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Pojo's Pokemon Card of the Day

Salamence - Dragon EX


Date Reviewed: 2.2.04

Ratings & Reviews below

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


Heidi Craig
 Hello,

Salamence

Modified 3/5

Salamence has good hit points. It resistant to two types fire and fighting not to bad but the weakness to colorless can be a draw back.

Pokemon Power is very useful forcing your opponent to bring up Pokemon they may not want up or to KO those weak basics is defiantly a plus. It's a built in gust of wind except they choose, bench manipulation can really mess up your opponent.

Agility 20 damage and able to prevent effect and damage if you flip a heads is pretty good for only two energy. It could help prevent damage while your powering up Dragon Claw.

Dragon Claw does decent damage with consistency. It does require two different energy but with Salamence being colorless or in other deck types rainbow and multi should be fine to be able to power up this attack.

Unlimited 1/5

There are better Pokemon to choose from in this format.

Draft 4/5

If you could draft all the stages and get to use them it would be great in this format.
Ausen   Salamence. PWNAGE power. Decent attacks. COULD IT WORK?

Playing 2 Colors was never fun for me...at least until Salamence showed up. Now, going fire/water is something I enjoy.

The power is a gust. Reusable, free, it's a gust. What does that mean? It means you pick a benched pokemon, switch it and then have your way with it. Very nice.

Resistances are sweet, but weak to colorless? Rayquaza ex...OOPS. Yeah.

Unlimited: Don't bother. 1/5
Modified: Resistance to Blaziken/Ninetales? GOOD. Gust? Better. 3.8/5
Draft: Colorless first attack, nice hp, GREAT power. 3.5/5, only because he's a stage 2.

The bottom line: Playable, but gotta run something with him. Muk ex? Raichu ex? Wailord? We'll see ;x
Thundachu  Salamence Holo

Overview: One of the many Dragon cards in EX Dragon ^^. The PokePower, Dragon Wind, lets you switch one of the defending pokemon's benched pokemon with the defending pokemon. Draw backs include only being able to do it once per turn and only being able to do it if Salamence is your active pokemon. And it can't be used if Samalence is affected by a special condition. Then the first attack. For 2 colorless energy, Agility does 20 damage automaticly and lets you flip a coin. If heads prevents all damage to Salamence during your opponent's next turn. Comes in handy for any reason really. Then for 1 fire energy, 1 water energy and 2 colorless energy, Dragon Claw does a solid 60 damage. Not very good because it takes 2 types of energy to use. Could be pretty good in Unlimited with rainbow decks such as Neo Revelation Ho-Oh. Weakness to colorless makes Chansey EX a problem in Modified. Then a good addition, 2 resistances: fire and fighting. Quite useful in most situations. And a reatreat of 2 isn't very bad for 120HP. 120HP is ok I suppose for a stage 2.

Unlimited: Could be good as an extra for Rainbow decks containing revelation Ho-Oh or other EXs/Crystal cards from Neo. Not highly suggested though. 2/5

Modified: 2.5/5

Draft: If you can get it and it's 2 other stages, I suggest playing it. With 2 resistances, and 120HP it could make good. And you can add in the energy needed being draft after all. 3.5/5

-Thundachu
pERfeCt0nE  Salamence Holo

How annoying is this card? Was it made for that sole purpose?

Unlimited- Sprout Tower and Unown N limit his damage to zero. He is also too slow, not to mention, a stage 2 pokemon.
rating--- 1

Modified- If you use rare candy to use him on the second turn, he can be great! Lets say that you use rare candy to have 2 swamperts and a salamence on turn 2. You are able to Gust and OHKO any basic pokemon! With Strength charm you can even OHKO BBP and some stage 1 pokemon! Salamence could never cut it on its own, he will always need some help. He also abuses Mr. Brineys Compassion since he has an attack that you can power up very easily.
rating--- 3.5

Draft- It is quite easy to get a few bagons and shelgons. I myself once drafted a 3-3-2 line, where i had each version of bagon, shelgon, and salamence, lol. Anyway, his agility attack and dragon wind can stall your opponent out more than long enough for you to have dragon claw powered up to kill whoever you weakened. Any bench hitters also combo well with him!
rating--- 4.25

2 vs. 2- Not only can he gust up something that either of your active pokemon can attack, but he also can be your dragon TecH. He is a very versatile card, but his strength lies in his power- combo that with big hitters. Perhaps Swampert/Latias ex could magically fit him in?
rating--- 3.675

Multiplayer- The ability to use Dragon Wind on whoever it would hurt the most is great. Not only that, but your ally could hold the big hitter that you couldn't fit into your Modified deck. There are great combos with him here!
rating--- 4
Hedge

Salamence (Holo)

 

This card captures my attention unfairly because of my old friend, Gust of Win[D].

