90 HP is fairly standard for a fully evolved Stage 1, even though it's a bit on the low side for our hard-hitting metagame. A double Weakness to Fighting is really unfortunate, given the emergence of Donphan Prime and the ever present Machamp SF. No Resistance is unfortunately expected, and a Retreat Cost of 3 is quite terrible - switch Granbull some other way. In a continuing theme for the HGSS set, Granbull has two attacks. The first, Timid Tackle, deals 50 damage for [CC], while dealing Granbull 20 recoil damage and switching it out for something on your bench. While 50 damage for two Energy is pretty cheap, dealing yourself damage isn't usually a great idea. The switching aspect of the card is really interesting (especially in Limited), because it allows you do deal a decent amount of damage while keeping your attacker relatively safe, as well as retreating your Pokemon with a huge Retreat Cost essentially for free. Then again, if you wish to employ some sort of hit-and-run strategy like this in Modified, there are probably better alternatives that don't damage themselves. The second attack, the oddly named Champ, deals 40 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on Granbull for the very expensive [CCCC]. While this attack is supposed to be a sort of mini-combo with Timid Tackle and has the capability of doing 120 damage, it's also quite expensive and probably isn't worth using. Modified: 1.75/5 While not completely useless, it's hard to justify running Granbull here when it damages itself and has a relatively low damage output for the cost. In the end, the fact that Granbull damages itself with Timid Tackle is really unfortunate, because one thing you don't need to do in Modified is damage yourself with all of the Crobat Gs and sniper damage around, even if Nidoqueen RR could be used to heal the damage. Limited: 3.5/5 I actually think that Granbull is quite good in Limited. Being able to deal 50 damage for two Colorless Energy is fantastic, and a combination of healing support and a slow format make a hit-and-run deck quite a viable strategy. Just make sure that you actually have a way to heal the damage (or swing really hard with Champ), or you'll find yourself Knocked Out in a hurry.
Otaku	Granbull is a solid Stage 1 Colorless brawler.  90 HP is a bit small since Granbull is the final form for its Evolution line, but only just.  Fighting Weakness is a common sight and Fighting Pokémon stand a good chance of shredding Granbull early on: a deck using this card will have to build around that.  No Resistance is lame and peeking ahead, might have secured a niche use for this card: pity.  The three Energy required to retreat is hefty, and should have justified another 10 HP and Resistance for this card.  It doesn’t ruin the card, but like the Weakness you’ll have to build your deck and plan your strategy around it.   Timid Tackle, the first attack on this card, will help a little with the Retreat Cost: for two of any Energy it hits for a solid 50 damage but hits Granbull for 20 damage and forces it to the Bench.  With a Double Colorless Energy and Plus Power, this could pose a threat early game for several decks.  You’ll need something to get Granbull back to the Active slot or a good partner to tag out to; another Granbull would suffice.  Chomp is where this card falls apart.  It requires four Energy (though they can be of any type) and only yields 40 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on Granbull.  It’s a solid combo for Timid Tackle but it needs to hit harder or cost les; for the sake of balance I think either having the same (CC) cost as Timid Tackle and then hitting for just 20+ or 30+ would have been better as you wouldn’t have needed to invest any more Energy on the card.  Alternatively, hitting for the same Energy cost but doing +20 for each damage counter on Granbull would have given this card enough bite.   All is not lost, though: the card that would make you think this is just binder fodder might actually work with it.  Donphan Prime likes to go for the quick KO and it damages its own Bench.  If Granbull shows up first, it opens.  If it doesn’t, it can soak damage on the Bench.  The rest of the deck is energy efficient, so you might be able to power it up on the Bench and “trade” it for a Prize later on.  Except it really is just too much Energy to invest in Chomp.  Great for Limited, like so many of the cards this set: quick first attack combined with a solid second attack and Colorless status makes it another great pull for your deck.   Ratings   Modified: 2/5   Limited: 3.5/5