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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Baby Mario Top 4 UK Nats	Azumarill HGSS   Hello and welcome to another week of Pojo’s CotD. This week we shall be reviewing a few more rares and uncommons from the HGSS set, starting with Azumarill which is (apparently) some kind of rabbit.   Azumarill is a Stage 1 Pokémon, which makes it a tough sell in this format. For a Stage 1 to be tournament playable, it either needs huge HP (like Gyarados and Donphan) or be pretty fast (like . . . errrr . . . Gyarados and Donphan . . . see where I am going with this?). It needs these qualities to compete with high HP SP Basics and the fast and hard-hitting Stage 2s. Has Azumarill got what it takes?   Well . . . it only has 90 HP and an x2 Lightning Weakness (possibly the worst of all the Weaknesses thanks to Luxray), so Azumarill doesn’t score very highly on durability. With attacks that cost [W][W] and [W][C][C] and a Retreat cost of [C][C], it doesn’t appear to be very fast either. Oh dear . . . maybe it can make up for it with spectacular damage output?   Ummmm . . . no. For the astonishingly high cost of [W][W], Waterfall will do 40 damage.  That’s just lame in this format. Donphan does 60 for [F], Gyarados does up to 90 for no Energy. Even Raichu HGSS does 100 for two specific Energy, and that card isn’t especially playable. Azumarill’s second attack, Bubblebeam, does at least give you a chance of an effect with a coin flip for Paralysis to go with the underwhelming 60 damage. True, Paralysis is a very nice effect, but  flips are not nice . . . and neither is being stopped by Unown G.   Really, there’s no nice way to say it: Azumarill is weak and its attacks are too expensive and don’t do enough damage. There are much better Stage 1s and much better Water Pokémon to use. Heck there are even other rabbit Pokémon that are better than this (Lopunny).   Rating   Modified: 1.25 (Play if this and Marill are the only Pokémon cards you own. Actually, forget that, just play Marill and 59 Energy) Limited: 2 (Not completely hopeless if you can keep flipping heads)
virusyosh	Welcome back, Pojo readers! We are continuing reviewing cards from the HeartGold and SoulSilver expansion this week. Today's Card of the Day is Azumarill from HGSS. Azumarill is a Stage 1 Water Pokemon. Being a Water Pokemon is a pretty good thing right now, with decent support from Rain Dance. 90 HP isn't bad for a Stage 1, but could afford to be a little higher. Double Weakness to Lightning is awful, with all of the Luxray GL. No Resistance is unfortunate, and a Retreat Cost of 2 is fairly expensive, but you can pay it without setting yourself back too much. Azumarill has two attacks. The first attack, Waterfall, does a vanilla 40 damage for [WW]. Not much to say about it, other than the damage output is a bit lower than what one would want. The second attack, Bubblebeam, deals 60 damage for [WCC] and has a chance to Paralyze if you flip heads. Paralysis is always nice, although the attack is flippy and 60 for 3 is a bit expensive. Overall, like the rest of the HeartGold and SoulSilver expansion, Azumarill has overcosted attacks for a somewhat underwhelming damage output. Modified: 1.5/5 You could use Azumarill as an attacker in a Rain Dance deck, but you'd probably be better running Lapras PL, Starmie HGSS, or something else like that. Limited: 3/5 I actually like Azumarill here. Waterfall deals pretty good damage for 2 energy here, and Bubblebeam has Colorless Energy requirements. Plus, the damage output isn't so bad here. An overall solid pick.
Otaku	Azumarill is a Stage 1 Water Pokémon with 90 HP, Lightning Weakness, No Resistance, and requiring two Energy to retreat.  So far, so… poor?  Stage 1 Pokémon have always been in danger of being “squeezed out” by big Basics and fast Stage 2 Pokémon, and that seems to be happening in this format.  That means a Stage 1 Pokémon has to have strong, inexpensive attacks, a good Pokémon Power, or better still, both.  Being a Water Pokémon is neither crippling nor a huge advantage right now, and the 90 HP is average.  The Retreat Cost is above average for this Pokémon, which is unfortunate, as the utter lack of Resistance (anything is better than nothing).  The Lightning Weakness is extremely problematic in this format, and together with the rest of its stats, means that there are only two ways to redeem this card:   1)       Great abilities 2)       Great combo   When we see the attacks, we see Waterfall, which does 40 damage for two Water Energy.  This would have been solid years ago, before we started getting zero Energy attacks, but now is mediocre even on a Basic Pokémon that can further Evolve.  Bubblebeam is a little better: 60 damage for (WCC) and a 50% chance of Paralysis.  Double Colorless Energy can let you start hitting for this by turn two, so this is passable.   There is no brilliant version Marill being splashed into most decks, so one combo hope is gone.  The only other “combo” I can see for this card is to run it with Feraligatr Prime.  That may indeed be why the card is almost pure vanilla, as far as Water Pokémon go: even a marginally useful Pokémon Power (be it Poké-Power or Poké-Body) would have given Feraligatr some extra support.  Likewise, the attacks seemed to be designed so that they don’t get a lot of benefit from Rain Dance.  Azumarill could have had a big, mono-Water attack that needed three or four Energy.  It would have made it hard to run… except with Feraligatr Prime.  More importantly, it would have justified more damage and/or better effects for the attack.   Ratings   Modified: 2/5 – It functions, but is sub par.   Limited: 3.5/5 – The stats are still poor here, but the last attack becomes good.  It is still a bit low on damage, but Special Conditions are often devastating in Limited and since you only need a single Water Energy for the three Energy cost, it can be run in a multi-color deck pretty easily.