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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Dusclops - Sandstorm

Halloween 2003

Date Reviewed: 11.03.03

Pojo Note: the reviewers got these to me in time for Halloween ... But I didn't post them on time ... Pojo :-(

Ratings are based on a 1 to 5 scale
1 being the worst. 3 ... average.
5 is the highest rating.

Heidi Craig	Dusclops When you play this card it creates an ire feeling in your opponent. They seem to lose focus on the game and find themselves starring at Dusclops almost like they are in a trance. Which gives you a big advantage when using the attack Judgement. Simply roll the dice, flip any tails to heads for a KO every turn. Your opponent will be so distracted by the Dusclops they won't even notice. There is only one danger when using this card. If both opponents are using Dusclops, it creates a game where either player is able to focus. I recommend using caution when chosing to use this card because if both players are able to get out Dusclops it could create a game that takes hours to end. This card is usually powerful in all formats but only if your opponent isn't using it. Heidi
Pscyhup	At first I thought today's CotD would be Cacturne, but now its Sceptile (non-holo) so its all good. This Sceptile reminds me of Venasaur and meganium. Venasaur's Power, and Meganium's Retreat cost. Then again it has an attack something like, erm... Expedition nonholo Venasaur. Let's take a look at this card's spoiler. Sceptile [G] 100 HP (POKE-Power) Energy Trans As often as you like during your turn before you attack, you may move a [G] energy card from one of your Pokemon to another. This power can't be used if Sceptile is affected by a Special Condition. [G][C][C] Tail Rap 50x Flip 2 coins. This attack does 50 damage times the nmber of heads. Weakness [R] Resistance [W] -30 Retreat Cost [C][C][C] Let's take a look at this card and break it down into its components. Its power is a great remake of an old Power. It allows less energy to be played, and it used to have a Pokemon Center combo written all over it. Now that's changed and come down to Pokemon Nurse in Modified. This is a great card that allows different things. First of all, it is a better version of Base Set venasur in unlimited. The HP is the same, but the added water resistance makes Blastoise's max damage capped to 30, and even weakens cards like Wailord ex. The one extra retreat may be a problem, but in unlimited, the energy trans can't be bad. You can either transfer energy to attack, or just transfer to retreat, or even stall by transfering off and using a healing card like Pokemon Center. Of course this card still isn't that great in unlimited, being a stage two with a basic that's a one-hitter from buzz/promo mewtwo/scyther with a pluspower. In the new modified format, this card can be comboed with the other Sceptile, or even the future Sceptile ex. The attack is hardly useful, but its power can be combined with something like Pokemon Nurse to heal chansey ex and get the energy right back. One slight problem though. Treecko is a one hiter from combusken, so you need to watch out for the Rare Candy, and the Gusting power (warp point, Pokemon reversal) because even if you can Town Volunteers it back into your deck, its not good giving free prizes. This isn't like trick or treating when everything's free. Water resistance is good, Wailord ex can only hit it for a mere 70, and with a lot of popular ex pokeomn weak to grass and lightning, this thing will get a run for its money. Will this become an instant archtype? My answer is no, because if the weak attack. In this new format, heavy hitting early is crucial to set up for late game success. If this thing averages 50, and can sometimes even do 0, this is a card that I may pass by. Remember, sometimes in the late game and you only need 30 more damage to KO their Pokemon. You don't want to risk losing in that 25% chance of getting 0 damage. That's the same amount of chace as getting rogued (something that has never happened to me), and you know how Cronconaw88 lost the St. Louis Gym Challenge... Of course after taking a look at its negative side, I need to see some viable combos. Besides the fact that I am sleepy while writing this, I can see