However, upon close reading, you will conclude that the power is not nearly as potent due to its flaw of giving your opponent the choice. And, it’s also a Poke Power, which is shady, considering that Muk ex decks are getting slightly more popular right before City Champs. Besides that, he resists blaze, and with some good tech Salamence can be a solid force that administers an unrelenting wrath on a lot of decks. Wrath doesn’t really designate EXTREME power for me, obv. because 60 a turn for four nrg isn’t exactly broken, but nonetheless, it is 60 a turn, which has to either be stopped or healed constantly. Agility, is, well, lame as far as I’m concerned, because I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this, but I have no defense in me, I want something that has power, that has speed, and that has talent, tactics, style, strength, and potency. Considering Salamence really has none of this, he’s not for me, but try him out if you need to nail some sore losers. No one is going to moan about cheese tactics if they just got slammed by a Salamence deck  ~_^ . 

 

            Modified: 2.5/5 – Meh? Salamence being the sole fighter, let’s see it beat Garde ex.

 

            Unlimited: 0/5 – ROFL!!!!  It would make me sick to see someone use this here; it’s like a disgrace to Gust of Win[D]

 

            Draft: 2/5 – Good luck getting it, and gg if you do.

 

            Mutant: 4/5 – Tehehe, Latias ex > Blissey> Salamence

 

            Team: 2.5/5 – Same here.

 

            2 on 2: 2.5/5 – Same here. =/

            Written by:  ~Hedge

            Written January 30th, 2003

Bullados  

Strategy for Salamence

 

Attributes:

120 HP is the best in the game, and you should abuse it.  I’m still torn about how bad colorless weakness really is, but Zangoose will OHKO you easily.  Dual resistances, even if they are not played often, are still 2 resistances, and they should be used whenever possible.  Retreat of 2 isn’t bad, but IMO you shouldn’t pay it.

 

Pre-evolutions:

There are 3 Shelgons and 3 Bagons, all from the Dragons set.  I’d suggest using mostly the Rare one, with one or two of the #42 one because of the lack of a weakness.  For Bagon, go with a combination of #23 and #50 both to avoid weakness and because of HP.

 

PokePOWER: “Dragon Wind”

If they made it one way, it would’ve been broken.  The way that it’s worded right now, it’s average at best, even helping your opponent at times.  Only use this when it will advantage you 100% no matter what your opponent sends up.

 

Attack #1: “Agility”

Meh, It’s Agility.  Personally I’m a little disappointed that they would reuse this attack on something that’s supposed to be this good.  Not to say that Agility is a bad attack, but it’s just stale in my mouth. (Ahhhiiiilaty, if anybody’s ever played me).

 

Attack #2: “Dragon Claw”

Below average, IMO.  I wanted some type of kool effect or some major damage from a card that’s supposedly a gameboy god.  Instead, we get 60 damage for 4 energy, two of which are of different colors.

 

Ratings:

 

Unlimited:

Don’t use him here.  He’d get slaughtered by virtually everything around, and those resistances really don’t help him much here.  1.125/5

 

Modified:

Decent to good.  If the POWER is used correctly in conjunction with the attacks, it could become a pretty decent T2 or Rogue deck style.  However, it just doesn’t have what it takes to go mainstream.  3/5

 

Limited:

This guy is so easy to draft (3-3-3 line in my Dragons draft, and somebody else got a 3-3-2 line of Flygon…) mostly because there are 2 Salamences, 3 Shelgons, and 3 Bagons, all of which can be easily obtained through various means.  Also, the guy is a beast if/when he gets out, and will slaughter many opposing Pokemon before they have a chance to get started.  4.5/5

