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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

 

Reshiram #113/114

Black & White

Date Reviewed: April 29, 2011

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 4.50
Limited: 4.87

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

Combos With:

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Reshiram 113/114 

Might as well come straight out and say it: Reshiram is an absolute MONSTER of a card. 

What if I told you that there was a 130 HP Stage 2 that did 120 damage for three Energy. You’d be a little bit interested, right? I mean, there could be ways to make that work. 

Well, what if I told you that that imaginary Stage 2 was actually a Basic Pokémon? Doesn’t that change everything? Here you have a main attacker that doesn’t need Rare Candy, can be searched out with Pokémon Collector, and hits hard enough to OHKO an awful lot of Pokémon. That’s more than a little bit interesting. 

Reshiram comes complete with two great attacks in fact. Outrage is cheap (two Colourless Energy) and does 20 damage plus 10 more for each damage counter on Reshiram. Can’t OHKO one? In that case, look out, because it is likely to smack you back hard. Really though, Outrage is just there for when you don’t need to use Blue Flame: an attack that hits 120 damage for the relatively reasonable cost of [R][R][C] and a discard of two Fire Energy.  

Now I know what you are thinking . . . three Energy AND a double discard is a little impractical in a superfast format, but there are ways around that. The new Emboar with Inferno Fandango is one possibility (allowing you to attach as many Fire Energy as you like per turn), and so is Typhlosion Prime. Don’t forgot that being a Fire Pokémon means that Reshiram decks can call on Ninetales HGSS for draw support too. 

This Pokémon is going to make a big impact in the future. Just compare it with Scolipede and Krookodile, the two Stage 2 Pokémon we reviewed this week: Reshiram is better than them in almost every way. Lucky for everyone that it will be available in a tin. 

Rating 

Modified: 4.5 (a more than decent Stage 2 . . . wait . . . what? It’s a BASIC??!!)

Limited: 4.75 (this and Zekrom absolutely dominated the prerelease I went to)

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia

Reshiram (Black & White)

Hey Pojo readers, today we have what you really want. After weeks of waiting, we have one of the most heavily hyped cards of the set up for review. Introducing Reshiram!

You'll notice that we have the pimped out White version up on display, but there is a normal holo version with identical stats and attacks in the same set as well so you have a decent chance of pulling this card at a prerelease. And if you don't, you probably pulled Reshiram's opposite number Zekrom (everyone at the local League got one or the other during our prerelease).

Now for the stats. Reshiram is a Fire type non-evolving Basic with 130 HP, Water weakness, a retreat cost of 2 and two attacks.

Obviously that huge HP is the best thing about Reshiram. In fact, I think that is the current record for a Basic as far as HP goes (unless you count Regigigas Lv X, but that isn't quite the same since you have to Level Up first). The Water weakness is a problem, however, as Kingdra, Rain Dance and Gyarados don't give a damn about high HP when they are dealing double damage. Being a Basic is also a problem as Machamp SF is still popular and will ruin your day with Take Out. The retreat isn't great but it is payable, especially as Typhlosion Prime and Emboar BW (Fire Dance? I don't know the name of the Ability) are natural partners for Reshiram. Besides, cheap or free retreat would be too much on this card.

Aside from the HP, the attacks are what make Reshiram awesome. Outrage is the first attack, and is shared with Zekrom as well. The cost is [c][c] and the effect is cumulative damage. Starting with a baseline of 20 damage, Reshiram deals 10 more damage for each damage counter on it leading to a maximum damage of 140.

Obviously damaging Reshiram intentionally to raise the damage is risky but the attack does help take out opposing Poke'mon that fail to score an OHKO if you don't have the energy available for Blue Flare. Outrage also makes good use of Typhlosion Prime with those damage counters from Afterburner.

Blue Flare is the second attack and it costs [r][r][c] with a discard of 2 [r] energy (but not 2 energy cards, so a double energy would pay the cost if we get one in the future). The payoff is 120 damage, which is brilliant value compared to similar attacks on other cards, and the discard cost is easy to pay if you use Emboar or Typhlosion Prime. Throw in Expert Belt to boost damage (works well for Outrage too) and you have a brilliant backup attacker for CharPhlosion or any other Fire deck.

I expect to see Reshiram run as a single copy at the very least in every Fire deck from now until it is rotated out, simply beacuse the massive HP makes the attacks easy to use. Having been freed from the fear of OHKOs, the attacks become brutal instead of risky and it becomes pretty easy to take multiple prizes before you get Knocked Out.

The added bonus of being a Basic makes it easy to tech in so it doesn't have to compete for space with your main attacker, making it great for patching up weaknesses in your decklist. Or you could make Reshiram your main attacker and use the saved space for awesome but underused techs like Entei & Raikou Legend and its partner Rayquaza LA. Remember to add Manectric PT as well to protect yourself from the backlash of Thunder Fall, especially if you use Ninetales and Typhlosion Prime.