combo written all over this card. Like Swampert, This guy gives you energy compatability, meaning you get moving energy, or extra attaches. Blaziken is a card that goes only with Fire (imo), but Swampert and Sceptile (nonholo) can fit any type of energy, which probably is a good thing. Fire weakness is something to watch out for. fire is going to be huge, and with nothing like Feraligatr to supress its power, there really is a big threat to this card. With the arrival of Cargo ex, and a bunch of new fire Pokemon including the new Magma ones, this Sceptile may be out fo the cut. Still, if you're a Sceptile fan, this isn't the worst card to put faith in. Unlimited: As I said above, basically a Venasaur with a weaker attack, one more retreat, and an added resistance bonus. How good is Venasaur? Well it was an archtype, that is now rarely seen. This card shouldn't awaken the Energy Trans back to Unlimited. 1.5/5 Modified: Yes, may combos. A lot of cards use colorless energy, and moving energy can be vital, like getting that extra energy on Delcatty for that 10 more damage KO. Other times, it loses the game for you because your opponent switch your dice with all odd dice. Oh well. Its not that great, but a decent archtype. 3.5/5 Draft: Great in draft if you get it out. Energy trans comes in very handy and powers up attacks in a backbreaker. Its just the fact that you may not even get one of these things in your packs, and you might not get enough Treecko, and if Treecko get KOed with 40 HP, its all over. 1.5/5 Thanks for reading! --- psychup2034
Thundachu
Hedge	Dusclops HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, sorry but this is going to be a very short review because I’m pressed for time tonight. Dusclops: I’m not fond of this card because it’s too flippy and has low HP. Sorry Dusc. Unlimited: 0/5 – Not a chance. Excuse me? Weak to Dark? What did you just say???? Modified: 2/5 – Get luck and OHKO their Wailord ex lol. 2 on 2: 3/5 – I guess you could use it’s second attack more here if you can keep it alive. Draft: 3/5 – Good Card in draft; low cost, potentially mizer first attack, if they get one big man powered up, then you could hope for two heads to bring it down ~_^ ~Coolhedgie
Bullados
Ralphy	Ralphy- Knock, Knock. <Man opens door.> "Trick or Treat" says Ralphy dressed as the Independent Investigator out Poughkeepsie New York. "Oh, you all look so cute, let me go get my candy" the man says. <Hands me some candy> "Eww, apples, get em Dusclops." "Use Random Curse" says Ralphy. <Flips two heads> <Knocks out man and raids his house of all valuables> <Let's out bone chilling hackle as Dusclops returns to Pokeball> "Ha, give me an apple" Ralphy says as he goes to the next house. Just a little Halloween fun. Today, the 30th is actually called All Hollow's Eve. Not that you need to know that. In any event, I really love Dusclops. Read on to see why? Unlimited- Boy do I want to give this a good rating, but I just can't. Darkness weakness is twisted yes, but not good, no. No matter how good this card may be, Sneasel is the most popular Unlimited Poke, and Sneasel could take Dusclops down from a wheelchair. 1.25/5 here. Modified- Now I like it. In the current Modified, there is not that much darkness to be weary of. But, many darkness Pokes are better then they should be, so in the case of Dusclops against a dark Poke, Dusclops should be careful, very careful. For a purple energy and a colorless, you flip two coins. And if both are heads, the Defending Pokemon is knocked out. With 200 HP Pokemon running around I would take that chance. The 2nd attack is great. For a purple and 2 colorless, you can do 50 damage. Nice so far right? Well yes, but you get to spread the damage on any Pokemon how ever you want. Dropping this late game can be devastating. The HP is a little low though, so a 3.75/5 is what I am giving. Limited- Nice here. Darkness energies are tough to draft, so other people wouldn't really be drafting. But then again, it's not completely safe. The 2nd attack is really nice for late game clean-up as your opponent will have a lot of damaged Pokes that they thought were safe. The first attack is pretty useless as there will be a lot of 70 HP and under Pokes, but hey, if you wanna risk it. Be my guest. 4/5 here.