 

~Bullados

~~Bull23924@aol.com

Otaku

Name: Salamence
Set:
Dragons (10/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Stage 2 (Evolves from Shelgon)
HP:
120
Weakness:
C
Resistance:
Fire, Fighting
Retreat:
CC

Poké-Power: Dragon Wind

Once during your turn (before your attack), if Salamence is your Active Pokémon, you may switch one of your opponent’s Benched Pokémon with 1 of the Defending Pokémon.  Your opponent chooses the Defending Pokémon to switch.  This power can’t be used if Salamence is affected by a Special Condition.

Attack#1: (CC) Agility [20]

Flip a coin.  If heads, prevent all effects of an attack, including damage, done to Salamence during your opponent’s next turn.

Attack#2: (RWCC) Dragon Claw [60]

Name: Salamence
Set:
Dragons (19/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Stage 2 (Evolves from Shelgon)
HP:
100
Weakness:
None
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC

Poké-Body: Intimidating Fang

As long as Salamence is your Active Pokémon, any damage done to your Pokémon by an opponent’s attack is reduced by 10 (before applying Weakness and Resistance).

Attack: (RWC) Dragon Flame [40+]

You may discard an Energy card attached to Salamence.  If you do, this attack does 40 damage plus 20 more damage.

Name: Shelgon
Set:
Dragons (20/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Stage 1 (Evolves from Bagon)
HP:
80
Weakness:
C
Resistance:
Fire, Fighting
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(C) Scrunch

Flip a coin.  If heads, prevent all damage done to Shelgon during your opponent’s next turn.  (Any other effects of attacks still happen.)

Attack#2: (RWC) Rolling Attack [50]

Name: Shelgon
Set:
Dragons (41/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Stage 1 (Evolves from Bagon)
HP:
70
Weakness:
None
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC

Poké-Body: Energy Guard

As long as Shelgon has any basic Energy cards attached to it, damage done to Shelgon by an opponent’s attack is reduced by 10 (after applying Weakness and Resistance).

Attack: (CC) Rollout [20]

Name: Shelgon
Set:
Dragons (42/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Stage 1 (Evolves from Bagon)
HP:
70
Weakness:
None
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
CC
Attack#1:
(WC) Granite Head [20]

Damage done to Shelgon by an opponent’s attack is reduced by 10 (after applying Weakness and Resistance) during your opponent’s next turn.

Attack#2: (RCC) Flare [40]

Name: Bagon
Set:
Dragons (23/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
C
Resistance:
Fire, Fighting
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(W) Paralyzing Gaze

Flip a coin.  If heads, the Defending Pokémon is now Paralyzed.

Attack#2: (RC) Combustion [20]

Name: Bagon
Set:
Dragons (49/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Basic
HP:
40
Weakness:
None
Resistance: None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Headbutt [10]

Attack#2: (RC) Flare [20]

Name: Bagon
Set:
Dragons (50/97)
Type:
Colorless
Stage:
Basic
HP:
50
Weakness:
None
Resistance:
None
Retreat:
C
Attack#1:
(C) Risky Kick [10]

Flip a coin.  If tails, this attack does nothing.

Attack#2: (RW) The Defending Pokémon is now Asleep [20]

Attributes: Say hello to Salamence.  Today we look at the holographic version.  There is a second, non-holographic version, and we’ll find out later if they go together.  I’ll also be comparing them through out the review.

To begin with, both are Stage 2 Pokémon, and as such, better have some nifty tricks that make them worth the comparative hassle of playing over comparable basics.  Since certain basics (especially in Unlimited) can hit the max HP and similarly have great Attributes, said “tricks” will have to be in the Abilities.  While on the topic of its Stage, let’s see where it comes from: it evolves from Shelgon which in turn evolves from Bagon.  We have 3 versions of each.  I’d use a 50 HP version of Bagon, though nothing has real great attacks on any of the lower stages-at best, you get what you pay for.  For a Basic, that is fine; for a Stage 1, it’s a bit of a let down.  The Shelgon’s are a bit better than the Bagons, though Rare Candy is probably a good choice to use.

