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Pojo's Pokémon Card of the Day

aroramage	Toxapex is one of those strange Pokemon you can probably go through the game without ever really running into, but then when you do find it, it showcases its interesting potential. Similarly, I think that Toxapex-GX is a strange card that you probably won't run into very often, but it has some potential with its attacks that aren't quite there yet.  His first attack, Spike Cannon, is incredibly flippy. For 1 Energy, he flips 4 coins and does 30 damage for every heads. On average, you are hitting for about 60 damage, which is pretty good for 1 Energy. Granted, at times you'll hit for 120 and others you won't hit at all, but on average, the attack's not too bad. Its consistency is probably its biggest downfall, but then you've got cards like the new Fliptini to offset things into a potentially more favorable outcome for yourself.  Then you get to Super Intense Poison. It costs 3 Energy - all Psychic Energy too - and doesn't do any damage, but instead Poisons the opposing Pokemon. Now if it weren't for the extra text, this attacks would be absolute nonsense, but since Toxapex-GX is, well, a GX, and his attack costs 3 Energy with no damage, that extra text is absolutely crucial. Basically any Pokemon hit with this attack gets Poisoned and takes 10 DAMAGE COUNTERS - 100 DAMAGE - between each player's turn. By the time it gets to your turn again, your opponent's Pokemon is either KO'd or well within range to get KO'd by Spike Cannon - if not by the Poison on the next pass. So without something to counter the Poison, this move can cause a lot of problems.  Then there's Total Shelter GX, which deals 3-for-150 and prevents your opponent's attacks from hurting Toxapex-GX - even damage-wise - on their next turn. It's a pretty powerful move for sure, so it's understandable that they limited its usage...but it also feels like a waste as a GX move. At 150, you might as well just use Spike Cannon, which is questionable anyway, rather than Super Intense Poison to finish off opponents. Then there's comparing it to other GX moves, and it doesn't seem that impressive to use once.  And then we get to the Switches. Yes, the bane of all Status Conditions. And also, probably Toxapex-GX's GX move. If your opponent Switches their Pokemon hit by Super Intense Poison around, they'll only take the 100 damage from the first pass - still a hefty amount, but obviously not super-ideal, and it takes away the Poisoning as well. Then there's the idea of Total Shelter GX - if they use something like Lysandre to switch your Pokemon around, then Toxapex-GX's once-per-game move becomes useless...outside of the 150 damage you've dealt. Keeping in mind though that while Toxapex-GX has powerful moves, they can be played around, and those moments can be the difference between victory and defeat with this guy. Still, if Poison becomes a particularly dangerous Status condition - like it did in the days of HTL and Virbank - then Toxapex-GX could have a chance to shine. After all, I'm pretty sure his Poisoning is the most powerful Poisoning out all of them.  Rating  Standard: 2.5/5 (I think there's some potential for Toxapex-GX)  Expanded: 3/5 (just...not quite right now)  Limited: 4.5/5 (not to mention I don't think his GX attack is that super amazing either)  Arora Notealus: Toxapex-GX is an interesting addition to the GX line-up, but I think there could've been more done with him. I do think Super Intense Poison is pretty...well, intense, but it could've been really built on in the same way his non-GX version from Sun and Moon was able to center itself around Poison. Granted, it's hard to situate yourself around a particular Status Condition without opening yourself up to the weakness of Switching around with things like Solgaleo-GX or Zoroark around, but it'd be something.  Next Time: Time to get charged with another GX!!
