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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

 

Tranquil #81/98

Emerging Powers

Date Reviewed: Nov. 9, 2011

Ratings & Reviews Summary

Modified: 1.45
Limited: 2.70

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

Baby Mario
2010 UK National
Seniors
Champion

Tranquill 81/98 (Emerging Powers)

If yesterday’s card represented one of the weirder ‘no way in real life’ type Pokémon, today’s offers something much more normal. Yes, Tranquill is part of the ‘looks pretty much like an actual bird’ Pokémon line that we get in every Generation, from the original Pidgey right through to Staraptor in Diamond and Pearl.

Tranquill is an evolving Stage 1 so expectations are already low for this card, and it’s fair to say that Tranquill does its best to live down to them. Below average 70 HP, horrible Lightning Weakness, and it doesn’t even have free Retreat to recommend it. The Fighting Resistance is nice I guess, but when HP is this low and the attacks (as we shall see) are this weak it becomes more or less irrelevant. A Donphan counter this is not.

Oh yeah, those attacks . . . the best thing you can say about them is that they don’t need any specific Energy. Claw costs [C] and does 30 damge . . . unless you flip tails, in which case it does nothing. Seriously? That’s the same attack as Minccino EP (which is just an evolving Basic). At least the damage from Wing Attack is guaranteed, but at a vanilla 50 for three Energy of any Colour . . . well, if you are ever stuck using this, you know you are in trouble.

Even for an evolving Stage 1, Tranquill is pretty sub-par. Its attacks are weak and uninteresting, and it doesn’t have the HP to survive much. It’s not really good for anything except to evolve into the Stage 2. Is that something you would ever want to do in a competitive game? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

Rating

Modified: 1.25 (below average evolving Stage 1)

Modified: 2 (anything with Colourless attack costs can serve as deck filler in limited)

virusyosh

Happy midweek, Pojo readers! I hope that all of you are having good weeks, and that your preparations for Regionals are going smoothly. Today we continue reviewing cards we missed from the previous two sets by reviewing Tranquill from Emerging Powers.

Tranquill is a Stage 1 Colorless Pokemon. Colorless Pokemon are great to use due to their ability to use any type of Energy, making them easily splashable into decks. Additionally, many Colorless Pokemon such as Tornadus, Cleffa, Cinccino, and Bouffalant routinely find their way into Modified decks. Being the middle stage in a three-part evolutionary line, Tranquill will most likely only find play in decks utilizing Unfezant. 70 HP is below average for a Stage 1, matching the value for many Basics nowadays. This means that Tranquill will likely be OHKOed by many prominent threats in the Modified metagame, and will stand to be Knocked Out easily in Limited as well. Lightning Weakness is bad against Zekrom and Magnezone Prime in Modified, as both of them are still very prominent threats. Fighting Resistance is good against Donphan Prime, as well as the Conkeldurr and Gigalith lines in Emerging Powers Limited. Finally, a single Retreat Cost is easily payable, and will be easy to afford.

Tranquill has two rather lackluster attacks, but they should do the job in Limited. Claw deals 30 damage for a single Colorless Energy, but fails to do damage if you flip tails. Therefore, this attack is somewhat unreliable, and is only really useful in Limited, while you are waiting to power up Wing Attack, which deals a vanilla 50 damage for three Colorless Energy. Given how expensive Wing Attack is for the cost, it is generally only an option for Limited, as other Pokemon can do much more for the same cost in Modified.

Modified: 1/5 I don't see Tranquill seeing a whole lot of play here, as both Unfezants are also lackluster. Therefore, if you're looking for a Colorless evolutionary line (or Colorless Pokemon in general), use something like Cinccino or Tornadus here.

Limited: 2.75/5 Tranquill is good in Limited due to its Colorless typing, but its attacks and low HP bring it down, as Claw is unreliable and Wing Attack is a bit expensive for the damage output. Even still, when filling a deck out with Pokemon in Emerging Powers Limited, Tranquill is a decent choice if you need more Colorless Pokemon.

Mad Mattezhion
 Professor Bathurst League Australia

Tranquil (Emerging Powers)
 
Hello Pojo Fans, we're continuing the cleanup before we dive into the Noble Victories reviews. Today's bottom of the barrel but still relevant subject is Tranquil from Emerging Powers.
 
While the transition between one set and another is usually filled with cards that are either terrible or mediocre to the point of being boring, the Black & White block seems to have a place for almost every card. Sure, most of them still don't make the cut in a competitive setting but there is usually some tiny niche where that card could find a spot, even if it is just a fun League deck or in the online card game. Tranquil is one such example and I hope this trend continues. Or maybe that has always been the trend and I'm only just starting to notice?
 
Anyway, on to the vital statistics. Tranquil has 70 HP, Lightning Weakness, Fighting Resistance, a retreat cost of 1 and two attacks. Most importantly, Tranquil has Colourless typing and the ability to evolve into Unfezant.
 
While that doesn't seem very important now, if a halfway decent Unfezant gets printed in the next few sets it will be a very different story. Also, being Colourless means that Tranquil and the yet-to-be-pirnted good Unfezant will be able to abuse both the Shaymin/Pachirisu combo and FanBoar's energy acceleration, allowing a lot of room for experimenting with different deck combinations.
 
The question we have to answer today however, is if this Tranquil is the one you should use when Unfezant gets a tournament calibre card.
 
Unfortunately, it seems that the answer is no. Both Claw and Wing Attack are vanilla damage attacks that do nothing to balance the very low HP (for a Stage 1 anyway), although they are decent value for the energy cost. I'd use the BW version because it has the same stats with a flip-for-immunity attack but for now the point is moot anyway.
 
There is a reason to watch pretty much every card that gets released because you never know when it might suddenly go from being near worthless to being highly sought after (see Yanmega Prime and Shaymin UL for good examples) so you shouldn't forget Tranquil. Although we probably all will with a lack of Unfezants worth playing.
 
Modified: 2 (the Unfezant cards are mediocre at best and the 70 HP is a major handicap)
 
Limited: 3 (it's Colourless and has a decent damage-to-energy ratio, but the lack of secondary effects will disappoint you)
 
Combos with: an Unfezant worth the pain of playing


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