Well, the second pokemon movie is coming out soon (cheers and jeers), and we
have a whole new set of promos as well.  So, will the new promos rank up with
MP Mewtwo?  Or will they sink to the depths of uselessness with MP Dragonite?
 Well, before we start deciding their fate, lets see their stats:

    Articuno
    Basic Water Pokemon  70 HP
    WWW  Diamond Dust    20
       Flip a coin.  If heads, the defending pokemon is now paralyzed and
    this attack does 10 damage to each of your opponent's benched pokemon.
    Weakness: None
    Resistance: Fighting (-30)
    Retreat Cost: C

    Zapdos
    Basic Electric Pokemon  70 HP
    LLL  Lightning Burn  30
       Flip a coin.  If heads, and if your opponent has any benched pokemon,   
choose  one of them and do 30 damage to it (do not apply weakness or   
resistance for benched pokemon).  If tails, Zapdos does 30 damage to
    itself.
    Weakness: None
    Resistance: Fighting (-30)
    Retreat Cost: C

    Moltres
    Basic Fire Pokemon    70 HP
    RRR  Hyper Flame  60
       Flip a coin.  If heads, discard 1 R attached to Moltres.  If tails,
discard
    all energy cards attached to Moltres.  If you can't discard energy cards,
this    attack does no damage.
    Weakness: None
    Resistance: Fighting (-30)
    Retreat Cost: C

Okay, now we have the stats, lets look at the cards.  Obviously, the cards
are very different strategically from their Base and Fossil Counterparts. 
The question is, will these cards outcompete their non-promo counterparts and
make their way into decks?  Lets look at Articuno first...
    Pr. Articuno isn't all too bad.  To start, 70 HP is pretty good, and no
weakness/Fighting resistance is great.  However, the attack kinda leaves you
wanting more.  20 damage for 3 colored energies is really weak.  The few
times this happens, either it removes energies, uses colorless energy, or
guarantees a status effect.  Diamond Dust does none of these.  Yes, it gives
a possible status effect (paralysis) and possible bench damage, but paralysis
is the weakest status effect and 50% bench damage doesn't justify the
sickly-low damage.  This is probably because Wizards isn't trying to make a
broken card that will find huge use in Raindance, but the result is that Pr.
Articuno can't stand up to the beefier fossil variety, destining Pr. Articuno
to live out the rest of its days in the binder.
    Next, we look at Zapdos.  Pr. Zapdos has only 70 HP, weaker than all
other Zapdos save TR's Zapdos.  Lightning Burn is a condensed version of
Fossil Zapdos's Thunderstorm.  The base damage is reasonable, and 30 damage
to one benched pokemon of your choice is awesome, but the possible 30 damage
to itself is painful, especcially with such low HP.  However, Pr. Zapdos's
Lighning Burn requires only 3 energy, a definite improvement over the slow 4
lightning energies required to use Base or Fossil's attacks.  This slight
advantage in speed might just give it the needed edge to compete with the
Base and Fossil Varieties.  30 damage to the bench also gives you the
advantage when your opponent retreats a half-killed pokemon, since 30 damage
to the bench is something few people would expect.
    Pr. Moltres is very different from Fossil Moltres, and therefore doesn't
need to worry about competition.  Pr. Moltres's attack is nice, given you
flip heads.  Pr. Moltres is big, and can do some serious damage for 1
discarded energy-given you flip heads.  A bad flip strips Moltres of all its
energies and puts you right back on square one, except you've probably taken
damage and he's no longer on the bench.  However, no weakness to water
(Fire's biggest fear) makes Moltres somewhat more likely to be included in
fire decks.  Moltres's attack is also specifically worded to prevent Clefairy
and Clefable from abusing it, perhaps a slight benefit.  Anyway, Pr. Moltres
does have a chance if its owner has a gambling nature, but those who consider
themselves unlucky will avoid this pokemon like the plague.

Well, that almost concludes our look at the new movie promos, but wait,
there's one more!  Ancient Mew.  The second Mew promo released by Wizards of
the Coast, but absolutely playable, considering that the holo backing
constitutes marking one's cards.  Oh well, he'll be adored by collectors
everywhere and will be perfect trade fodder for the rest of us.
                                                    -FossilMagikarp
                                                email: Edestus360@aol.com