Reshiram is awesome. If you get one, get another. If you don't have one, start buying boosters! No collection is complete without at least one copy, and the normal Holo version is pretty easy to find so expect to come up against this brute at Nationals.

To finisg up, the new holofoil design make both of the Reshiram cards very pretty. Kudos to both the artist and design team!

Modified: 5 (There are some bad matchups for Reshiram, but it has a ready made deck in CharPhlosion and it could easily have its own deck built around it in future formats with so many Fire type techs around, both for support and offense. The perfect score is the only way to express the awesomeness!)

Limited: 4 (Blue Flare is much harder to use more than once but it is still worth the discard and Outrage truly shines because it is impossible to OHKO a healthy Reshiram in Limited without applying weakness. Add the recently buffed Potion to the mix and you know this is what they had in mind when they made Legendary Poke'mon! Just watch out for mirror matches and Zekrom, because the same awesomeness can be used by your opponent and Zekrom doesn't need to discard energy so Bolt Strike is to be feared!)

Combos with: Typhlosion Prime, Ninetales HGSS, Emboar BW (Fire Dance, Entei & Raikou Legend, Rayquaza LA, Manectric PT

virusyosh

Happy Friday, Pojo readers! Today we are reviewing perhaps what is one of the most hyped cards in the new Black and White set, for very good reason. Today's Card of the Day is one of the new legendary dragons and is the mascot for Pokemon Black, Reshiram.

Reshiram is a Basic Fire Pokemon. Fire-types haven't seen a ton of play in our current MD-on Modified Format, but with powerful support options like Ninetales, Typhlosion Prime, and the new Emboar, it stands to reason that Fire will soon have a very powerful presence, especially in the much slower upcoming HGSS-on format. 130 HP is absolutely amazing for a Basic, rivaling most Stage 2s. Water Weakness is to be expected for a Fire-type, so be sure to watch out for Gyarados and Kingdra LA. No Resistance is sadly unfortunate. Finally, a Retreat Cost of 2 is a bit surprising for a large fire dragon, but you still will probably want to use something like Warp Point or Warp Energy to get Reshiram out of the Active position.

Reshiram has two attacks, both of which are good. Outrage does 20 damage plus 10 more damage for each damage counter on Reshiram for two Colorless (or a Double Colorless), providing an effective means of attacking if your Reshiram is damaged, or if you don't need all of the damage from Blue Flare to get a knockout. This actually works really well with Typhlosion Prime, as Afterburner will add damage counters to Reshiram while powering it up, allowing for Outrage to do more damage. However, it is important to note that damaging yourself isn't often the best way of doing things, and although Reshiram has 130 HP, there are many high-level threats in the metagame that can easily 2HKO.

Blue Flare, Reshiram's second attack, does a very powerful 120 damage for two Fire and a Colorless, discarding two Fire. This attack is amazing, especially because Emboar BW #20 and Typhlosion Prime make it so easy to power up, making it an easy go-to option for tons of damage very quickly. 120 damage will dent most things in the format, OHKOing every SP Pokemon as well as dealing massive damage to others like Gengar and commonly played support Pokemon. However, in the current MD-on format, 120 damage still isn't quite enough to OHKO heavy hitters like Gyarados SF and Machamp, both of which are bad news for Reshiram anyway. In HGSS-on, Reshiram will be a monster, although also keep in mind that commonly played attackers will have higher HP in this format, so 120 may still not be enough without help.

Modified: 4/5 Reshiram is excellent. It works really well with other commonly played Fire-types like Ninetales, Typhlosion, and Emboar, and can very easily take the spot of Charizard as the main attacker in a Fire-type deck. Although it has less HP than Charizard and lower reliable damage output (Charizard's Burning Tail can reach 130 damage with a full bench to Reshiram's 120, though Reshiram doesn't need a full Bench either), also keep in mind that Reshiram is a Basic, so you don't need all of the Evolution cards for Reshiram, allowing more spots for Trainers as well as making your deck faster in the process. While it probably won't be able to compete in the top tiers with SP still around for the rest of this format, Reshiram is still very playable, and will be an absolute terror once Modified is HGSS-on due to its sheer power and perfect synergy with other Fire-type support.

Limited: 5/5 It's a Big Basic Pokemon, so that alone means you should probably play it. Even though you end up discarding the Energy for Blue Flare, chances are it will take a long time for your opponent to recover anyway, allowing you to Outrage for another KO or two. Reshiram can easily take 2 or 3 KOs in this format by itself with minimal support, which is outstanding.

Combos With: Typhlosion Prime, Emboar BW #20


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