Patriarch	Oooooh! Although Band is a harsh mistress to one's vandali...errr, Trick-or-Treating, I still get to review a neat card from the latest expansion. Hehe...heh ^^"" This Ghost Pokemon's attacks are interesting. Random Curse is fair, and since it deals damage COUNTERS, it gets past pesky Dark Pokemon with pesky Psychic Resistence. Judgment is also neat, because (although the odds are low) it can directly knock out your opponent's Pokemon! Unlimited (2/5): Although it can potentially knock out ANY Pokemon, it can't hold its ground in reality. Duskull is not large enough to keep himself afloat, so you'll probably not get to this guy, either. Modified (3.25/5): Better here. However, I get the feeling that this is more of a desperate move to make, rather than the basis of a whole deck. It could make good support in the right deck, but if you have too many of this guy in your deck, or count too much on lucky flips, then you're sacrificing prizes. Limited (4/5): VERY fast here, and can easily handle most things that are sent out against it. It can either set the stage for another Pokemon, or totally DOMINATE alone! A cool thing to have in Draft, and a very useful thing in Sealed. Now, before you go torturing the old hermit two houses away this Halloween, remember this: ghosts are dead, so they can't hurt you, and the guys dressed up with sheets over their heads are wimps! =P (realizes he's one of those people). ~Patriarch
pERfeCt0nE
Otaku	Shadow from the grave Pronounces fatal judgment Its eye pierces all -Joseph M. Lee cough-hack-cough Name: Dusclops Type: Psychic Stage: 1 (Evolves from Duskull) HP: 70 Weakness: Darkness Resistance: Fighting Retreat: C Attack#1: (PC) Judgement Flip 2 coins. If both of them are heads, the Defending Pokémon is Knocked Out. Attack#2: (PCC) Random Curse Put a total of 5 damage counters on all Defending Pokémon in any way you like. Name: Duskull Type: Psychic Stage: Basic HP: 40 Weakness: Darkness Resistance: Fighting Retreat: C Attack#1: (C) Surprise Choose 1 card form your opponent’s hand without looking. Look at the card you chose, then have your opponent shuffle that card into his or her deck. Attack#2: (P) Confuse Ray Flip a coin. If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Confused. Name: Duskull Type: Psychic Stage: Basic HP: 40 Weakness: Darkness Resistance: Fighting Retreat: C Attack#1: (P) Haunt Put 1 damage counter on the Defending Pokémon. Attack#2: (CC) Dark Mind [10] Does 10 damage to one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon. (Don’t apply Weakness and Resistance for Benched Pokémon). Happy Halloween… or at least, it should be if this goes up when it’s supposed to. ;) Attributes: Dusclops is a Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon. There is only one Dusclops currently available, so we’ll move on. Until recently, most Stage 1 Psychic Pokémon were pretty weak, but with the last few sets even those with a further Evolution have been getting a lot stronger. Most Psychic Pokémon are “specialists”, doing something nothing else does, and Dusclops more or less follows suit. As such, it doesn’t really compete with anything, but can compliment them in a deck. Dusclops has 70 HP, the minimum acceptable HP for a Stage 1 Pokémon: anything less is a disadvantage. Weakness to Darkness is fairly nasty-possibly the only weakness that will always stand out amongst the rest. Why? Damage bonuses from Darkness Energy are applied before you calculate the extra damage from Weakness. So against something weak, each Darkness Energy gives 20 extra damage. x_x So the new Murkrow and Sableye’s second attacks would each do a base 40 for (DC), but if a real Darkness was used, it’d be a base 60. Two real Darkness Energy cards would yield a base 80! I doubt you’d see much more, but that is more than enough there. Fighting Resistance is pretty nice: Fighting TecH should be common, given the amount of Fighting-Weak Colorless Pokémon in supporting roles. Resistance shuts down most basic Fighting Pokémon. OF course, I am just glad it has a Resistance at all. The retreat costs a mere single energy of any type. This is the second best retreat cost, and is wonderfully easy to pay (particularly in Unlimited with Recycle Energy). You should be able to save the various benching cards (Switch, Warp Point, and the like) for real emergencies. As a Stage 1, Dusclops must evolve from something. Sadly, its basics