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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

Baby Mario 2010 UK National Seniors Champion	Karrablast 8/101 (Noble Victories) Apparently today’s Pokémon evolves into Escavalier (which we are looking at tomorrow). Personally, I think it looks more like a Heracross pre-evolution. Yes, it’s another bug Pokémon, apparently you can’t have too many of those. Evolving Basics aren’t usually too exciting. This one comes with a decent 60 HP, a Fire Weakness which is largely irrelevant considering the amount of damage Fire Pokémon usually do (though watch out for a Reshiram using Double Colourless Energy + PlusPower to get a first turn Outrage KO). The Retreat cost of one is pretty standard and manageable. The one thing that makes you look twice at this card is the first attack, Mysterious Evolution. Basics with attack names like this are usually good because they offer a way of evolving the Pokémon by searching the deck for its evolution, which gets it into play faster and saves you from having to use a search card. Shuppet CG and Feebas HL got good use in the past from their very similar Ascension attacks. Unfortunately, Karrablast’s version has a condition attached: you can only use it when Shelmet is in play. Ok . . . we can see where this is going: the card has been designed to be played in a gimmick Accelgor/Escavalier deck (if you need further confirmation, Shelmet has the same attack with a corresponding condition). Given that Escavalier and Accelgor have no synergy as a deck whatsoever (they even use different Energy Types), this looks like a gimmick that is doomed to go unused outside of a prerelease or what is euphemistically called a ‘fun league deck’. In other words, it’s a worthless combo that makes the attack a waste of time unless you want to devote space in your deck to some other Basic Pokémon that you don’t even need. It’s not as if Karrablast has anything else to offer really. Just that terrible Fury Attack that we have seen so many times before: three flips and 10 damage for each heads . . . *yawn*. Will you want to run it anyway because the Evolution is that good? No spoilers. Wait until tomorrow . . . Rating Modified: 1.25 (what could have been a useful Ascension-style attack gets sadly nerfed) Limited: 2.25 (you could run Escavalier/Accelgor here I guess. In which case it’s an ok Basic)
virusyosh	Happy midweek, Pojo readers! Today we continue our COTD reviews with the card that is the City Championships promo. Today's Card of the Day is Karrablast. Karrablast is a Basic Grass Pokemon. As I said yesterday, due to the omnipresence of Fire in Modified, Grass-types must either have a non-Fire Weakness or have abilities and/or attacks that really stand out. These things are less important for Karrablast as it is a Basic, and will only see much play if its evolution, Escavalier, does. 60 HP is just about average for a Basic, so Karrablast should be able to take a weak unboosted hit early in the game. Fire Weakness is problematic with all of the Reshiram, Typhlosion, and Emboar in the format: Karrablast can even be OHKO'd rather easily by the lower evolutions as well. Karrablast also has no Resistance as well as a decent Retreat Cost of 1. Karrablast has two attacks. Mysterious Evolution allows you to search your deck for a Pokemon that evolves from Karrablast (Escavalier) and put it onto Karrablast, but only if there is a Shelmet in play for a single Colorless Energy. This attack isn't bad, as Evolving via attack is very nice, but the Shelmet requirement can be a bit difficult, especially if you don't plan on running both Shelmet and Karrablast in your deck. However, this can be resolved by running a single Shelmet in your deck utilizing Karrablast, although there are generally better options. Fury Attack is Karrablast's form of offense, allowing you to flip three coins and deal 10 damage times the number of heads for two Colorless Energy. Fury Attack is your standard flip attack, and will probably only ever be used in Limited, as it is too slow for Modified. Modified: 2/5 If you want to run Escavalier in a Modified deck, you have to use this Karrablast. It's not terrible with decent HP and Colorless Energy requirements, although Mysterious Evolution can be hard to pull off and Fury Attack is a bit lackluster. Even still, if you choose to run Escavalier, it's definitely not a bad Basic. Limited: 2.5/5 Karrablast isn't that much better in Limited, unless you pull a Shelmet and an Escavalier to go with it. Fury Attack won't be winning any offensive awards here even with the Colorless Energy requirements, and there are generally other better options if you want to run Basics without the evolutionary line. However, if you are able to get an Escavalier and a Shelmet, the ability to search the evolution out of your deck can be really nice. Combos With: Shelmet (obviously)
Mad Mattezhion  Professor Bathurst League Australia	Karrablast (Noble Victories)   Today we have one of a pair of Bug Poke'mon that share the distinction of evolving when traded, but only if they are traded with each other.   This strange evolution trigger is shown in the First attack, Mysterious Evolution. At the cost of a single energy and having a Shelmet on your Bench, Mysterious Evolution will allow you to search your deck for an Excavilier and immediately evolve Karrablast.   As an attack on an evolving Basic, it doesn't get much better! With only a single energy requirement you don't have to have Karrablast in play long enough for your opponent to snipe it or drag it Active with Poke'mon Catcher, and needing a Benched Shelmet isn't much of a problem either with Poke'mon Collector in the format.   The second attack isn't worth mentioning as a vanilla damage filler, but at least in Limited it gives you something to do while waiting to draw a Shelmet.   As for Karrablast's stats, there isn't much to either be impressed by or complain about. Fire Weakness is bad but probably not a major consideration and the 60 HP is average, as is the retreat cost. Grss typing doesn't do Karrablast any favours but the ease-of-play by vurtue of being a Basic balances that out. All in all, you won't be sorry to evolve so fast.   In the fianl analysis, Karrablast's playablility depends upon having a usable Excavalier around and would be improved by a playable Accelgor as well (so that Shelmet doesn't feel like dead weight). I'll leave the answers for a future review but as a parting though, does anyone expect Fire weakness to be a good thing in the next year?   Modified: 3.75 (Karrablast is a great evolving Basic, slightly hampered by a depednency on Shelmet and a lack of a truly awe-inspiring evolution)   Limited: 4 (if you don't have Shelmet then Karrablast will be dead weight but Excavalier is worth running)   Combos with: an evolution that is playable despite Having the crippling weakness to Typhlosion and Reshiram