Baby Mario
Top 4 UK Nats |
Pichu LV 9
Awwww . . . it’s Pichu! Definitely one of those
Pokémon that is designed purely for cuteness!
But cuteness alone won’t make a card playable,
unfortunately.
Pichu is a Baby Pokémon and Babies in the DP and PL
series all share the Baby Evolution Power, which means
that you can evolve them as soon as they are played,
even on the first turn of the game. The only card in the
evolution line that actually benefits from including
Pichu (rather than just using the Basic Pikachu) is
Pikachu MT, with its Electro Recycle Power which lets
you retrieve a Lightning Energy from the Discard every
turn if it evolved from Pichu. This can be useful in a
Raichu LV X deck, as that Pokémon discards an awful lot
of Energy to attack. Unfortunately, making Raichu (in
effect) a 90 HP Stage 2 Pokémon is of dubious worth, and
Raichu decks have failed to make much of an impact on
the tournament scene in any case.
So, does Pichu have anything of it’s own to
contribute? Well, it does have a costless attack
(great!) called Baby Steps (awwwww!) which lets you look
at the top five cards of your deck and choose one.
Clearly, there are situations in which this would be
useful at the start of a game: you may get lucky and hit
a card you really need. The key word here, though, is
‘lucky’. With so much draw and search in the game (Claydol,
Uxie, Roseanne, Bebe etc), Pichu’s risky attack is
simply not good enough to justify giving it room in your
deck. If you want a starter Pokémon to improve your set
up, you would be much better off with more reliable
cards like Sableye SF (which can use the effect of a
Supporter in your deck as an attack).
Outside of the Limited format, where there is little
or no search, I can’t think of a single reason to choose
little Pichu, sadly.
Rating
Modified: 1.25 (there are much better starter
Pokémon)
Limited: 3.5 (ANY kind of search in Limited = yes
please!)
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virusyosh |
Greetings, Pojo readers! Today our week continues
with a review of Pichu from the Arceus expansion.
Pichu is a Basic Electric Pokemon. It has 50 HP,
which is generally prety low for a basic. Hopefully it
won't have to stay in this state for too long, as it can
evolve. Weakness to Fighting isn't a huge problem, since
the only major Fighting type played nowadays is Machamp
SF, which KOs Pichu in one hit anyway. Resistance to
Metal can be nice against Dialga G, at least until it
powers up Remove Lost. A Retreat Cost of 1 is somewhat
higher than expected for this baby Pokemon, but it can
be paid without too much trouble.
Pichu has the Baby Evolution Poke-Power and one
attack. As most of you probably know, Baby Evolution
allows Pichu to evolve into Pikachu while removing all
damage counters from it. This is good if you have a
Pichu with a few energies that can be evolved to fully
power a Pikachu, or to use a Pikachu that has a special
effect if it evolves from Pichu, like Pikachu MT. Keep
in mind, however, that if Pichu's Poke-Power is somehow
turned off, it won't be able to evolve.
Pichu's single attack, Baby Steps, allows you to look
at the top five cards of your deck and put one in your
hand for no cost. This attack is quite decent early game
in a deck utilizing Pikachu and Raichu, but won't find
itself splashed into other decks, as we have so many
other ways of drawing cards reliably in the format (Claydol
GE, Uxie LA, Roseanne's Research, etc.)
Modified: 1.25/5 While the attack isn't totally
useless, there are so many more card draw alternatives
in the current metagame that are either better or more
reliable.
Limited: 3/5 Any sort of searchability is great in
Limited, and Pichu certainly doesn't disappoint in a set
without many ways to draw cards. A great early game
drop, it also doesn't require any energy to use its
attack and can probably be used even if you don't use
Pikachu or Raichu. It would be even better if it had
slightly more HP and zero retreat cost, but I suppose it
is a baby Pokemon.
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BoDragon |
Pichu LV.9
Platinum--Arceus,
#25
Pichu from
Platinum--Arceus is known for its Baby Steps
attack. Having a free attack cost, the attack
enables you to look at the top 5 cards of your deck,
choose 1 of them to put into your hand, then shuffle the
remaining 4 cards into your deck. This attack is
similar to the concept of Pokédex Handy910is. You
do acquire a card for your hand, and it may or may not
be the card that you need. You are better off
using other cards to search for specific cards in your
deck in modified, but Baby Steps is slightly effective
in limited.
Its Baby Evolution Poké-Power is always helpful to
evolve into Pikachu.
Ratings:
Modified: 2/5
Limited: 3/5
BoDragon
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