Otaku	Toxapex-GX (SM: Guardians Rising 57/145, 136/145, 154/145) is our next runner-up to our Top 15 countdown from the latest expansion, ranking 21st.  As a Pokémon-GX, it enjoys improved HP over its “regular” counterpart and guarantees three effects (one of which must be a GX-attack), but also means vulnerability to certain new counters (like Choice Band) and giving up an extra Prize when KO’d.  Being a Psychic-Type may not mean much.  Toxapex-GX can exploit the Psychic Weakness found on many Fighting and fellow Psychic-Types, but it will also have to deal with Resistance being found on most Darkness-Types and Metal-Types; x2 damage is a better deal than -20 is a hurdle, but all of it must be filtered through the current metagame and… I’m still learning what that is, given how rapidly it has been changing.  There are some nifty Psychic-Types in their stable, and some potent Type-specific tricks, but none leap out as being especially relevant to Toxapex-GX; the way it is built doesn’t lend itself to the mainstays.  Being a Stage 1 is neither positive nor negative; being a Basic is the best but the additional burdens of running a Stage 1 are mild and often fail to keep them from proving competitive.  All Stages have managed at least one competitive example (usually a few), but all of the others either have added costs or fewer benefits than a Stage 1 (except Basics, of course).  Toxapex-GX has 210 HP, which seems to be as good as it gets for Stage 1 Pokémon, Pokémon-GX or otherwise; this is lower than the Stage 2 Pokémon-GX cards, several competitive Mega Evolutions, and even Wailord-EX but it is difficult to OHKO without taking advantage of the card’s Weakness.  Said Weakness is to other Psychic-Types, so it is a race when you face many of them, with those few that are not Weak or are disposable attackers having the advantage (barring card specific effects).  Lack of Resistance is typical and -20 damage against attackers of just one particular Type isn’t a major boon, but with 210 HP it would have a bit more weight.  The Retreat Cost of [CCC] is enough you’ll need some assistance.  It is also why I wasn’t sure if Altar of the Moone and/or Mystery Energy would really matter.  Both shave [CC] off of Retreat costs, the former if the Pokémon has a source of Psychic Energy attached, the latter if the Pokémon has Mystery Energy attached.  So if Toxapex-GX needs help with retreating, why aren’t these obvious inclusions?  Neither zeroes out the Retreat Cost on its own; you’ll have to discard an Energy, though in the case of Mystery Energy, you could discard Mystery Energy itself to pay for the reduced Retreat Cost, and it will work (as opposed to needing an additional Energy).  Altar of the Moone locks you into a particular Stadium at a time when they are at probably their easiest to discard, and we’ve got a good chunk of anti-Energy effects as well.  It might be worth dealing with anti-Item/Tool effects to utilize the various Trainers that provide a more useful means of swapping out your Active.  Toxapex-GX has three attacks, which brings us to two more pieces of Psychic-Type support that won’t benefit the card.  None have [C] Energy costs, which is why Dimension Valley doesn’t help it; nor does it have an Ability, so Wobbuffet (XY: Phantom Forces 36/119; Generations RC11/RC32) and its “Bide Barricade” are not better or worse for it than any other attacker which lacks an Ability (though any included Psychic-Type support would benefit Wobbuffet).  Getting to the actual attacks, first up is “Spike Cannon”.  This attack costs [P] and has you flip four coins; each “heads” is worth 30 damage while each “tails” yields zero damage.  Breaking things down, that means there are 16 possible outcomes in terms of coin flips, but only five in terms of damage: 0 damage (1 of 16), 30 damage (4 of 16), 60 damage (6 of 16), 90 damage (4 of 16), 120 damage (1 of 16).  So minimum damage is zero, mean damage is 60, median damage is 60, mode damage is 60, and maximum damage is 120.  Taking all of that together, it means you’re probably looking at 60 damage for one Energy, but with a decent chance of doing either 30 or 90 and the odd chance of whiffing totally or delivering a magnificent 120 damage hit.  If you can cope with being unreliable, or exploit just the risk of hitting an opponent hard, Spike Cannon is a good attack.  At worst, I’d still call it decent.  It helps that, while they do take up space, including something like Victini (SM: Guardians Rising 10/145) is plausible even if it isn’t being used by every attacker in your deck.  [PPP] pays for “Super Intense Poison” does no damage, but it Poisons the opponent’s Active, specifically with a form of severe Poison that places 10 damage counters on the Poisoned Pokémon instead of just one.  The good news?  No worrying about Resistance or other effects that prevent or reduce damage done, there are effects that bolster Poison, and for each turn your opponent fails to remove this Poison condition it will place another 10 damage counters on the afflicted Pokémon between turns.  The bad news?  You cannot exploit Weakness or other effects to boost damage done, if a target is protected (against attack effects, Special Conditions, or even just Poison) then Super Intense Poison does nothing, it is unlikely your opponent will fail to remove the Poison if the Active survives the initial damage counter placement, and 10 damage counters for [PPP] is a low return.  