Coming to the more concrete stats, we have all Colorless Pokémon-this means you don’t have to worry about natural Resistance: “artificial” Resistance exists through certain card effects in Unlimited.  Also of note, thanks to cards like Salamence, we now have some Pokémon weak to Colorless.  Overall, I’d say a decent-type.  The holographic Salamence has a perfect (for a non-Pokémon ex) 120 HP.  The non-holographic version clocks in at a respectable 100HP.  The holographic version is weak to Colorless Pokémon, but the non-holographic has no Weakness, which is the only good weakness. ;)  However, the holographic version has both Fire and Fighting Resistance, while the non-holographic has nothing (the worst Resistance).  Fire can be useful in Modified-most Fire Pokémon can do the damage to KO you, but will have to use the attacks that discard large quantities of Energy.  Fighting frustrates Tyrogue in Unlimited.  Finally, both have a manageable retreat of two-low enough you can pay, but high enough you’ll want to try and avoid it.

Abilities: The holographic Salamence has two attacks and a Poké-Power.  We’ll start with the attacks, because they are the least important.  Agility is a solid attack: 20 for (CC) is fair, so the effect is added on free as a “bonus”.  Its main purpose is to buy time while you power up the next attack, and it serves its purpose well.  The second attack, Dragon Claw, is a fairly priced straight forward attack: (R) yields 15, as does the (W).  Each (C) yields 10.  Finally, since we have two different Energy types required, we tack on a 10 damage bonus.  So it’s a fair attack.  Finally, we come to the Poké-Power, Dragon Wind.  Since Gust of Wind is not allowed in Modified, this is incredible.  What little Trainer-based Bench Disruption we have is weak in this format, so this power will often hurt a decks strategy.  Bring up something small or not powered-up, and then KO it.  So, we have a great (we get a very useful ability) Poké-Power, one discounted effect, and one solid (fairly priced for a basic).  How does this stack up to the non-holographic version?  Simply put, it’s good, but not as good: one fairly useful Poké-Body and one solid (only with the discard though) attack.

Uses/Combinations: You could use Salamence in Unlimited, but there is not much point to it.  If you do, I would combo it with Dark Vileplume: by denying Trainers utterly, you can make the holographic Salamence’s Poké-Power more useful.  Toss in the right stadium; Healing Fields to give Salamence longevity, or Mirage/Rocket’s Training/Broken Ground Gym to make retreating harder on your normal Unlimited fair of Big Bad Basics.  For Modified, I would do my normal thing and toss in some Sandstorm Xatus for healing.  While you could run it with Expedition Vileplume to try for some sick fun, Expedition Victreebel might be better since it has a similar, flip-based “Gusting” Poké-Power but matches Vileplume’s Energy Type.  Then there’s Cradily which has an attack that does both automatically for a cost of just (G).  One thing though, when you run one Salamence, TecH in a copy of the other.  They compliment each other by having similar requirements but difference end results.

Ratings

Unlimited: 1.5/5-Even if you get it to work, Unown N/Sprout Tower would start appearing everywhere.

Modified: 4/5-A free “Gust of Wind” is great.  Someone just needs to find the right support for it.

Limited: 4.5/5-Take it.  This is a format where it is common to retreat an injured Pokémon to rob an opponent of a prize.

2-on-2: 4/5-Same score, different reasons.  Here, it loses some potency since your opponent chooses which of their Actives gets benched.  The thing is the normal Salamence shows strong potential here.  Why?  I couldn’t find a ruling, but I believe Intimidating Fang is cumulative if you have two of the non-holographic Salamence active, making it with Xatu strong (-20 damage to all your Pokémon, and heal upwards of 40 for each of you Active Pokémon each turn. @_@) So the holographic Salamence receives a bonus as nice TecH against Fighting and Fire.

TMP: 4/5-Again, we have some good and some bad changes that balance out.  If one opponent has a good Pokémon and one has a bad, you can “Gust” out the good one and set up for your partners attack.  The bad news is that both opponents’ may have a good Pokémon out, hampering the Defensive value of the Poké-Power.

Summary

Another strong card looking for a good home.  Just watch out for Crystal Shards and Zangoose.

-Otaku (nintendotaku@hotmail.com)

 


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