seem rather weak and under powered. Duskull have the same bottom stats as Dusclops… not too bad. However, they nearly halved the HP: a mere 20 means that many Pokémon could KO them in just two hits, and most Evolutions will do it in one. The attacks are also a mixed bag. Surprise is indeed a nice surprise: some elusive hand disruption. It is random though, so it would only be really nasty if combined with other hand disruption, like Desert Shaman and SK Crobat. Its second attack is just pathetic though: (P) should buy 10 with a flip at Confusion. Auto-Confusion is only (C). Confusion can be nice though: with luck, you not only hurt them, but keep them from hurting you. It’s still over priced, though. As for the other Duskull, its attacks are both fairly priced, but lack synergy. As such, it’s really your choice as to which one to run. I do recommend Rare Candy though, since neither seems worth the risk of remaining basics longer than is required. Abilities: Judgment is reminiscent of Fissure from the GB game, only this is more accurate-Fissure has an accuracy of 20%, but two heads from two flips should occur 25% of the time. It’s a nice, chaotic attack though: only things that can prevent effects of attacks are safe from it. This is why I call it chaotic (as opposed to just flippy): since it’s an “auto-KO” on two heads, it doesn’t matter how much HP or Metal Energy is left. Random Curse is fairly good as well: damage placement also short circuits numerous defenses (most commonly Metal and Resistance). Being able to divide the counters amongst the Defending Pokémon means you can avoid waste in 2-on-2 matches. 50 damage would be good for PCC (which yields 35), so 5 counters are as well. Both attacks need only one of their energies to be Psychic, making this card easy to splash into another color deck. This even makes it possible to power up in Unlimited: you can use Recycle Energies to pay for the bulk of the cost, and SERing Recycles is incredibly annoying. Of course, this means you’d probably only be able to attack one between removals, but I some ideas to get around that… Uses/Combinations: X Accuracy. =P Seriously though, for Unlimited you could use this with Sabrina’s Alakazam and Slowking –it may seem insane running two Stage 1 and a Stage 2 Pokémon, but if it works you have a very interesting beast: an 80 HP monster that between massive 60 damage shots has a 25% chance of simply OHKOing anything! Well… barring those “prevent all effects of attacks done to” abilities that certain Pokémon have. You an also use the various Sabrina support cards… which includes Sabrina’s ESP which let’s you re-flip all coins used in an attack (replacing the old result). That gives you a much better chance of KOing something… Okay, it’s not a tournament caliber deck, but it looks fun. =P In modified, consider using this to counter Metal and Resistance, or big, annoying Pokémon ex: hey, a 1 in 4 chance of taking two prizes is great! If you are looking for a Psychic Powerhouse, though, this is not a good choice: after all, its attacks won’t be able to exploit weakness. =P This cards greatest strength is its uncertainty-no matter how good you are, the person playing this could eat you alive. Ratings Unlimited: 2/5-You run this, it basically is for fun… though the sheer randomness of it could net it some wins. Modified: 3/5-I loved Chaos Gym in Unlimited because of the randomness it forced on people who obsessed with control… so for bringing a similar X-factor, I like this card. It probably won’t make a good deck focus, but as a fall back or opener, it could be pretty good. I love how it makes the opponent sweat worrying that their Steelix or Wailord ex will be an easy OHKO. Crazy. Beautiful, but crazy. 2-on-2: 3.25/5-The ability to avoid wasting excess damage by placing it how you wish it pretty nice. Other than that, all the same strengths it had in normal Modified. Limited: 3.5/5-If you can get this, it can be pretty useful-in a set with a lot of strong Fighting (particularly in this format), that Resistance should be great. Add to the fact that it will be hard for most Dark Pokémon to power up decently, if at all. The lower initial damage level and HP of the basics you encounter mean that you’ll have a few chances to use Judgement (which is misspelled =P), and Random Curse can probably OHKO a lot of Basics. -Otaku

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