Somewhat neutral is that the latest instance of Poison will replace any past instances of Poison.  I think the bad comes at least close to outweighing the good, though the attack isn’t worthless.  To really maximize the benefits of this attack you’ll need to seek out the various combo pieces for Poison but remember what I said about Poison replacing Poison; when you are running Poison support, having more than one means of inflicting Poison is often worthwhile but then you have to be careful not to help your opponent out by using a weaker form of Poison after a stronger form is already present.  Probably not a huge issue, given that attacking ends your turn. That brings us to the GX-attack, which needs to be at least somewhat special since you are only allowed to use a single GX-attack during a game.  For [PPP] Toxapex-GX can use “Total Shelter” to do 150 damage while protecting itself from all damage and effects done to it by attacks from your opponent’s Pokémon during your next turn.  Which means that, despite the name, it is not total protection: the effects of an opponent’s Abilities, Trainers, and Energy cards all still get through.  You’ll block most of what you have to worry about, but even without targeting your Bench or forcing up a new Active, definitely not total protection.  For the Energy invested before factoring in it is a GX-attack, 150 is great; after recognizing you only get to do this once it becomes good.  Though I have stressed the name is misleading, what Total Shelter guards against is still enough to be useful, and so the total package is worth being a GX attack.  The total attack package, however, feels a bit wanting.  Spike Cannon has a nice, lower cost but seems to flippy to be your focus, while Total Shelter is a one-and-done deal, so it too cannot be your deck’s focus.  That leaves Super Intense Poison, which apart from Energy costs, wants totally different support than the other two.  Toxapex-GX Evolves from Mareanie, and we’ve got two from which to pick: Sun & Moon 62/149 and SM: Guardians Rising 39/145.  Both are Basic Pokémon with 60 HP, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [C], and no Abilities.  Sun & Moon 62/14 is a Psychic Type with Psychic Weakness and the attack “Poison Sting” for [P]; said attack leaves the opponent’s Active Poisoned.  SM: Guardians Rising 39/145 is a Water-Type with Grass Weakness and two attacks.  The first is “Bail Out” for [C], which allows you to add a Pokémon from your discard pile to your hand.  The second is “Rain Splash” for [W], doing 10 damage.  Both are rather unimpressive, and while they have different Weaknesses, with 60 HP it isn’t too likely they’d survive regardless, nor are their attacks all that impressive.  I’d call it a toss-up and run the one you want.  There is also Toxapex (SM: Guardians Rising 63/149), as it also Evolves from Mareanie.  We reviewed it before here and weren’t impressed.  It is a Psychic-Type Stage 1 with 110 HP, Psychic Weakness, no Resistance, Retreat Cost [CCC], an Ability and an attack.  So it will be as difficult to get out of the Active spot as its Pokémon-GX counterpart but with HP low enough it will probably be OHKO’d if left in the Active slot.  The Ability is “Toxic Spikes”, which Poisons the opponent’s new Active whenever the previous one retreats… but using a retreat alternative avoids this (as would Evolving or various ways of actually removing Poison).  For [PCC] its “Venoshock” attack does 50 damage, plus another 50 if the opponent’s Active is Poisoned.  A single copy might be tempting, as it means any change-out method that ends with retreating also ends with the opponent’s Active being Poisoned, but that doesn’t seem enticing enough for me.  I don’t have a deck for Toxapex-GX.  I’m not seeing it in the Top 32 for any recent Regional Championships, so it looks like I’m not alone.  You could include cards that increase an opponent’s Retreat Cost, or block Items, or anything that could mess up an opponent’s tricks for dealing with Poison, but you can’t stop all of them.  I just don’t see a real use for this in Standard.  Expanded is arguably a tiny bit better; more competition but you can use Virbank City Gym to up the damage counter placement from Poison by two.  For Limited play, this is a pretty good pull if you can run on mostly Psychic Energy cards; it doesn’t lend itself to being splashed in with another Type.  Mareanie and its Bail Out also could prove useful here.  Ratings  Standard: 1.5/5  Expanded: 1.6/5  Limited: 3.5/5  Conclusion  Multi-counter Poison has often been tempting, but it only is worth it if it shifts the KO turn count, and that means it needs to be very easy and fast to inflict via attack, or else provided by another method.  Toxapex-GX has three attacks that aren’t bad but don’t mesh.  In terms of voting points, Toxapex-GX was one below last Friday’s Brooklet Hill, tied with yesterday’s 20th place finisher, Aether Paradise Conservation Area, and beat tomorrow’s 22nd place finisher by a single point.  If you’re curious about the specific details, I rolled a “4” for Aether Paradise Conservation Area but only a “1” for Toxapex-GX.  As for my own extended countdown list, Toxapex-GX is another so far down that its specific position was decided by however my filter breaks ties; it was 48th place, and I actually estimated it would clock in at more like 2.25/5.  Oops.
