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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Eviolite

Noble Victories

Date Reviewed: Nov. 18, 2011

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 4.25
Limited: 4.67

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

Eviolite (Noble Victories)

Sooooo . . . all week it seems like I’ve been talking about the Basic Pokémon from the last couple of sets (Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Thundurus . . . ) and about how amazingly powerful they are. Well, guess what? It seems that the people who design Pokémon cards don’t agree with me. They think that these poor little Basics need some kind of help . . . something that will give them a chance to compete against all those big, bad evolutions.

That must be why they went ahead and printed Eviolite.

Eviolite is a Trainer-Tool card that, when attached to a Basic Pokémon, reduces the amount of damage it takes from an attack by 20. To put it another way, that’s a permanent Defender for Basic Pokémon. To put it in yet another way, it gives any Basic Pokémon Donphan Prime’s Exoskeleton PokéBody. I think you get the picture: this is one heck of a card for Basic decks.

With an Eviolite attached, it will take an attack of 130 damage to OHKO a Zekrom, even after it has used Bolt Strike (yes, it reduces self-damage too); as for undamaged Kyurem and Reshiram, that will need an output of 150. Without factoring Weakness or PlusPowers, that number is only attainable by a very few Pokémon (Bad Emboar, Magnezone Prime, Rayquaza & Deoxys LEGEND). The calculations get even more scary when you look at two-shotting these things as it will take 2 attacks of 90 damage or more to do the job (and don’t forget the hit your active will take in between).

I could on even more about the way Eviolite makes the huge BW Basics so hard to KO, but it should be pretty clear by now just how much of an advantage they gain from having it in play, which will pretty much be the whole time thanks to Junk Arm. In games between Basic decks, Eviolite is really going to throw off damage calculations when it comes to the Prize trade. Oh, and Zoroark just lost a lot of its playability as a Reshiram/Zekrom counter.

Looking into my crystal ball (and by that I mean, at spoilers for Japanese sets), I predict that decks built around big Basic Pokémon are here to stay. In fact the Pokemon are only getting bigger: Mewtwo EX will have an unbelieveable 170 HP and even that is going to be topped by the EX versions of Reshiram, Zekrom and Regigigas which clock in at a ridiculous 180. Who would ever have thought that it would take a 200 damage attack to one-shot a Basic? Yet that is exactly what will happen once these Pokémon get an Eviolite slapped on them.

It’s interesting times ahead for the TCG, and you will be spending a lot of them looking at this card in play.

(And no, before you ask, it does not work on LEGEND Pokémon).

Rating

Modified: 4.5 (it boosts the most dominant decks in the format and it’s only going to become even more powerful in the future, if you can imagine that)

Limited: 4.25 (playing this on a Kyurem, Landorus, or Druddigon = profit. You can even use it to keep a Basic from being KO’d while waiting for its evolution)

virusyosh

Happy Friday, Pojo readers! Today we're ending the COTD week by reviewing a new Trainer - Item card that is also a Pokemon Tool. Today's Card of the Day is Eviolite.

Eviolite is a Pokemon Tool, which means that you can attach it to a Pokemon in order to get some ongoing effect. Eviolite's effect is simple yet powerful: When you attach Eviolite to a Basic Pokemon, damage that Pokemon receives in attacks is reduced by 20. This "permanent Defender" has been widely hyped since its announcement, and has a natural home in decks using many Basics, including Reshiram, Zekrom, Kyurem, Mew Prime, and Tornadus. Eviolite is especially worth mentioning when paired with Zekrom, as it reduces self-damage from Bolt Strike to 20 damage instead of 40, which greatly aids in Zekrom's survivability. Additionally, any of the dragons with Eviolite will not be OHKOed with Blue Flare/Bolt Strike and a single PlusPower, so now the mirror matches will require three PlusPowers (or multiple hits). That being said, Eviolite works very well with any Basic, especially in Limited where weak attacks are the norm.