	Toxapex GX (Guardians Rising, 57/145) comes into the meta from the Guardians Rising expansion set released way back at the beginning of May.  It has three attacks.  Spike Cannon, for a single Psychic energy, does thirty damage times the number of heads … and you get to flip four times.  Super Intense Poison poisons the opponent’s active Pokemon but puts TEN damage counters on it instead of one.  Toxapex’s GX attack Total Shelter – GX does 150 damage and prevents all effects and damage from your opponent’s attacks during the next turn. Super Intense Poison certainly caught my eye when I first saw this card.  This means that unless the active Pokemon moves out of the active or has some alternative method of healing of conditions (like Pokemon Center Lady (Flashfire, 105/106) or Big Malasada (Sun & Moon, 114/149)), the active Pokemon will absolutely without question be KO’d next turn.  Super Intense Poison does 100 damage between turns.  If the active isn’t KO’d coming out of your opponent’s turn, it certainly will be going into his next one. I have seen Toxapex GX paired with Victini (Guardians Rising, 10/145) to take advantage of Spike Cannon’s single energy attack.  In case you’re wondering about the probability of damage for that: ·         Zero damage:    2 percent (6.25% times 31.5%) ·         Thirty damage: 8 percent (25% times 31.5%) ·         Sixty damage:   50 percent (38.5% of 69% times 90%) ·         Ninety damage: 33 percent (25% of 69% times 90%) ·         One Hundred Twenty damage: 7 percent (6.25% of 69% times 90%) If you’re not interested in the probability behind this, just skip the next paragraph. My basic assumption is that you are NOT reflipping if you get two heads or more on your initial round of flips.  There is a 31.5% chance that you will flip either one OR zero heads.  This means that better than two thirds of the time, you’re not going to use Victory Star.  The chances of flipping two, three, or four heads are 38%, 25% and 6% respectively.  These are then prorated out against 90% to determine their likelihood of getting flipped combing the probabilities of the two rounds.  Where does 90% come from?  The chance of you flipping one or zero heads on two consecutive turns is about 10 percent (see calculations above).  That means that the chance of you getting two, three, or four heads on either turn is ninety percent.  The ninety percent is then prorated among the chances of two, three, or four heads on either turn.  For two heads, 38.5% of 69% is 55%, which is then multiplied against the 90%.  For three heads, 25% of 69% is 36%, which is then multiplied again the 90%.  For four heads, 6.25% of 69% is 9%, which is then multiplied by 90%. Simply put, if you use Victini in combination with Toxapex GX’s Spike Cannon, you’re almost always going to be doing sixty or ninety damage, which isn’t horrible for a single energy attachment.  Where it starts making some hay is when you tech in Eevee (Ancient Origins, 63/98) and its Eevolutions and all of a sudden you’re hitting for 120, 180, or (if you’re VERY lucky) 240 for a single Psychic energy.  Of course, that’s only if you go up against a Fire, Water (usually), Grass (usually), Metal, or Lightning weak deck. Total Shelter GX reminds me very much of Lapras GX’s (Sun & Moon, 139/149) Ice Beam GX attack.  Unless your opponent can get to Pokemon Ranger (Steam Siege, 113/114) or Lysandres (Ancient Origins, 78/98) Toxapex GX out of the active, he can’t do anything to Toxapex GX this turn.  This GX attack can come in very useful.  I remember one particular match where I would have been KO’d – my Toxapex GX had a lot of damage on it, but Total Shelter GX bought me an extra turn.  In that successive turn, I was able to draw into a Max Potion (Guardians Rising, 128/145) and use Lunala GX’s (Sun & Moon, 141/149) Psychic Transfer to completely heal myself while not losing any energy.  Total Shelter GX is undoubtedly one of the more underrated GX attacks. So what do we pair Toxapex GX with?  That is an excellent question.  Despite having three extremely quality attacks, I have had very little success with Toxapex GX.  Overall, I am six wins and twelve losses with Toxapex GX.  I have tried to pair it with Lunala GX, Victini, and even Garbodor (Guardians Rising, 51/145).  I think a big part of the problem is that Toxapex GX is mostly a three attachment attacker in a meta that’s ruled by single attachment Pokemon, but I think the more significant problem is simply that Toxapex GX is weak to Psychic, and that makes it pretty much an auto loss to Garbodor decks.  Unfortunately, Toxapex GX simply lives in the wrong place at the wrong time.  Maybe in expanded where Psychic decks have more tools at their disposal it can find more success, and I would not be even remotely surprised to see a card introduced into the meta in the near future that will bring Toxapex GX to the top levels of the competitive game. Rating Standard: 2.5 out of 5 Conclusion Toxapex GX is a good card.  It has good attacks, and I bet there’s a deck list out there that would be perfect for it.  And like I said, just because it’s not having success today doesn’t mean that it won’t have success in a few months or a year or so.