Modified: 4/5 It doesn't belong in every deck, but it works wonders in decks centered around Basics. Considering the strength of our current Basics and some of the upcoming cards in the Japanese Hail Blizzard/Psycho Drive sets, Eviolite should get even stronger.

Limited: 5/5 You'll definitely run Basics in Limited, and Eviolite provides a consistent 20 points of damage reduction. You'd be crazy to not run it here, even if your deck relies on many evolutions. It works especially well with Druddigon and Kyurem here, as well.

Combos With: Any Basic, but notably Zekrom BW

Mad
Mattezhion

Eviolite (Noble Victories)

Hello Pojo Readers, we end the week with a card that makes me both relieved and fearful at the same time. Today's card is the brilliant Poke'mon Tool, Eviolite!

Eviolite is an Item card and a Poke'mon Tool, which for the newer players out there means that to play Eviolite you have to attach it to one of your Poke'mon and it stays in play rather than being discarded immediately (other than that it plays the same way as all other Item cards). In this case, you would only want to attach Eviolite to a Basic Poke'mon as it has no effect on Evolution cards.

Eviolite reduces damage from attacks dealt to the Poke'mon it is attached to by 20, provided that the Poke' on it is attached to is a Basic. This includes self damage (so Zekrom will love using Bolt Strike with this card attached) and is a very powerful effect due to both the lack of other Poke'mon Tools in the card pool and the generally high HP of Basic Poke'mon in this format.

Imagine for a moment that your facing a Zekrom with Eviolite attached. How intimidated do you feel knowing that even with the self damage from Bolt Strike, you need 130 damage to take it out? What about a Reshiram that will Blue Flare you to death if you can't hit 150 damage every time the opponent plays a Revive? Or a Kyurem that will either Glaciate you to death or survive to use Outrage for a big finish?

I'm sure you can think of even more combos (watch a Donphan player cry when they face a Tornadus with Eviolite that reduces their Eartquake to 20 damage a turn!) and that isn't even the best part of the card! If you look closely at the text, you'll notice that there is nothing about discarding Eviolite from play, so the damage reduction is permanent unless the rules change or you're opponent has a Tool-discarding effect (maybe Heatmor NV will see some play?). Also, you can play Eviolite on an Evolution even though the damage reduction won't take effect, just to get it out of your hand (or because you attached it to the Basic form for protection, maybe an especially vulnerable tech like Magnemite TM or Horsea UL?).

Legendary Poke'mon already rule the roost in the current format so this powerful boost makes me worry that Evolutions will become completely unplayable, but i've panicked before and been completely wrong (see Lost World and the hype about Poke'mon Catcher for examples). This tiem I'm going to calm down and recognise that this is just a good card that will mess with damage calculations and empower Basic Poke'mon while doing absolutely nothing to empower Legend Poke'mon (if only Eviolite's wording had stated "unevolved Poke'mon" it would have been possible to use it to keep Legends alive long enough to actually be useful!).

I am relieved that the Poke'mon Tool mechanic has been reintroduced, so hopefully we'll see a few new Stadiums and Technical Machines of tournament calibre released in the next year as well. But if they reprint Expert Belt, I'm going to quit the game!

I know that ZPS/Zekrom Donk decks are going to love Eviolite since they typically run nothing but Basics, and both ReshiBoar and ReshiPhlosion will love having an extra tool to win Prize exchanges with. Expect to see Eviolite cropping up from now until it rotates out, because the power is real!

Modified: 5 (the only drawbacks are the lack of effect on Evolutions and the fact that Eviolite doesn't get discarded by Evolving the Basic it is attached to, preventing you from using Junk Arm to get it back in the same turn to attach to another Basci)

Limited: 5 (between the Legendary Basics available and the lack of other options, this card is pure gold!)

Combos with: every Basic you want to keep up and kicking, especially If that Basic has a tendency to hurt itself!


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